Drop Ships Dilemma

I'd never heard of "drop shipping", to me it conjure soldiers in heavily armed space-shuttles being flung pell-mell at the surface of an enemy planet with the winds of plasma and fire burning all around them.

However, what it actually means; apparently; is that you've bought something - say a chair - off of a reputable site like Amazon, but you did so not from them but seller on their platform.

This seller then doesn't actually sell you anything, what they do is contact their own network of suppliers and they buy the item for you and get it shipped by that third party to you.  The drop ship being that third party, to whom you don't exist, they deliver to your address as though you and your address is the middleman you met on whatever selling platform you chose.

And apparently, this is legit on some selling platforms, Amazon, Ebay etc etc.  The former put some extra steps in there, such as if you have an issue that middleman has to accept the return and handle the shipping, but this is a nightmare, because you use something like Amazon or Ebay for the protection the service affords, the expectation of easy and care free returns.

The trouble being, this middle man is only there to cream a little commission.

So my issue was a chair, is a chair - this is still going on - which I ordered from Amazon on the 13th, I didn't even clock it wasn't via amazon themselves, this chair has a brand and a name and was set to be delivered on the 20th.

Which came and went no sign, also no tracking, when these drop shippers do their thing they can keep their cards close to their chest, Amazon just ask that they've dispatched when they say they have ditto for ebay.

Trouble was this middle-man tried to tell me that they had called and left me a voice mail, and I'd not gotten back to them... .except, I don't have a voice mail, don't like voice mails... so they lied.

During this discussion they then said (bare in mind this is the 21st, a day late and eight days since ordering, which said "dispatched") it'd not even been dispatched, indeed it wasn't expected into stock with them until the 27th.

Silence.... I want my chair, I want to know when it'll arrive.

I still don't actually know whether this is a drop shipper or a scam.

"We have another chair, I assure you it's better, more expensive which we can get to you tomorrow".

Now, just because something is more expensive does not make it better, and I spent time picking this chair out on Amazon, it has all the bells and whistles I want... four major features and a comfy shape.

This middle man is persisting to send me details of another chair, and "if you agree I'll send that next day delivery"... this seems like a scam to me, but I don't even get to choose because the information never arrived.

I never saw the info, so never okay-ed it, I never wanted anything except the item I ordered.

Just now, I'm in the kitchen and I hear the letter box flap, and a van drive away... there's been no knocking, no noise made, just a note through the door "left with neighbour".

Hate my neighbours, but go find out what this delivery was... turns out to be a chair... Not the chair I ordered.

A quite ugly square one... with two features I ordered missing, made of plastic not steel, and a manufacturing fault along the top cushion.

So I call this guy up, tell him "I was expected to wait for the item I ordered, I never got the info, never asked for this item, it's the wrong chair and missing features and made of the wrong material".

"This is a more expensive chair" he says.

It certainly doesn't look it, and even if it arrived with gold bullion stuffing the cushions I'd return it because it's not the chair I ordered.

This guy is getting on my nerves, and that's when I realize I've been drop shipped, this guy is in an office himself, this is "his business", but he's clearly at work doing something else, he's not a chair saleman, he's just acting as a middleman.

So back to the selling platform, Amazon... who... seem to be quite happy to let 48 hours pass until they will even talk to me, to give the guy time to reply to me...

I therefore am out of pocket, still without a chair, and frustrated by this whole mess.

I think Amazon need to make a very much more clear distinction between the items sold and delivered by them and items being drop shipped like this or worse.  "FROM AMAZON" in a big clear type.

There's even issues there, for instance I've seen resellers listing parts like say "Intel CPU's" and it'll be listed as "by Intel"... but it's not being sold by Intel at all, sure it's made by intel, but "John Doe Computer Tech in Driotwich" are the seller on Amazon, and really we need to be told that more clearly to avoid the kind of situation I'm now in.