E-bay: be careful!

It's been quite windy recently, and so my tower with 12m LFA has been down a couple of times, to reduce the chance of damage.  So attention naturally turns to maybe greasing those rusty bolts over there, changing that plastic cable tie here, etc.

This identical photo of step ladders appears under several sellers' listings, all based in China.

 

Because a luffed tower with a large antenna on top can't be lowered to the horizontal as there's no room to clear the floor, I need a big step ladder or small scaffold to access all the antenna's parts.  In the past, I borrowed my now ageing neighbour's ladder, but in the Time of Covid, that's not such a good idea.

So, I looked around E-bay and found some good looking ones for £66.  Now, I do almost always check that those people who claim to be UK stockists but in fact are based in China, are not trying to trick me.  

In this case, the seller did not claim to be in the UK.  But other listings, using the exact-same photo of step ladders, include a UK flag. Those sellers are not very honest, even if they ar not trying to simply take your money, but merely get you to buy from them, not somebody else.

Now, to be fair to the Chinese, I have never bought anything from them via E-bay where the product has not been both delivered in good (often remarkably good) time, and of the expected (or better) quality.

But a couple of weeks later: no step ladder!

OK.  I got a response that claimed the ladder had been delivered, please check with the delivery company what happened.

I checked, and could see that the ladder had indeed been delivered, but to somebody else's address!

The seller refunded me in full as soon as I told them this had happened.  They say the ladder was processed to the wrong delivery company depot in the UK.  But it's hard to see how a parcel with the completely wrong post code could be delivered to (and accepted at) the wrong address. 

I suspect the seller may have simply mis-addressed their parcel; we'll never really know for sure.  With so many people relying on deliveries now, it's not inconceivable that a very busy van driver, finding no matching address, simply threw it over a hedge to get rid of it and get his 'delivery' payment.

But the bottom line is: the Chinese seem to be honest when it comes to honouring transactions, but do have a tendency to advertise themselves as selling from within your country, when in fact they are selling from China. 

This doesn't necessarily mean you've been conned altogether, but you may be conned into buying from a country where you can only rely on the seller to refund you, and have no legal rights that can be enforced.  

And note that 'lifetime warranty' strap on the image: that part is really of no value at all, as I would not expect the seller to still be around in a few years, let alone actually be contactable and willing to send a new ladder.

Do scroll to the bottom of each E-bay listing, and check the business address provided!