Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
Sellers with multiple accounts
Has anyone run into this problem? I bought a product where the seller said they had 10 in stock, immediately upon paying for it, they messaged back with this product is out of stock and offered a return. I asked for a return, then went and ordered the same product from a different seller, and upon paying for that, the customer message back that the part is defective and they couldn't ship it. This sounds very fishy to me. I think the seller has multiple accounts.
1 comment
eburtonlab
Mentor1 year agoThose may be different sellers, but they may be attempting to obtain stock from the same out-of-stock source to drop ship items that the sellers do not actually have on hand.
eBay allows drop shipping from wholesale sources where items are under contract prior to the eBay transaction, but not retail arbitrage where eBay sellers wait until a purchase is made from them before turning around and purchasing from a retail source to have the item shipped directly to the eBay buyer.
If you want to avoid buying from drop-shippers in general or retail drop-shippers in particular, it is possible to do so with some effort. The trick is to identify which sellers are engaging in drop-shipping prior to making a purchase. Examining seller feedback closely can often provide an indication of that, as can noticing certain aspects of the seller's items for sale -- such as an assortment of multiple quantity listings that appear to have been copied at random from a catalog or other site, use of stock images, and free shipping of bulky items where it is not likely that an individual could pay for postage and still make money on the sale.