Prime drop shipper
Summary: gdangelo203 shared an experience of purchasing an item from an eBay seller who seemingly drop-shipped the product from Amazon Prime, resulting in a higher price and prompting gdangelo203 to seek a refund. Opinions varied, with frugalmarketplace suggesting vigilance and reporting the seller, while others discussed identifying drop-shippers and filing complaints through eBay and Amazon. eburtonlab described characteristics of such sellers to watch for, and mudshark61369 explained the difference between Amazon fulfillment services and reporting procedures. Other participants discussed pricing strategies and the ethics of drop-shipping.
I ordered an item listed as being located in Japan and received it very quickly through Amazon Prime. It included an Amazon gift receipt. The Amazon price for the item is $8.99, and the eBay seller price was $13.45. I know it's not much money, but it rubs me the wrong way that the seller is letting Prime pay the shipping and earning a 49% profit. The tracking was through CoreTrails, which is apparently not a supported shipping platform for eBay and can be used to provide false tracking information. I messaged the seller, stating that the item was drop-shipped from Prime and asking for a refund of the difference ($13.45 - $8.99), which I think is very reasonable. The seller responded, "The item was as described." Should this be reported to eBay and/or Amazon? If so, what is the most efficient way to report to eBay? Should I file an "item not as described" case?
mudshark61369
·1 month ago@gdangelo203 ,
If on the listing page the location, estimated delivery date, and shipping details do not match up: The example below is from a seller you bought from and the EDD shown is if it the item was bought today.
NOTE: there is no mention of customs fees, which would be there if the item was actually coming from Japan.
"It included an Amazon gift receipt".
If it was an actual "A Gift For You" receipt, and not a cash register type receipt. Then the seller did violate both eBay's and Amazon's policies and should be reported. However, if the receipt was a cash register type one, then the seller did not violate any policies. They probably use Amazon's Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) service. The item would come in an Amazon smile box. Or they may use Amazon's Multi Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service, and the item would arrive in an unmarked box, which is also acceptable with both companies. To see how the 2 services work, open the link below.
https://supplychain.amazon.com/blog/difference-between-multichannel-fulfillment-and-fulfillment-by-amazon?utm_medium=direct
"The Amazon price for the item is $8.99, and the eBay seller price was $13.45".
If the seller used MCF to ship the item the price difference may reflect the shipping cost for expedited shipping, through UPS, USPS or Amazon Logistics.
An Amazon logistics tracking number would have to be reformatted to work with eBay's tracking, by using CoreTrails or Aquiline tracking.
roccotacodad54
·1 month agoI don't encounter drop shippers on eBay. For common items I buy from Amazon or Walmart etc. in the first place and cut out the middleman.
At least for me eBay isn't for new items that are easy to find elsewhere but for items discontinued, vintage, antique or unusual etc. etc.
If it's something new but unusual I usually google it and go for the best price from the pick of sources I tend to trust............
simba6
·1 month agoThat is why you always should check prices before you order. Not every place will always have the lowest price on every item every time.
You can report them to Amazon. They too don't allow that.
gosimus
·1 month ago@gdangelo203
< asking for a refund of the difference ($13.45 - $8.99), which I think is very reasonable >
I don't think it's reasonable. (1) Every business has a price mark up. You agreed to the seller's price when you bought the item. (2) Similar to #1, you had the same opportunity to buy it from Amazon as the seller did.
The issues of retail arbitrage and/or personal antagonisms toward Amazon or Bezos have been discussed, so I'm not addressing them.
frugalmarketplace
·1 month agoThat is asking a seller to price match. Should have purchased it on Amazon.
kensgiftshop
·1 month agoYou can report the seller here:
https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022
You can leave negative feedback.
You can also report the seller to Amazon,
44012
·1 month agoSorry, if this was me and I was irked enough I would return it as a NAD just because of the situation at hand. The item was supposed to come from Japan and not with an "A" gift receipt.
This makes me so mad as it is an example of why people don't want to use ebay anymore as it is too hard to see where something REALLY ships from unless you spend a lot of time investigating the seller.
eburtonlab
·1 month agoIt 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.
frugalmarketplace
·1 month agoAll I will say is pay attention ..these sellers have invaded eBay. It is your responsibility to be aware of who you are buying from. Most sellers do not have thousands of listings…read their feedback. You can report them,but nothing will be done. I have little sympathy.
gdangelo203
OP1 month agoThe seller had a 100% rating on eBay. Is it really necessary to say "I have little sympathy" when answering an honest question from a buyer?
frugalmarketplace
·1 month ago · EditedFeedback doesn’t mean much. I don’t have any sympathy as I see this all the time and they just keep doing it as long as there are buyers. I bet if you look at the feedback there are some that say “my package came from Amazon.” It is up to you to be a smart shopper. leave negative feedback, report them, and move on. I found the seller you bought from and that was a red alert. the average seller on eBay doesn’t have over 7000 items…then MULTIPLE that by the quantity of each listing. I own everything I sell…There is so much stuff in my house from inventory..think about it..who has room for all that assorted large stuff..let alone have paid for it. it just doesn’t work that way.