Are ebay sellers allowed to do this?

StormWarrior

Lately I've been unhappy with the service from amazon and their tax avoidance so I decided I didn't want to use them any more. I wanted to order a DVD that cost £12 on amazon, but I paid £15 to get it off ebay instead. I was willing to pay the extra £3 to avoid using amazon. The ebay listing said "If we don't have the item in stock then we will have it delivered to you straight from our supplier."

A few days later I got a package from amazon. It was the DVD. The ebay seller ordered it off amazon, directly to me, pocketing the extra £3! Are ebay sellers allowed to do this? I feel it was very dishonest. The seller is called Igaenterprises and I suggest that everyone avoid them. I have emailed them to complain but they haven't answered.

Nody

Why would they not be allowed to do so? Did you expect them to burn the DVD themselves for you?

Beano

why is it dishonest? what difference does it make where the seller sourced the item from?

Mick Murdock

I'm not sure there's a rule against it, but reselling stuff from Amazon is pretty questionable imo!

The would have paid fees on the transaction so the profit seems to be pretty minimal to me!!

StormWarrior

Nody wrote: »

Why would they not be allowed to do so? Did you expect them to burn the DVD themselves for you?

No, I expected them to get the DVD from whoever the original supplier is, such as the company who make the DVDs.

Beano

Mick Murdock wrote: »

I'm not sure there's a rule against it, but reselling stuff from Amazon is pretty questionable imo!

The would have paid fees on the transaction so the profit seems to be pretty minimal to me!!

what is questionable about it? the seller has to buy it from somewhere. I'm sure the profit is pretty minimal on each item but given the little amount of effort required by the seller, i.e. tell amazon to ship a dvd to somebody, it seems reasonable. They would probably be doing a lot of volume so the small margin wouldnt concern them.

Judgement Day

Mick Murdock wrote: »

I'm not sure there's a rule against it, but reselling stuff from Amazon is pretty questionable imo!

The would have paid fees on the transaction so the profit seems to be pretty minimal to me!!

I don't see any problem - it's called commerce.

Beano

StormWarrior wrote: »

No, I expected them to get the DVD from whoever the original supplier is, such as the company who make the DVDs.

why does it matter to you where they sourced the dvd from?

StormWarrior

Beano wrote: »

why is it dishonest? what difference does it make where the seller sourced the item from?

I've already said why it makes a difference. I didn't want to give my custom to amazon and was willing to pay extra to avoid that. Why would I want to give my custom to amazon and give an extra £3 to some random tosser?

Judgement Day

StormWarrior wrote: »

I've already said why it makes a difference. I didn't want to give my custom to amazon and was willing to pay extra to avoid that. Why would I want to give my custom to amazon and give an extra £3 to some random tosser?

Just because you've taken a dislike to Amazon you expect everybody else to as well - and the unfortunate eBay seller who you have named. :rolleyes:

Beano

StormWarrior wrote: »

I've already said why it makes a difference. I didn't want to give my custom to amazon and was willing to pay extra to avoid that. Why would I want to give my custom to amazon and give an extra £3 to some random tosser?

you formed a contract with the seller to supply you with a dvd for €15. they have done so. If your problem with amazon is an ethical one then you need to do more research on who you buy from.

Beano

Judgement Day wrote: »

Just because you've taken a dislike to Amazon you expect everybody else to as well - and the unfortunate eBay seller who you have named. :rolleyes:

i've asked a mod to blank out the name of the seller. There is no justification for naming them as they have done nothing wrong.

Del2005

StormWarrior wrote: »

I've already said why it makes a difference. I didn't want to give my custom to amazon and was willing to pay extra to avoid that. Why would I want to give my custom to amazon and give an extra £3 to some random tosser?

How do you know that the seller's taxes are all in order? Since you're worried about Amazon and taxes I'm sure when you researched the seller's tax clearance you would have seen where they sourced their stock.

StormWarrior

Del2005 wrote: »

How do you know that the seller's taxes are all in order? Since you're worried about Amazon and taxes I'm sure when you researched the seller's tax clearance you would have seen where they sourced their stock.

My understanding was that ebay automatically deducts tax.

Beano

StormWarrior wrote: »

My understanding was that ebay automatically deducts tax.

tax, as in income tax? They deduct their own fees and that is all. The tax concerns of sellers is none of their business.

wexie

Mick Murdock wrote: »

The would have paid fees on the transaction so the profit seems to be pretty minimal to me!!

Now multiply 'pretty minimal' times several thousand a week / month (potentially), for something they might not even have to leave the house for.

Sell stuff on Ebay, order it on Amazon and have it shipped directly to the customer.

Pretty handy deal if you ask me.

L1011

Dropshipping - not an at all uncommon sales practice.

Mick Murdock

Seems I'm in the minority here! I own an Ebay store and I'm well aware of how minimal margins add up. I was just making the point that the seller didn't pocket £3 for himself, far from it!

As regards, listing items and then ordering from Amazon on the customers behalf. I personally stock all of my items or have them stored in the UK/Italy on my behalf. I do not list items I do not have.

On re-reading the OP's post I see that they mention that items may come direct from suppliers. I personally wouldn't expect the supplier to be an Amazon seller but it is Ebay after all and that's just the way it is.

Mick Murdock

StormWarrior wrote: »

No, I expected them to get the DVD from whoever the original supplier is, such as the company who make the DVDs.

I would agree with this tbh!

pleasant Co.

if i had a concern about where a product was coming from I'd research it before hand, otherwise the only thing I'd expect from a seller is to get exactly what i ordered in the advertised condition in a reasonably timely fashion.

Beano

Mick Murdock wrote: »

Seems I'm in the minority here! I own an Ebay store and I'm well aware of how minimal margins add up. I was just making the point that the seller didn't pocket £3 for himself, far from it!

I dont see where anybody has disagreed with this

Mick Murdock wrote: »

As regards, listing items and then ordering from Amazon on the customers behalf. I personally stock all of my items or have them stored in the UK/Italy on my behalf. I do not list items I do not have.

The dropshipping model is quite popular with ebay sellers. If the seller can source the item immediately then what difference does that make to the seller?

Mick Murdock wrote: »

On re-reading the OP's post I see that they mention that items may come direct from suppliers. I personally wouldn't expect the supplier to be an Amazon seller but it is Ebay after all and that's just the way it is.

you are correct that it is highly unlikely that the original supplier would be selling on ebay. It is unlikely they do any retail at all.

Beano

Mick Murdock wrote: »

I would agree with this tbh!

why would you agree with this? its ridiculous. the original supplier would be a distribution company. they dont do retail. Most retailers probably wouldnt even buy direct from the original suppliers. They would go to regional wholesalers. the only people who would buy direct from them would be the likes of amazon itself. which is kinda ironic.

Mick Murdock

Beano wrote: »

I dont see where anybody has disagreed with this

I was referring to Wexie's post above mine..

Edit* I see how my first sentence has caused some confusion.. I'm in the minority in terms of agreeing with parts of the OP's complaint..


The dropshipping model is quite popular with ebay sellers. If the seller can source the item immediately then what difference does that make to the seller?

I am aware of this. Dropshipping is commonly done from Asia in my line of business. I haven't encountered anybody listing Amazon items as items they 'may or may not have in stock' and charging people for the privilege of ordering from Amazon or Ebay for them. It's not something I would do. You don't have to agree.

you are correct that it is highly unlikely that the original supplier would be selling on ebay. It is unlikely they do any retail at all.

Exactly. This is the part I take exception to. They most likely do not stock anything ever. It's misleading.

Hogzy

OP you got your DVD. Now go watch it!

Mick Murdock

Beano wrote: »

why would you agree with this? its ridiculous. the original supplier would be a distribution company. they dont do retail. Most retailers probably wouldnt even buy direct from the original suppliers. They would go to regional wholesalers. the only people who would buy direct from them would be the likes of amazon itself. which is kinda ironic.

:rolleyes:

I saw the words 'such as' in the op's post.. at a stretch I assume the OP meant a wholesaler, a distributor, a company that supplies retail shops, online sellers and not an Amazon store.

I buy from manufacturers and wholesalers all the time. Wholesalers and distributors will often ship direct for you.. Shipping costs being the only issue with that. I don't know anything dvd distribution or how it works.

I'm surprised I'm the only one who think it's a bit underhand, but we'll agree to disagree.

Beano

Mick Murdock wrote: »

:rolleyes:

I saw the words 'such as' in the op's post.. at a stretch I assume the OP meant a wholesaler, a distributor, a company that supplies retail shops, online sellers and not an Amazon store.

I buy from manufacturers and wholesalers all the time. Wholesalers and distributors will often ship direct for you.. Shipping costs being the only issue with that. I don't know anything dvd distribution or how it works.

I'm surprised I'm the only one who think it's a bit underhand, but we'll agree to disagree.

I dont know what the :rolleyes: is for.

Expecting a seller on ebay to be anything but an end of line retailer is ridiculous.
There was nothing underhand or misleading about what the seller did. In fact they were quite upfront. As it says in the OP :

"If we don't have the item in stock then we will have it delivered to you straight from our supplier."

which is exactly what happened. Perhaps they didnt have it in stock and so sourced it from amazon so as not to let their customer down? as you said yourself they didnt exactly make a massive markup on it. In fact we dont know anything about how the seller operates as the name given in the OP does not exist as a seller on Ebay.

Mick Murdock

I never said they are anything but a general retailer??? People who are serious about selling on Ebay (average joe soaps like me) do not buy and sell at Amazon prices. They deal with manufacturers and wholesalers/distributors because the aim is to buy at prices which allow you to compete with Amazon and other Ebay sellers.

I sell items which are often of lower value than £15 and I have wholesalers in the UK who would ship direct to a customer for me. It would probably add a few quid onto my costs but it's not as impossible as you seem to think it is..

Anyway, flogging a dead horse here. I don't agree with you and vice versa.


OP, next time buy from Amazon.

rubadub

Beano wrote: »

i've asked a mod to blank out the name of the seller. There is no justification for naming them as they have done nothing wrong.

I am not going to blank it, I see no need, as you said they have done nothing wrong here, dropshipping is a very common practice, though usually use drop shipping companies which mask their identity to stop complaints like this. e.g. if you buy on dealextreme you can pay for them to remove all reference to dealextreme.

The ebay user name gave me no search results anyway, might be a typo. If I was that seller I would welcome this thread, I would hope people researching me as a seller would find this thread. It could also remind them to shop around first, loads of things on ebay are hugely overpriced.

TheDriver

I don't see anything wrong with it. what if he got it from amazon, repackaged and sent to you?

On a side note, you talk about avoiding tax practices of Amazon but unfortunately if you are questioning tax practices of companies, you would want to avoid apple, intel etc etc. What about the film studio who probably used tax breaks to attract them to film in a certain country for that movie.
Amazon has good prices and good CS plus they do employ a good number of people in Cork at call centres so that's enough for me.

upinthesky

The amount of items that are on sportsdirect and then on ebay for double the price, there all at it.