Buyer Beware, They are back again, eBay sellers selling Amazon

ballisticbrian

I leave you to discuss among yourselves why the data protection act doesn't apply to drop shippers who haven't told customers that another company will process the order.

powerful_Rogue

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I leave you to discuss among yourselves why the data protection act doesn't apply to drop shippers who haven't told customers that another company will process the order.

Already done that in post #114 - Will post again incase you missed it.

The Data Protection Act of 1998 means that you can only process the collected information within the constraints that it is collected under. For dropshipping, this would be necessary for the performance of a legally binding contract, which also infers the consent of the individual who is providing such details.

marie-20

Just my POV.

I have actually fallen fowl to this however as I had a £5 eBay voucher it cost me nothing that said I did not and would not neg the eBay seller. Yes they passed my details to Amazon to ship the order but they would have also passed my address to the RM or other courier. It was my own stupid fault for not checking Amazon at that time and I have learned my lesson and always check both now.

I do understand why a buyer would be annoyed but that annoyal will be/should be directed at themselves not the seller for not doing their background work but as a fair few eBay buyers are moronic when leaving feedback I can imagine that any dropshipper (whether from a 3rd party seller or manufacturer) will have a high neg rate

At the end of the day any seller buys the goods cheaper otherwise there wouldn't be any businesses out there and they have added value by making it possible for people to buy something on eBay at a price that they were happy to pay. A lot of people (for some odd reason) don't like buying on Amazon and therefore would have bought from a more expensive seller on eBay if this seller wasn't dropshipping.

I think that most people are aware of dropshippers and whilst all the stock I sell I have to hand I do understand why some people choose this business model even though it isn't for us.

GlynD

As I've said before. I see both sides of the argument. I have never knowingly bought from a drop seller and I'd be horrified to discover I had. I would like to have the choice of knowing when a product is being sold this way.

The concept isn't illegal but is open to abuse and that's what concerns me. You want to be a middle man.woman, fine, but at least have the decency to declare that's what you're doing. Many people will still buy, even me.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Just to be clear these sellers aren't breaking the data protection act (confirmed by ICO a long time ago).

As a consumer being on the receiving end of this practice would make most feel unhappy.

As a seller on eBay you shouldn't be pleased be these people playing business, not paying their tax and most noticeably driving yet more custom to Amazon and damaging what's left of small independent businesses.

There is nothing "wrong" with the practice (apart from those who lie in the listing to try and explain the reason for different invoice/packaging with incorrect information as that's a criminal offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations) but as either abuyer or a seller this isn't a good thing. It's only good for the seller doing the dropshipping from Amazon.

They earn their untaxed beer money whilst those investing in stock, staff and the economy lose sales not only directly but also through more customers shopping with the giant corporation intent on pushing everyone else further out of business.

Obviously_the_best

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I posted this on here to help consumers

The sort of consumers who don't check Amazon are hardly going to be on a Money Saving forum, mainly used by eBay sellers.

GlynD

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

The sort of consumers who don't check Amazon are hardly going to be on a Money Saving forum, mainly used by eBay sellers.

Why not? What about the "silver surfers" - the most vulnerable.

Obviously_the_best

Silver surfers good enough at the internet to find moneysavingexpert.com will surely be good enough to find amazon.com don't you think. Far higher up in google results for products, and more well known.

ballisticbrian

This practice is called 'Flipping', and many online gurus sell courses instructing would-be ebay/amazon sellers how to do it - I've had emails and flyers sent to me several times over the past couple of years offering to relieve me of £50+ to find out how to do it. Seems far too much effort to keep up with all the research to me (plus there's a huge risk of items being out of stock when you go to order them to fulfil a sale).

Interestingly, from what I can gather most of the 'flipping' goes in the other direction - Amazon sellers finding goods cheaper on ebay, advertising them for sale, and then getting the ebay seller to dispatch to the Amazon customer. I wonder if they run less of a risk of negative feedback? Lots of ebay sellers don't include an invoice with their goods and dispatch in plain packaging compared to Amazon's obviously logo-laden boxes.

The lesson for buyers is always to check both sites before making a purchase. Too many people still think ebay = cheap and Amazon = quality.

So - finally some good information being added to the conversation which sure beats the drop shipper advocates chiming in like a bunch of monkeys waving sticks.

I will look into this "flipping" when I have more time...

powerful_Rogue

ballisticbrian wrote: »

So - finally some good information being added to the conversation which sure beats the drop shipper advocates chiming in like a bunch of monkeys waving sticks.

I will look into this "flipping" when I have more time...

No need to become offensive because people dont agree with you.