Best Method to Handle Chinese eBay Sellers with Fake Australian Warehouse

enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:10
Last edited 21/01/2019 - 20:10

I attempted to complain about fake warehouse address a few months ago and the experience was painfully onerous. In the end, ebay said that they will check my complaint, without any follow up. Nothing was mentioned on how to handle these products since they are delivered a month later and the buyer (me) already bought a replacement. I attempted to get a refund, but the Chinese seller always say:

"Sorry ,my friend . We can give you a discount will that be ok?"

(Notice the misplacement of punctuations. Chinese sellers often misplace them. That's an important clue to tell a product has a fake warehouse address, but that turns ebay experience into detective work.)

These sellers have limitless energy to reply to your requests in kind words and no matter how you scold them they will neither admit nor deny their wrongdoings and never gets angry.

In the end, it's not possible to ship them back because it was labelled with an address in China. The best option for the buyer is to accept a discount and call it off.

I know the only true answer to this question: use Amazone instead. If ebay could have improved it they would have, since studies showed that delivery time is a key factor for e-commerce and ebay must know it. But I somehow feel I need to do something about another package that arrived too late to be useful. Should I just keep it and leave negative comments? How much harm can I do anyway?

P.S. I am Chinese myself and this annoys me like hell.

Electrical & Electronics

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Comments

  • Hybroid on 21/01/2019 - 20:13

    Don't order random crap from unverified or unpopular sellers then? Read their reviews and ratings. eBay and Chinese/HK dropshippers thrive on each other, you and I aren't going to change that dynamic.

    • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:17

      So hard to do that since I am an electronics guy and often there are only a handful of sellers with the products I want with equal feedback… I found that asking for pick-up address worked for me, but that is just an additional step. I once actually picked up an item from a Chinese-run warehouse in VIC and they told me they were frustrated too because they (the Chinese seller) actually have a real warehouse in Australia.

  • zonra on 21/01/2019 - 20:15
    +2

    It is definitely annoying and certainly something eBay should address properly.
    I found the easiest way to spot them is look at the expected shipping time: anything arriving within 2 weeks is most likely shipped from Australia.

    • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:19

      The item I chose has a 2 week arrival time, then I got an email 2 weeks later saying your package cleared custom…

  • HighAndDry on 21/01/2019 - 20:17

    Best method to handle Chinese ebay sellers with fake Australian warehouse

    Don't buy from them.

    What a radical idea right?

    Nothing was mentioned on how to handle these products since they are delivered a month later

    What? If it hasn't arrived by its expected delivery date, you just file a "item not received" with eBay and you're automatically refunded. Of course, if you didn't read the expected delivery date, that's on you.

    • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:18
      +1

      Good idea, let me try… Damn it! They removed the listing so that item disappeared from my purchase history! Maybe I can still find it in Paypal history…. Damn it, it says because this item is purchased from ebay please login to ebay to request a refund.

      • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:24

        Attempt to login to ebay resoulution centre from paypal, got this:

        "We ran into a problem. Please try again later."

        eBay is rotting. Move to Amazone. Quick.

    • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:26

      It surly arrived much later than the delivery date. I managed to get into ebay resolution centre after all and the item disappeared from Purchase History (thanks to seller delisting) appeared here. But I got "It looks like the item is on its way and should arrive by Jan 21, 2019† If you don't receive it by then, please contact the seller or come back to us so we can help you."

      With 2 options:

      • Contact the seller
      • Ask the Community

      † which is weeks later than the expected date.

  • Islund on 21/01/2019 - 20:20

    Pay using PayPal

    • enveloped on 21/01/2019 - 20:21

      Read my previous comment. Paypal says because this item is purchased from ebay please login to ebay resolution centre.

  • CyberMurning on 21/01/2019 - 20:35
    +1

    actually i kind of like it.
    i bought my mi max 3 and didnt pay GST, but the phone came from china i believe.
    doesnt matter for me. cheaper is better.

  • [Deactivated] on 21/01/2019 - 21:00
    +3

    how to handle these products since they are delivered a month later and the buyer (me) already bought a replacement.

    Check expected delivery date on listing, before he click to buy. If it doesn't arrive by the latest date, then lodge "item not received" claim. If they are a scammer, go straight to ebay claim of "item not received" . Even if they are not a scammer, this seems best practice. I doubt the seller gets any bad points against them if you open claim, then they do the right thing and voluntarily refund. They would/should become in bad standing with ebay account, if they fight it all the way.

    Ebay/Paypal will almost certainly side with you. Note: you cannot make item not received claim before the latest delivery date in listing. Once that date is reached, very next day lodge claim, and it should be very straightforward from there, you will win you will get full refund .
    Keep all messages via ebay message system. Ebay/paypal will look through these. So do not agree to wait longer for item, do not agree to discount.

    Best method to handle Chinese ebay sellers with fake Australian warehouse.

    Leave them bad feedback explaining the fake Australian warehouse. Say "really comes from China I avoid many of these, by looking at others feedback stating exactly that. So if you suspect it is dodgy seller sending from china and saying its from Sydney, check negative and neutral feedbacks and hopefully another ebayer has put a warning up.

  • matt-ozb on 21/01/2019 - 21:39
    -3

    What is amazone?
    Why did you think a parcel with 2 weeks delivery is being shipped within Australia?

    • [Deactivated] on 23/01/2019 - 13:13

      its the online version of amazon retail stores. they just added an e like email

  • JimmyF on 21/01/2019 - 22:13
    +1

    I attempted to complain about fake warehouse address a few months ago and the experience was painfully onerous.

    Yep, they know the system better than you. You're wasting your time.

    I recently got caught out by one of these sellers. The only way to handle it, is leave them a neg review and move on.

    It hurts them the most and warns others.

    This seller begged me to change it and offered a full refund if I did.

    Nope.

  • Fier2 on 21/01/2019 - 22:21
    +2

    We lost a lot of money like that. The trick is to not wait longer than 5 days before looking for your item. Then, either jump on ebay tchat for "item not received" or "item not as described". I stop counting how many times the item was marked either in chullora , rockdale or botany bay and end up being ship from overseas. Now i just stop using ebay anymore and rather go in a shop and pay a much biggee amount for the item i wnt but at least i see the quality on the spot and now what i buy. Because i realised that all the money i wasted on ebay i could have bought the item here.

  • altomic on 21/01/2019 - 22:29
    +3

    Fight fire with fire.

    Give an Australian address but actually move to China.

  • foxmulder on 21/01/2019 - 23:23
    +1

    I'm case you don't know, this kind of sellers also sell on Amazon.

  • Some Human on 22/01/2019 - 00:03

    Nothing you can do about their deceptive practices.
    A dead giveaway that a seller is really overseas is having their location stated as VIC, NSW, WA, Perth, Darwin, Melbourne SYD or Sydney. A legit Aussie seller will usually have a suburb as thier location, not a well known city or the name of a state.
    You can also set the search to say "within 50-100km of your location"

  • [Deactivated] on 22/01/2019 - 00:46

    I just pay via PayPal.

    If item is delivered from Asia without tracking I just request a refund and declare item never received.

    Only way to stop them is to hit their hip pocket.

  • Baysew on 22/01/2019 - 10:17
    +4

    Can you still say Bikies on OzBargain in 2019? Asking for a friend.

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