Is this a common practice? I had a buyer order something from me, but was not satisfied with the texture (it was pork jerky) and so asked for a refund, which I promptly gave. Then I got another order to ship to her address! Here is the followup (our conversation). Buyer's comments are in quotes, mine in bold.
Hello, A-----. I'm very confused. I just refunded this order that was earlier shipped to your username a-----, and then I got another order to ship to this address. ??? The eBay username is different, but the address and name is the same. The order is from x-------t.
“I'm not sure what x-------t is “
“My boyfriend may have placed an order elsewhere? He knows I am obsessed with this stuff haha. I'm going to ask cause that's very weird. I'll let you know.”
I will need to ship the item unless user x-------t requests it to be cancelled. This jerky is from the same batch that the order that you didn't like was from.
“It was Groupon. That's weird. You sell it for double on Groupon?”
No, advertising on Groupon never had occurred to me, but thanks for the clue to this mystery; I was REALLY puzzled about this. When I saw your address again but with a different eBay ID I thought someone was somehow trying to scam me. When I looked at x-------t's feedback I saw they never sold anything... but obviously, they were selling to you. Apparently they monitor eBay for good deals and advertise the same product, marked up -- without having any in hand -- on Groupon. If they sell it on Groupon, they buy it on eBay and drop ship it to you.
I guess it's legitimate, but it definitely has some downsides. The customer service process is totally screwed up. And, since they never "sell" anything on eBay their feedback rating will always be positive, since buyers cannot get a negative rating. And apparently Groupon has no rating system (that buyers can see, anyway) so no matter how they foul up a sale, they'll look good. And, since they're drop shipping the product via eBay (and the recipient won't be "Pay Pal validated") any protection for the seller is probably voided also.
While I've bought dining discounts and concert tickets on Groupon, I've always been a bit wary of product purchases. (Maybe it was instinct.) I know I'm going to look more into this and see what other repercussions I may face. Now it makes me more wary of buyers; often, if someone has a problem like you did, I'll just refund the money if it's going to cost me more on a small item to pay for shipping back to me than it's worth. On many small items eBay sellers have eBay automatically refund the buyer and let them keep the product; in that case, the middleman seller could make 100% profit on their scheme.
Thanks for your great communication on this issue. The information on this questionable "sales method" was worth every bit what it cost me out of pocket for shipping and product...
So, is this a common practice? Though I'm a PowerSeller, I don't do huge volume's of small items, and I've only had one similar come up before...
