I am speechless - I had yet another bad experience with a drop shipper just this morning, and I was planning to post a rant about it somewhere in the Bella forum - and I opened up Bella there was your headline!
I am both an online seller and customer (I do not drop ship as a seller, btw).
My experiences as a customer dealing with drop shippers has been hideous - and it's causing my biggest complaint to be that online sellers typically do not notify or "warn" us that we're purchasing drop shipped items.
My latest (of several) biggest hassle with drop shippers was in my quest to purchase a simple wooden box for deck storage. I ordered from a website (not an online auction, actually) and it never arrived. I finally contacted who I thought the seller was - the website - and they informed me that the actual supplier of the item (the drop shipper) had discontinued the item. Gee, thanks for telling me - now give me my money back!
So, I found another website which I really believed was not a drop shipper, just based on how they described their business and items, and the fact that they provided a tracking number with all shipments.
I did receive an email several weeks ago saying my box had been shipped. But again, it never arrived. So I finally ran the Fed Ex tracking number today, to find out the box had been delivered to someone on the other side of the country!
I called the website, expecting that they were the actual shippers of the item - and was told that, once again, some other supplier actually shipped the item, so they will have to try to contact them and "call me back." Meanwhile, these folks are sitting on several hundred dollars of my money, and I still don't have a deck box - after attempting to get one for a few months now.
My solution? I am no longer going to order very many things from smaller websites. And, if I feel I really want to, I'm going to inquire first whether their items are drop shipped, and if they are, I'm going to pass.
Like most people, I just don't have time for these delays and hassles in my life. It's just not worth it.
As an online seller myself - both on eBay and on my independent sites � my advice is: customer service is your #1 priority! Don't take ANY chances in that area. Even if you make a mistake with an occasional order (which you will), excellent customer service can mend a lot of potential damage. And by using a drop shipper, you're taking a risk that�s just not worthwhile, in my opinion.
OK - sorry for the rant. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
