Maybe I'm thick but....

[Ardvaark]

Has it occurred to anyone else that these chinese sellers on ebay can use your money and then return it to you? It has happened twice to me now. Where I buy something, in this case the famous 45 dollar hot air machine.  I get the, your item has shipped notice, then wait until the delivery date when the seller promptly returns my money with a huge apology about a warehouse mishap. I don't buy it, you don't sell something you are not sure you have. I sure as hell never would. I thought about drop shipping myself, I just will not take the chance on a product not being available to my buyer. Now its just happened again with a cheap flashlight. I think they have figured out that they can easily use ebay/paypal as a loan institution. Is this an old scam? It really pisses me off and I come down REAL hard on their feedback. I have one guy begging me to change my feedback against him. I would consider it be he has done it many times in the past. Now he wants to send me a free hot air machine. I told him, that would be a nice gesture but it would not guarantee I would change his feedback. I do not sell feedback. I pretty sure its against ebay policy.

[xrunner]

The rating system at Ebay is virtually useless, because you can't garner bad service from a seller you haven't used before. Why? Because the sellers will do anything to avoid a bad rating, They even put pieces of paper in the shipments telling you to only give 5 stars.

Sure, you can get a resolution by messaging them and forcing them to give your money back or a new item, else you will give a bad rating, but this at the expense of a good rating, so no one else sees the bad service. Even if you give a bad rating they can get it removed (with your permission) by resolving the issue. Yes that's good good for you, but as I said, the bad ratings are not visible to anyone else. All this coercion by the sellers should be stopped by Ebay.

[kingofkya]

I have only had that happen once or twice and it was basically because the seller could not buy the item in the market anymore, or could not get it below the price they were selling it for.

[electr_peter]

Sadly, selling items seller doesn't have on eBay occurs more frequently than I would like to see. This is not entirely scam from eBay buyer and seller relationship perspective, but clearly is against eBay rules.
As a buyer you lose your money for 1 month and your time (because you wait 1 month, do not receive anything, then have to order and wait again).

This happens because many sellers do not actually have or stock the items - they are middle men ordering from other sources. When items are not available, seller can:

• remove listing from ebay
• increase a price of listing 10-100 times
• fake a shipment(no real tracking number, maybe fake one) and refund after buyer (unsurprisingly) does not receive the item

There is some incentive to fake listings - it may be cheaper for seller to maintain fake listing than removing and adding a listing when stock available.

eBay rules are against it, but they are not strictly enforced. eBay is on the side which brings more money from fees (i.e. sellers). I would recommend to report such sellers and rate them accordingly.
Such selling practices ruins selling market for other eBay users, especially for private buyers and small sellers.

There are more topics on EEVBblog about similar eBay issues if you search around.

[Ardvaark]

Sheesh! Its coming to the point now that I can tell by intuition when a deal is going to end up in the dumpster. I'll tell you though, if enough people leave strong negative feedback, these people will change their stratagy to something hopefully more manageable.

[Falcon69]

No, No they won't.

Why?

Because out of the 6-7 Billion People out there, there is always one more to take the place of another.

Buying a cheeseburger at McDonald's and finding out it actually sucks, you complain and tell them you'll never eat there again unless they make the burger better, and they laugh at you. Why, because your $4.00 burger is just one of billions they sell a day.  That profit they would have made from you, is less, way less, then what they would lose to change.

Same reason why these people won't change their ways.  They cater to the stupid, the ones who don't know.  Unlike some of us who do know better and shop elsewhere.  The stupid far out-weigh the people who know better.

[Dago]

I have bought (looking at eBay feedback) around 350 items from eBay (like 95% from China) and I've never had a single one not get delivered or be available.

[tautech]

I have bought (looking at eBay feedback) around 350 items from eBay (like 95% from China) and I've never had a single one not get delivered or be available.

Less buys than you, all the Asian sellers good, the only rotten apple was an Aussie that could have been up to the same trick as the OP. Didn't consider that at the time.

[GreyWoolfe]

I'm not a huge eBay buyer either, I have less than 200 buys, but I have never had any issues not getting my toys.  Also, I have had to return only 2 items of all that I bought and both were painless to do so.  In fact, I have had good success from Asia.  I just got a set of Brymen test leads from Franky and had it in just over a week.  I couldn't believe it got here that fast.  I suppose that the more you buy, the more opportunity for issues but on the other hand, the more you buy and shop and read, your bullshit meter becomes more highly tuned.

[tautech]

I suppose that the more you buy, the more opportunity for issues but on the other hand, the more you buy and shop and read, your bullshit meter becomes more highly tuned.

+1 
This can not be overstated enough.

[3roomlab]

Has it occurred to anyone else that these chinese sellers on ebay can use your money and then return it to you? It has happened twice to me now. Where I buy something, in this case the famous 45 dollar hot air machine.  I get the, your item has shipped notice, then wait until the delivery date when the seller promptly returns my money with a huge apology about a warehouse mishap. I don't buy it, you don't sell something you are not sure you have. I sure as hell never would. I thought about drop shipping myself, I just will not take the chance on a product not being available to my buyer. Now its just happened again with a cheap flashlight. I think they have figured out that they can easily use ebay/paypal as a loan institution. Is this an old scam? It really pisses me off and I come down REAL hard on their feedback. I have one guy begging me to change my feedback against him. I would consider it be he has done it many times in the past. Now he wants to send me a free hot air machine. I told him, that would be a nice gesture but it would not guarantee I would change his feedback. I do not sell feedback. I pretty sure its against ebay policy.

they are really "buying" reputation
then again, i have a friend who sells genuine products, guess what happens? chinese fake resellers harass him by messing up the ebay listing, faking a buy, then leaving -ve reps ... OR ... even if transaction fails ... seller has to bear relisting fee ... genuine products, relisting fee ... $$$ is wasted he said everytime relisting is done. against a fake which could be a 1000% profit vs his genuine possibly a 30% margin of profit ... 10 fake resellers vs 1 genuine ... he says he want to give up :/

goes both ways, imo ... ebay business system seems to be more effective sales channel for ... crap products, as these sellers do not care for a 1cent relist fee, do not mind if rivals try to sabotage ...  ... and it is soooo very easy for "thug"-tastic sellers to "pawn" a genuine re-seller (esp when products get "hot")

i find the business "model" intriguing

[Seekonk]

One "seller" I have had problems with is newfrog.com. They are hard to avoid. They have dozens of sellers that are proxy for them so there is no direct connection.  The listings all match.  I have received multiple requests to close a ebay complaint  by them because they have shipped a replacement item. I don't do it. Non of those promised replacements ever show up.  Can't blame them for trying, enough complaints and the seller is shut down by ebay when they had nothing to do with the mistake.  I buy a lot of stuff and the problems are rare, no more than any stuff I would buy locally.

[langwadt]

it's also not uncommon for online computer stores to not have things in stock but order and people buy. (and cancel if they can't get it a the price they expected)

here consumer protection laws means that once you recieve an order confirmation they have to sell it to you at that price, so they now all send a confirmation that the have received your order, not an order confirmation ...

[cosmicray]

This happens because many sellers do not actually have or stock the items - they are middle men ordering from other sources.

This. One million times this. I see the same thing all the time on eBay, and sometimes on Amazon. Meanwhile the sellers with physical inventory are getting poor SEO exposure.

[mikeselectricstuff]

This happens because many sellers do not actually have or stock the items - they are middle men ordering from other sources.

This. One million times this. I see the same thing all the time on eBay, and sometimes on Amazon. Meanwhile the sellers with physical inventory are getting poor SEO exposure.

IME this is more common on Aliexpress - a problem for non-US cardholders is even if/when you get a refund you can lose on exchange rate changes  & fees.
I've never had problems with China/HK sellers on ebay, other than occasional long delivery times, but I don't buy a huge amount - maybe 3-4 items per month.