Please note, this post is not what it will appear at first (whining about drop-shippers) nor am I asking for any particular help or answers unless anyone just happens to know something I don't. Mostly it is for fun, Thursday Night Mystery Theater, featuring Aquiline Special OPs from the United Arab Emerits. Definitely skip if you're not in the mood to read.
So, I try to buy on Ebay as much as possible, but of course when it's a new/unused item I need, there's always the risk of having an infuriating smiley-face box placed on my porch steps where pirates can see it from the street or sidewalk, never mind the fact that I don't want to give that company one cent of my money, nor be tricked into rewarding someone's lazy grift for profit. Well, the other day when I wanted a bulk supply of cotton swabs (I go through them like water, cleaning jewelry), I took the time to try to weed out the drop-shippers as usual. Apparently I didn't apply enough scrutiny to this TRS seller, whose item origin specifies a city (not just 'United States') and in fact ALL their listings have the same item location (Denver, CO), from vegetable seeds to umbrella hats to solid silver bars. I also checked their feedback and there was zero indication of drop-shipping there either.
What I failed to notice is that the seller lives in Israel, NOT Denver, and that they chose the generic 'Standard Shipping' in the listing page menu (just noticed those things today). Normally I try to avoid any carriers besides USPS but in this case I had already looked at soooo many sellers that turned out to be drop-shippers, that I was relieved just to find one that appeared not to be. But boy was I in for some weirdness, way beyond the smiley face box or having the typical FedUp delivery delays/fiascos.
Note: More details below these initial images. Keep scrolling.
So, I ordered. Wednesday I looked at the tracking to see if it was really originating in Denver .... it didn't state the location in Ebay's tracking window, so I figured I would upload the tracking number to <whatever> carrier's website .... that's when I realized the carrier had a peculiar name. So I googled. I was a bit unnerved to see all the airplane imagery, thinking this might be even worse than an Amazon drop-ship, like maybe my item was really coming directly from China and would take forever. But nope, the tracking said the carrier had the package in Denver, CO. Yay!
Then yesterday I noticed there was a new tracking item auto-uploaded to my USPS Informed Delivery packages page. I've ordered only a couple things in the past several days, so I immediately wondered if this could have something to do with the cotton swabs, but the origin appeared to be Little Rock, AR. Anyway, it was obviously AMAZON, whatever it was.
Then the cotton swabs were delivered today, yes by USPS but yes with a stupid smiley face. At first I was just irritated, but then I realized "Wait, but what about that Aquiline tracking?" so I went to Ebay and it still shows the same tracking, still at the "carrier has it" stage. I wondered if the Aquiline website still said the same thing (it did), but while I was there a did a bit more looking around. WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS, REALLY? And seriously, how does this seller have TRS status, zero negs and zero people complaining about switcheroo shenanegans, NEVER MIND how do they not get in trouble with Ebay for giving tracking that never gets a delivery scan? Or should I indeed expect to receive something(???) via this Aquiline ....entity?
Please no 'Special OPs'. Not right now. 🤣
here's looking at you kid!
I liked your story, you took college creative writing courses didn't you?
