I purchased an Item from an Ebay Seller and it was "after the fact" fulfilled by Amazon

[1-nancy]

I purchased an item from an Ebay seller and received the item  shipped to me direct from Amazon. This means the seller did not have the item in inventory he/she simply bought a retail item after the sale was made then had Amazon ship it to me as a "gift".  The seller marked up the price over Amazon's price by $38.09 plus he/she charged me sales tax.  I understand the concept of "drop ship", but this is not an instance where a seller buys an item wholesale, marks it up as a retail seller and collects and pays out sales tax to the appropriate jurisdiction.   Is this practice considered an appropriate business practice allowed and sanctioned by Ebay?

[house*of*paws · Accepted solution]

Hi @1-nancy 

IF the box contained a 'gift receipt' ... then the seller violated both eBay's and Amazon's policies by misusing their Prime account.  

If the box did NOT contain a gift receipt ... then the seller is having their own stock stored in a Amazon facility and having Amazon ship for them.  This is perfectly okay and doesn't violate any rules.  [Many sellers list items on more than one selling venue, and Amazon happens to provide this service for their sellers.]

[1-nancy]

Thanks for your quick response. 

There is no packing label or receipt inside the shipping carton from either from seller or Amazon.  I called Amazon when the package arrived, understandably confused.  I was told they could not give the name of the person who sent the product. This seems very strange. I would think if the sender was also an Amazon 3rd party seller using Amazon as a fulfillment shipper then Amazon would disclose the name of the person or at the very least disclose that it was sent from a 3rd party seller.   

I've learned quite a bit from this experience.   Had the seller shipped the item to me directly I would not resent paying so much more for the item then it's being sold for on Amazon.   It may not be against Ebay's TOS, but it's unpleasant.   This  $38.09 'naivety tax' is  going to save me a great deal of money in the long run.   

BTW I bought 2 of this same item a from a different Ebay seller at the beginning of July.  I was immediately charged. After about 2 weeks the seller contacted me and said he/she refunded my money because its out of stock. The cancellation doesn't seem to be  listed on my account as a cancellation, but I got a refund email notification.  Even today I see that same item listed by the same seller has the same item listed, but when I click on the picture it changes to a different but similar item.   I can't see why that's allowed. And Needless to say the cancellation was a setback as I really needed the item and had to start all over again and then wait another 2 weeks for delivery.  Doesn't Ebay require Seller's to actually have the items available before listing items and taking customer's money?

These kind of things are "crazy making" for a buyer.  I can't be the only potential customer steering clear of Ebay due to these practices.