Odd response from Amazon buyer - ideas

[Miss Marple]

I'm selling lots of textbooks on Amazon.  Most are science and engineering.  I got this email at 0300 this morning.  The shipping address is for Norman, OK and I'm just outside Tulsa so it should get there early.  I don't know why he sent this email because I don't know why anyone would change the mailing address:

 

Here's the email:

Dear Seller,

I have just placed order with you. 
Please do not include any invoice with pricing.
Please mention the address in the same format provided on the order form. 
Please do not make any changes in the address format. 
The first line will help our system to identify your package.
As soon as you ship the order please help me with confirmation # or tracking #.

Thanks.

 

Any ideas why this is necessary? Do people actually make changes in the format - which is normal and the same as any other address?  Oh, and it appears the computer he is using is set to a day early.  He said he just ordered it but it shows a date of yesterday.  I guess maybe a parent in another country  might have ordered it...hmm...not sure why the pricing is an issue?

 

 

[JustEm]

Well I know that my brother shares the same address with a house about a mile from him. Only difference is the last four digits of their zip codes. So in order to increase the odds of him getting his package and not the other person those last4 digits have to be there. But really the mailman usually stills messes it up.

[vonfirmath]

I see why you think it odd. it feels like a scam. But I don't know where the scam in it is.

 

[Um_2_4]

Could it be a freight forwarder? Like they are overseas and ordered  the book to be delivered to a company that packages a bunch of items and forwards it to them overseas. I think Lanny on here uses one. The part about "The first line will help our system to identify your package." made me think of that.

[bolt.]

I wonder if it is an international re-sender service: you send the package to a small warehouse, they send it on to a different address in Canada or India or whatever. The sender receives the package without paying terrible corporate rates for international shipping/imports.

 

In this scenario, the lack of invoicing inside the box allows the package to pass as a person-to-person mail item, not something that customs should apply import taxation and duties on.

 

This is not usually a "scam" -- just a regular person not living in the U.S. wanting to buy from Amazon. Sometimes it does avoid legitimate charges or import limitations, but most often (in Canada) it avoids nothing but corporate shipping costs that are way more than mail actually costs regular people. Or maybe it avoids 40 cents in import taxes and a $10 inspection fee.

 

I see the appeal.

[Lanny]

Could it be a freight forwarder? Like they are overseas and ordered  the book to be delivered to a company that packages a bunch of items and forwards it to them overseas. I think Lanny on here uses one. The part about "The first line will help our system to identify your package." made me think of that.

 

 

That's one possibility.   Whenever I order, from an Amazon Seller or an eBay Seller, our Shipping Address in Miami (that of our Receiver/Forwarder) is in the Amazon and eBay systems. The Sellers I have purchased from always address packages exactly the way they should. Our Receiver/Forwarder, in their standard emails, includes something about that if things are not addressed correctly, they go into a misaddressed section and obviously that delays the item getting into the system for the customer.

 

HOWEVER, in the case of the email the OP quoted, there was mention of an "Invoice" with a price on it. That leads me to believe one of 2 things:

(a) The buyer is someone who has sold the item to someone else and does not want them to know what the price he/she paid to you was, or

(b) The buyer is  overseas, and they are playing games with the Customs in the country where they live.  Here in Colombia, they are very fair and I believe very knowledgeable, with regard to import taxes that may or may not need to be paid and with regard to what people are actually paying for things in the USA. Since this thread is about textbooks, books come into Colombia tax free, so trying to evade taxes on them would not be an issue. However, in other countries, that may be a very different matter.   I always enclose a screenshot with the purchase information of each item, for Colombian Customs. 

 

OT: Kudos to our Receiver/Forwarder in Miami, FL, USA,  for the carton we received Tuesday at Noon.  I paid them, Saturday morning, and it was in Bogota, waiting for Customs clearance on Sunday morning and it was delivered to our house on Tuesday.   :-)   

[yucabird]

Sorry to hijack....Lanny, may I ask what mail service you are using?  Mine is also in Miami.  They do a okay job, but I am not wild about their "volumetric" pricing rates.    

[Tap]

I think it is a book broker. The broker sold the book to a person and are having you ship it directlty to his buyer. That is why he doesn't want pricing in the package.

[Katy]

I think it is a book broker. The broker sold the book to a person and are having you ship it directlty to his buyer. That is why he doesn't want pricing in the package.

 

That's creepy.  So sometimes when I pay more for a used book through Amazon (based on condition or location), it's possible I'm not even getting it from the person I ordered it from?

[Pippen]

I think it is a book broker. The broker sold the book to a person and are having you ship it directlty to his buyer. That is why he doesn't want pricing in the package.

 

I agree. It's a dropshipper.

[G5052]

I've had quite a few of those over years. Honestly it doesn't bother me. A sale is a sale.

 

It's happened so much that I actually never include the invoice and always include tracking. Media mail actually has some restrictions anyway on enclosures.

 

It's easier for me to do the same thing for every book. I'm not selling as much of late, but I used to send out 5-10 books a week.

[Tap]

That's creepy.  So sometimes when I pay more for a used book through Amazon (based on condition or location), it's possible I'm not even getting it from the person I ordered it from?

Yep.

 

This is a very common reason for people to get the wrong ISBN number or description different that advertised.  The seller doesn't even have the book in their possession.  Then if you complain about the condition, they just refund the money because they don't wan their reviews to drop and they honestly have no idea what was sent to you.

[Cindy in FL.]

I got that exact response from a buyer recently and I clicked the button to report it as suspicious. I held off shipping hoping to hear something and then got in a little bit of trouble for not shipping on time. I ignored the email and shipped exactly as I usually do. Weird!

[Katy]

Honestly I think I would include the invoice, just to discourage drop shipping.  Yuck.

[chocolatechip]

I'd ignore the email. If the buyer complains, I'd just say special requests need to be negotiated before purchase.

[Wildcat]

I'm selling lots of textbooks on Amazon.  Most are science and engineering.  I got this email at 0300 this morning.  The shipping address is for Norman, OK and I'm just outside Tulsa so it should get there early.  I don't know why he sent this email because I don't know why anyone would change the mailing address:

 

Here's the email:

Dear Seller,

 

I have just placed order with you. 

Please do not include any invoice with pricing.

Please mention the address in the same format provided on the order form. 

Please do not make any changes in the address format. 

The first line will help our system to identify your package.

As soon as you ship the order please help me with confirmation # or tracking #.

 

Thanks.

 

Any ideas why this is necessary? Do people actually make changes in the format - which is normal and the same as any other address?  Oh, and it appears the computer he is using is set to a day early.  He said he just ordered it but it shows a date of yesterday.  I guess maybe a parent in another country  might have ordered it...hmm...not sure why the pricing is an issue?

 

Well, I was going to call SCAM because something similar happened to me, except the person tried to say they never got the book. I have never heard of book brokers or drop shippers before (I learn something new every day on these boards!). I say, if you decide to go ahead and ship it, make sure you get insurance and tracking info to CYA!!

[katilac]

That's creepy.  So sometimes when I pay more for a used book through Amazon (based on condition or location), it's possible I'm not even getting it from the person I ordered it from?

 

 

Honestly I think I would include the invoice, just to discourage drop shipping.  Yuck.

 

I'm not sure why drop shipping is creepy or yucky? 

 

I'd ignore the email. If the buyer complains, I'd just say special requests need to be negotiated before purchase.

 

Why, though? They're mostly asking the seller to NOT do things, lol, not to do extra things. Asking the seller to not change the address is a precaution in case they don't buy and print shipping from Amazon (which will fill it in automatically). An invoice should not be enclosed if it's media mail, and if it's not, it's easy enough to not print it, package it, and send it. Sure, a seller might mistakenly do so, but there's no reason to do so on purpose. 

 

If seller uses Amazon shipping, the buyer will automatically be notified and able to track the shipment if it's not sent media mail. 

 

I certainly wouldn't add tracking if they didn't pay for that shipping, and I wouldn't reply to the email, but I'd have no problem not including an invoice (really the only thing one might have to on purpose, but I never print and mail invoices; there's no reason to). 

[Katy]

The only times I've sold books on Amazon I've not only printed the invoice, I included a thank you note.  It got me great seller reviews.

[Lanny]

Sorry to hijack....Lanny, may I ask what mail service you are using?  Mine is also in Miami.  They do a okay job, but I am not wild about their "volumetric" pricing rates.    

 

 

CoordinadoraUSA.  I signed up with them during December 2012, so we have been using them for 2.67 years.

 

https://www.coordinadorausa.com/

 

 

In the dispatch information I send to them, when all of the items for a consolidated shipment are there, I always ask them to inspect, to verify that what we received is exactly what we ordered and that it is in the condition the seller stated. Once, this year or last year, the person working on our Consolidation called, because the textbook wasn't  like she thought it should be. :hurray:  I put DD on the phone and the lady explained what she saw in the textbook and DD told her to go ahead and ship it to us.

 

The past 3 or 4  shipments, there is a problem with the Screenshots I attach (one for the purchase of each item) on their Dispatch form. They call my cell phone (I wish they would call our landline phone...) and then I resend the Screenshots as email attachments and then they get them OK. Some kind of a glitch with their web form, when I attach the screenshots, that causes them not to be viewable or not to be there.

 

They have local phone numbers in Bogota, Medellin and Cali that are answered in Miami.

 

Their minimum charge is for 6 pounds.  Sometimes we are above that and pay for extra pounds, other times we are right at 6 pounds. The carton that came this week was only 4 pounds, but it had a warranty replacement DVD drive for DDs laptop, which we needed. Although Blair replaced it free, I explained to them that I wanted it insured, so I declared the lowest price I saw on Ebay for one of those Dell DVD drives. In this case, it was 3 computer items and those come in free of Duty (10% Arancel) and there is no Value Added Tax ( IVA 16%) on packages of less than a total of USD$200.

 

They charge $2 per item for Consolidating, and they charge for materials.  The things we receive (including the 3 Refurbished laptops we've purchased from Blair Technology Group) have come very well packed. It is very unusual for them to send anything to us in the original carton, but the carton that came Tuesday was a carton that a Logitech keyboard was sent in to Miami, and they put the other 2 items into that and wrapped it in Black Plastic. Which is to say that Amazon shipped the keyboard in a carton that was way too big for that keyboard...

 

They have (or had) a list of things that are exempt from Colombian taxes. That includes Books, Laptop computers, Vitamins and many other things.

 

DD has received at least 2 textbooks that had their front and back covers protected with cardboard, and then were wrapped with a lot of  clear and protective plastic.

 

I believe they can (normally) clear things in Colombian Customs (DIAN) in Bogota on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday. Usually, but not always, our things are in/out of Customs the same day, unless they have an avalanche of packages to clear, or, a problem with their staffing or system or something.

 

After Customs releases the packages, Coordinadora in Colombia sends them (in our case) in an overnight freight truck to Cali and they are usually delivered to our house the same day the truck arrives in Cali. Usually that's about a 10 hour trip.

 

If we did not use CoordinadoraUSA the other company we have a lot of respect for is TCC.  Both are top notch.

 

OT: The charges for shipping the Dell Latitude E6400 laptops have ranged I believe from about USD$28 to USD$32. Something like that. Those cartons weigh 8 or 9 pounds.  The 4 pound carton we received Tuesday was $27.50.   I believe the absolute minimum now is about USD$22.  We paid that, to ship a book about Disney World that was hot off the press and that we need to *Study*, right before I knew that Blair would be sending us a replacement DVD drive, or I would have had all of those things in one carton and saved about $20...

[mommymilkies]

Weird.  I read this, checked my email, and had the same thing happen.  Super odd since I swear I deleted all of my amazon listings since we're moving...

[katilac]

The only times I've sold books on Amazon I've not only printed the invoice, I included a thank you note.  It got me great seller reviews.

 

Do you ship media mail? If they happen to inspect your box, it's going to come right back to you. No additional items in media mail. 

[Murphy101]

Do you ship media mail? If they happen to inspect your box, it's going to come right back to you. No additional items in media mail.

I've always done it too even with media mail. I place it inside one of the books. Never had a single problem with it.

[Junie]

 we have been using them for 2.67 years.

 

 

 

:laugh: Lanny, this made me laugh.  Ds gets so upset with me sometimes because I round generously and not to his specifications.

 

He would say something like 2.67.  I would say 2.5.   I have no hope of ever being a chemist. ;)

[Lanny]

I believe it would be very unusual for a Seller to include an Invoice in a package they send to a Buyer. I believe it would be more common, for a Seller to include a Packing Slip. Since I do not actually see the packages that arrive for us in Miami, I have no idea what papers, if any, are included. I believe if there were papers, they would include them in the cartons they ship to us. The only papers I knew were coming were in the 3 cartons with the 3 Refurbished laptops we purchased from Blair, and I did ask them to include those papers, when they ship the laptops to us. 

 

With books, I always ask them to confirm that the ISBN number on the back cover oif the book is an ISBN  number I have provided to them. Very recently, there was a Mass Market Paperback Novel for the first semester of  DD's 9th grade English course. When the carton came, I saw that the ISBN number on the back cover was not what I expected it to be. However, on one of the first pages of the book, the ISBN number I was expecting was printed on the page. That was a paperback book and it had been in a public library (in North Dakota and now it is here, in our house, in a Tropical Valley) and apparently library editions have different ISBN numbers, because of the reinforced covers they have.  It was a book I'd paid one cent for, plus $3.99 shipping.

[Katy]

Do you ship media mail? If they happen to inspect your box, it's going to come right back to you. No additional items in media mail. 

 

Yes.  In fact I used to work for a small publishing company and it was standard there to put the invoice in too. I seriously doubt the post office would consider the invoice or a small thank you note an "Item" since the person who trained me to fill in for shipping was retired from the post office.

[Word Nerd]

An invoice and thank you are fine from what I've seen.

 

USPS says:

6.4

Incidental First-Class Mail Attachments and Enclosures

Incidental First-Class Mail matter may be enclosed in or attached to any Media Mail or Library Mail piece without payment of First-Class Mail postage. An incidental First-Class Mail attachment or enclosure must be matter that, if mailed separately, would require First-Class Mail postage, is closely associated with but secondary to the host piece, and is prepared so as not to interfere with postal processing. An incidental First-Class Mail attachment or enclosure may be a bill for the product or publication, a statement of account for past products or publications, or a personal message or greeting included with a product, publication, or parcel. Postage at the Media Mail or Library Mail price for the host piece is based on the combined weight of the host piece and the incidental First-Class Mail attachment or enclosure.

[yucabird]

Lanny, thank you so much for writing that!  I'm in Mexico, so I don't think CoordinadoraUSA will work, but it is clear the service you receive is far better than mine.  I will check out TCC.  

 

You have prompted me into a change I probably should have made some while ago -- thanks again!     

[Lanny]

Lanny, thank you so much for writing that!  I'm in Mexico, so I don't think CoordinadoraUSA will work, but it is clear the service you receive is far better than mine.  I will check out TCC.  

 

You have prompted me into a change I probably should have made some while ago -- thanks again!     

 

 

@YucaBird  you are welcome.   Coordinadora is a domestic company here in Colombia, as is TCC. You should look for the best companies, like them, in Mexico. You probably have a lot of alternatives available to you. I had planned to move to Mexico (Cancun) and there were a lot of services available many years ago. I'm sure there are more available now.  

 

For years, we used a service here like MailBoxesEtc that allowed us to receive mail in the states, as well as packages, but they raised their rates so much that we cancelled that service, years ago. With CoordinadoraUSA, we cannot receive mail, but they do a great job for us with packages.

[Pippen]

Do you ship media mail? If they happen to inspect your box, it's going to come right back to you. No additional items in media mail. 

 

Actually I believe the guidelines prohibit advertising materials from being included in media mail. Packing materials without advertising and invoices are acceptable, as are personal messages.

 

Section 6.3 specifies invoices. 6.4 personal notes.

http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm#1113611

[katilac]

Interesting! My post office always questions if there is anything else in the package, they've even specifically asked if a letter or note was included. Apparently they haven't read the rules, either. 

 

 

[Clear Creek]

I'm selling lots of textbooks on Amazon.  Most are science and engineering.  I got this email at 0300 this morning.  The shipping address is for Norman, OK and I'm just outside Tulsa so it should get there early.  I don't know why he sent this email because I don't know why anyone would change the mailing address:

 

Here's the email:

Dear Seller,

 

I have just placed order with you. 

Please do not include any invoice with pricing.

Please mention the address in the same format provided on the order form. 

Please do not make any changes in the address format. 

The first line will help our system to identify your package.

As soon as you ship the order please help me with confirmation # or tracking #.

 

Thanks.

 

Any ideas why this is necessary? Do people actually make changes in the format - which is normal and the same as any other address?  Oh, and it appears the computer he is using is set to a day early.  He said he just ordered it but it shows a date of yesterday.  I guess maybe a parent in another country  might have ordered it...hmm...not sure why the pricing is an issue?

 

More than once I have ordered something from Ebay, only to have the item shipped via Amazon Prime. Apparently people make money by selling an item they don't have on Ebay and then when someone buys it, they order it from Amazon for less money and have it directly shipped to the buyer. They don't want the invoice included because the buyer will be upset that they could have ordered it from Amazon directly for less money (as I was, lol), which will prevent them from ordering from the same Ebay seller again in the future.

 

 

[Wildcat]

Interesting! My post office always questions if there is anything else in the package, they've even specifically asked if a letter or note was included. Apparently they haven't read the rules, either. 

 

The post office locations (yes, plural) I go to also ask if there is anything at all in there and specify "receipt, thank you post it, anything at all".  I wonder if I should start placing a copy of the rules WITH the books I ship??

[Wildcat]

More than once I have ordered something from Ebay, only to have the item shipped via Amazon Prime. Apparently people make money by selling an item they don't have on Ebay and then when someone buys it, they order it from Amazon for less money and have it directly shipped to the buyer. They don't want the invoice included because the buyer will be upset that they could have ordered it from Amazon directly for less money (as I was, lol), which will prevent them from ordering from the same Ebay seller again in the future.

 

 

 

How would that even work? 

 

Here is what I'm not getting about the book brokers etc. If I buy a book from seller X, and they don't have the book and buy it from seller Y, how is it that seller Y knows to ship it to me? I thought they were sent my address from Amazon. Unless people are talking about other sites that don't automatically provide the ship to address to the seller?

[Katy]

How would that even work? 

 

Here is what I'm not getting about the book brokers etc. If I buy a book from seller X, and they don't have the book and buy it from seller Y, how is it that seller Y knows to ship it to me? I thought they were sent my address from Amazon. Unless people are talking about other sites that don't automatically provide the ship to address to the seller?

 

You'd just order it like it's a gift and ship to a different address.

[Miss Marple]

Thank you all for the responses.  I think it probably is a drop-ship thing.  I wonder how it works if the other party is not satisfied with the purchase.  Does it come back to me through the middle man?  Strange way to do business lol.  Oh, well...we shall see :)

[kiwik]

Was it a largish amount? The day before thing suggests NZ or Aus and we have tax issues that kick in at NZ$400 which is a lot less in US than it used to be. NZ post has a forwarding warehouse and now a collation service and they would probably declare it if the invoices in total exceeded the limit.

[laundrycrisis]

I would refund and relist. I always put in my descriptions that I will only ship to the address on the Amazon or Ebay account.

[Lanny]

I would refund and relist. I always put in my descriptions that I will only ship to the address on the Amazon or Ebay account.

 

 

People can (positively) have multiple Shipping Addresses in their Amazon accounts. We do, although I can't remember the last time we used one other than that of our Receiver/Forwarder in Miami.  If I would want them to ship to another of the Shipping Addresses, I would just go in and check the box for the Shipping Address I wanted them to ship to, or, add another, new, Shipping Address into the list.

 

I believe there can also be multiple Shipping Addresses on eBay, but I'm not sure about that, because I haven't looked at that for some time. Many eBay Sellers specify in their listings that they will only ship to an eBay confirmed shipping address. The address of our Receiver/Forwarder in Miami is in that category.

 

To an earlier comment in this thread: The Logitech USB Keyboard we received Tuesday was purchased from an eBay Seller. Unusual, but our Receiver/Forwarder not only sent that, but the Laptop Battery and the replacement Dell DVD Drive, in the carton they received the keyboard in. The Logitech Keyboard was purchased from an eBay seller in MI.  It was sent incredibly fast, via FedEx.  I believe it was sent from TX, according to the FedEx Tracking web site. However, the label on the carton showed Amazon Fulfillment in Hebron KY.  Possibly that is an example of someone selling something he didn't have, then buying it on Amazon and having it sent via Amazon Prime?

[Katy]

I guess my problem with drop shipping is that several times I have given a lower review for items that aren't shipped from the location of the seller before.  I have purposely chosen to pay more for closer sellers because they're in the one day delivery area for UPS before (item marked as being shipped UPS). If I have to wait an extra week because something is coming from Maine instead of Tulsa or Wichita it really ticks me off.  Doubly so if something is coming from China and not the USA when I purposely chose a seller with a domestic address.