Is this allowed? (Anonymous person asks me to ship to someone else)

Leftoverbricks

Dear fellow sellers on BO,
I received an order with a request to ship to someone who is apparently not the original buyer, at least not the person who paid for the order. The request was: "please ship to my customer, please do not include any billing or personal information in the parcel."

On the order page I see that all 3 addresses (Shipping, PayPal and Billing) are the same. Therefore I do not know who the person is that asked me to do this. So I have no clue and and no PayPal protection.

I have no problems with orders from a fellow seller who's missing an item and orders it in my shop and request (to save shipping costs) to send directly to his customer, but only if this has been asked BEFORE the order was placed.

In theory I could cancel the order and move on, but all email connected to this order goes to the original buyer and not the one who paid for the order.

I really don't like such practice! Is this even allowed on Brick Owl?

greetings :-)
Martin

Calibrick

This is really a question for @lawrence... I have had a couple of sellers order and have me drop-ship to their customers, but its all been highly transparent where they've advised the customer of the practice (cc'ing me, so I know) and have allowed me to include my own invoice and shipping costs in the delivery - they only charged what I was charging. I'm always comfortable with this and cheerfully cooperate, as everyone is in-the-loop and it's all transparent. It's usually because a seller had an inventory error for a part they thought was on-hand but turned to another store to complete fulfillment for a valued regular customer as a service. And it's infrequent.

I suspect this really leans toward what you are comfortable with unless BO has this in its terms. I for one (for any sellers reading this) would not be okay with this due to the request to not include an invoice or your own shop's information in the parcel. It feels like hiding information from the customer, even if its for innocent reasons (at least to me). Or for not-so-innocent reasons.

I remember on Bricklink reading quite a bit where there were entire Amazon stores charging ridiculous pricing with ZERO inventory on-hand, then having BL sellers drop-ship to the customers, forbidding invoicing or any indications of the real seller (very similar circumstances). I recall those sellers were banned over there every time they were found. There was one shop in particular that kept reappearing under diff names, but was really a price-gouging Amazon seller.

Not saying that is the case here at all - this could be completely innocent (i.e., maybe the seller wants to avoid embarrassment over a small inventory error?), but neither you nor I have any way of knowing. :-)

I would wonder if PayPal seller and buyer protections apply though if invoicing and shop information isn't included in the Parcel? Also, since the original seller made the payment, they receive the buyer protections, NOT the customer (you should be covered either way). That would be my practical concern on behalf of the customer POV.

Hoddie

If they're asking you to ship to an address other than the PayPal one, say no.

Brikomania

I do not mind, to be honest. If he sold it for a higher price, good for him, I still get the business. Other times (and I have done this as well), it's a seller who didn't have a few parts in inventory by mistake, and asks me to ship to customer. Happy to oblige, great customer service for you!!

Leftoverbricks

Thanks @Calibrick for your elaborate reply. Meanwhile I have sent the person who paid for this a polite message with a request to clarify his action but I didn't receive a reply after two days.
I will ship the order because there's somebody waiting for the bricks, but at the same time I will update my store terms that I will cancel orders from drop-ship sellers (or whatever they are called) if the order wasn't arranged beforehand with me.

I ask @Lawrence to clarify the Brick Owl rules with regard to this.

Lawrence

We don’t have any rules in relation to customers asking for no documentation be included with a package, the best thing to do would be to discuss it with the customer as you have attempted to

Leftoverbricks

Hi Lawrence,
Thanks for replying. The customer is however not the person to where the order is shipped and if the payer doens't respond, what to do net?
As a seller I loose PayPal protection when I ship to someone who is not the payer. And, very important: I can't contact the person who placed the order because all linked mail addresses are the addresses of the buyer (to ship to) not the payer.
I thunk his is something you have to address :-)

Lawrence

The payer should be the same as the customer/buyer. I would expect the email address in the account is that of the customer/payer/buyer, otherwise the person who is receiving the order would get all the associated emails, defeating the point of asking for no documentation.