I am Boycotting Amazon.

Question

So if I am boycotting Amazon and choosing to support other ways of purchasing. Then why are my past two purchases coming from amazon? How can I detect if the seller on eBay is not just some middle man?

Thanks

inceptions · Answer

Hi @whiskeyflask72

Dropshipping from other retailers or websites is not allowed on eBay. You can report the seller for the policy violation at this link:

https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022

Additionally, if you don't want the item because of this, you can open a return for an item that is not as described to get a refund. This will require the seller to jump through some extra hoops and he may try to give you alternate instructions. If that happens, just ignore them and follow the process below...

If you received an item that is not as described, you have up to 30 days to open a return using the option next to the transaction in your Purchase History. The seller will have 3 business days to provide a prepaid return shipping label or else refund. If he does neither, go back to the case on day 4 and use the option to ask eBay to step in. They will force the refund.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-items-not-received-refunds-buyers/return-item-refund?id=4041&st=3&pos=1&query=Return%20an%20item%20for%20a%20refund&intent=item%20not%20as%20described&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1134

eburtonlab · Answer

@whiskeyflask72

It may not be possible to always identify in advance those sellers who drop-ship, but it is possible to identify some common characteristics of illicit retail drop-shippers or other under-performing sellers, and thus avoid the worst of them.

Often they can be spotted by a combination of low feedback number, free shipping of heavy items where it would not be profitable to use retail shipping, use of stock photos, high handling time (not necessarily if they are using Amazon or Walmart, though), poor feedback received with complaints of delays and wrong items or out of stock cancellations, very odd item selection and/or quantities like items were chosen at random from a catalog, canned item descriptions scraped from another site that exactly match many other similar listings, differences between registration location on the feedback page and item location (or vague item location -- like "US, United States"), or inability to answer even basic questions about the items being sold.