SHIP FROM addresses and mutiple ship locations...

[froggolf]

Have been searching all over for if this is feasible...

Situation is we have several ship from locations. Example: we will be selling 200 units of a specific item. We own the product (it is NOT a drop ship, nor will we be ordering it from another business).

We have 125 units in one City/State. 25 in another City/State. And 50 in another City/State. We would like to be able to ship from the best location (shortest distance) -- this is for both our benefit, and the benefit of the buyer. I have read some previous information about how to set location as 'Multiple Locations', but this looked a little fishy (workaround) and want to know if there is an official/authorized way to do this.

Or is the only solution to create three listings, each with a specified ship from location?

Thanks for any advice.

[donsdetour]

I would advise you to contact eBay through their face book sites for this one to be safe.

Seem to be real employees their instead of out sourced...

[nobody*s_perfect]

You aren't allowed to set up 3 separate listings for the same item, even with different locations.

When you set up a flat price for shipping (rather than a calculated price), you can edit the Item Location section to remove the ZIP Code, and substitute USA for the ZIP Code and then type in whatever you want instead of the city and state. AFAIK, this workaround doesn't violate any policies.

So it will look like this in the listing:

[rfmtm]

Note that many buyers are wary when no specific ship from location is shown.   I will always avoid a seller when no Zip location is on the listing.   Although will sometimes ask ahead if something I really want.

[nobody*s_perfect]

I'd be wary, too. Vague shipping location can set off the "Might be a sneaky seller in China" red flag.  I suppose the OP could avoid this by picking one of the 3 locations, and entering that.  

Or in their Description (in case anybody actually reads it) they could explain it with something like, "We keep our shipping time and costs down by shipping direct to you from one of our 3 US warehouses: Miami, Los Angeles, or Chicago."

[froggolf]

Very interesting feedback from the three of you.
1) I tried calling eBAY, and the operator I talked to said do three listings -- change the titles -- and then set Ship From for each. I did think of this workaround myself before calling, but it seemed funny coming from their support team 😛  They did recommend making it clear in the listing it could ship from three spots, but still, the listing itself would show one.
2) I agree users may feel weary. I remember seeing "Multiple Locations" once - it was a fair deal and wasn't in a hurry, so I did it, but I was like "Cool, how do you do that!" If you have to set a flat rate for shipping to make it possible, that might be acceptable for our purposes and I may do it. I'm just worried about restrictions and possible punishments.
3) I will try contacting the Facebook team with this question.

[froggolf]

I can confirm your suggest allows the change. Makes sense, as it no longer has to calculate based on SHIP FROM and SHIP TO. We'll have to weigh this -- I was trying to use this suggestion based on other internet advice, wasn't working -- but setting FIXED COST was the key.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@froggolf wrote: ... the operator I talked to said do three listings -- change the titles -- and then set Ship From for each. I did think of this workaround myself before calling, but it seemed funny coming from their support team 😛  They did recommend making it clear in the listing it could ship from three spots, but still, the listing itself would show one....

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Hmmm, that sounds like it might violate the duplicate "listings" policy, which would more accurately be called the duplicate "items" policy:

What is the policy?

• We don't allow more than one fixed price listing of an identical item at the same time from the same seller. This includes:
  • Listing an identical item in different categories or listing an identical item using different usernames
  • Listings that aren't significantly different, such as adding an inconsequential bonus item with the same identical item in two listings

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/duplicate-listings-policy?id=4255

[wastingtime101]

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@froggolf wrote:

I can confirm your suggest allows the change. Makes sense, as it no longer has to calculate based on SHIP FROM and SHIP TO. We'll have to weigh this -- I was trying to use this suggestion based on other internet advice, wasn't working -- but setting FIXED COST was the key.

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Be careful if you set the location to USA. Another poster did the same thing and their account is being flagged for drop shipping.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Using-Amazon-FBA-fulfilment-What-to-do-with-Item-Location-poli...

"Previously I set this address as Item Location till I got first warning notification from eBay. After that, we changed location to "USA", so this location does not mislead the buyer."

Their account has since been temporarily restricted.

[nobody*s_perfect]

That 3-day restriction has expired and the seller has listed again.  eBay allows the type of "drop shipping" used by  the seller in that thread, i.e., he already owns the items and they are being shipped from a warehouse.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/drop-shipping?id=4176&

[wastingtime101]

Yeah, I know that using FBA is allowed. There were so many wrong answers about FBA in that thread, it was unreal. But that seller got a warning, changed their location to USA, then the restriction came after that. At least that's how I read it.

As far as I'm aware, a lot of sellers that use FBA ran into troubles when eBay cracked down on this item location policy, and using USA as the location didn't fix it for many of them. I don't know how those sellers ended up managing or if they left. eBay was testing out some programming for multi-location sellers, but I've never seen it go beyond testing with invited sellers.

My point is I'm not sure if there's a way the OP in this thread (or that one) can accomplish multi-location shipping unless invited by eBay to join in that test they're running. They can use USA as the location as the system will let the listing go through, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are "safe" if eBay flags their account.

I didn't tell the OP here not to use USA as location. I warned them to be careful and know the risks if they choose that route.