The seller in question was selling items they didn’t have at a nearly 50% markup.

    • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      The seller just buys the item on Amazon and sends it to your address usually at an inflated price. They sell stock that they don’t own.

      • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        To play the role of the annoying five year old, “And why is that bad?”

        • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 months ago

          They’re taking your money without providing you any value. It’s dishonest and it’s against eBay’s terms of service (unless they are working directly with the supplier, which I highly doubt is the case.)

          • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            It says that a refund is offered and you can still keep it. I see absolutely nothing negative for you. But the answer from another user makes 100% sense. That for later scams as soon as a positive reputation has been built up.

            • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              The point of it is that by exposing them they will have to create a new account to scam with.

              • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                Lol Did I say anything against it? No. Did I suggest that the answer from another user makes more sense? Namely exactly what you are now also referring to, that it will be used for future scams. I didn’t say anything against rating the seller badly because it is the right thing to do. That you should definitely report them.

                I have not objected to anything. Only that it was said that there is no money back if the picture in the message clearly states that he can keep the item and have his money back. In the message is nothing negative for the OP itself.

        • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          It’s a way of farming sales and reputation, to build an account for later scamming with.

          A brand new account running a scam gets picked up almost immediately as they’re watched closer. An account that’s been around for 5 years, selling products without reports of fraud, suddenly switching to scams stays under the radar longer.

        • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          A deliberately deceptive business practice that does nothing to help consumers and only raises prices? If you have to have it explained to you why that is bad, well I’m sorry, but you are beyond saving.

        • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Why is doing literally nothing but adding cost a bad thing? 🤷‍♂️ they’re even selling on the same platform, it makes the actual-priced product harder to find or is just a full-on scam, pretending they sell higher quality products than actuality.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You should suspect it for items with really long delays. They are waiting for a sale or new pricing. They sold you something they don’t have and don’t plan to send until they find it cheaply enough to hit their profit target.

          Meanwhile you could have bought from someone who actually has it, direct from the original seller without extra markup, or waited for the same sale they are

          • moody@lemmings.world
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            2 months ago

            Also you may be avoiding Amazon, but end up giving them your business against your wishes.

            • SoleInvictus
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              2 months ago

              This has been my issue. I’ll order something from a seller and it shows up two days later, delivered by Amazon.

        • blueeggsandyam@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Drop shippers aren’t normally authorized sellers/resellers for the product so the manufacturer doesn’t have to warranty their products. Unfortunately, you won’t find out until 6 months down the road.

          It can also hurt small businesses because they don’t get to interact with their customers. Their products could get negative reviews on Amazon even if they never wanted sell the product on Amazon. Negative reviews could be because of the shipping or customer service provided by the drop shipper and the customer doesn’t know that the business had nothing to with those issues.

        • Mokopa@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The complexity of returns wouldn’t be ideal I guess, you don’t have the original receipt etc.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
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      2 months ago

      Basically the way it usually works is.

      Chinese knock off mass factory, makes stores and has the items.

      They find a guy in America and say "Hey can you list our items on ebay, when you sell them, we’ll take $20, you can probably sell them for $50.

      Guy lists item for $50, someone buys it, he then just e-mails the dropshipper and asks them to send it straight to the buyer. Sometimes he will have to give ebay a fake tracking number (because ebay doesn’t approve the practice).

      Point is the drop shipper is just there to conceal the actual source of the product. That’s generally because they are sketchy in some other way.

      A co-worker of mine at one point got into a drop shipping scam. She was selling golf clubs that way (she was selling them about 80% of expected retail, place she was buying from was charging her about 25% of retail. She didn’t know (but probably should have guessed) that the clubs she was selling were counterfeit, and she about had a heart attack when her 2nd customer called her out on it (she refunded him and took the loss).

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yes, and it’s basically a given that most of this crap is counterfeit, unless it’s a scheme as dopey as simply ordering it from Amazon and shipping it back to you. Which still isn’t a guarantee that it isn’t counterfeit, come to think of it.

        That profit margin for the drop shipper has to come from somewhere.

        And this is coming from someone who deliberately orders counterfeit crap. (Yes, knives, how did you guess?) But if you’re okay with that you may as well buy it directly from whoever is making the knockoffs in the first place via Aliexpress or whatever and pay a lot less in the process.