eBay

truewind13 · ‎03-14-2015

Why do Ebay sellers from China always do this?

You can clearly see on the auction that they have enough items in stock of what I won or buyed out. My package is shipped and I wait and wait and wait and wait, 3 weeks pass, never received anything, so I message the seller and they just refund me the next day. No offers to resend a new item, no concerns whatsoever about the package, they just refund me on the spot.

Sometimes they'll even include an invalid tracking number that can't be found anywhere! I even messaged the seller and asked what URL to use to track my package and they always reply back with nonsense and completely avoided my question. I have to message the same question almost 3 times before they finally give me a URL and admit that I "may not find it for no valid reason whatsoever." Then after a month I never receive the item and they just refund me on the spot.

This only happens with sellers from China! I have zero problems with sellers from Japan or Korea, but China? Out of the 10 items I dared buy from them I only received 1 of those auctions! All 9 others were just refunded because it was never delivered. Everyone else I know that dared buy from China have the same problem as me and never get their items and simply get refunded on the spot.

I sense a scam here! Why would a seller pretend to ship an item and then just refund us when we say we never got the item? I can think of a few reasons:

- They're gathering a database of all our home addresses. Why? Who knows. Maybe they're going to sell it to ad companies so they can fill our mailboxes with garbage ads someday.

- They're gathering our Paypal email addresses. Why? I dunno. It's not like they can steal our credit card numbers, but by paying them with Paypal, they now know our Paypal emails and may want to use that for something shady.

Can anyone else think of other reasons why China sellers would do something like this? Because I'm absolutely fed up with them. It's bad enough that they spam Ebay.ca with hundreds of auctions for the same item that I would like to purchase from Japan or Korea instead! I have to go through pages and pages of auctions just to find the ones from Japan or Korea and buy those! Why can't Ebay add a filter so we can easily block Auctions from a specific country? I WANT TO PERMANENTLY BLOCK ALL CHINA AUCTIONS SO THEY NEVER APPEAR IN MY SEARCH RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm also going to report all China sellers that pull this kind of shady auction system and you should too! The next time you buy something from China and you never receive your item and they just refund on right away, make sure you report them for scamming! They're most likely using your home address and Paypal email for something bad and they need to be stopped!

reallynicestamps · ‎03-14-2015

I sense a scam here! Why would a seller pretend to ship an item and then just refund us when we say we never got the item?

Because a large number of their buyers forget they have ordered the items and they have the money. While there are fees payable, the fees are a small percentage (about 20% or less) of the total payment. And when they refund, eBay refunds most of their fees.

So no need to worry about harvesting your information, the scam is much more straightforward than that.

In defense of Chinese sellers, most are honest and will send the product you buy. You have to do your own work though.

Many buyers have the idea that 95% is a good feedback rating. It's not. Any seller with only 95% satisfaction from his buyers is about to be kicked off eBay.

Don't deal with a seller who has less than 98% postive feedback, and for Asian sellers that should be 99%.

And look at the Detailed Seller Ratings too. A seller with 4.3 DSRs will be greatly restricted in the number and value of the items he lists. Lower than that, and he will no longer be allowed to sell at all.

And look at those negative and neutral feedback. There will be a percentage that are obviously from nutbars and the terminally entitled, but if there is a theme (didn't ship but gave refund) (never arrived) (dollar store garbage) (poor communication) that shows up over and over, move on.

More generally, don't use Best Match or Lowest Price as your Search criteria. If you start with Highest Price + Shipping, you will mostly see the better material first and can then scroll down to your price point. This is faster than slogging up through thousands of misdescribed items that are not what you are actually looking for, like hundreds of iPad jackets before you find listings for iPads.

reallynicestamps · ‎03-15-2015

That response was posted without noticing that the OP is an experienced eBayer. However, since many less experienced members will read this, let it stand.

teardrops809 · ‎06-27-2015

An easy way to filter your search result is choose "Advanced" next to the blue search button. Type item you are looking for under "keywords or items" and then scroll down till you find "Location". Under "Located in" choose Japan or Korea (whichever you prefer first). Then all the way at the end click "Search". You will get listings from whichever country you chose. Mind you China might still show up but only after Japan or Korea listings have been exhausted for your search term / item.

chriscook1976 · ‎01-22-2017

I have ordered over 25 items in last 4 or 5 months and out of that many items maybe 5 actually arrived. All offered replacement or to ship again but nothing did come and all gave money back. I mean the refund of little amounts of money is great and expected I wait over a month even almost 2 for my items and nope not a thing. Makes me almost not wanna by from china seller as all items that didn't come were from various China sellers

reallynicestamps · ‎01-23-2017

zombie thread from 2015.

viz999 · ‎01-29-2017

I get as frustrated as anyone else waiting for goods from China, that never show up. It used to be that you would wait for 4-5 weeks, now, it can be as much as 6-8 weeks and still not receive the item.

in a discussion the other day, another theory has surfaced - that unscrupulous Chinese Sellers could be holding on to the money gained and receiving interest from the banks. Who knows, but with the millions of eBay people around the world buying from China - this could be very lucrative.

reallynicestamps · ‎01-31-2017

Chinese sellers are no more dishonest than any other people anywhere in the world, but there are a lot of them so there will be a large number of scammers. Sigh.

The fentanyl crisis is also slowing down shipments from China as CBSA searches more thoroughly for this terrible drug which killed over 900 people in Vancouver alone last year.

And postal systems around the world are striking back at China Post which has been taking advantage of Universal Postal Union treaty terms to underprice their international shipping fees, putting those costs on to Canada Post among other receiving postal systems. Canada Post has reacted by treating China Post shipments as low priority.

You can speed things up by :

Not buying from sellers whose Feedback indicates many complaints about slow shipping
Paying for Air Mail shipping, which are less affected by the third problem.
Opening Item Not Received disputes when your orders are late. You can do this in the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page If the seller cannot prove delivery, not shipping, delivery, you will be refunded.
Never accept an offer of a replacement. It won't arrive either.

archp2005 · ‎03-11-2017

Are they being restricted by Hong Kong and sent back to sellers?

archp2005 · ‎03-11-2017

I have had 20 refund request for items from China paid and closed without hesitation in recent months. Only a handful of items (4 or 5) arrived since last November. Does anyone know anything about a new policy of outgoing items from China being examined before departure and returned to sellers if items are on a list of "restricted items." Could all items that look suspicious for explosives (i.e. electrical or electronic) be included?

zee-chan · ‎03-15-2017

Hong Kong's postal system is different from China's. I usually get my Hong Kong purchases in about 3 weeks. China on the other hand can take up to 2 months, but personally I have only had one loss China shipment over the years of shopping on eBay.

patken123 · ‎03-15-2017

I've had zero loss from China,every one of my orders were set and I got them all but the last few were unusually late ,as you said it now takes upto 2 months .

cryan1986 · ‎04-20-2017

I have been on ebay since 2000 and 2017 has been the worst year ever for getting items from China. I even called Ebay to complain. Ebay said there is nothing they can do! However there is something we can all do. Leave Negative Feedback before the 60 day and before you can’t leave negative feedback. Ebay China sellers all put 60 - 70 days for shipping, this is too fool you into thinking it’s coming, and so you can’t leave Feedback. If two months have passed and you haven’t received your items leave NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, even you get a refund, NEGATIVE FEEDBACK. You should not give positive feedback just because they refunded you. They purposely didn’t send it, and they need to be held accountable for it.

Why do they do this, it because they are hopping you don’t ask for a refund and they get to keep their product or they do this because they don’t have the product and trying to make money. They don’t care.

ay656 · ‎04-21-2017

@cryan1986 wrote:
However there is something we can all do. Leave Negative Feedback before the 60 day and before you can’t leave negative feedback.

It is already severely damaged. I don't see how destroying it even further can help.

Most Chinese seller do not do anything wrong. How do I know? US buyers receive things from the same sellers just fine.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-21-2017

In most cases the delays are not the fault of the Chinese sellers, except that many chose cheap surface shipping for the cheap goods purchased by the...... buyers.

Fortunately, feedback is now meaningless to a seller's account.

You can have it fast or you can have it cheap.

Your choice.

summer0069 · ‎04-22-2017

Many of them are not shipping the products and When you contact them, they say "please wait. You will receive your product. Rest assured we have shipped your item and please make sure you leave us 5 star feed back" However, most the time you don't get the product. Even though I receive a refund, I won't leave 5 star feed back anymore. I only leave 1 star. I let people know that got the refund but not a happy customer because I would prefer the item I ordered"

It sure has changed on Ebay. I get so upset because I would prefer the product I order and not a refund You can no longer rely on china sellers anymore.

summer0069 · ‎04-22-2017

I had two incidents where I had ordered a product and the very next day, they increased the price quite a bit. When I saw the price increase I knew right away I wouldn't get it. I contacted the vendor the first time this happened and I was told not to worry "dear" you will get your product. and of course I didn't receive it. I got my refund but obviously I wanted the product or I wouldn't have ordered. It is far and few between now that you will get your product from China.

I give negative feedback when this happens and am happy to tell them that ! It's especially annoying when they dictate to you that they sent a refund and would you kindly leave positive 5 star feedback. SEND the product I ordered and if it's as described you will definitely get 5 star feed back from me.

I have been on ebay for many years and never seen it this bad.

monette99 · ‎04-23-2017

Stop dealing with China.

Relax and start actually talking to your family again.

Mark

Ps

There is more to life that buying **bleep** from China.

😄

benjilortie · ‎04-27-2017

Its because chinese ebay seller equal **bleep**

deontaz · ‎05-05-2017

Another Canadian customer suffering the same problem; used to buy low-cost electronic components from China, for Arduino projects etc -- but now it seems like half of the stuff never arrives. It gets confusing trying to keep track of orders that old... stuff comes in 90 days after order date and gee, by then you hardly remember placing the order and have probably purchased it over again in the interim from a N American vendor because you needed it for a project deadline.

I do suspect that some of these sellers are banking the money and getting a tiny margin of interest on it before the inevitable refund (or in many cases, buyers who just plain forget they placed the order). Nickel and dime stuff, but if you can pull it off a few hundred times I guess it adds up. I suspect that others are "crowdfunding" their production run in advance. Cheap container-ship shipping may also contribute (packages held until a full cargo is accumulated before the ship sails).

The last few months, have also been suffering from Ebay's "free shipping" programme which for some reason has defined my postal code as "remote" so most of my orders to Canadian sellers get cancelled. Ebay is not what it once was... sigh...