What are my rights when dealing with drop shippers?

[grindercb]

I've been selling full-time on eBay for about three years.  I maintain an actual inventory in my basement where I clean and prep all merchandise, take photos and store everything until sold.  On average about once every six months I get a drop shipper buying something from me.  They usually give themselves away by making lots of requests on the order, such as no receipt/packing slip/business card inside the package, nothing on the package to identify it as coming from an eBay seller, etc. This latest one went so far as to instruct me how to carefully pack the item, plus he wanted it re-tested and re-cleaned as well.  My question is that I've gone to the trouble of acquiring the item, cleaning and prepping it for sale, followed by packing and shipping it, so shouldn't I get some kind of credit from the recipient? I've Googled all over and looked up here in the eBay Community but don't find anything about my rights. There's some vague statements about me being responsible for shipping and customer satisfaction, but that doesn't seem fair since I've done all the work leading up to the sale.  Any thoughts?

[bbcardzman]

I get these drop shippers buying from me all the time and I usually have no issues, A SALE IS A SALE. But I really do not like it when some idiot tells ME how to ship something when I've been doing this for 21+ years and I usually tell them so. IF I do have a problem or too many questions, just like always, I BLOCK THEM, and then I never have to deal with them again. Also if their buyer has a problem with the purchase, you probably won't have to deal with them a either. WIN - WIN

[golfingaddict]

I don't mind an occasional drop shipper.  Things happen.

But, I did have an issue last year with a drop shipping ring.  (only way to describe it,)  Every day I would get orders from "several" accounts and all requested no packing slip and the items were shipped all over the country.  There were 6 user IDs that I figured out overall and they were buying from all of my selling accounts.  They were literally getting hundreds of feedback a month from Brand eBay stores like Jockey, Adidas, Reebok, Puma as well.  All of the accounts were out of the same city in Texas and they literally used the exact same cut and paste message to request no packing slip (Which had an obvious grammatical and spelling error in it)

At first, I liked the sales but then the returns started.  My return percentage quadrupled in the 6-8 months that they were buying from me.  At first, the returns were innocent enough and I simply refunded, but after a bit I started getting the wrong item returned.  And odd enough, each returned item was the "oldest" item they purchased that was still within the return time frame.  The return requests were usually on the 28-29th day and then it took a couple of weeks to get the item back from them.

I finally decided that it was enough and not worth the stress.  I didn't want to get too deep in this ring and worried about stolen credit cards or other issues.  I blocked them all and still watch carefully when I get an order from that area.

So, I guess I also have a bit of an issue with drop shippers even though I know that it does not always mean something nefarious.

[luckythewinner]

My question is that I've gone to the trouble of acquiring the item, cleaning and prepping it for sale, followed by packing and shipping it, so shouldn't I get some kind of credit from the recipient?

One might argue that your "credit" is that you got paid the amount you were willing to sell it for.