Forum

Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

It seems like every time I find a product with a good profit margin, a chinese seller swoops in and sells it outrageously low.

The worst part is they are now posing as UK sellers, showing delivery times according to Royal Mail 2nd class and writing 'UK' in their item title. But if you look at their contact details, it says a chinese address with a chinese number. Also, their buyer id gives it away too.

How are they doing this?? Import charges should have not allowed these items to be profitable at their price. Are they lying?

This is becoming a horrible fad on eBay and they don't seem to care that Chinese sellers are taking them over..

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

This is problem across the board - they are always testing and trying new techniques.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Import charges only apply to items over a certain value.

Its also possible that while they are based in China that they are using a fulfilment centre in the UK, or even just within the EU

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Hmm..they're probably importing small amounts at a time then..
The other reason makes sense, they're selling it just a little above supplier prices so could be it.
It's crippling us UK sellers :(

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Like James said, many of them have fulfilment centre's in the UK. This gives them a supreme advantage over UK sellers as they don't pay VAT on sales. Hence why they can undercut you very easily.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Not agree does not matter what the using when they bring goods into uk they need to pay 20% vat does not matter if they using fulfillment centres


I beleive the only way they doing under value goods

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

This is mostly what they do, don't forget guys...Chinese sellers can get their stuff a lot cheaper than those not in China. Even for US, they constantly undersell the U.S. sellers by a massive amount.

I personally use their biggest weakness....Time it takes for buyers to receive their item and I use patriaticism to emphasize the fact that they are buying and supporting a local seller.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Yea but they have like 99% feedback so I can't rely on the delivery time it seems..
Also, I do put a little "UK Seller" badge on my item pictures. Do you put that on your description or do you put "local seller" on your title?

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Yes but the point here is that they are now shipping stock already based in the UK so delivery time is Royal Mail time...making your patriaticism and UK shipped irrelevant.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

It's totally not understand able they running very big business on even single account and one seller got many accounts

How can they do this seems hmrc not interested at all

Undervalue invoices on that big basics..... don't know and then avoid vat or don't know how they get away
Love to hear from someone how they operate

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

I don't think anyone here will tell you how to cheat the taxman.

You're speculating, really. No evidence they do it.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Yes agree I belive 95% sellers are xxxxx The taxman they way they selling soso cheap
I get goods direct from factories in china and can tell this they prices on ebay are amazon seller selling no way they can sell at these prices if they pay just even proper vat

Leave tax that's next thing

Selling expensive items iPhone I pads Samsung phone etc and not even vat register so how they doing their accounts right

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Try finding heavier items then you can under cut them

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Building up my eBay feedback I was buying a a load of chinese crap a 0.1p auctions, How the hell they made money sending me this rubbish at around 20p on avg was beyond me.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Those particular items aren't there to make them money, thats they technique of building feedback and reputation. :)

They would have other big sellers making them money. This technique also helps dilute the impact of negative ratings Chinese sellers face as a result of their despicable shipping times.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Dog eat dog out there. I bought £10,000 stock only for Chinese seller to undercut me making it impossible to trade on eBay.

You need to find another market. No other choice.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Therein lies one issue - trying to find something new to sell...

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Or forcing you to focus on listing quality & succeeding through sheer exposure... ;)

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

A lot of other sellers will always try to compete by underselling you. Just make sure you do all the little things right and it will add up. Have great photos and a listing description. Also make your title bold/add 2nd category. And try to offer same day shipping. I offer it and most buyers can't resist it!! :)

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Sellers pretending to be someone they are not - disgraceful, goes against principles of stealth ;)

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

I know how Chinese sellers operate

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Care to share your knowledge?

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Yes I will be back after few hours and share something I know how they operate. Be frankly those things are only offered by mainland Chinese.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Babz The second biggest eBay seller in the uk has shut down as he didn't pay Royal Mail for his deliveries and I guess he didn't pay tax and he was the cheapest on eBay for a lot of goods and now we no how he did it
He was turning over £1.5 million a month wow
What a genius lol

Stevebills, care to share your sources?

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

google it you will see

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

First I heard of it! Wow.. BabzMedia ceased trading.

Anyone think they've now gone stealth? :p

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Yes play been reading comments on AZ forums they back with many accounts

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

9 November, 2016 | 01:34PM GMT

Hello,

Earlier this year, the UK government announced new measures to tackle the non-payment of VAT by overseas sellers whose goods are forward deployed to the UK.

We work closely with HMRC to ensure our sellers comply with their VAT obligations. If we are informed by HMRC that a seller is not complying with these requirements, then we will take appropriate action, up to and including permanent suspension.

We have already contacted hundreds of overseas sellers to notify and educate them on the need to comply with the law and we will continue to remind sellers of their obligations.

To ensure you are compliant, and for further details on this issue please read the latest guidance from HMRC at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-over...oods-in-the-uk

eBay remains committed to providing a level playing field for all sellers and we will continue to work closely with HMRC on this issue.

Regards
The eBay Team

+++++++++++++++

I wonder if they'll start to ban these big accounts

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

I have seen few chinese sellers are already VAT registered . How they do it? any idea

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Just a quick question, is VAT like a EIN for the USA?

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Value Added Tax - Basically when an item is sold in the UK its the % that goes to the government.

So an item that is sold for £100 then £20 of that will be paid by the item seller directly to the government as VAT

Its pretty complicated though as there are different rates for all sorts of different items and services. There are also loads of exceptions and if you sell under a certain threshold then you don't have to register for VAT which means you can sell things for 20% cheaper without loosing any money V people who are VAT registered and have to pay 20% of the final selling price to the government.

I think the equivalent in the USA is the state sales tax? I may be remembering the name incorrectly though

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

That sounds about right Jamesnorth, are there special paperwork or or a unique number required to apply for this VAT? I can't see it being too difficult for overseas people applying for the VAT.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

When you apply for VAT you get a VAT number which is a matter of public record which means you can verify a company just by its VAT number.

There is a bit of paperwork involved but its nothing major when applying to become VAT registered.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Thanks bro.....

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

The container shipped to U.K. warehouse then they use Royal Mail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

As have I, most of them seem ⊗⊗⊗⊗ though

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

I know it may seem obvious to some but I would strongly recommend getting some professional pictures taken of all products.

I am still doing well in certain listings that are now rife with chinese sellers, which weren't before, but when I scroll down, they are all using their standard stock photos, or crappy iphone pics, whereas mine look awesome! These things matter when people are scanning through all the same items.

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

Oh well ,not just posting as UK sellers
we also have main warehouse storage/forwarding services in north America ,all over the Europe,asia..
we can posting as all ebay sellers now if we want

come one guys:boink:, don't just import from US,join our new techs,we make worlds better:FF:
join our warehouse services you can posting as any country sellers you want!

ask your supplier they all known how to operate this service,its a main shipping method we use for years, they will instruct you:laugh:

Re: Chinese sellers posing as UK sellers??
 

as far as I known the first doing such service are hongkongese.over 10 years ago,right now the biggest warehouse centre in UK also operated hongkongese
its a shame that you don't even known this as you based in hongkong:bored: