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Shady Shipping on Ebay China — Parallax Forums

Shady Shipping on Ebay China

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2013-07-07 19:42 in General Discussion
I just started noticing this in the last week or two. Items in the search view appear to be a bargain because they say free shipping, but when you click on them, suddenly shipping adds a buck or two.

For instance, try this link, searching L298N modules: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_BIN=1&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=l298n&_sop=15

About the eleventh listing down shows a red PCB module for $3.70, free shipping. But then it shows $1.60 for shipping when you click on it. The whole Canadian/US dollar conversion scam is a different issue. It's always more than they say.

Here's another: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.TRS0&_nkw=10%22+Black+Hard+Shockproof+Sleeve+Case&_sacat=0&_from=R40 Check the second bag listed. shipping jumps from free to $1.99. They're sucking the money right out of my twins' college fund and by dawg, I won't stand fer it.

I'm sure all this tricks people into buying. So let's be careful out there.

Comments

  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2013-07-03 14:54
    ...shady deals?...on the interweb?!?! :surprise:

    OMG!! I can't believe it!!! :innocent:
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-07-03 15:00
    I buy many things from eBay but you have to go over every listing your interested in with a fine toothed comb.
    erco wrote: »
    I just started noticing this in the last week or two. Items in the search view appear to be a bargain because they say free shipping, but when you click on them, suddenly shipping adds a buck or two.

    For instance, try this link, searching L298N modules: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_BIN=1&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=l298n&_sop=15

    About the eleventh listing down shows a red PCB module for $3.70, free shipping. But then it shows $1.60 for shipping when you click on it. The whole Canadian/US dollar conversion scam is a different issue. It's always more than they say.

    Here's another: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.TRS0&_nkw=10"+Black+Hard+Shockproof+Sleeve+Case&_sacat=0&_from=R40 Check the second bag listed. shipping jumps from free to $1.99. They're sucking the money right out of my twins' college fund and by dawg, I won't stand fer it.

    I'm sure all this tricks people into buying. So let's be careful out there.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-03 15:42
    I have seen this in the past also. Another thing they do is market something for cheap and then have an exuberant freight charge. I will normally email them and let them know that what they are doing is against EBay rules and threaten to report them to EBay if they do not fix it. That usually freaks them out enough to change their tactics. I have sent notices to both sellers. Check back in a couple of days to see if it is fixed. If not, I will report it to EBay.

    EDIT: One thing I do notice about the sellers from China and several others, they really care about Negative feedback. Especially since the EBay rules changed and a seller can not respond to a negative. If you threaten them with negative feedback you will normally persuade them to follow the rules.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2013-07-03 17:56
    It's definitely cheating, and if you were based in China, you'd face cheating every day from every business right down to the taxi drivers. So the internet is no different. Those cheated dollars add up over the course of millions of deals. Negative feedback is a good idea but one must make a purchase and be cheated to register it.

    I'm also very skeptical about the quality of low cost products. In China, the products I have experienced are sub-par, components are already failed or have high failure rates, and materials such as plastics are not stable and break apart on their own. If you need one good part, maybe you need to buy 10 or 20 to find that one part which meets standard specs.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-03 18:02
    The response I received back from the first seller is that the "Free Shipping" is for outside the US. When you click on the link it knows you are in the US so freight is added. I let him know that it needs to be changed to "Free Shipping Outside the US" instead of how he has it worded.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2013-07-03 19:12
    I list by lowest cost including shipping. Quite often I am finding that the listing is for a few items including a cable, so the price is for the cheap cable and when you select the item you want it miraculously goes up enormously. This is a scam to get to the top of the listing. Why should we be surprised???
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2013-07-03 19:18
    Shipping cost is not going to be a problem for me anymore,
    as soon as that soldier in Iraq ships me that box of Gold Dust they found in saddam's bunker,
    I'm gonna be sitting pretty!
    Ok, gotta run off to the Western Union, send some money and get that box o gold moving!...

    P.S. You really gotta be careful with the internet nowadays, You don't want to get ripped off.


    -Tommy
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2013-07-04 01:51
    NWCCTV wrote: »
    The response I received back from the first seller is that the "Free Shipping" is for outside the US. When you click on the link it knows you are in the US so freight is added. I let him know that it needs to be changed to "Free Shipping Outside the US" instead of how he has it worded.
    Aha, so that's why I couldn't figure out where the error was - everything I clicked on continued to have free shipping.

    -Tor
  • CuriousOneCuriousOne Posts: 931
    edited 2013-07-04 03:06
    I think that there's maybe some hole in ebay listing, because very often, I also sort by "Price+shipping=lowest first", then get something listed say $0.99+free shipping, but when I click the item, suddenly say $2.50 shipping cost appears.

    And this is not related to location services - I tried it with different proxies around the world, result is the same, definetly there's a bug in ebay software, which sellers are exploiting.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2013-07-04 03:20
    I've bought quite a few items from China with free shipping, and haven't had any of those problems.
  • ctwardellctwardell Posts: 1,716
    edited 2013-07-04 08:52
    Ttailspin wrote: »
    Shipping cost is not going to be a problem for me anymore,
    as soon as that soldier in Iraq ships me that box of Gold Dust they found in saddam's bunker,
    I'm gonna be sitting pretty!
    Ok, gotta run off to the Western Union, send some money and get that box o gold moving!...

    P.S. You really gotta be careful with the internet nowadays, You don't want to get ripped off.

    -Tommy

    I hope they found more than one because they just notified me that mine has already shipped.

    C.W.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-07-04 09:00
    erco wrote: »
    shipping jumps from free to $1.99. They're sucking the money right out of my twins' college fund and by dawg, I won't stand fer it.

    Never attribute to malice what you can account for by incompetence. I'm sure this is just a bug, Ebay is not interested in pissing off customers (in this way).

    Chinese business people are as honest as the day is long. But I think its night over there.
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2013-07-04 10:24
    This is almost surely a bug caused by incompetent programming. I wish I could say good things about eBay, but in my almost 10 years of dealing with them I've finally come to the conclusion that they're hopeless. Remember, these are the people that decided wildcard characters weren't really needed for searching.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2013-07-04 10:50
    Same kind of rap happens on Amazon.com too.

    Often I see an eBook recommendation for '$1.99'(based on my previous buys, even), and when I click the link, it's suddenly $5
    Or I get told that the book isn't available for my region.
    (Amazon UK only sells Kindles for the UK market. Don't know about Amazon.de. Everyone else must get them from the American site.)

    Play.com sends me emails with great offers on electronics...
    Never mind that they refuse to ship anything but CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/Games to Norway...

    Rotten programming everywhere.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-07-04 14:07
    prof_braino wrote: »
    Never attribute to malice what you can account for by incompetence.

    What a fabulous quote! I think I'll use it to replace the worn out Bogus Basin bumper sticker on my truck.
  • John A. ZoidbergJohn A. Zoidberg Posts: 514
    edited 2013-07-07 19:42
    I usually skip the ones with the shipping fees in products less than $10. If it's more than $10, paying a bit with a tracking won't hurt. :)
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