My first eBay problems

[snowyskiesau]

Last week, I ordered and paid for a stack of camera stuff and a few things for the laptop from eBay.

Needed a new battery for the laptop and as I'll be going away in a fortnight, chose a seller who listed the item locations as Sydney. Got an email telling me that Customs in China are delaying shipping WTF? reported to eBay.

Half of the camera stuff has still not shipped (all from one seller) and given the past shipping times from China, I'm not sure it will arrive in time.
Not much I can do about the second one except complain to the seller and try to get an update.
Not having the items won't have a major effect as they were mostly 'nice to have' items rather than 'can't live without'
I did order a couple of battery chargers so I can charge my camera and laptop batteries from 12V and they're in the 'it's going to make it difficult' category.

There, I fell better already.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

It's a shame but this is starting to be the result of a lot of EBay transaction. With immigration high the ability for local supplier (mostly immigrant from China) to do what is commonly called Drop-Shipping is become more common and may take over the stock in Australia issue. China hold stock while Australia sell and ship from the manufacturer. Hence the legal ability to say Australian Company.

So far I would say about 50% of Ebay transactions are done this way and this is the outcome for those that choose to purchase from overseas or from Ebay.

I must admit I have a couple of products on Ebay but these are cheap as and not worth direct marketing.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

I dont purchase electronics on there only performance car parts which seem to be ok.

I have seen more and more shops are covering the place with buy it now option the auction part of it is slowly fading.

PS Thx Geoff for fixing up the avatar for me it runs alot smoother.

Still Diggin Kev.

[Esseth (Alan)]

I only buy things that i know are second hand from people that have a real reason to sell, eg upgrading or unwanted gift.

Easier to get a feel for the seller.

[hotspur (Chris)]

I have bought quite a bit of camera gear from DWI

http://www.dwidigitalcameras.com.au/store/index.asp

Very good service,price and only take 3 days to get from HK

to remote QLD.The Australian mobs parcels use to take 10 days and

be all bashed when when arrived.I never buy any camera gear from

Australia any more.

Chris

[snowyskiesau]

An update from the sellers had me (mostly) convinced I'm worrying unduly.

The items that had shown as not shipped had been shipped but the seller had not updated eBay
The item that appeared to be coming from China instead of Sydney is, my seller assures me, shipping from China. The message I received about Customs delays in China was a standard message sent to all purchasers.

As there's no tracking, there's no way to confirm any of this. I guess some times you just have to trust people .

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

I must admit, unless you have a extensive sellers stuff manual updating of Ebay is annoying, I must admit I have forgotten to update my "Mark as Sent" tag and seem to get questions why not. Ooops

One of the most important things is that you got a reply back. When this doesn't happen then you start to assess the risk with more concern.

Although I still do not like the Australia Seller/Overseas delivery sales pitch!!
You will find that you will still need to deliver back to China for warranty if required, that is the worst part but sometimes an acceptable risk.