4 ms·

Reshipping centers, I don't want to sound weird, are basically hives of scum and villainy in my opinion. I was selling something Ebay (a phone) and I got a rea

Reshipping centers, I don't want to sound weird, are basically hives of scum and villainy in my opinion. I was selling something Ebay (a phone) and I got a really weird address, it was a shipping center. I googled around because I got a strange vibe, apparently, this shipping center had this issue all the time and didn't really care to stop it. I got a horrendous review from the person because I canceled the order and refused to ship it. I am wondering if fraud is honestly the business model of shipping centers. I can't really think of a good use for them nowadays, especially in a consumer context.

post_break 9y ago
I want to buy something that doesn't ship to my country, I use a shipping center.
zeroxfe 9y ago
Reshipping centers are used heavily by people outside the US to get access to goods sold online. Tons of stores (especially on Amazon) don't ship outside a few select countries, so customers pay a small fee to these reshipping centers to have packages forwarded to them.
- zodPod 9y ago
  Do they do the opposite too? I feel like there have been frequent times I've bought Chinese components (like bulk LEDs or something) on eBay from a seller that has an address in the US but it still took a long time (about on par with shipping from China) to get to me. Could that have been a person living in China selling stuff on ebay and having an address listed in the US to trick me?
  - dahdum 9y ago
    Those are dropshippers, many of those items you can order from Alibaba / Aliexpress and skip a layer of reseller.
    - gruez 9y ago
      definitely check the "ships from" to make sure it's not a dropshipper.
  - notatoad 9y ago
    the other reply says it's a "dropshipper" without explaining it. for anybody who doesn't know, drop shipping is the practice of ordering a product from your supplier to be directly shipped to your customer's address. In the case of ebay sellers with american addresses, it's not a chinese seller pretending to be american, it's an american seller pretending to have stock. they just place the order on a chinese site with your address as the shipping address. You're still doing business with an american, which is presumably what you wanted when you chose a seller with a US address.
    - boojums 9y ago
      I would guess the main reason have a preference for US-based would be due to shipping time.
      - notatoad 9y ago
        Both Amazon and eBay display the estimated shipping time much more prominently than the seller's address.
        zodPod 9y ago
        I don't do a lot of shopping on eBay anymore but this was a bigger problem back when I did for sure. I haven't been around since they started doing this accurately but it used to just be "Ships from US" so then you'd just "Oh ok so it shouldn't be more than a week"
    - zodPod 9y ago
      It's actually the shipping time I'm looking for. If a Chinese seller could get me an item in 2-3 days I'd buy from them no problem. It's the fact that it can take 2-4+ weeks to receive something that makes it a problem. I hate that they started doing this though. Why can't interactions just be reasonable and honest? Why does everyone have to try to trick you in to things?
Keverw 9y ago
Full time RVers and digital nomads in general use reshipping centers too. In like South Dakota, Nevada, Florida, Texas - they let you use mail forwarders (not a PO Box) on your driver licenses and registration. So say you order something and not sure when it will ship out, they'll ship it to their mail forwarder and then overnight ship all their packages and box of mail to them when they know they'll be in a area they'll use general delivery to a post office or campground if they allow receiving mail on your behalf there. If you stayed in a area for a week or two you can have everything sent there, or if you know you'll be passing through X town in a week. You can go ahead and 2 or 3 day ship something there to be ready to pick up once they get into town. Basically they hold everything until you tell them to send it to you. Some even also will list your envelopes and if you want to request for them to open it and scan it. So if you get a important letter and you are RVing in Utah or all the way in London you can still read your mail.
marsRoverDev 9y ago
On the flip side, some countries really need these places - Australia being a key example. The Australian Postal Service even runs their own in the US, in order to allow australians to order from the likes of amazon: https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/ https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/
- mappu 9y ago
  New Zealand Post runs one as well: https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop
pmtarantino 9y ago
I use reshipping centers a lot, even if the store ships internationally. There are two main reasons: 1 - I may buy a lot of things from Amazon. It's cheaper to pay US shipping for X times (sometimes they are free) and only one international shipping to my country. 2 - Customs taxes, etc. The company I use for reshipping takes care of everything. I pay them and they deliver the items to my house at the time I ask them to do it. If not, due to the policies of my country customs, I would have to attend a custom office for every item I purchased, which is a pain in the ass. Don't discriminate us, please.
- oh_sigh 9y ago
  Do the reshippers actually pay the duties to the countries or do they just pretend like you don't need to?
  - pmtarantino 9y ago
    They pay but it is included in the price I pay to them.
drdrey 9y ago
Relevant Reply-All story about a reshipping center used for fraud: https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/99-black-hole-new-jersey https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/99-black-hole-new-jers...

post_break 9y ago

I want to buy something that doesn't ship to my country, I use a shipping center.

zeroxfe 9y ago

Reshipping centers are used heavily by people outside the US to get access to goods sold online. Tons of stores (especially on Amazon) don't ship outside a few select countries, so customers pay a small fee to these reshipping centers to have packages forwarded to them.

zodPod 9y ago
Do they do the opposite too? I feel like there have been frequent times I've bought Chinese components (like bulk LEDs or something) on eBay from a seller that has an address in the US but it still took a long time (about on par with shipping from China) to get to me. Could that have been a person living in China selling stuff on ebay and having an address listed in the US to trick me?
- dahdum 9y ago
  Those are dropshippers, many of those items you can order from Alibaba / Aliexpress and skip a layer of reseller.
  - gruez 9y ago
    definitely check the "ships from" to make sure it's not a dropshipper.
- notatoad 9y ago
  the other reply says it's a "dropshipper" without explaining it. for anybody who doesn't know, drop shipping is the practice of ordering a product from your supplier to be directly shipped to your customer's address. In the case of ebay sellers with american addresses, it's not a chinese seller pretending to be american, it's an american seller pretending to have stock. they just place the order on a chinese site with your address as the shipping address. You're still doing business with an american, which is presumably what you wanted when you chose a seller with a US address.
  - boojums 9y ago
    I would guess the main reason have a preference for US-based would be due to shipping time.
    - notatoad 9y ago
      Both Amazon and eBay display the estimated shipping time much more prominently than the seller's address.
      - zodPod 9y ago
        I don't do a lot of shopping on eBay anymore but this was a bigger problem back when I did for sure. I haven't been around since they started doing this accurately but it used to just be "Ships from US" so then you'd just "Oh ok so it shouldn't be more than a week"
  - zodPod 9y ago
    It's actually the shipping time I'm looking for. If a Chinese seller could get me an item in 2-3 days I'd buy from them no problem. It's the fact that it can take 2-4+ weeks to receive something that makes it a problem. I hate that they started doing this though. Why can't interactions just be reasonable and honest? Why does everyone have to try to trick you in to things?

Keverw 9y ago

Full time RVers and digital nomads in general use reshipping centers too. In like South Dakota, Nevada, Florida, Texas - they let you use mail forwarders (not a PO Box) on your driver licenses and registration. So say you order something and not sure when it will ship out, they'll ship it to their mail forwarder and then overnight ship all their packages and box of mail to them when they know they'll be in a area they'll use general delivery to a post office or campground if they allow receiving mail on your behalf there. If you stayed in a area for a week or two you can have everything sent there, or if you know you'll be passing through X town in a week. You can go ahead and 2 or 3 day ship something there to be ready to pick up once they get into town. Basically they hold everything until you tell them to send it to you. Some even also will list your envelopes and if you want to request for them to open it and scan it. So if you get a important letter and you are RVing in Utah or all the way in London you can still read your mail.

marsRoverDev 9y ago

On the flip side, some countries really need these places - Australia being a key example. The Australian Postal Service even runs their own in the US, in order to allow australians to order from the likes of amazon: https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/ https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/

mappu 9y ago
New Zealand Post runs one as well: https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop

pmtarantino 9y ago

I use reshipping centers a lot, even if the store ships internationally. There are two main reasons: 1 - I may buy a lot of things from Amazon. It's cheaper to pay US shipping for X times (sometimes they are free) and only one international shipping to my country. 2 - Customs taxes, etc. The company I use for reshipping takes care of everything. I pay them and they deliver the items to my house at the time I ask them to do it. If not, due to the policies of my country customs, I would have to attend a custom office for every item I purchased, which is a pain in the ass. Don't discriminate us, please.

oh_sigh 9y ago
Do the reshippers actually pay the duties to the countries or do they just pretend like you don't need to?
- pmtarantino 9y ago
  They pay but it is included in the price I pay to them.

drdrey 9y ago

Relevant Reply-All story about a reshipping center used for fraud: https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/99-black-hole-new-jersey https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/99-black-hole-new-jers...