Fed up with UK based sellers shipping from China!

[peterindover]

It's getting more and more frustrating having to determine whether items are actually UK based or not.

So many sellers who have a UK based address are shipping from China. It's a painstaking process to go through.

Some are easier than others to identify because they will state delivery dates well into the future, but some will have dates only a week away, which although seems too long is understandable if the seller needs time to locate, package, and post. Yesterday I saw an item with an estimated delivery of 7-10 days. I messaged the buyer asking if he could ship earlier and his reply was shipping normally takes 10-15 days, sometimes you will get it sooner, sometimes later. So obviously being shipped from China.

I passed on the purchase as I need this for the coming weekend. The filter to search for "Items in UK Only" does not really work.

Rant over.

Peter

[*help_no_brakes*]

Ilook at a sellers feedback to see where they are registered & manage to avoid this issue.

[messier44000]

As above, if in doubt check FB left from buyers , before purchase to see if there are 

a number of bad FB / comments with regards misleading location.

If so, walk away and buy elsewhere.

[peterindover]

It's not as straightforward as just looking to see whether the seller is UK based or not, because some Chinese based sellers do have a UK warehouse or somewhere they hold stock and ship from there. So many items are shown in the listings as seemingly already in the UK but are, in fact, still in China.

Edit:- I should ammend the title to "Fed up with Sellers with UK based address shipping from China"!

[237ben]

It’s tempting to open an INR case because you haven’t received the listed item if the listed item was coming from a U.K. address. Whatever you receive from China couldn’t possibly be anything to do with the eBay listing. 🤔

[peterindover]

Basically it's about time spent filtering out all the various factors. All I want is to be able to browse and buy an item that I know is already in the UK and that I am likely to receive within a few days. Finding an item, then looking up seller info, feedback, address, postage times etc. Is time consuming and annoying. If I apply the "UK Only" in the item location filter settings then I expect the item to BE IN THE UK AT THE TIME OF LISTING, not "in China at the moment, will  be shipped to a UK address as shown in listing in 2 weeks, and then posted from there to you"!

[elitegiftsltd]

I go on the delivery time period. If I need it quickly and delivery time period is short enough great. If item doesn't arrive in the time given then a claim is started and I'll buy the item elsewhere.

Some UK buyers have learnt over time from youtube etc that they can sell on ebay then buy from overseas and have item delivered. Dropshipping.

The seller is UK based but the item can be from any country except Ukraine or Russia. 

Feedback is a good indicator - too many people complaining of delays is a suggestion you can be the next one doing so if you wish! Instead you can buy from someone else. 

[myriad*seller]

If you get 20% VAT added at checkout then you know either the seller or the item is located overseas

[elitegiftsltd]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

If you get 20% VAT added at checkout then you know either the seller or the item is located overseas

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Which also tells you nothing about speed of delivery.

I can get stuff from California at times quicker than I can get from London. At least once had stuff from overseas arrive quicker than from Birmingham (a mile away).

[frosty-dee]

Better of looking for their return address as they can be registered as a uk business, but return address is china etc

[heyimrob]

why arnt ebay doing anything about this problem?  If anything it's getting worse. Shame on you Bbay for failing to protect British buyers. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I just look at delivery times. 

If its more than a few days then its coming from China.

A lot of stuff sold by UK businesses is from China anyway so a lot of cheap rubbish out there.

Only answer is to keep sending it back until they get the message.

[bennotbill]

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@nigel_paul_wright7557 wrote:

A lot of stuff sold by UK businesses is from China anyway

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That's true but I expect many buyers are like me in preferring to put a hopeful layer of quality control between them and China. The difference is often only pennies and avoids the real junk that you can get buying from China direct.

[2453robin]

I would just like to be able to filter all the china/Hong Kong sellers out. They advertise at one price, then once you click on it the price has jumped up because ebay add the tax.

I thought you paid tax on items at point of import, not at point of sale.

[m_2_the_c]

This is infuriating and some of the suggestions above are unhelpful.

Filtering by UK item location should do exactly that - except it doesn't. 

China sellers specifically stating in their product images that items are 'UK stock' / 'UK fast shipping' etc when they are actually being sent from China and taking 2 weeks to arrive. 

How is the being allowed? 

[whiteheartcraft]

I have found myself in the same situation of buying from a filtered suggestion " UK based Only " the item arrived via EVRI in 3 days so not from China and the seller stated they were in the UK. I need to return the item which the seller states on return process needs to go back to China . Will cost me half the price of the item to do this . In my view it's fraudulent from the seller . 

I will open a case in 3 days time through EBay and see what they say . But I have learned a valueable lesson . 

[frosty-dee]

They get away with it because the item is already in the U.K. in a warehouse. It is our responsibility as a buyer to check if the Seller is U.K. based, need to scroll down the listing to see the return address before buying or look at their profile. Both of these things should be checked by Ebay, before allowing them to list their items. Very misleading. Makes the U.K.only filter totally useless.

Get Outlook for Android<>

[frosty-dee]

Infuriating. About time Ebay sorted this.

Get Outlook for Android<>

[whiteheartcraft]

I agree EBay need to try to try and sort this . It's like a loophole they re funding to misrepresent their real location . In my case it means it's almost pointless to send the item by return due to costs that were not transparent at the time of purchase . 
The Original Poster raised this as an issue and he is absolutely right this happens . It really needs highlighting so people don't get caught out and stop buying from eBay .

[wottonbeagle]

Recently purchased two different items, from two different sellers who were supposed to be in different parts of the UK, but they were dilivered from the same warehouse in Reading.  Each item had the others ones tracking number.  They were delivered on different days. The tracking numbers showed the wrong items delivered.

These were chinese goods.