Best way to report dropshipping, and should I?

Selling on Amazon
, ,
1

I truly despise parasitical booksellers who have little or no inventory and just dropship using honest, hardworking booksellers who do all the work. That said, today I have identified a particularly nasty one whose order I will soon be canceling. With this post, I am not seeking to get into a debate about dropshipping. There are numerous reasons why dropshipping used books is a bad idea, most if not all of which were covered on the OSFE.

And before anybody jumps in, no, I am not talking about traditional, legitimate dropshipping where a seller has an agreement with a manufacturer or distributor. I am talking about leeches who do nothing but order cheaper, usually inferior copies of books to fulfill orders from unsuspecting buyers (many of whom are ordering new books and get a nasty shock). There are thousands, probably millions, of feedbacks for unscrupulous Amazon used booksellers who have cheated – and royally p****d off – customers. It’s sickening, and Amazon should be sued for allowing the practice.

OK, now to my point: What is the best, official way to report a dropshipper? This guy I have identified this morning is actually selling books on Amazon and using other Amazon sellers to fulfill his orders. I know he is violating Amazon policy in several ways.

I remember people on the OSFE cautioning not to report any other seller for any reason because it tended to result only in one’s own account being scrutinized. Well, my account can withstand scrutiny. And every time I see these bloodsucking lowlifes operating their little scams, I wonder if reporting them might actually yield some results.

So, I seek your advice and experience in reporting sellers for blatant, obvious violations of the TOS.

FYI, this is what Amazon’s seller help pages currently say about dropshipping:

If you intend to fulfill orders using another company’s fulfillment service, a third-party logistics company, or a drop shipper, you must always:

  • Have an agreement with your supplier where you are the only seller of record and the only entity identified as the seller of your products on all packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or any other information included or provided in connection with the products;
  • Remove any packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information identifying a different seller or third-party supplier prior to shipping the order; and
  • Remain responsible for accepting and processing customer returns, and always comply to the: Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) and applicable Amazon policies.
3 Likes
2

I understand your concerns, but have no advice either way, although I believe reporting dropshippers may subject your Amazon account to further scrutiny.

I have noticed fewer dropshippers in the books area in the past few years.

A few dropshippers still order from me, mostly on ABE and these days, I am happy to have any orders at all. The recent dropshippers have given me no trouble, so far.

2 Likes
3

I do things only if there’s upside to myself. If there’s no upside to me then I’m not the Amazon police and I don’t care what people are doing.

Reporting these people has no real upside and potential downside, and it’s unlikely they will take action on your reports.

2 Likes
4

The upside is potentially ridding Amazon of lying, cheating, dishonest sellers who discourage book buyers from shopping on Amazon. Lying, cheating, dishonest booksellers are part of the reason (notice I said part, not all) why sales are down. It’s impossible to count the number of feedbacks in which a buyer gets a really crappy copy of a book and says they will never shop on Amazon again. I get lots of inquiries from buyers (which I don’t mind at all) who have been burned by other sellers and want to make sure the book I’m selling is the correct book and in the condition stated.

The stable of Amazon sellers of used books has needed a thorough cleaning for a very long time.

7 Likes
5

I admire your principles! Believe the path you’ve taken-cancellation-is the best. If you do this one or two times, the bookjacker/dropshipper/dishonest aggregator will get the idea.

Do you really believe that reporting this person will do any good? For years, AMAZON allowed the nefarious folks in Opa Locka to leech off honest booksellers. The ones in a burb near Chicago were worse since they ruined many bookellers reputations while boasting that they(she) would actively leave unsatisfactory FB to those who dared to cancel an order.

TBTB do anything??? They make fees off these scandalous folks-and sadly, $$, not reputation, despite their cozy or environmentally friendly ads, is all they care about!

4 Likes
6

I know it might seem unlikely that a report would do any good, but I wonder if part of the problem is that not enough people – customers or fellow sellers – actually bring this stuff to the attention of Amazon. Amazon did, after all, take action against Mara Vish and her cronies in Des Plaines, Ill. Thank goodness I found out about their operation early on and avoided their thievery. And yes, Southern Book Service, the outfit in Florida, returned one book to me and that was it – I refused to ever ship to them again after learning how their scheme worked.

Mara et al and Opa Locka are both, as far as I can tell, either gone from Amazon or not nearly as active. They may be operating on other platforms.

I have had great success in canceling, or simply ignoring, repeated orders from the same dropshippers. You’re right, they usually do eventually get the message. But that’s not my point. Amazon does take action sometimes, and if I can help make that happen, I’m willing to do so.

4 Likes
7

While I have no way to tell you to report these things, I always did the following when I realized it was a drop shipper/freight forwarder:

  • Use Amazon Buy Shipping
  • Ignore “no invoice” and “no packing slip” requests
  • Ship at the end of the shipping window. Purchase shipping at the beginning of the last day

While I am not a book seller, these few things must have gotten me on a drop shipper “bad source” list because after a while no more drop shippers even tried

5 Likes
8

To the best of my knowledge, which in this area does not go far, you need buyers to complain to get anywhere. There are ways to encourage buyers to do so that don’t require you to violate any Amazon rules.

Always include a packing slip and invoice which clearly shows the name of your store and the price that was paid. A prominently displayed phone number or email should the end customer want more information never goes astray, if practical to your business. Make sure to highlight condition of the book in the invoice or packing slip. I’m sure other sellers will have other suggestions more specific to books, which I buy but do not sell.

3 Likes
9

I know its a little early in the season but I couldnt help think of clark.

8s75

6 Likes
10

Oh yeah, I forgot to include “sack of monkey s**t!”

5 Likes
11

…paging the expert @rms

2 Likes
12

I would not only send a PARTIAL Packing Slip (I did cut off the price in case it was actually a gift) but I made sure to highlight my store name as the seller and stamped “thanks” and initialed it on the partial slip.

There is no way to track anything but it does seem to have had the same effect since I seldom see that type of order any longer.

2 Likes
13

I’ve been trying to get on those lists for years! I think I am on a few, but not all. :upside_down_face:

3 Likes
14

To be clear, we do not receive a large number of orders from dropshippers, or bookjackers if you prefer. But they always anger me.

On the OSFE, posters always cried, “Raise your prices!” Mm hmm, higher prices in this economy, that’ll work. We hardly ever have the lowest price anyway, and often by raising the price of a used book, you simply destroy your chance of selling it.

I believe most of our dropship orders are for books that have been sold, sometimes on other platforms, for wildly high prices due to buyer ignorance or the fact that quite a few buyers refuse to shop on Amazon anymore. Students, in particular, are often inexperienced consumers who won’t shop around for a better price. Many younger people shopping on their phones never comparison shop (do they even teach home economics anymore??).

Over the years, I’ve done all the usual things: include the packing slip, include my store name, include the price, circle or highlight the condition. These things work sometimes, but I think usually they do not. I did stop one prolific and notorious dropshipper from ordering after I included a note on the packing slip explaining in detail what dropshipping was and explicitly stating that the customer may have been a victim of the practice. That customer returned the book to the dropshipper, who returned it to me with the packing slip, which apparently the dropshipper saw and decided not to buy from me again, which was my goal.

I do not, however, recommend doing what I did. The above occurred quite a few years ago during a period when bookjacking was running rampant, and I was sick of the leeches. Besides, there is no guarantee that even explicitly pointing out to a customer that they’ve been fleeced will result in any action on their part. Even with things highlighted, circled in red or printed in all caps and boldface, I think most customers do one of the following with such packing slips:

  1. Don’t even look at it and toss it in the garbage.
  2. Read it, fail to comprehend it and toss it in the garbage.
  3. Read it, understand it but decide they don’t care or don’t want to take the time to take any action, and toss it in the garbage.

Perhaps a few buyers feel enough outrage to contact the dropshipper or leave a bad review. I have seen negative feedbacks, especially on eBay, for dropshippers saying that a packing slip or receipt was left in the package and it was for less than they paid.

6 Likes
15

While I appreciate your mission and we get hit with scrappers that use our images on other channels… I just don’t think Amazon cares.

In the words of a very old Wendy’s commercial, “I don’t thing anyone is back there.”

5 Likes
16

Amazon, ABE, etc. know full well what those bookjackers are up to. They do not tolerate them – they embrace them.

Don’t know if you remember the thread on the old forum where an alert poster shared some of the many many negative feedbacks that vanish from their accounts overnight. Now you see it / now you don’t. They have inside help.

I have always thought they are less likely to order from sellers who post images. After all – the buyer may have actually looked at that copy, passed it over and ordered the far more expensive copy that does not list any flaws.

3 Likes
17

In my opinion, it was COVID that did these bookjackers in, not anything TPTB did or said. The natural forces of capitalism!!

Would have to wait for the second-coming for AMAZON c-suite to do anything against their commercial/financial interest.

And yes, I believe BIRD_OF_PARADISE is a much better person than I am. I’m impressed by those who wish take actions for the greater good w/ no recompense. Good luck to you-and I wish I wasn’t too tired to fight the SOB’s!.

2 Likes
18

Dropshipping is very lucrative for Amazon. Especially if they’re dropshipping from another Amazon seller. They get double fees, and eventually get to seize some funds from the seller and pocket it as profit when they inevitably get suspended.

2 Likes
19

[quote=“Image, post:15, topic:4849”]
In the words of a very old Wendy’s commercial, “I don’t thing anyone is back there.”

It’s a classic!

4 Likes
20

This is part of a larger, more important question: how to get Amazon to acknowledge anything?

Amazon used to be a level playing ground - at least moderately so. It is not any more.
As is clearly demonstrated every day on the FUFE, sellers have legitimate slam-dunk complaints that nobody will address.

As every bookseller knows, there are blatant bookjackers operating in plain view, in clear violation of Amazon policies. There are zillions of pages that are substandard, with an individual offer - and sometimes shipping policies - in the description field. There are feedbacks that are clearly intended for the wrong seller. Some sellers lose buy box eligibilty without notice or expanation. All of these could be fixed if some Amazon employee would only look at them.

Amazon does not have enough people to enforce their own policies. So the few that do enforce policies get to pick and choose. They depend on trusted co-workers to funnel problems to them. They do not deal directly with sellers.

The problem is not that Amazon policies are inadequate. The problem is access. Success on Amazon used to depend on having good products, now it depends on who you know.
If you have an inside connection to grease the wheels for your product, you can get rich on Amazon while your competitors wait in line to prove that their products are not pesticides or noxious weeks or IP violations.

That is the situation at Amazon, year of our Lord 2024.

==============================================

As to the particulars of reporting a bookjacker, it is as described above: you need a connection. You have to know someone. Or you have to know soeone who knows someone…

Several years ago, two brothers in NE Dallas began bookjacking under approximately thirty different store names. They of course generated bad feedback. They had someone inside who was removing feedback for them.
This illigitimate feedback removal was reported numerous times, and well documented with screenshots on the FUFE. But nobody at Amazon did anything.

Then, suddenly most of the stores disappeared, and bad feedback for the remaining few stuck.

I believe that I had something to do with that. It all came down to knowing somebody who knows somebody. I don’t know who the final somebody was, but I believe I know the intermediary.

I got involved because one of the Dallas bookjackers scammed me with a fraudulent return. I took it personally. I endevored to find someone who knew someone at Amazon.

One of the brothers was involved in local Dallas county politics, as a member of one of the major political parties. He funded some candidates. He had even run for office at least once ( he lost, FWIW ).
So I found out who was the major strategist for local politics in the other party. I wrote an email detailing the scheme, and the policies that were being broken, and explained that if he could get someone at Amazon to act, he could cut off a significant source of the opponent’s revenue.

Wthin a week, most of the Dallas bookjackers’ stores were gone.

==========================================================

To report a bookjacker, you need an inside connection: you have to know somebody, or know somebody who knows somebody.

10 Likes