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Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Been doing it for over 10+ years, looks like they have a new detection system. I dropship from ebay to amazon, so no big box retailer logo on any of the boxes. No complaints from any of my customers. 3 of 5 accounts went under within the same month. The only thing I can think of is tracking number updates that could possibly trigger it, but that's about it. Anyone have any insight?

you are engaging in retail arbitrage,not dropshipping and both EBay and AMZN dislike such practice.
Your ebay seller ships to your AMZN customer with what kind of tracking?
is it possible your buy from Ebay seller who also practice retail arbitrage,buy from AMZN and ship to your AMZN buyer?But that should not get your account suspended?

Retail arbitrage requires you to purchase the inventory beforehand. I'm purely a broker which is dropshipping.
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retail arbitrage per Ebay policy,take the customer money and then go to another retailer and ask him to ship the item to your buyer .
note -another retailer -AMZN or Ebay seller are another retailer.so are WMT,TGT,Macy ,JC penny,Big lots,Best buy,SEAR,etc

But how did AMZN find out you are engaging in retail arbitrage?

could be AMZN,PAYPAL,EBAY ARE sharing information.
With PAYPAL,when it finds out an Ebay seller received payment for item XYZ and immediately go to Aliexpress to buy the same item XYZ ,it will suspend the account .

if you upload tracking which shows many different shipping locations
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But OP said he has been doing this for past 12 years !

if you upload tracking which shows many different shipping locations
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same can be said of selling on Ebay and asking AMZN to ship to your Ebay buyers as a GIFT TO A FRIEND,how can one individual have so many friends spread across 50 states,and how generous this individual can be gifting many times a day.

OP is asking his EBay seller to ship to his AMZN buyer.
The Ebay package would have Ebay logo on it as he prints his shipping label on Ebay,may use Ebay box and envelope and tape,all are given away free by Ebay,so any of his AMZN buyers could report him to AMZN.
Some Ebay sellers would also include a business card with his ebay ID inside the package

how is buying tracking from AMZN if you are not the shipper,your ebay seller would be doing the shipping.
and the shipping label would say Ebay

I am not referring to the shipping address of Ebay seller,I mean when they print a shipping label on Ebay,it could have the word EBAY on it,or they could use Ebay shipping supplies like packing tape ,box which carries the Ebay logo.
Ebay at one time offers them free to its sellers,
they can also include a business card or coupon inside the package with their ebay ID,email or website/shop name .
whatever,what works for you for the past 12 years is not working now,may be you cans stock up,buy from Ebay ahead of time and ship from home to AMZN buyers

Is OP a retiree?
It sounds rather time consuming-after receiving an AMZN order,he would go to Ebay and find a seller with the item at a lower price,makes sure it meets his description and condition and ship promptly.

yes,that would piss off his AMZN buyers.

not easy way to make a living-
an Ebay seller may have the merchandise,take poor picture and description but OP has never seen the item,it could be damaged ,dirty,packed poorly,or just sitting on the shelf too long and no longer effective.
I remember buying some packing tapes which no longer work it is never open in original package

no,HE IS asking his ebay seller not to include any packing slip or invice when shipped to his amzn buyer.
oK,he said he is selling IT merchandise to businesses,so he must know what he is doing,finding electronics from ebay small seller.

Ebay seller could not care less whom you resold his item to,as long as he gets the money.

Paypal is not trying to catch fraud,it is fed up with such dropshipping.

How do you know when you receive an order on AMZN and ask an Ebay seller to ship,that Ebay seller could be coming to AMZN to find someone to buy from?
Many EBAY sellers do not have any merchandise,they will ask WMT,AMZN,Costco,Wayfair to fill the order.
I bought a few things recently on Ebay,they came from WMT.

please do not call them dropshippers,they are retail arbitragers-taking a customer money and then go to another RETAILER to buy and ship the order for you.
AMZN frowns it so now more Ebay sellers are using WMT,as WMT just introduce a $35 membership for speedy shipping.

Ebay gives away free boxes,packing tapes,all stamped Ebay,so this could be one clue you are engaging in retail arbitrage.
Some Ebay sellers like to include a business card,a coupon.
Also some of your buyers are really not buying the merchandise,they are trying to find out where your merchandise come from,or in some cases,are they as described or illegal.
Like I used to sell composite figurines,but someone bought one and decide it is ivory and remove my listing,
Sometimes the manufacturers are buying -a seller claims she goes to Paris every summer and bought Chanel leather goods at discount,well Chanel bought a piece and shut her listings down.
Rolex lawyer not only remove the listing,he will also send letter asking for $$ fine.
US customs,police,FBI,IRS are also active on Ebay..
There is an outfit which is used by some sales venues,it tracks by ip address where we go,how many times we abandon shopping carts,if you receive an order from AMZN and then go to Ebay the same day,looking for the item,that could be a clue.
There is an Ebay seller who is laundering money for ISIS USA,he will sell electronic items and never ship ,someone reported him to FBI.
Recently British Museum director resigned,someone tipped him off that museum items were stolen and listed on Ebay,he paid no attention.

dropshipping vs retail arbitrage=
dropshipping is with your wholesaler/distributor or manUfacturer,not another retailer.
You the eBAY seller is a retailer,so are WMT,AMZN ,AMZN third party seller,Costco,Wayfair,Target,Sears,CVS,Walgreen,Be stbuy,Macy,Nordstrom.
A traditional retailer would not play this retail arbitrage game as there is hardly any profit .buying retail and selling retail,how does he pay his bills?

AMZN shuts down his account as he is abusing his prime membership privilege,asking AMZN to ship to 'HIS FRIEND' as a gift and pays no shipping fee.
Now watch what WMT will do once it finds out WMT members are asking them to ship merchandise all over the country free.

some one said the buyer gets what he deserves,as he is too lazy t o find the cheapest .
I dont think Kroger will say this to its shopper when he complains WMT is cheaper,or WMT will say this to its shopper,when Dollar store is cheaper-that he is too lazy to find the cheapest price.
There is also the venue,Ebay does not like it because the buyer will now go to AMZN or WMT to shop so he does not look lazy or stupid,ditto with AMZN buyer going to Ebay so he can bottomfish for his item.
Quantum said he is not a retail arbitrager,he is a BROKER,excuse me,did his buyer hire him as a broker or they think he is a seller who has the inventory on hand?
In a way,I think this is really unfair for those sellers who put their time and money on the line and paid for these merchandise ,take pictures,describe them,and pack the item and take it to the post office to ship them. while the arbitragers just sit home and right click stock photos from AMZN,WMT and ask them to do the packing,labeling and shipping .
Also the seller with the merchandise has to buy packing material, and gas to drive to the post office

There are also foreign Ebay sellers who are playing this arbitrage game,one US dollar may mean little to us,but could buy you a meal to keep your stomach full in some countries.
The problem with such arrangement is return,I think AMZN is now saying it would not offer free return,one would have to pay for return to AMZN.

That's literally the definition of dropshipping, selling something you don't own and buying it after you get an order.
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No,selling something you dont have,then take the retail customer's money and go to another retailer to place an order and have that retailer ship the order is not dropshipping,it is retail arbitrage.

It is basically a SMART ASS game,no capital to buy inventory,no need to pack and ship,just sit in front of your device and right click photo,list item online and let someone does the dirty work for you.
For Ebay,it collects the fee,but down the road,its buyers will buy from AMZN so Ebay will try to stop such practice.
For AMZN,it is a lousy deal,as it would be shipping gifts all over the country and pick up the shipping cost.
We will find out what WMT,COSTCO,TGT,BESTBUY of the world,how they like such practice ?

It is also unfair for those Ebay sellers who have inventory and have to compete with these arbitragers.
Arbitragers can afford to make little profit and count on volume,but the ones with inventory cannot afford to make a nickel and be happy,they may have to leave Ebay and try t o sell elsewhere.

And I would say the majority of ebay/amazon sellers own the products and are not dropshipping them.
I agree,most are honest sellers who own the products BUT
do yourself a favor and go take a look at sellers who use stock photos ,they are not selling antiques or handmade goods,they are selling clocks,saws,ruler,scotch tape,stapler,ink cartridge,nuts,candies,fans,lenswipe.

AMZN just revised its free shipping for non prime member from $25 to $35/

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Retail arbitrage requires you to purchase the inventory beforehand. I'm purely a broker which is dropshipping.

And no, the majority of my items are used items from small mom and pop stores that post pictures of the cosmetic condition on their listings. I can spot an ebay dropshipper from a mile away and avoid those guys.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

I'm trying to figure that out myself. Something changed within the past couple of months. 12 years of doing this just fine and then back to back deactivations. My buddy had his deactivated as well a month ago.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Imagine this, amazon is a tech company that keeps evolving at a rapid pace...

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

no need for conspiracy theories , amazon can only find out you are drop shipping from ebay if customers complain about this or if you upload tracking which shows many different shipping locations

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

I think you've nailed it. Makes the most logical sense. Definitely something new. Will make adjustments accordingly to test this theory out.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

amazon make changes on a regular basis , analyzing shipping locations is easy to do , especially in the US where each tracking shows the town and state of despatch

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Interesting, I have also been drop shipping for 12 years and had my merchant fulfilled listings removed, but can still do FBA.

I also do ebay to Amazon, sounds like very similar to what you do. Send me a PM so we can discuss it more.

Have you had a warning about this before?

I very occasionaly would drop ship Amazon to Amazon
I had a warning a year ago, followed by a suspension in February for that which I successfully appealed.

They call it "multiple duplicate tracking numbers" they can see when a tracking number from Amazon's end goes into tracking on your orders, and I figured when I bought from fulfilment by Amazon, thats what did it. I have previously bought from other Amazon sellers who self fulfilled and had no issue, but presumably this is just as easy to detect too.

This latest suspension I had a negative feedback where someone mentioned they got the wrong item and it came from ebay. A notice that my account is under review came in 3 days later followed by suspension a day later. I have not yet appealed.

I believe they are scanning buyer messages and feedbacks for the names of retailers, which flags you for review and then an investigator can spot the signs...large amount of inventory, tracking from different zips all the time, etc.


Let me know how it goes, please PM me so we can chat.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

as mentioned previously, I have multiple accounts. No complaints on any of them as far as I know. These accounts went under all around the same time including others. No warnings and metrics are green. I think tracking makes the most logical sense. Possibly the best way is to purchase tracking through Amazon.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

too much of a theory there - much simpler is the tracking info

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

I cant PM unfortunately since there's a 25 post minimum which I haven't met. We can discuss here if you'd like.

I was thinking about converting my 2 dropshipping accounts to FBA since the FBM side was shut down. Have you had any experience with FBA after an FBM account suspension? I'm hoping that amazon will eventually lift the restriction on a big chunk of funds that's being held after doing some business on the FBA side.

I have one dropshipping account that's currently in review for 30 days where FBM is still active. A bit nervous about this once since there are about 50 orders that need to be filled and this is the second violation. I think it may go under as well, but im still filling orders via ebay while purchasing tracking numbers from Amazon. Planning on sending every one of my customers a thank you card.

If you've been in the business for 10+ years, you know it's not easy for us. We've been through a ton of changes. I'm hopeful we'll find a way around this.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

it is more of a problem with buyer feedbacks where they state ebay as source , amazon scan for keywords and after manual check they find the ebay drop shippers

ideally you should ask every ebay seller you buy from not to include invoices but I don't know if they all follow this

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Very possible. I normally pay those customers to remove the feedback. $20 bucks usually does the job.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

feedback removal does not remove the text from the system

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

gotcha. helps the ODR though.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

It’s not the shipping labels. eBay shippers (unless also dropshipping) dont ship from major retail addresses. Dropshipping is allowed on amazon as long as everything follows their dropshipping policy. OP’s feedback sounds like the problem

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Also if these are dropshipping violations it would be a little strange that tracking number updates cause it. How are you getting your tracking numbers?

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Inconsequential question - prejudicial - avoid :FF:

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Also a lot of ebay sellers include packing slips with logos and pricing information. That would definitely cause some complaints

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

OP, were the accounts that got hit the ones that also had the feedback mentioning eBay?

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Yeah not too many people would be thrilled about getting overcharged 30% on something. Even if the seller gives a full refund w/o return to make the buyer happy, the damage is still done with enough of those complaints because of keywords.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

not a retiree, half way there haha. As mentioned, no complaints and no negative feedbacks within the past few months. All metrics are green. Tracking makes the most logical sense at the moment. Out of my 10 years, I've received only a handful of complaints about a packing slip. I would always include a message to not include a packing slip on all of my orders.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Most of my customers are corporations, specifically the IT side. These guys are willing to pay 100-200% mark-ups with no hesitation. Less complaints as well.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Are you referring to using temporary tracking numbers or amz identifying you for shipping from multiple locations. If temporary tracking where do you get the temporary tracking from?

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

A less likely but also possible scenario is a competitor reporting you for dropshipping. I have heard of this happening to sellers

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Most doesn't really cut it though, if 5-10% of your customers complain that's a big problem. For what I do, most people don't complain either, but the few that do cause problems.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

It just takes one unfortunately. Possible that amazon is just adding in the eBay detection. I haven’t heard of eBay to amz dropshippers getting slammed till now. Really hoping it isn’t a multiple locations issue. I dropship from hundreds of locations but my suppliers all fall within amazons policies.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

It's not problem, he can just message the Ebay seller and say it's a gift, don't include any paperwork.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

No way. The fraud system doesn't work like that. It mostly depends on the IP and anti-detection technology.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

eBay sellers aren’t stupid, they know. Better to be honest

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

If you say don't include paperwork and the seller sees the message, they'll probably honor the request if it's a smaller seller. The problem is a lot of sellers won't see that request, or will just forget to do it if their standard procedure is to include a packing slip. If it's a larger seller they're not gonna go out of their way to make sure 1 out of their 50 shipments that day doesn't have a packing slip.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

solid clientele with deep pockets - nice

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

After reading the entire thread, my understanding is the only way that AMZN can find out dropshipping issue is via tracking numbers that shows shipping from multiple locations.
I was wondering if someone already figured out the solution to resolve this issue and share it.
Thanks in advance!

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

Thats still a far reach for them. A lot of large sellers ship from many different locations. Amazon would have to go off the assumption that you ship from more locations than many large sellers. Even then dropshipping is allowed as long as you follow their TOS.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

There's a lot of valid reasons for companies to hate dropshippers.

The nature of the business inherently leads to a lot of unhappy customers. The whole concept of dropshipping is you're basically ripping someone off who's too lazy to shop around and order it from the source you're getting it from. While most of those customers most likely won't care (they were too lazy to look around to begin with), some of them will realize what happened when they get the package (either from a packing slip showing a lower price, or seeing walmart or whoever's name on it) and will be unhappy, and some percentage (higher than a regular merchant's) will open a dispute which the payment provider has to now arbitrate. There's also a higher likelihood of you being out of stock, because one reason people will pay a higher price is when the legitimate sources that are cheaper are actually out of stock. Again, this leads to more refunds, more disputes, and more complaints in general.

Bottom line is, dropshippers are more likely to be a problem merchant, and payment providers and marketplaces just don't want to deal with it.

I mean, personally, if I ordered something from Amazon for $100 and it came in a walmart box with a packing slip that says $50, I'd tell the seller they owe me a $50 refund or an A-Z's getting opened. Unfortunately for dropshippers, most customers wouldn't give the seller a chance to resolve it and would just complain to Amazon, and enough of those complaints means you're done.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

What a load of bull

If you bought something for $100 in one physical shop, then you found out afterwards it was $75 in another, you wouldn't go running inside screaming "rip off". What you would do if the difference was big enough is try to return the item, but if the price is not that much difference then you probably wouldn't bother. Which is how these Ebay arbitrage sellers work, most of them are making very small profits on most items so who the hell who scream "rip off" when he realises he's paid $25 for something that was $20 on Amazon. He would in most cases think "Silly me" and not think anything more of it.

There will be a few losers that will leave negative FB, but they are generally low.

Yeah you would threaten him with an A to Z because you're a loser. Anyone else would try to return it, or just keep it and lesson learned.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

That's literally the definition of dropshipping, selling something you don't own and buying it after you get an order.

It's a problem because there's no guarantee the source you're buying it from will have it available when you go to place the order. There's a good reason why you're prohibited from selling inventory you don't own.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

If a store was selling something for $100 and it still had a $75 price tag on it from another store, you can bet people would complain. Hence why my specific example included "packing slip with price on it." And it's also slightly different because the fact the product is on the shelf means they own it and you can 100% purchase it.

And I would take issue with someone drop shipping to me on an order through Amazon as I know it's against policy, and it's against policy because of issues like non-delivery (and I have had an order canceled by some asshole dropshipper on a hard to find item, I did order something else from them and filed an A-Z claim as payback later on since they strung me along for 2 weeks before cancelling the order). I don't appreciate the fact that someone marked up inventory they don't even own. If I paid more because something was out of stock elsewhere, that's one thing, but for someone to gamble on me having to possibly have an order cancelled because of their business model is not OK with me as a buyer.

You need to look at things from a buyer perspective to understand why policies are set the way they are. Buyers expect an order to be fulfilled after they click buy, end of story. If I buy a product and it turns out to be crappy, oh well, but if a merchant's selling me something they don't even have and cancel the order I will be pissed about that.

Yes, I'm probably the few % of people who are that picky. But getting a few % of your orders getting complaints is all it takes to get an account suspended.

Re: Anyone else having issues with dropshipping?
 

It only matters what Amazons definition is.

OP, and most others who post here, are not Amazon dropshippers, they are retail arbitragers.

Amazon hate this practice with a passion, it only takes one complaint and they'll suspend you. They're also pretty good at AI and techy matters, they have other ways of determining who is likely to be an arbitrager and close them down. 99% of the time they're right, the poor 1% who is a bona fide dropshipper is acceptable collateral damage to them, they have never worried about a bit of friendly fire on a low tier seller.

They will have an algorithm which will monitor key data, complaints, feedback, messages, tracking numbers, location, etc etc etc and if the light turns red you're history. It seems to work.