"Located in London, UK"....but really located in China. Why does ebay allow this?

[iss504]

"Located in London, UK"....but really located in China. Why does Ebay allow this? You can find numerous examples out there in your searches. Marking Item Location "UK only" does nothing,.. neither does Ebay.

[lucy_farmer]

'Why does Ebay allow this?'

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Because ebay are very very good at ignoring rules they don't want to follow -even if they wrote those rules themselves!

And ebay have some really big seller customers in China and probably make loads of money out of them. So they're pretty good at turning a blind eye to it.....

[plpmr]

location misrepresentation can be reported  -   https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/IMPORTANT-ACTION-FOR-ITEM-LOCATION-MISREPRESENTATION-P...   

however this is much more serious than it seems, because a buyer can get hit with import duty.

[iss504]

"location misrepresentation can be reported:"   yes it can be,.. and I have done so but to no avail. I have also in the past given neutral or negative feedback to the seller about  location misrepresentation. The feedback was promptly removed the next day.

[lucy_farmer]

'location misrepresentation can be reported:"   yes it can be,.. and I have done so but to no avail...'

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Yep, that's what I mean about a 'blind eye' to high profit-making customers.....

[m25jet]

Why does eBay allow it?  Two words explain the reason perfectly -  Corporate Greed.

[eburtonlab]

Probably the best way to deal with sellers that misrepresent item location is to avoid them. The "UK only" item location filter selects items that are listed as being in the United Kingdom; however, as you have seen, not every seller that lists items in the UK ships from the UK as they should.

Before ordering you should check the estimated delivery dates -- that is a good indication of how far away items actually ship from. Also, going to a seller's profile page or feedback page will tell you where the seller's account was registered. Although some overseas sellers do use UK warehouses to ship their items (and some registered UK-sellers may employ overseas drop-shippers), if a seller is registered overseas, that raises the likelihood of an item shipping from outside the UK, particularly for multiple quantity commodity items. Checking seller feedback will often reveal if there are problems with long shipping times, canceled orders or other supply chain warning signs.

[iss504]

I have already tried all of your solutions long before this. I used to go by "estimated delivery dates" to determine where they were really shipping from,.. but that doesn't work anymore. Just like location filters, they are being hacked,etc.  And Feedback (?) you can't feedback on this subject anymore.  You should know this.

[eburtonlab]

@iss504 

Two of the last four sellers you have received feedback from as a buyer were registered in China.

[iss504]

I have no problem with buying from China. The subject of this thread is false advertising of the location and thus,.. the false ETAs.

Example:

"Free delivery in 2-3 days

Estimated between Wed, 9 Apr and Thu, 10 Apr to SW3 4XD.

Located in:  Dunstable , United Kingdom....."

They were not located in Dunstable, UK,.. but China. The delivery was not "2-3 days," it was  17 Days.  This is only one example of many.

[eburtonlab]

If you are concerned about sellers that list items as being shipped from one location, but that actually ship from another location further away, thus taking much more time to reach you than you expect, then perhaps you should reconsider your policy of buying from sellers that advertise that they are registered and located overseas but that claim to ship from locations near you.

While some of those sellers may indeed have warehouses near you, many may not. To be sure to avoid the latter ones, you may have take steps to avoid the former ones as well.

[iss504]

Ebay should reconsider it's policy of allowing sellers that advertise claiming to ship from locations near you but  are registered and located overseas.

[eburtonlab]

Some people do things whether eBay allows it or not.

You have little or no control over what eBay does, or what those users do.

You have a great deal of control over what you do, though.

[papso22]

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@iss504 wrote:

Ebay should reconsider it's policy of allowing sellers that advertise claiming to ship from locations near you but  are registered and located overseas.

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But sellers can be registered and located overseas and actually have a warehouse in the UK from where they dispatch their items.