Dropshipping Dilema -paypal asking for tracking number

[down]

Hello good people,

How's it all going? hope sales are strong and ebay pp are leaving you guys alone.

I have got into another pickle again. any advice is very very appreciated. And also very URGENT!

Last week I started selling a non-vero item on ebay which is very hot here in AU. Sales rocketed and paypal balance started looking very healthy too.

Now, 3 days after selling these on ebay, my so-called-supplier tells me he is suddenly out of stock due to this China holiday. If he'd been honest to me from the start I wouldnt be in this hole but that's another story.

Anyway, 2 days later I find another supplier, and by now I've made crazy amount of sales and all the money sitting on paypal. The supplier says he will do dropshipping for me the very next day and tells me he accepts paypal as payment.

Now I know not to use paypal for paying for your goods in China, specially when dropshipping. But we're talking six seven grand here upfront. I really hadnt expected this many sales in 6-7 days. And only if my original supplier had not let me down,I;d have gone with the initial plan to pay my supplier with my debit/credit card and all would have been fine.

So, despite my better judgement, i use paypal to pay this fellow for the goods, and bam, within hours my paypal gets limited asking for tracking info for 15 random of these sales + supplier info + supplier contact. Also, the supplier starts acting very spastic and I told him I dont want to do business with him no more. Had enough of being *ucked around on alibaba.

Yesterday i managed to track down a supplier in AUSTRALIA about 600 km from me and have confirmed he's got stock and price agreed on all that. Now, I am driving 12-13 hundred km all up just to get my hands on the goods and start posting them straightaway from within the country instead of outside which is what says on my listing. So people will get it in say 7-10 days average as opposed to 14 working days on the listing.

Now the dilema is, should I pour ALL MY OWN hard earned cash (about 7 grand all up) into delivering these 70-80 products, hoping that ebay will lift my suspension once I provide tracking info and delivery for these + other ino they are asking for?

Or is that too ,much of a risk and I should just let that one a/c die and let paypal refund these customers?

Also would like to note I only make a profit of say 2 grand all up if all this does work out. So risk 7 grand for 2 grand or too much risk??

P.S: I will be driving down tomorrow regardless because I do need to pick up the goods up for my second stealth a/c which is also selling these very well if not spectacularly and has not been limited yet. Yes, I work very hard to each my money. It's been a joke.

Please any suggestion is veyr very appreciated.

[tokie]

Originally Posted by down

Hello good people,

How's it all going? hope sales are strong and ebay pp are leaving you guys alone.

I have got into another pickle again. any advice is very very appreciated. And also very URGENT!

Last week I started selling a non-vero item on ebay which is very hot here in AU. Sales rocketed and paypal balance started looking very healthy too.

Now, 3 days after selling these on ebay, my so-called-supplier tells me he is suddenly out of stock due to this China holiday. If he'd been honest to me from the start I wouldnt be in this hole but that's another story.

Anyway, 2 days later I find another supplier, and by now I've made crazy amount of sales and all the money sitting on paypal. The supplier says he will do dropshipping for me the very next day and tells me he accepts paypal as payment.

Now I know not to use paypal for paying for your goods in China, specially when dropshipping. But we're talking six seven grand here upfront. I really hadnt expected this many sales in 6-7 days. And only if my original supplier had not let me down,I;d have gone with the initial plan to pay my supplier with my debit/credit card and all would have been fine.

So, despite my better judgement, i use paypal to pay this fellow for the goods, and bam, within hours my paypal gets limited asking for tracking info for 15 random of these sales + supplier info + supplier contact. Also, the supplier starts acting very spastic and I told him I dont want to do business with him no more. Had enough of being *ucked around on alibaba.

Yesterday i managed to track down a supplier in AUSTRALIA about 600 km from me and have confirmed he's got stock and price agreed on all that. Now, I am driving 12-13 hundred km all up just to get my hands on the goods and start posting them straightaway from within the country instead of outside which is what says on my listing. So people will get it in say 7-10 days average as opposed to 14 working days on the listing.

Now the dilema is, should I pour ALL MY OWN hard earned cash (about 7 grand all up) into delivering these 70-80 products, hoping that ebay will lift my suspension once I provide tracking info and delivery for these + other ino they are asking for?

Or is that too ,much of a risk and I should just let that one a/c die and let paypal refund these customers?

Also would like to note I only make a profit of say 2 grand all up if all this does work out. So risk 7 grand for 2 grand or too much risk??

P.S: I will be driving down tomorrow regardless because I do need to pick up the goods up for my second stealth a/c which is also selling these very well if not spectacularly and has not been limited yet. Yes, I work very hard to each my money. It's been a joke.

Please any suggestion is veyr very appreciated.

I would get myself out of the situation and refund the customers explaining how the item went on backorder and tell them you will email them as soon as the item is available again but do not want to tie their money up while you wait.

Its very possible you spend alot more of your money to ship all those items and then get smacked with a 180 day paypal hold then your just out of everything.

Unless you are positive you can supply them with all the info they require and everything is on the up and up........then a 30 something percent ROI is killer and you should do it.

I am by far no pro so you might wait for more seasoned veterns advice but thats my 2 cents. As soon as paypal limited me I refunded peoples money as I was not going to keep shipping out of my pocket not knowing if I would be able to resolve the limitation.

Personally I think when paypal limits you they should allow you to still print shipping labels out of the account, since they dont I messed up and sent a 200 dollar item to someone that already had one shipped and now i cant get him to answer or send it back :(

[GreenBean]

DEATH's imminent arrival is the true need to say URGENT .

[fdafdafda]

Are you operating stealth? If not---I say go buy all the products, deliver them, and deal with PP. Give them your legit Aussie supplier, etc. Just make sure you are confident that you can give PP everything they request to lift the suspension.

I've been in a similar situation and learned to never withdraw money without a tracking number entered into PP first. Best case you'll get slammed with a 21 day hold and it isn't worth that either.

[down]

Thanks Tokie and FDA for your excellent and thoughtful advice.

Since it is a stealth a/c, I have decided not to take the risk and have decided to refund everything. Who knows what paypal may/maynot do, even after 180 days hold, if paypal doesnt release my money, I wont have a leg to stand on when I come claiming for my money.

And I have sent an email to all my customers (well, to be precise here, some people who paid me via bank deposit and I will be shipping their products tomorrow morning since money is already in my a/c, only paypal customers will be getting the email) telling them basically exactly what Tokkie advised. That's the best I can do for now. Just hope that a/c is not already linked to my other a/c because it's sure to go down. Anyway, thanks again and have a good one!!

[GreenBean]

good way to go since your seller caused a problem. It's awkward when it's dropshipping and it's risky to let paypal get involved.
Fingers crossed for you.

[tokie]

Dont wait and let paypal refund them like you orgiannly posted, go ahead and do it yourself as soon as you can, I have been in that situation before and as long as your straight up with people and they get their money back quick they dont get upset.

Good luck!! Being great at customer service will get you much further then being just a good seller

[down]

Hi all,

Just an update on the situation. I just got back from the 1300 km trip about 2 hours ago and thankfully my Aussie supplier turned out to be a nice and reliable dude. Registered posted all the sold items via bank deposit this morning as soon as I got my hand on them and checked my stealth a/c email to find out that now ebay has put a seller restriction on that account.

One question I have, how do I find out if that a/c is linked to my other accounts? i've never had an a/c suspended before so please forgive me if this is a stupid thing to ask. But if that a/c was linked to the others, would the others have got hit wit a selling limitation too or is it only effevtive once it's properly down and suspended? Have been very careful with IP address and always log into different a/c from different user id on windows. The thing that worries is I have opened ebay emails (I only use gmail with external contents blocked) from all different a/cs.

Also, havent had the time yet to refund all paypal customer since I've been driving all day today and yesterday but will definitely do so tomorrow before people start going crazy.

A big thanks to all of you here for your well-thought advice. You guys are the best

Cheers!

[tokie]

One question I have, how do I find out if that a/c is linked to my other accounts? i've never had an a/c suspended before so please forgive me if this is a stupid thing to ask.

It is kind of hard to "find" out you just have to put thought into it. Have you used your real info on all accounts, have you used the same adderress on all accounts, have you used the same paypall account on the accounts, phone numbers............I basiaclly would go by the rule of if you were not knowingly making stealth accounts chances are good they are somehow linked. (I am new to all of this so this is just my opinion I may be wrong and you might wait for more opinions) but if you were not knowingly making stealth accounts their are alot of variables that could have linked them and you would probably have a hard time remembering everything that could have.

But if that a/c was linked to the others, would the others have got hit wit a selling limitation too or is it only effevtive once it's properly down and suspended? Have been very careful with IP address and always log into different a/c from different user id on windows. The thing that worries is I have opened ebay emails (I only use gmail with external contents blocked) from all different

I am pretty sure if accounts are linked whatever happens bad to one, happens bad to all of them. I would defitanly leave the other ones alone for awhile and let them cool off and in the meantime purchase eBay Stealth and prepare for the worst

++Again I am a newbie and just trying pass on the knowledge that I have been bless with since finding this site and excellent members of the community. Not saying I am wrong just saying dont bank on everything I say and wait for more opinions if possible++

[down]

Hello again,

I finished refunding all the money to paypal customers about 2 days ago, and surprise surprise, out of the 60 Applogy email I sent along with the refund, 10 have got back being very supportive about it and even saying they'd still want to purchase from me when things get sorted Customers have usually only ever been totally nasty to me to this is such a refreshing change. Thanks to tokie for your email idea

And Yes, I have been creating steath as per the instruction of the book since the last 5 months and so far nothing major has happened to any a/cs, this is the first one which will be doing down due to paypal limitation.

Wouldn't have done it without the book and this forum for sure

[GreenBean]

This is just what aspkin aimed for when he started the forum.

I am delighted you got on top of your problem and even more delighted you WON!!!
Great work,down