Independent seller or WALMART in disguise?

Question

I bought 3 J.R. Watkins refills from a seller I THOUGHT was an individual. When the order arrived it had shipped from Walmart. I live within 2 miles of Walmart and Sam's but I don't shop there. They pay their employees so poorly that many full-time people are on food stamps. I will do whatever possible NOT to support that kind of business. Why isn't Walmart clearly identified as the seller? How is it I ordered from an "individual" and ended up supporting Walmart?

eburtonlab · Answer

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.

gosimus · Answer

@mcbargainhunter < They pay their employees so poorly that . . I will do whatever possible NOT to support that kind of business > That's your decision, if you want to. My take is that if enough people join in in a business boycott that causes sales to drop below a sustainable threshold, corporate could decide to close the store, or relocate it. I used to drive past an empty building in Omaha every day, on my way to work, that was once a Walmart. If corporate does abandon the location, what happens to the employees? For one thing, they're no longer poorly paid, because they're no longer paid at all.

jacbarcollectibles · Answer

It sounds like the seller is drop shipping from Walmart. In most cases with Walmart this is not allowed by eBay since the seller does not actually own the items listed. However, Walmart does allow sellers to list their items on the Walmart site in addition to listing on other sites and will ship to the buyer just like Amazon does so it can be tricky to know if this is eBay legal or not. With Amazon if there is a gift receipt in the package then the seller would have broken the rules and I would assume that Walmart would also have a gift receipt in the package. If a seller is legally using the Amazon and Walmart sites for their items there should not be a gift receipt in the package. Sellers can be reported to eBay if they are breaking the rules.

krazzykats · Answer

And if they have a Wal Mart Plus account, they get free shipping.

Or if they have an Amazon Prime account, they get free shipping.

Probably Costco, Sams Club, etc... people advertise items from these places on eBay, you pay, they place an order and have it shipped to you.

They drop ship.

🐈‍⬛

krazzykats · Answer

Because you are dealing with a drop shipper. They buy after you pay. Its against eBay rules, but lots of people do it anyway. 🐈‍⬛