What would you do??

[gator08041971]

Got this message this afternoon in my mail:

Hi Seller,

I am interested in buying this from you for a customer of mine.. just wanted to confirm if you will be able to Drop Ship this to my customer, using my Packing Slip?

Please let me know the doing business with you.

Thanks

I let them know that I don't support drop shipping and thanked them for the interest.  I also thanked them for at least asking first.

Then added them to my block list.  They had no seller feedback only buyer feedback and an account just over a year old.

I also reported their message just in case.

What would some of you have done?

[nh_sales_lv]

If Ebay ever became Righteous I'd be an Extremely Wealthy Man.

If only they enforced a Seller Policy like (Sell Something You Better Have It)  i'd be so Rich lol

3/4 of Ebays Sellers would Disappear  like in the Book of Ebay Revelations 😂

[bashort]

I get this on a regular basis and am happy to do it. Most of the time it is not a ebay seller asking for the drop ship.

It goes something like this, customer calls their normal supplier and says I am looking for abc widget, supplier says let me see what I can do, then they contact me, buy abc widget, mark it up and bill their customer, everyone wins. Unless the USPS sends it 700 miles in the wrong direction and then sells it as unclaimed mail

[soh.maryl]

How could a BUYER have tons of negatives?

Do you mean a buyer LEFT tones of negatives?  

[soh.maryl]

Not every package received uses eBay packing or has an indication that it was bought on eBay.

I have received packages that looked pretty much like those birthday gifts I used to receive from my auntie. 

[pls-consignments]

Interesting take from both sides. 

Some are quick to condem such a request, where others see a different picture. I must confess, I have made such a request on more than one occasion over my 26 yrs simply to fill an order that I couldn't fill as promised. It happens. On all of the occasions, I ask ahead of time.

Granted, the sellers could easily see that I was an established seller. But I would agree with others who noted that a pre-purchase request would most likely be missing if the buyer's motives were unscrupulous, regardless of their feedback history.

Ofcourse, the risks would affect smaller sellers differently than larger ones. 

[johnrj1226]

In nice  words tell them to take a hike.

[gator08041971]

While I can understand why some of you would condone the practice, I just can't personally.

Here's my thing (or two):

Not every "buyer" that might use this is doing it for good reasons.  I can't trust that this buyer would be in that group, as I know from being on these forums that there are bad drop shippers that could then turn around and file a charge back or some other non-sense, ship me a nearly empty envelope for a return, etc, or use stolen CC numbers to make the payment.  We know that happens.  So there is one strike for against.

Another point at least for me, is while yes, a seller could make a mistake and run out of an item, instead of taking a hit as they should (being an honest seller) they instead would rather take the risk of buying it from someone else and include them in their circle of deceit.  Often without the second seller even realizing the mess they got volunteered into.

Finally, I just don't agree with the practice in general. I think its a scummy thing to do.  I know not all of you will agree, but that's how I feel about it, regardless of the intentions or whether it works in some situations.

And yes, I normally include an invoice with my purchases.  To date, I haven't had any issues with it either.  But as I said earlier, a few years back when I was less aware of this "feature" I did have a buyer ask not to include an invoice. As it was near the holidays, I figured it was because it was a gift.  I now know it was a drop ship after the fact a short while later.

[gurlcat]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

How could a BUYER have tons of negatives?

Do you mean a buyer LEFT tones of negatives?  

---

They said 


But a buyer could also HAVE negatives, if they're a buyer/seller like me.  

[krazzykats]

I have drop shipped, when necessary, from a seller or two. 

Sold something, then found out there was something wrong with it and rather than disappoint my buyer I looked for a replacement and found them one. 

I would purchase it and change the ship to address before checking out.

It has worked out fine.

ᓚᘏᗢ

[bashort]

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@krazzykats wrote:

I have drop shipped, when necessary, from a seller or two. 

Sold something, then found out there was something wrong with it and rather than disappoint my buyer I looked for a replacement and found them one. 

I would purchase it and change the ship to address before checking.  

It has worked out fine.

ᓚᘏᗢ

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I have also and would do it again in a pinch

[a_c_green]

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@krazzykats wrote:

I have drop shipped, when necessary, from a seller or two. 

Sold something, then found out there was something wrong with it and rather than disappoint my buyer I looked for a replacement and found them one. 

I would purchase it and change the ship to address before checking.  

It has worked out fine.

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That's actually retail arbitrage, not drop shipping, but certainly in an emergency you do what you have to do, no question.

I would say the original buyer talked himself right out of the sale with all that business about wanting the seller to put his packing slip in the package in place of the seller's own. He should have just shut up and plugged in his customer's name and address with the payment, as you did with yours.

When I receive something I purchased, I don't launch a big inquiry if I don't recognize the name of the seller. I would say most of the time I don't know who they are anyway, as most sellers here have their own name showing on the return address, not the seller ID from which I made my purchase. If I get what I ordered, I'm happy.

[jonathanbrightlight]

I agree with those saying they would have agreed to it if the buyer hadn’t asked for their own packing slip to be included. I will happily ship to whatever name and address is on the order, but directly deceiving the recipient goes a little too far.

[12345jamesstamps]

I would just block them...and not respond to the email.

Careful with responding to emails like that...eBay artificial intelligence might think...I say might think you are selling not on eBay but off eBay.

[highdesignerfashion]

Still much fraud and scams out there... Always smart to protect yourself and pre-vet them, report them, and proceed w/CAUTION. I would instruct them pay for item first, then deliver to address on file. Suggest that they can re-forward package onwards upon receipt of your delivery or suggest they do a free pick up in person ? This way it's NOT on you for the awkward drop-shipment request..

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I probably would have just shipped it.  I haven't, to the best of my knowledge been used as a dropshipper, but people have asked me to ship an item that was a gift to another party.  If everything looks good on their ID & the item is not particularly expensive, I just do it.  Never had it go wrong for me.  These days I would have them enter the addy in the order, but I've never done that before.  But honestly it's been years since I was asked.  If there was no red flags, I would likely have shipped it exactly as he requested.  I wouldn't have reported him b/c I don't think there's any rules against it & even if there were, unless someone was a big jerk or something, I usually won't go out of my way to report.