How to Deal with Suspicious Buyers?
Hello All and Happy New Year,
I started selling a small number of books back in October. I sell about 2 books a week. This week, I had sales within a few hours of each other, both from people with names which I am fairly sure originate from the same Eastern European country. I checked the first address and it is for a company which buys and then sells on media items. Looking on forum conversations about this company, whilst some complain they’ve had to refund this company repeatedly for ‘Items Not Delivered’, others say they have dealt with them and they are good customers. I sent my (not cheap, but under £50) book via recorded delivery to this customer. The second purchase is for a fairly cheap book, again by a woman whose name (after I printed off the shipping slip from Amazon) suggests she is of the same nationality. I checked the address. The property is in a terrace which appears to be occupied by a string of shell companies of foreign origin. Whilst the current occupants of the address on my slip are not listed, it has previously been occupied by a string of dodgy looking shell companies, some of which have been struck off. I deleted the book from my inventory and cancelled the order.
Did I do the right thing? I have already had to partially refund a customer recently who had purchased a book and CD ROM and then, weeks later, claimed the CD ROM (which we checked thoroughly) was damaged. This claim seemed genuine but was one of my more expensive items and cost me a bit. I’m getting gun-shy. I have some much more expensive collectable books which I’ve been holding back, afraid to list them as I can see how easily I can lose my money and the book. Even if I sent these valuable books by courier, it would seem I could still have someone claim they did not receive the book - regardless of any evidence to the contrary - and I would be out of pocket by a substantial amount.
Do any of you have any further insight/strategies for dealing with this problem which I have not seen on this forum?
Many thanks, and good trading in 2019!
18 replies
Seller_LpjhinHAD7f55
Is the company in a unit in South East London if it is they are good buyers and over the years I have had no problems
Seller_LLygqW19Oi1pq
Yes, but if you keep cancelling your order it will affect your selling account. We all have to deal with some good buyers and some bad buyers. it is the quality and quantity of your sales that will save you
Seller_qO0RbkNpUoqub
Report these occurrences to seller support by opening a case and in the case tell them that you suspect a certain seller to be abusing the platform and that you want them to look in to the account.
I started out on Amazon not so long ago, coming up to 8 months.
I have come across many ******** the best way to overcome these situations is to be persistent.
The people doing these THEFTS know what they are doing.
Stick to your guns and get reporting.
SS will help you out.
good luck
Seller_mQzM8i0mkBUO3
if i thnk they might be a bit dodgy
i send signed and tracked and put at the top of the label
to be delivered and signed by named person only at address only
do not leave anywhere else
it seems to do the trick as royal mail do seem to take notice then you got signuture of person at the correct address
Seller_N6BdnTb7YT1X8
Buy your shipping if possible through Amazon - for some reason it seems to hold more weight with claims than if you buy it through the post office irrespective of if you have sent it via a tracked service or not.
Include a not with you letter if you think you are dealing with a drop shipper
Dear …
Since your order (title of book / product name) has been purchased through a third party (a Dropshipper, - if you Google the term you will see how they operate) I would appreciate it if you would confirm receipt of your order either by text or email, my email address is … and my mobile number is …
On the included order slip you will see that my trading name on Amazon is … and the book / product was purchased by ‘…’ through Amazon, I am not sure, if indeed the book /item has been purchased via a dropshipper, which site you purchased the book / item from or the business name of the seller.Regards,
Email a copy of this letter to the buyer and tell them that in the event of them (the dropshipper) attempting to claim that the item wasn’t sent/delivered you will contact the end buyer, so far touch wood this has worked for me.
I recently replied to a notorious drop shipper who asked me not to include an invoice or packaging slip since the book was a ‘gift’ with the following:
No it isn’t a gift you are a drop shipper and the next thing will be an email from you asking for tracking followed by a Not Received email if the item isn’t sent tracked. I will as usual include a dispatch slip and a note to the buyer asking them to email confirmation of receipt or to text me. Feel free to cancel this order.
Seller_j266ql3ihtjB6
Thanks everyone for your useful strategies. It’s just too bad we have to resort to such tactics in the first place. This platform is beginning to resemble the Wild West more every day. Probably we smaller sellers are particularly targeted but it’s we who can least afford to lose out to such predators. I’m keeping an open mind for now, but in the end one has to weigh whether its worth the hassle.
Seller_KFjf79lxP4YyY
We get tool sheds saying our software doesn’t work quite often, we have invested heavily in the best equipment and use the best dvds that it’s virtually impossible, I see them a mile away, it’s worse on the other major platform than on here.
But there’s nowt you can do, scamming buyer wins.
Seller_uSBqWAlkccs2f
I think you’ve probably been unlucky. Probability wise, we will all have a few weird experiences / breakages / returns / non-arrivals over our time selling on Amazon. They will probably form the normal bell-curve, but I guess a few people (you being one of them) will have the problems early on. I have been selling on Amazon for 15 years - mostly books, games and videos. I once had a mobile phone miraculously stop working the moment it was bought. A couple of non-arrivals that I had to refund for. Complaints about condition but saying they ‘binned it’ rather than sending it back for a refund. But the best way to make these occurrences insignificant is to raise the level of sales so it is proportionately few. I think just list them, be honest about the condition and describe them worse than they are to give buyers a nice surprise and generally be a ‘good seller’ so they get warm fuzzy feelings dealing with you.
The worst thing early on is to get poor feedback, so if you are still at 100% I wouldn’t worry about a few quid. Maybe send items tracked if they are rare or precious. But good luck - and don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of replies that tell you the buyers are rip-off scum, but in my experience they are normal decent people.
