Drop shipper who uses a business address near you

[123.swalpina]

Interesting reading the peoples complaints about drop shippers who do not disclose they are drop shippers. How about a situation where a drop shipper shows a business address 1/2 mile from you. I am assuming a drop shipper, since when I asked if I could pick up the item and save time and headache of shipping it around 50 miles before it reaches me via the mail system, I could pick it up within 10 minutes.

I was told that they didnt offer discounts? Wait....what? discounts? It would save this person money to have me pick up the item, no cost to pack etc....which made me realize it was no doubt a drop shipper and no doubt the person may not even have an address near me.  Which makes me wonder how the business address system works exactly. Not to mention, disclosure of them being a drop shipper. 

Now the test would be to order the item, watch the tracking from where it is sent, and watch it take 10 days and 100+ to go 1/2 mile. I have had drop shippers tell me honestly, "we dont ship the item from our business, it comes from off shore or..etc" but to tell a customer "we dont offer discounts or allow local pickup" ....hmmm

what say you?

[123.swalpina]

or P.S....I understand not wanting people to come to your home or business, I respect that, but maybe these items are not on the up and up. More to come, I will followup on this one.

[gkyn29]

If your goal is to locally pickup items, then use the checkmark when searching listings.

OTW a seller that refuses local pickup has nothing to do with whether or not they are a drop shipper or not. I don't offer local pickup no matter how close someone lives and last time I checked, I'm not a drop shipper...

It's unfair to assume that you can pickup any item you want just because the seller lives near you.

[kemcin_26]

Maybe they just didn't want to deal with you in person.

A lot of sellers sell online because they don't want to deal with people in person.

[123.swalpina]

I totally agree with you on that, that is not the complaint I have.  I totally respect someone not wanting to sell from their home and business front, that was not my original concern. Mine is honesty. 

Someone saying they would not make a profit by me coming to them is kinda odd, which tells me that their profit is from the shipping...which is FINE I am totally cool with that. But in this case the profit margin would have to be so small from the shipping, (packing, delivery to post office/pick up etc) saving the time of packing it would be cost saving to them as well.

Now, of course buying the item and seeing it come from China or where ever as upposed to coming from 1/2 mile from my house would be interesting. So maybe just a little bit of truth like I heard from other drop shippers "We are only a fullfilment center and stock is ordered from off site location" something like that. Not just saying "We dont do that"

Seriously I have had truthful job shippers, and I love honesty. But to say you do not make a profit if the item is handed from your business to the customer? w? oh yea and to the response of searching for an item close to you.....THAT is HOW I found this company/item.

[thallidguy · Accepted solution]

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@123.swalpina wrote:

Someone saying they would not make a profit by me coming to them is kinda odd, which tells me that their profit is from the shipping...which is FINE I am totally cool with that. But in this case the profit margin would have to be so small from the shipping, (packing, delivery to post office/pick up etc) saving the time of packing it would be cost saving to them as well.

As a seller who does not like in-person pickup, that strikes me as a polite evasion, nothing more. It's a way of deflecting so that he doesn't have to come out and say, "I don't want to deal with you in person."

You're reading too much into it. If you really don't have any other issues, I suggest letting it go.

[hafoster]

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@123.swalpina wrote:

Not to mention, disclosure of them being a drop shipper.

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Can you link the policy to disclose being a drop shipper? I totally respect it too!

[123.swalpina]

thats my question I have. I read on other posts that possibly there is no disclosure requirement but that amazon has one. anyone else? this is probably the 100th time this has been asked on various posts.

[123.swalpina]

cool. maybe so, I just had time to pose the question that is all, I actually saw many other posts throughout the years on the subject but no answers

[thallidguy]

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@123.swalpina wrote:

thats my question I have. I read on other posts that possibly there is no disclosure requirement but that amazon has one. anyone else? this is probably the 100th time this has been asked on various posts.

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As far as I know, eBay has absolutely no rules about disclosing that you're dropshipping, nor does Amazon. I'm not fond of the practice myself and I think it's a bad idea fed to lazy idiot sellers who just want to make money without effort. But there's nothing illegal or particularly unethical about it.

Another way of looking at what your seller told you: It's not quite the same reasoning, but I figured out that in-person pickups cost me time and money as opposed to shipping. When I pack and ship and run my packages to the PO to drop off, I'm most often processing multiple orders on the same trip. If you think about it, it's very time-efficient (meaning cost-efficient). In-person pickups require that I set aside time during my day (and I tend to keep an odd schedule that can he hard to coordinate with most people) for just one buyer, who may show up late, or may flake out all together. Not very time/cost-efficient.

If you're a low-volume, high-value seller, in-person pickup can make a lot of sense. Certainly, it's the only way to seal vehicle deals. But for what I sell, not so much.

Just adding some perspective to the discussion.