Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

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SPRIDDLER
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Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by SPRIDDLER »

This was new to me. It has happened twice to a pal who has just twigged what's going on because when he contacted an eBay seller to say that the wrong product had been delivered (the same product twice) the eBay seller told him to return it to Amazon. It was a £250 keyboard.
Maybe it's well known, but interesting nevertheless. It works like this:

1. A seller with no products whatsoever advertises on eBay any type of product available from Amazon but at his own marked-up price.

2. You order it from the ebay seller.

3. The eBay seller orders it from Amazon (at the lower Amazon price) for delivery to you by using the Amazon 'Gift' facility which enables the eBay seller to have the item delivered to a different address than his own.

4. The parcel arrives at your address in Amazon's excellent packaging with no documentation, (no invoice etc.) except a note (from Amazon) which says: 'We hope you enjoy this gift'

......GIFT? :?

5. By using Amazon's 'Gift' facility the seller can have it delivered to his customer's address, and since it's supposed to be a gift the price paid won't be known by the 'lucky' recipient.

My pal had paid £26 above the Amazon price for his keyboard 'from' the eBay seller. Clearly the eBay seller had ordered the wrong product from Amazon.

Nothing illegal in that and only a computer and no investment or stock needed, but I guess a nice little earner if the volume's there.
Last edited by SPRIDDLER on Sun Apr 01, 2018 12:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Rob Harknett
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by Rob Harknett »

No need to return to Amazon. The seller is bound by e bay T & C's
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by SPRIDDLER »

Rob Harknett wrote:No need to return to Amazon. The seller is bound by e bay T & C's
Maybe, Rob, and O.K. for everyone who's as smart as you and knows what's going on, but Amazon send you new packaging and a free postage label which is the simplest (most reliable) way to return it and get a refund rather than get embroiled in dealing with a possibly argumentative eBay seller since the Ebay seller would lose his profit if he gave you a refund, plus your postage. You'd also have the faff of packing it up and getting the seller's address, never mind the refund.

It wasn't my intention to express Legal Opinion. I just thought it was an interesting subject.
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Rob Harknett
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by Rob Harknett »

I guess its just another update to " the middle man " traders. They will sell you anything you want, but have no stock. Just a rented office. Any complaints, they just say you must take it up with the goods manufactures.
There quite a few GB based e bay traders selling goods as middle men. After about a month your item arrives from China, Hong Kong or some such far east country.
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by G15 Roy »

That's a good one for April 1st it even got Rob on the go ;)
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by SPRIDDLER »

Rob Harknett wrote:They will sell you anything you want, but have no stock. Just a rented office.
...........or a garden shed...........or kitchen table........

You're right Rob; we can never be really sure that we are dealing with a 'proper' supplier with stock.

Obviously we would all check the Amazon price before ordering from an eBay seller, wouldn't we :?
Wouldn't we?
Nah, probably not.
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Which taken at the flood............'
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by SPRIDDLER »

G15 Roy wrote:That's a good one for April 1st it even got Rob on the go ;)
No, Roy. It's real.

(Hope you had a good section run today to the Thurrock treacle mine museum).
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Re: Amazon used by eBay sellers with no products.

Post by Rob Harknett »

Hope I've not been fooled.
If I have, I won't been warning be warning Neville to take care if ever my way, walking along the riverside.
I did of cause warn locals last year to take care, when I discovered they had introduced Alligators into the River Stort, to keep down the increasing numbers of destructive wild Mink.
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