dropshipping?

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Toon wrote:

Ebay don't do anything if you are selling using the dropshipping method. Do you know how many people are selling this way on Ebay? What difference does it matter as long as the customer gets their goods?

If the worst case scenario happens and the company nicks off then chances are you'll only have one or two orders that need fulfilling so you apologise, refund and maybe get a couple of negs - then just move on and find a different supplier. Before you settle on a supplier make sure you check them out thoroughly using a feedback site such as The Dropship Forum.

The Select is a popular choice as is DevilWear but make sure you find references to them before signing up.

If you are making a big income then yes, you'll need to tell the taxman, just like if you make money doing anything.

That isn't very professional now is it? How would you like it if you bid/BIN and then the seller contacts you to say sorry it's out of stock? I think that makes the seller look very silly and would definately make me not recommend them to another eBay user.

Toon

razorbladekisses wrote:

That isn't very professional now is it? How would you like it if you bid/BIN and then the seller contacts you to say sorry it's out of stock? I think that makes the seller look very silly and would definately make me not recommend them to another eBay user.

Of course it's not professional as it could be - it was the worst case scenerio. If the user checks up on the dropshipper before signing up then this should cover his back. I don't know of any company who has never had to refund because they have gone out of stock of something - these things happen and most customers will just say "ok, fair enough, I'll look elsewhere".

katchambers

To answer several of the above questions:

Firstly yes the website I gave was incorrect, very sorry it is https://www.theselect.co.uk

Another question was about the taxman; I would suggest the safest option is to register as self-emplyed and declare all income and pay your tax annually. You don't have to declare your income for 3 months, after that date you will get a fine if they find out. Everyone has their own opinion about that, but it is a legal requirement, so if you don't pay tax on your income, don't talk about it because friends often tell IR, but that is not me saying you should do that.

Another question was about the ethics of not having an item in stock, well basically I never list an item unless it has 'high stock' status, this means they have thousands and are unlikely to run out, they also have normal stock and low stock items, they are riskier. Also you can put items on hold to guarantee that your customer will get the item. I have been doing this for months and have never had an order I couldn't complete, all items have always been in stock.

How do you put an item on hold?
Once you have purchase the item click on 'view all items' on the seller panel, then click on 'show/hide' item, it will give you the item details, in there is a button you can press to put an item on hold. Once you have a customer for it you can take it off hold and enter the delivery address and it will be dispatched immediately.

In terms of making money, the prices on the site that you see is different to the agents prices, once you are a member you will get agents rates which enable you to make a profit, these prices are between 10-80% off the rrp price.

Kat x

grex9101

i notice there are three levels of membership starting at £49.99

is the outlay of £50 actually worth it, and are there any benefits of being a gold member rather than a silver/bronze?

i mean, do you get bigger discounts the more you pay to join?

M_Thomson

katchambers wrote:

To answer several of the above questions:

Firstly yes the website I gave was incorrect, very sorry it is https://www.theselect.co.uk

Another question was about the taxman; I would suggest the safest option is to register as self-emplyed and declare all income and pay your tax annually. You don't have to declare your income for 3 months, after that date you will get a fine if they find out. Everyone has their own opinion about that, but it is a legal requirement, so if you don't pay tax on your income, don't talk about it because friends often tell IR, but that is not me saying you should do that.

Another question was about the ethics of not having an item in stock, well basically I never list an item unless it has 'high stock' status, this means they have thousands and are unlikely to run out, they also have normal stock and low stock items, they are riskier. Also you can put items on hold to guarantee that your customer will get the item. I have been doing this for months and have never had an order I couldn't complete, all items have always been in stock.

How do you put an item on hold?
Once you have purchase the item click on 'view all items' on the seller panel, then click on 'show/hide' item, it will give you the item details, in there is a button you can press to put an item on hold. Once you have a customer for it you can take it off hold and enter the delivery address and it will be dispatched immediately.

In terms of making money, the prices on the site that you see is different to the agents prices, once you are a member you will get agents rates which enable you to make a profit, these prices are between 10-80% off the rrp price.

Kat x

Hi Kat,
Thanks for your answers. Just a couple more queries, if you work full time for a company and then do dropshipping part time, how does this work with the Inland Revenue? Second question is, when you want to put an item on hold do you actually have to pay and purchase the item? I am on the bronze package and cannot see a view all items box listed anywhere. Thanks in advance.

soolin

M_Thomson wrote:

Hi Kat,
Thanks for your answers. Just a couple more queries, if you work full time for a company and then do dropshipping part time, how does this work with the Inland Revenue? .

All income from whatever source needs to be declared to the IR. You'll find your office will have a telephone number that you can call and inform them.

Soo

nutmegman

grex9101 wrote:

i notice there are three levels of membership starting at £49.99

is the outlay of £50 actually worth it, and are there any benefits of being a gold member rather than a silver/bronze?

i mean, do you get bigger discounts the more you pay to join?

Anyone have anything to add onto this?

frivolous_fay

razorbladekisses wrote:

You're not suppose to sell items on eBay that you don't actually have in your posession

Just to follow this up as no-one else appears to have done...

It's ok to drop-ship, but you have to declare it in your auction. And no, I wouldn't do it either.)

Andypez

katchambers wrote: »

To answer several of the above questions:

Firstly yes the website I gave was incorrect, very sorry it is www.theselect.co.uk

Another question was about the taxman; I would suggest the safest option is to register as self-emplyed and declare all income and pay your tax annually. You don't have to declare your income for 3 months, after that date you will get a fine if they find out. Everyone has their own opinion about that, but it is a legal requirement, so if you don't pay tax on your income, don't talk about it because friends often tell IR, but that is not me saying you should do that.

Another question was about the ethics of not having an item in stock, well basically I never list an item unless it has 'high stock' status, this means they have thousands and are unlikely to run out, they also have normal stock and low stock items, they are riskier. Also you can put items on hold to guarantee that your customer will get the item. I have been doing this for months and have never had an order I couldn't complete, all items have always been in stock.

How do you put an item on hold?
Once you have purchase the item click on 'view all items' on the seller panel, then click on 'show/hide' item, it will give you the item details, in there is a button you can press to put an item on hold. Once you have a customer for it you can take it off hold and enter the delivery address and it will be dispatched immediately.

In terms of making money, the prices on the site that you see is different to the agents prices, once you are a member you will get agents rates which enable you to make a profit, these prices are between 10-80% off the rrp price.

Kat x

Oh my dear Kat! you are obviously paid by 'theselect.co.uk'!! you only have to look around a number of other forums on here and on other sites to see the amount of disgruntled customers of this company. in the next post i will show my experience and i was lucky to get out of it!!!

Andypez

I, like some people, was sucked into the unrealistic claims made by Theselect.co.uk. on their website and signed up to their 'remarkable' service, as it would appear prima facie to be a potential money making scheme for someone in my position (a full time student).

So excited was i that after doing my calculations and working out the 40-50% discount i could potentially receive, i scoured the selling markets on the net, froogle, ebuyer, ebay, amazon etc etc and thought to myself, yes, with the claims made by 'Theselect' i could be onto a winner.
not to lose out on such a promising business venture, i borrowed the £49.99 subscription fee(i know it sounds silly, but bear in mind i am a student) and took out their bronze package and could not wait to get onto their website to see their prices and get selling and making lots of money,or even some money.

I received my login details and frantically typed them into the 'Agents' login area, my palms were sweaty with anticipation and i was really excited!

Once i had typed in my details i went straight to the area where i could view the prices that i could buy these items for as i clicked, i thought of the potential profits and thought of a nice holiday somewhere (cheap of course, i have a student loan to repay )

I opened one item that i was particularly keen on selling the APPLE IPOD 4GB brilliant i thought everyone wants one of those........oh my life..... my thoughts turned sour and my heart sank....

They were offering the product to me at a price way in excess of what i would pay if i was to buy them directly off the above auction sites!!!:eek:

They state that the RRP is £129.99, i do not doubt that at all, if buying from Argos, or any other large retailer. The cost to me would have been an amazing, jawdropping, huge profit making...(not) price of approximately £114 plus carriage on top of that.

I was gobsmacked, i was in shock, i nearly burst into tears. My research on all the other auction sites, show that these items sell, brand new from between £75-110(max)(estimates),(look for yourself).

When i worked out costings and someone paying by paypal, it would have cost me money to order and sell these items!!

Oh well, never fear, I'll just have to look at other products on their site a total of approx 397 products, (so i remained optimistic!) i went through approx 40 other items they list, cross referenced it with the auction sites and no profit could be made, and the claims of 40-50% could not be wholly justified by this company, they may have one or two items that have this profit margin, however, the item would be a novelty gift, or cr*p as it is technically known, and probably others views too, and there would be very little profit on these items overall once fees etc had been paid(auction site fees) and you would potentially need to sell thousands of them the achieve the earning figures they claim because they were low priced novelty goods.

I felt so embarrassed that i had been taken in by this!

Needless to say, i wanted my money back! so i emailed them through their site(restricted to 300 words).

The next morning i received an email saying basically no refund, in accordance with their terms and conditions.....What!!!

So i found their number(01908 821271) and called them.

I was given the usual flannel in relation to the terms and conditions and also told that they could help me in any way whatsoever to assist me in selling( a plus point for them is that they have won an e-commerce award for customer service!!!). I informed them that there is no way i wanted to continue to use them as it was not what i thought it was and could never profit from it in any way etc( a lengthy conversation ensued). I just wanted my money back as their was no potential for me to make money. they claimed that they have thousands of agents across the world, who make good money etc, but i wasn't interested, i wanted my money back. i was told that a manager would phone me back within a few hours.

Later that day i was called back by the same person (Darren) who informed me that they were willing to offer me a free upgrade to the 'Gold' account which in essence would give me an extra couple of pounds off each item(and it was literally an extra couple of pounds). i could not understand what they didn't understand what a full refund meant, i did not want to use their service now, in the future or ever, and i wanted a full refund, What is not clear about that!

eventually i was put through to the MD, Ben Fountain, who i found to be an obnoxious man with no concept of listening to what i was saying to him, i wanted a refund. The conversation lasted well over half an hour, and after going round in circles for so long, i informed him that i would email him, which he agreed to and said he would look at the email, i asked for him to respond to the email within 24hrs.

I then constructed an email to him. It is worthy of note at this point that i am a law student, and at the age of 35 would like to think that i am quite streetwise.
The email consisted of the legalities of him giving the refund to me, common law, statute law and EU law and should this not be forthcoming then i would seek recourse through the courts.

Within an hour of sending the email i received a full refund!:T

the full process of me signing up to the service, to receiving the refund was less than 24hrs, well done me!(well i think so anyway)

I have read a number of forums in relation to this company(i know, i should have researched it before i took it up) and lots of people appear disgruntled by this company, many share the same view as me and many have not got their money back.

My recommendation and advice:
steer well clear..... i cannot put it clearer than that

I hope this experience helps you to come to a decision as to whether to use this company or not, and bear in mind, i was lucky to get my money back because i like to think i know the law in some respects, but believe me when i say, i would have taken them to court and reported then to the OFT in relation to their terms and conditions.