Arbitrage

[forrest_cat]

Does eBay allow selling items you don't own? The seller listed an item they don't have, received the payment then bought the item from a seller on Amazon and had that Amazon seller ship the item to the buyer on eBay. I couldn't find anything about this in the eBay policies. 

[iamcara]

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@forrest_cat wrote:

Does eBay allow selling items you don't own? The seller listed an item they don't have, received the payment then bought the item from a seller on Amazon and had that Amazon seller ship the item to the buyer on eBay. I couldn't find anything about this in the eBay policies. 

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This is outlined in the eBay's drop shipping guidelines, fairly plainly stated as not being allowed.

I'm guessing it's mostly children who do this.

[ittybitnot]

@forrest_cat 

No, the exact procedure you describe is not allowed.  However, be advised that many sellers use Amazon FBA  (Fulfilment by Amazon) where their own products are stored and shipped by Amazon to eBay buyers,or other customers of said seller.  That process IS allowed on eBay.  

Often you can tell which is which by the inclusion of a "gift receipt" in the parcel. 

[forrest_cat]

Thank you. This is definitely not a FBA situation. I never would have found out about it if I hadn't had to send it back due to improper listing, had happened to have purchased another item from the seller they used, and that seller was confused about the return and contacted me on eBay thru that other listing. What are the odds this would happen? Well it did. I only wish my "luck" were more toward winning the lottery than something like this. This dropshipping/arbitrage seller has an account with 100% feedback since 2017. Hard to believe they've been getting away with it that long unless the account was used differently in the past. Not sure if I should report this to eBay or not. The original seller now has the item back but I haven't got a refund from the arbitrage seller. It's still within the timeframe set by eBay tho. 

[myfrugalboutique]

@forrest_cat 

It is NOT allowed, but sadly ebay turns a blind eye to this problem. It is frustrating and does hurt business. Honestly I do not understand how a buyer will pay more from someone in some foreign country that has 7,000 listings than they will from a honest seller just working hard and doing their job. 

It is wrong. Reporting them doesn’t seem to make any difference. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Its also possible the seller did have the item but either misplaced it or broke it so found it elsewhere and had it sent to you to avoid an OOS defect.

[toysaver]

Such sellers usually do not last long.  Buyers that experience this can relate it in feedback and can claim INR as usually there is no valid tracking.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

You returned the item to the AMZ seller? Why would you do that? You should have filed a SNAD and returned it to the ebay seller.

[albertabrightalberta · Accepted solution]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

You returned the item to the AMZ seller? Why would you do that? You should have filed a SNAD and returned it to the ebay seller.

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The OP returned it to the Amazon seller because the return shipping label comes from Amazon in the package the the seller purchased from Amazon and had shipped to the buyer. 

Unfortunately, in doing it that way, it's the ebay seller's account that gets the credit for the return. 

@forrest_cat 

You can report the seller through the order since that's the only way that ebay would know that arbitrage is happening. 

You might also let the seller know that you returned the item to Amazon and since his account was credited, you expect a refund. (Do it through the order so it's on record with ebay.) 

You are allowed to leave feedback for the seller but make sure that whatever you post is within Ebay's guidelines.

[forrest_cat]

I used the retrun label that the eBay arbitrage seller gave me which turned out to be an Amazon return, but that's not MY problem to try to work out.  It was all tracked by UPS and eBay so I'm not worried about that. I just wanted to know if this type of selling was allowed on eBay at all. 

[forrest_cat]

Yes that's what I did. I let the arbitrage seller I know what they did and that I expect the refund by the date eBay set. If I don't get the refund by that date, I will contact eBay about it. I'm always professional about things of course. 

[forrest_cat]

To be clear, it was tracked by eBay and UPS so it's in my eBay dashboard as having been returned. I don't know what INR is? 

[forrest_cat]

That's why I find it strange that I got caught up in this one. I always check Amazon too when I'm buying something. They couldn't have made money on this one. I noticed they relisted the item for more than double what I paid them for it so I think they realized they made a mistake on that one. 

[toysaver]

Was it tracked as being delivered?  Most tracking numbers can only be used once and the shipping from Amazon was the one time.  This prohibits tracking from being added to eBay.  This means there is no confirmed delivery.  This means a buyer can claim Item Not Received (INR) and be refunded almost instantly.  They then can keep the item if their conscious lets them.   

[winterpalace25]

I report them to Amazon. They are the only ones who have a stake because if there is a gift note, the eBay seller is having Amazon pay for the shipping through their personal Prime account. The main Amazon customer service doesn't care, or doesn't even understand. But I eventually got transferred to the fulfillment department and they do care. They indicated that the Prime account would be shut down.

This is a very sneaky business model, against the rules of both eBay and Amazon. eBay doesn't care because they still get their fees even if someone is cheating  with Amazon Prime free shipping.