Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
What is going on with recent purchases and shipping by sellers?
Just recently, I made a number of purchases from Ebay Sellers and every one gave shipping/tracking info that was unable to be accurately tracked. The tracking listed shipper names like Aquiline, GOFO, a unknown shipper with a tracking number that began with LE and ended with EC and none of the tracking sites know what or who that number refers to. All of these sellers claim to be USA sellers in their listing, but I have to wonder if that is accurate. I am used to seeing listings that claim shipping by USPS, UPS, FEDEX and other known shippers. Any idea as to what is going on? So far the items eventually arrive, but usually have missed the delivery date by days.
eburtonlab
Mentor6 months agoHow are you vetting your sellers? Are you looking closely at seller feedback pages to see where sellers are registered and what kind of feedback sellers are getting from actual buyers for similar kinds of purchases? Are you avoiding sellers that show obvious signs of being drop-shippers?
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.
cluc2444
OP5 months agoThanks for your reply, before buying anything on Ebay I usually look at the number of items the seller has sold and the positive feedback number. I won't buy from a seller that has only a few items sold or someone who has a positive rating below 98%. I always look at the feedback to see what type of low numbers the seller may have received as some negative feedback may not be the fault of the seller. I also stay away from non US sellers, but that is getting harder to spot as you have indicated a lot of sellers claim located in US but in many cases that is not true. Ebay has also made it harder to locate where a seller is located.
My gripe is that just recently instead of listing the item will be shipped via (USPS, UPS, FEDEX, etc) they make no shipping/shipper claims at all and just give a estimated delivery date.. And on top of that, they list BOGUS tracking numbers that say "Shipping Label Created", and the number is not trackable by any tracking site such as 17 track or others. In my mind Ebay should require sellers to list the actual shipping method/company. I know that small items may not be worthwhile to track, and they are usually noted in the listings as not tracked.
eburtonlab
Mentor5 months agoMy gripe is that just recently instead of listing the item will be shipped via (USPS, UPS, FEDEX, etc) they make no shipping/shipper claims at all and just give a estimated delivery date.. And on top of that, they list BOGUS tracking numbers that say "Shipping Label Created", and the number is not trackable by any tracking site such as 17 track or others. In my mind Ebay should require sellers to list the actual shipping method/company.
Tracking is for the seller's benefit, not the buyer's. Many sellers of inexpensive items skip tracking entirely to keep the price of shipping low. In that case, the seller is taking a risk and the seller will be unable to prove delivery and may have to refund the buyer if the buyer raises an issue.
For more valuable items, if a seller is not providing a recognizable shipping service in the listing, or if the seller is registered in another country, or if the seller's feedback shows obvious signs of being a drop-shipper, or if the seller lacks sufficient positive feedback to meet the buyer's minimum standards, or if the deal is just "too good to be true", then as a buyer you should choose to purchase from a different seller, regardless of what eBay does or says.
Just because eBay does not stop some poor sellers from listing items does not mean you have to purchase from those sellers. Being able to list an item on eBay is a pretty low bar, and you should hold your sellers to a much higher standard, particularly if you have been having problems with recent sellers you have chosen.