Drop Shipping eBay sellers damaging customer trust

[mmshoppingmm]

The number of drop shippers on eBay is increasing and I am finding them to be inattentive, careless and completely lacking in customer support.  Recently I had to purchase an item from 3 different sellers before receiving the correct, advertised one. The drop ship sellers made no apology for their error, one not responding at all (relying on eBay automated return) and another sent rote replies that did not apply to my situation. The whole process took more than 2 months and I would have been better off purchasing somewhere other than eBay. Perhaps in future I will.

[imastawka]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@imastawka wrote:

Springy, if you click on the number for negatives, it lists just the negatives, without all the greens to confuse.

I hope you already knew that.

It's basic 'due diligence'.

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Yes, sure, I know that. 😀

But a lot of buyers may not check feedback and in fact, under the new ebay format, even if they do, they may not even see that option. If you click on 'feedback' it just shows the last 10 or so bits of feedback & unless you click further onto 'show all feedback, none of the detailed stats are visible. Just the 99.3% score and the latest few feedbacks.

I actually wonder if it is a deliberate ploy on the part of ebay.

They appear to have changed it back to what it was.

Clicking on a seller's feedback shows it all now.

It's still basic 'due diligence'.

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[sugar249]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@sugar249 wrote:

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It is not 20 or so negs from the last seller they gave neg feedback to.  Its 23 in the last month plus 71 neutrals,  thats something like 4% of sales are problematic in some way.   Which means that 4 out of every hundred,  not not a positive experience, I'm glad you think that goes with the territory of a good Australian business.  I don't

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I hope you don't mind me replying, sugar. I am not doing it in any spirit of argument, just enjoy discussion or debate.

I agree that the latest 2 sellers have got several negs and neutrals but the problem is, there are also many, many positives. You have said you think the feedback is not indicative of a good Australian business but a big part of the problem is ebay itself labels one of them as an outstanding seller or delivering outstanding service, forget exact words.

What is a buyer supposed to think when they read that? To me, it reeks of the ebay stamp of approval and I think when a lot of buyers see that, plus the score of 99.3% they think it looks okay. Even if they look at the ' see all feedback' the negs can get lost in the sea of greens.

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Jump in as much as you like,  if you believe that those sellers have great feedback great.   I don't and I still think that people like OP (and maybe you)  are supporting bad sellers.  My opinion,  and this is a free world, last time I checked I am entitled to that view.   

Have a great sunday

[ratman0100]

Bit rough. 99.3% would say I am reputable. Bit of tact is would not go astray.

[sugar249]

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@ratman0100 wrote:

Bit rough. 99.3% would say I am reputable. Bit of tact is would not go astray.

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If you are happy with 4 out of 100 sales being flagged by buyers,  Great.  Doesn't sound reputable to me.

[ratman0100]

Fine. As you said "My opinion,  and this is a free world, last time I checked I am entitled to that view." 

[springyzone]

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@repentatleisure1952 wrote:

?

eBay stopped using feedback to evaluate sellers some years ago.

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Yes, I know.

But what I am saying is that if feedback levels are indicating a higher than usual number of negs, then  maybe ebay should act on it.  At the very least, stop touting that seller as one who delivers outstanding service.

We have here some claims that anyone who buys from such a seller is a bad buyer.

Sugar has suggested I think the sellers being discussed have great feedback. I have never said that & I don't support bad sellers. I'm not supporting those sellers. My posts have been more to defend  buyers. 

A seller with 99.3% positive feedback doesn't look bad to the average buyer (and people in this forum are not the average) & if people here think it is the buyer's fault to even consider buying from such a seller, then where does ebay's responsibility come in?

In fact, if we're talking feedback & comments, have a look at these stats from product review.

You'll see that according to this, ebay itself only gets 1.6 stars out of 5.

1,900 people out of 2,490 gave it only  1 star.

So if we are talking due diligence or being guided totally by feedback scores, then logically no one should use ebay at all.

[mmshoppingmm]

Thank you all for your comments; it has been interesting and instructive, although I found the first few quite rude and dismissive to a long-term and loyal buyer.  There was no way for me to know they are drop shippers; my point was that in both cases I was delivered a product that was not as advertised and that is because the sellers did not know their product. Since the first one got it wrong, I then wrote to the second before purchasing, asking them to confirm that the product was exactly as pictured as advertised, and they confirmed it was, and then sent the wrong product! Similar, but not exactly as shown. I believe if they were not a drop shipper they would have been able to physically check the product before sending, and not waste my time.

As one commented, a 99.x% positive feedback rating doesn't ring alarm bells for me, and both appeared to be based in Australia, so a fairly safe bet, but if there was any way of establishing that they are a drop shipper and therefore not necessarily in touch with their products, I might not purchased from them.  Perhaps if eBay made it possible to check this detail I could make a more informed choice. To label me as a 'bad buyer' is not very helpful. 

[davewil1964]

You are not a longtime nor loyal buyer of mine.

And there's the rub. You think you are exemplary because you haven't ever had negative feedback. Guess what? As a buyer you can't get negative feedback.

You have the tools, as explained many times in this thread, to determine the likely provenance of an item.

You have the tools, as explained many times in this thread, to remedy your lack of due diligence.

[springyzone]

I would agree that buyers (who know their way around the site) can discover where a  seller is based.

In that way, a buyer can avoid buying from an overseas seller.

But it doesn't change the fact that ebay could, if it wanted to, make the whole process easier by listing seller location in the actual ad, under the seller's name or next to it.

What misleads so many buyers is the item location. They see Sydney or whatever and assume it's local.

Whether the seller is located here or not though, it is no excuse at all for sending a prioduct that does not exactly match the ad. When that happens, I'd suggest going for the jugular each time, don't put up with it, open a claim with ebay. I am guessing you may have done that & although it will get you a refund, it doesn't help in the long run in that you end up without the product you were after.

One good thing about it is if the item was actually located overseas and if it was a small item, the seller might just decide to refund and forfeit, rather than pay return postage costs.

Nothing will teach sellers to be more careful better or faster than losing some money.

[sugar249]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

You are not a longtime nor loyal buyer of mine.

And there's the rub. You think you are exemplary because you haven't ever had negative feedback. Guess what? As a buyer you can't get negative feedback.

You have the tools, as explained many times in this thread, to determine the likely provenance of an item.

You have the tools, as explained many times in this thread, to remedy your lack of due diligence.

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Plus they still are making assumptions that they are drop shippers,  just because they are dodgy sellers doesnt mean they are drop shippers,  or possibly OP has no idea what a dropshipper is.

Anyhow they are happy to support them even with the tools available so they get what they deserve