5 ms·

>He won’t reveal how he shipped in a generic box; he calls it a trade secret. Does anybody know how this was done and what the secret was?

by atesti 10y ago

ikeboy 10y ago
My guess is some kind of request to Amazon customer service will do it, but don't have first-hand knowledge that that will work.
- mthoms 10y ago
  If the item is provided to Amazon in it's own shipping-worthy box wouldn't Amazon just ship it as-is? Boxing it again only adds labor[1] and material costs. Granted, that would only work if you only bought one item. If you bought multiple items they would have to be packaged together in another Amazon-branded box. [1] Labor and/or robot maintenance costs.
  - ikeboy 10y ago
    Generally items aren't sent that way, or the box has markings on the outside. Anyway the dropshipper couldn't know this for sure.
PascLeRasc 10y ago
Maybe you mark the order as a gift? I've ordered some bigger things from Amazon like desktop PC cases that have arrived in boxes that have the name on them.
loopdoend 10y ago
Some drop shippers also do repackaging, which is probably the keyword you're after.
Snuggly1 10y ago
Hello everyone. This is Fred Ruckel, the Ripple Rug inventor. I am so pleased this story has sparked a conversation amongst some of the tech elite so to speak. The article only lightly touches on all I uncovered, there is much more to come. I have a long evidence trail that shows Amazon employees are behind the vast majority of arbitraging. That's right, the people we trust with our product are the ones actually stealing it. The plain box shipping issue provided us a direct evidence trail proving it is happening internally at Amazon. I have tracked it down the the Hebron Kentucky warehouse. Together with Entrepreneur Magazines editor we conducted a test buy/sting op. He ordered it; I tracked it on the back side of my Amazon seller account. I watched as the person used their prime account to ship it from my own inventory to the magazine editor. We have all the tracking data, blank boxes, even their real names on their Amazon account. I ran this operation a handful of times, always with the same results. This is an internal operation at Amazon. When I informed Amazon about the issues at Hebron, and offered my evidence, everything went haywire. Within few hours of reporting it, my entire inventory was placed in reserve (over $10,000 worth) and locked down for all of June. I was completely locked out of my own inventory. Amazon was also the multi-channel fulfillment center for my website. In a blink, both of my sales channels were shut down entirely. The arbitragers flexed their muscle to show me who' the boss' in the situation was. Both my website and Amazon were now out of stock in retaliation to my reporting it to Amazon. Ironically, all my inventory was sidelined at that very same Hebron fulfillment center. This was no coincidence. Hebron center is the root of the arbitrage ring in my situation, but other warehouses participate as well. I found 3 other centers also have arbitrage rings, or they work together, but I have data for all of it. I proved conclusively, and repetitively that there is corruption within Amazon. I ran the same operation over and over yielding the same results. It may not be Amazon itself, however Amazons employees are running the show when it comes to the high level arbitraging. I recorded phone calls, have screen shots of everything. I sent Amazon lengthy message detailing everything. Amazon has turned a blind eye. These Amazon employees have the ability to manipulate the package details, inventory status, boxing preference, pretty much free run of the Amazon computer systems to do as they wish. they actually 'ghost' information so it looks as if nothing was manipulated (lucky i screen shot everything). Lastly, when i tracked the real names of these people involved, they all live within a few miles of an Amazon fulfillment center and the all have computer science background. this is not a small isolated incident. I can prove millions in losses to this scheme, and with some digging, it might be billions. crazy days ahead thanks for any insight you can provide Fred
- ThunderGorilla 10y ago
  Have you tried emailing jeff@amazon.com with your evidence?
- kirse 10y ago
  It's partially the Brand-Neutral Box / Packing Slip services offered by Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201101040 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=... FWIW, these are going away come Sept 1, 2016 anyway: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3672102&tstart=0 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageI... My advice to you is to focus less on the hassle caused by eBay arbitragers and focus more on growing your product lines... I sell on AZ and have experienced various issues with return fraud, competitors messing with listing descriptions, Chinese counterfeit takeovers, feedback fraud, etc. At one point I had a competitor order & ship 40+ items and then return them all in unsalable condition. You can only fight it so much before you realize your energy is best spent growing your bottom line rather than trying to solve the 1% that is a nuisance. Best thing to do is document everything though and keep a well-regulated forward press on the AZ Seller Support, as you've been doing. But don't let it consume you.
- someguydave 10y ago
  It is a shame that Amazon allows its employees to act against its own customer's interests. Amazon stands to lose a large amount of money if sellers and buyers begin to mistrust it.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  This seems like a good reason to handle shipping yourself; if the shipping outsourcing partner is this untrustworthy, it's just not worth it.
- squozzer 10y ago
  Maybe a lawsuit or an inquiry from a regulatory agency would wake AZ up. "Employee arbitrage" is a fancy term for skimming or maybe even embezzlement.

>He won’t reveal how he shipped in a generic box; he calls it a trade secret. Does anybody know how this was done and what the secret was?

by atesti 10y ago

>He won’t reveal how he shipped in a generic box; he calls it a trade secret. Does anybody know how this was done and what the secret was?

ikeboy 10y ago

My guess is some kind of request to Amazon customer service will do it, but don't have first-hand knowledge that that will work.

mthoms 10y ago
If the item is provided to Amazon in it's own shipping-worthy box wouldn't Amazon just ship it as-is? Boxing it again only adds labor[1] and material costs. Granted, that would only work if you only bought one item. If you bought multiple items they would have to be packaged together in another Amazon-branded box. [1] Labor and/or robot maintenance costs.
- ikeboy 10y ago
  Generally items aren't sent that way, or the box has markings on the outside. Anyway the dropshipper couldn't know this for sure.

PascLeRasc 10y ago

Maybe you mark the order as a gift? I've ordered some bigger things from Amazon like desktop PC cases that have arrived in boxes that have the name on them.

loopdoend 10y ago

Some drop shippers also do repackaging, which is probably the keyword you're after.

Snuggly1 10y ago

Hello everyone. This is Fred Ruckel, the Ripple Rug inventor. I am so pleased this story has sparked a conversation amongst some of the tech elite so to speak. The article only lightly touches on all I uncovered, there is much more to come. I have a long evidence trail that shows Amazon employees are behind the vast majority of arbitraging. That's right, the people we trust with our product are the ones actually stealing it. The plain box shipping issue provided us a direct evidence trail proving it is happening internally at Amazon. I have tracked it down the the Hebron Kentucky warehouse. Together with Entrepreneur Magazines editor we conducted a test buy/sting op. He ordered it; I tracked it on the back side of my Amazon seller account. I watched as the person used their prime account to ship it from my own inventory to the magazine editor. We have all the tracking data, blank boxes, even their real names on their Amazon account. I ran this operation a handful of times, always with the same results. This is an internal operation at Amazon. When I informed Amazon about the issues at Hebron, and offered my evidence, everything went haywire. Within few hours of reporting it, my entire inventory was placed in reserve (over $10,000 worth) and locked down for all of June. I was completely locked out of my own inventory. Amazon was also the multi-channel fulfillment center for my website. In a blink, both of my sales channels were shut down entirely. The arbitragers flexed their muscle to show me who' the boss' in the situation was. Both my website and Amazon were now out of stock in retaliation to my reporting it to Amazon. Ironically, all my inventory was sidelined at that very same Hebron fulfillment center. This was no coincidence. Hebron center is the root of the arbitrage ring in my situation, but other warehouses participate as well. I found 3 other centers also have arbitrage rings, or they work together, but I have data for all of it. I proved conclusively, and repetitively that there is corruption within Amazon. I ran the same operation over and over yielding the same results. It may not be Amazon itself, however Amazons employees are running the show when it comes to the high level arbitraging. I recorded phone calls, have screen shots of everything. I sent Amazon lengthy message detailing everything. Amazon has turned a blind eye. These Amazon employees have the ability to manipulate the package details, inventory status, boxing preference, pretty much free run of the Amazon computer systems to do as they wish. they actually 'ghost' information so it looks as if nothing was manipulated (lucky i screen shot everything). Lastly, when i tracked the real names of these people involved, they all live within a few miles of an Amazon fulfillment center and the all have computer science background. this is not a small isolated incident. I can prove millions in losses to this scheme, and with some digging, it might be billions. crazy days ahead thanks for any insight you can provide Fred

ThunderGorilla 10y ago
Have you tried emailing jeff@amazon.com with your evidence?
kirse 10y ago
It's partially the Brand-Neutral Box / Packing Slip services offered by Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201101040 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=... FWIW, these are going away come Sept 1, 2016 anyway: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3672102&tstart=0 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageI... My advice to you is to focus less on the hassle caused by eBay arbitragers and focus more on growing your product lines... I sell on AZ and have experienced various issues with return fraud, competitors messing with listing descriptions, Chinese counterfeit takeovers, feedback fraud, etc. At one point I had a competitor order & ship 40+ items and then return them all in unsalable condition. You can only fight it so much before you realize your energy is best spent growing your bottom line rather than trying to solve the 1% that is a nuisance. Best thing to do is document everything though and keep a well-regulated forward press on the AZ Seller Support, as you've been doing. But don't let it consume you.
someguydave 10y ago
It is a shame that Amazon allows its employees to act against its own customer's interests. Amazon stands to lose a large amount of money if sellers and buyers begin to mistrust it.
Grishnakh 10y ago
This seems like a good reason to handle shipping yourself; if the shipping outsourcing partner is this untrustworthy, it's just not worth it.
squozzer 10y ago
Maybe a lawsuit or an inquiry from a regulatory agency would wake AZ up. "Employee arbitrage" is a fancy term for skimming or maybe even embezzlement.