chinese sellers refunding rather than supply

Over the last few months I have noticed that rather than supply goods I have ordered from them via ebay the seller has sent a message saying that due to QC issues they cant supply and would I like a refund

The goods stay listed on ebay

I have had this at least 10 times in the last 2 months

4 times in last 4 days one from a chinese uk seller

anybody else noticed this

How strange. I've not had this problem and get quite a lot of stuff from China. In fact several packages in the last week or two have actually arrive quicker than expected.

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 03/02/2016 09:55:30

This is the sort of message that comes from sellers:-

Dear buyer,

We do sorry for the trouble indeed and we are shamed that make our customers meet such situation.Before we arranged to ship it out,as we regret that there was something wrong with the product when our manufacturer tested it, we had to returned it to our supplier and asked for the good arrivals.

In order not to make you wait too long,we decide to make a refund for you, do you agree?

Waiting for your reply,thanks in advance.

Best regards

But in all cases the goods/items stay listed and for sale

One theory: If you give crappy feedback or get on a negative customer list for any reason then you may find yourself being avoided

Look out for scamming...probably ask for your bank details to refund costs

George.

I've had this a few times ... and there wasn't any bad will or fraud ... they obviously just try to sell you on an other product they have in stock (bait and switch) ... or process a paypal refund. It's annoying and a little deceitful, but not outright theft. Generally they are relisting old ads, and when I have asked they will get the product in the next production run, but that may be months away.

ady1

I did wonder this as i do tend to leave neg feedback for poor service or goods

but as I have already paid they get one for not supplying

Over the last, say, 6 months I've noticed a large increase in spam direct to the address I use for eBay - targeted spam from companies trying to sell me similar products. It's fairly obvious the many Chinese vendors are using eBay to open up new sales potential for their companies.

Perhaps the "now you see it, now you don't" sales are simply a way to gather (working) email addresses.

I wonder what the delay is between a person ordering and the vendor making the refund. Is there a chance that the money is actually credited to him for a short time before he refunds? In which case it might be a way to get short-term revolving credit (interest-free).

[ Another worrying thing about eBay lately: I've been getting targeted spam to my eBay address based, apparently, on searches made on eBay where I haven't even followed through with a purchase. That would require connivance from eBay ..... although since - I believe - eBay is owned by Google these days that shouldn't be a surprise. ]

Is there a chance that the money is actually credited to him for a short time before he refunds?

The money is held by ebay like an escrow would, until positive feedback releases it, or 45 days pass

(Or something like dat)

Edited By Ady1 on 03/02/2016 15:20:51

The targeted junk emails are like the junkmail which arrives unerringly on your doorstep

In the first case its probbly ebay, in the second its your own bank

As your bank account drops towards zero, the junk mail follows suit

Edited By Roger Provins 2 on 03/02/2016 15:41:00

I havnt had problems yet like this myself even down to purchases of less than a fiver.

Take the refunds through PayPal and when it's cleared leave negative feedback.

Your excuse when they question it is what you say, that the product is still for sale, you have had your time wasted and so you challenge their truth.

It sounds a bit like they are trying to batch purchases to save on postage costs or more than likely have nil stock.

They leave adds running all the time as otherwise they keep having to pay new listing fees.

Suppliers like RDG do this but they take the trouble to amend their adds with a massive purchase price which you read as out of stock for the time being so no relisting fees.

Looks like you may be dealing with a supplier that hasn't done this.

I've never had that trouble before but i wouldn't put it past them to try it on. Seems pointless but they should be honouring their commitment.

I have had plenty of cases where i buy say a pack of ten 3/8" bore ball races, costs next to nothing but i want them in a few days or so, seller is "UK based" turns out to be in mainland china and i've gotta wait 4 weeks for a cheap item i just want quickly, i wouldnt have done it if i knew it was going to be so far away, just a waste of time, i'd rather pay double if it was the only way to get the same item from 20 miles away or so.

Michael W

I don't think paypal hold money away from sellers for any specific period of time. I've sometimes sold items on ebay for significant amounts of money and transferred it a few days after it was bought. I have a suspicion that they could claw it back if needed but am not sure. I did have a dispute with a right cowboy that even changed the images in the listing where they appeared to do that. On the other hand I had £99 refund following a dispute a few weeks ago and still have the disputed item. Nothing wrong with it other than it's a case and way way heavier than expected at the price so I use the mail order return rights as the reason for the dispute. Not sure where that money came from. The seller just offered me a £20 refund which I refused. Once I had done that ebay sorted it out.

John

-

The whole of China comes to a standstill around Chinese new year (Feb 8th). Likely has something to do with it. I know from experience that ordering anything around that time will delay your order for months!

Andy this is what you get when you leave negative feedback I dared to give negative feedback to a well know tool supply company who also own the manufacturing right to a well know lathe

H

This ^^^^.

Already 100,000 people stranded at Guangzhou railways station trying to get home to thier villages for the new Year. You won't get much sense out of anyone over there this month.

Not limited to Chinese sellers.

Bought a bound ME volume from a UK seller. Postage charged was TWICE the amount from another seller for similar item. Negative feedback was limited to the postage but two further purchases were cancelled by the seller as "out of stock". Some sellers appear to believe that all they have to do to get 5* ratings is deliver the goods when THEY feel like it and at whatever charge they wish to make. As far as I'm concerned, 5* means EVERYTHING was perfect ... and there aren't many of those!!

rgds

Bill

In my case I left negative feedback because the company concerned did not answer any of my emails or responded to the dispute procedure ! Ebay bottled out when I raised the dispute with them ( due to the large amount of money said company spends with ebay) Also I asked email to insist my 'block' be removed again they said they could not it was down to the seller !!! So the moral of the story is that is you want to do business with a company on ebay don't leave them negative feedback !

H

I assume that you knew what the postage was before purchasing the item(s). So I think it was unfair of you to leave negative feedback. (Also when the goods arrive, did you see what the actual postage was? - Some people blame the seller but in reality it is the Royal Mail who are to blame for their excessive charges)

I would have contacted the seller prior to purchase to clarify the delivery cost.

Dave

Dave