"UK Only" location filter now includes China

[fire_alarms]

I am finding that it is now  impossible to filter the loation of the products that I want to buy

I click on the "UK only" filter but then I have to go through 1000s of listings that are located  in China but claim to be in the UK.

This is making for a very bad buying experience and is putting me off even trying to find products on this site.

Am  I wasting my time complaing to the site administrator or should I just shop elsewhere?

[majorjohn58]

I'm fed up looking for items in UK only to find that when clicking on the selling profile link, typed for all to see is Hong Kong or China. There not even based here and will take 4-5 weeks delivery..
advertising that you're in UK but when checking out the item, the seller is 4 weeks postage away **bleep**?
Come on EBay start weeding this blatent disregard of EBay protocol.

[johnel47]

In the Options at the side panel of the item list, try 'UK Only' and choose 'Click and Collect' also. They can't tell you to collect at Tesco if the item is still on its' way from China or The Far East, it needs to be in this country.

Thank You to all posters on the community forum who have replied to this post, I have now received a refund courtesy of eBay and the seller is now advertising his goods as being in Singapore, not Manchester, lets hope some of the others do the same.

[johnel47]

Try Click and Collect and UK Only in the Options in the side panel, major, they need to be in this country to do Click and Collect , as they need to give you a definite date when to collect the goods 

[armchairpilot1981]

Just tried it...one of the same sponsored listings. so much for that idea.
The latest wheeze is to add a spiel to the listing about the goods totally usually being in the Uk (honest, guv), but due to stock they dispatch from elsewhere for fast delivery. And becuse ebay gets paid either way, no doubt this will be deemed to be in keeping with the new rules.

[johnel47]

Update: The item finally arrived yesterday morning, two weeks late and after I was reimbursed via eBay UK, because it was a small amount it was easier to pay for the item than sending it back by post to Singapore, so that's what I did. Unwittingly I seem to have acquired a penpal, sending me all sorts of good wishes and looking forward to doing business with me in the future, you must be joking, no way!

[sewingrosie51cat]

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@johnel47 wrote:

In the Options at the side panel of the item list, try 'UK Only' and choose 'Click and Collect' also. They can't tell you to collect at Tesco if the item is still on its' way from China or The Far East, it needs to be in this country.

Thank You to all posters on the community forum who have replied to this post, I have now received a refund courtesy of eBay and the seller is now advertising his goods as being in Singapore, not Manchester, lets hope some of the others do the same.

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The one I reported is still showing as Chelmsford.  I think the way they have partly got around it is to say they will despatch within 15 days after payment has cleared!!  Earliest delivery date from today's date (18th) is 16th May (28(?) days).  So that's 15 days for payment to clear then 13 days for it to arrive from USA - that's the Free P&P option; you can get it a whole day earlier for £8.89!

[johnel47]

How did you manage to report them to eBay, rosie? I have taken them to Customer Services, but end up going round in circles, with no real way to report them to eBay, it all ends up with you waiting for a reply from the seller and they're all still doing it. It really is getting exasperating to the point that I don't mind paying a bit extra if it comes from this country, instead of waiting weeks.

[lupo-store]

I flagged this issue of item location abuse to eBay late last year.

It took numerours emails, phone calls, videos, an article in Tamebay for eBay to take notice.

To their credit they have explained a lot of things had to be changed in order to bring in these new extra seller standards.  Since the start of March i have found about 1/3 of all the sellers I monitor are now showing as China location.

The other 2/3 are now showing shorter delivery estimates in order to seemingly comply with eBay's new max 2 day despatch and 3 day delivery for overseas sellers stating UK stock location.

eBay won't tell me what they are doing.  It's a total secret.  They even won't tell their concierge agents in case it gets out.  Why would they be so secretive?  The reason is the Chinese will try to sidestep them.  They will be taking action.  I too am frustrated as a UK seller whose seen his sales go down by 50% since October.  I have seen green shoots of recovery.

One thing I know is eBay finally listened to me.  They would not have brought in these emergency measures if they didn't think this had reached epidemic level.

Whilst I am frustrated all have not been banned altogether I appreciate eBay must be going through them 1 by 1.  The reason is they can't just block seller accounts without good reason.  I would not want this to happen to my account.  eBay can't make mistakes with people's lives.  

Things seem to be getting slightly better (sales up 17% in the last 31 days) so I am confident eBay will solve this in time.  I will be meeting with them at their HQ on May 1 so will be speaking about this to them.

[johnel47]

All the best when you meet with them, lupo, hope you have some success. 

[lupo-store]

Many thanks.  In the meantime I would suggest anyone competing against these types of sellers to make test purchases and if they arrive late, are marked as despacthed on eBay but when checking the RM tracking is showing as despatch pending, or arrive with an RM48 sticker over the top of a Chinese one to report them through to eBay and hopefully they will take action.

[johnel47]

How do you report them, lupo? I seem to end up running round in circles with an automated message telling me to report the matter to the seller.

[lupo-store]

If you have concierge support then phone them but by email to eBay support with a detailed explanation should suffice.

[sewingrosie51cat]

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@johnel47 wrote:

How did you manage to report them to eBay, rosie? I have taken them to Customer Services, but end up going round in circles, with no real way to report them to eBay, it all ends up with you waiting for a reply from the seller and they're all still doing it. It really is getting exasperating to the point that I don't mind paying a bit extra if it comes from this country, instead of waiting weeks.

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Hi.  There's a 'Report Seller' button in the item's description - just above the Item Number.  Think it's to the far right of the Description and Postage tabs.

My reported seller is STILL showing as Chelmsford instead of USA though!

[johnel47]

I have asked this seller of this item if it is in China or London he says it takes three days to, more or less, deal with the article, then another three or four days to deliver it???  Not the reply to my question I asked him. He also said not to buy the item if I want it quickly, so what encouragement is he giving me to order at all?

The question I asked him was where is the item located? Leeds or |China? and he never replied to this so I have asked him again. I actually wrote to four sellers and only one replied. Good to know that if you do not want the customer to know , you just stick your head in the sand and ignore the issue. 

[lupo-store]

Buy the item, if it arrives with a CN22 customs declaration on the rear the. Report the seller to eBay.
Alternatively tell the seller you are going to buy but if the item arrives with a CN22 customs declaration then you are going to report them. I bet they add you to a blocked bidders list

[majorjohn58]

Thanks Johnel47

[johnel47]

Thanks, Rosie.

[smiller299]

Folks,

The only solution to avoiding Chinese sellers on any site is simple.

Buy from your high street.

The bottom line is that everyone wants their stuff cheaper and cheaper, no-one wants to pay decent money and hasn't done for a long time now.

If people were willing to pay for their own citizens labour then iPhones would be made in the US and you'd pay $100-200 dollars more for that iPhone, BUT, you would be keeping your own citizens in work and contributing money to your own economy.

The reason Apple and any other company for that matter have their goods made in China or Thailand or whatever is purely because we have priced ourselves out of that labour market.

We can't have it both ways, we want high wages but low cost of living and that is not compatible or sustainable.

Another thing to note is that Chinese sellers have a market because we provide one for them, let's be honest here, does an iPhone X really need to cost $800?

No it does not, so the Chinese see a niche where people want the iPhone experience but not the debt and therefore exploit a willing market, like all the other fake products, if people were willing to pay top dollar for the real thing to be made in their own country then the Chinese would lose a valuable resource.

But that then takes us onto a debate about how can companies like Apple justify their prices?

Because sheeple are willing to pay them, simple as that, remember folks an item is only worth what you are willing to pay for it so as long as you keep paying up (or don't want to pay up for genuine item) then these problems with fakes and Chinese sellers will continue on.

[paul0458]

my gripe with Chinese sellers is that the clothes are made for the Chinese market and not Europe and they are always far too small.  If you look at the negative feedeback on these sites time after time people are saying that the sizing is way too small.  Having bought about 3 items all way too small I just avoid these sellers now but ebay should alter the way they present sellers so when you put UK only it comes up with UK only and not all these chinese sites that import to warehouses in this country and sell from there.  The goods are inferior and way too small.  AVOID AT ALL COSTS

[johnel47]

Have never bought any clothes, so can't comment on this, but lots of stuff in the supermarkets and some high street stores are probably made in China and they do seem to be smaller made.

As far as buying on the high street is concerned, this reply to smiler, I would gladly pay more if they brought some of the maufacture back to the UK, where we used to be proud of 'Made In Britain' goods.