Peter Whitlock made his name known in the eCommerce space via Instagram. The platform’s influence on his personal brand is so strong that he’s usually referred to as Ecom Whitlock, his Instagram handle. Seeing the success he had, lots started to copy him and his approach. Unfortunately, it’s the scammers that did it to a T and pretended to be Ecom Whitlock themselves to, well, scam people. A hassle to the REAL Ecom Whitlock, but I couldn’t care less. Here’s why:
NEXT: Compare This To Amazon Dropshipping
What if I tell you that Peter, the real Ecom Whitlock, is a bit of a scammer himself? Pretty bold accusation, I know, but hear me out. It’s not as deliberate as his copycats siphoning money with nothing in return, but any lil scam is still a scam nonetheless. Sure, Peter gives something. Specifically, a course that reveals a business opportunity to profit off Amazon. But what if Peter’s something turns out to be also nothing? How ‘bout that?
I’ve reviewed a lot of sh*tty programs that promises big, yet delivers little to nothing. Pretty bad already, but the thing here is Peter takes it up a notch. Not only is he not able to deliver results, he’s also lying about the business opportunity and its compliance to policies. Forget about being viable when the biz he’s suggesting is just one call away from being halted completely.
Confused? Don’t worry, I got you. First thing, I’ll fill you in with the deets regarding his course. If he’s Ecom Whitlock, his LLC is, then, Flying Ecom. Out of flying f*cks to give probably, he stopped trying to be “creative” with names and call the course Amazon Dropshipping course. A boring, but very apt name for a course that teaches real estate… Just kidding, it’s Amazon dropshipping, duh!
Amazon allows dropshipping, alright. However, Peter’s approach on doing it doesn’t fit what Amazon sees as acceptable. In other words, what Peter suggests violates the dropshipping policies of Amazon. But how? Let us discuss side-by-side Peter’s approach and the said policies.
His approach first. Here, he’ll have you order directly from online retailers, the likes of Overstock dot com and Wayfair, and not from suppliers. Basically, you’ll use the shipping info from Amazon and relay it to the said online retailers, so they can process and ship the order to “your Amazon customers” themselves. The cheaper the retailer’s prices compared to your Amazon listing price, the better profit margin for you.
Now, let’s talk about the policies. Aside from accepting and processing customer returns yourself, the requirement for those who fulfill orders through dropshipping are as follows: One, you must always be the seller of record of your products, meaning you identify yourself as the seller of your products on all information included with the item; and two, remove any information identifying the third-party dropshipper before shipping.
With you ordering from online retailers, they’ll indicate themselves, and not you, as the seller of the product on the packing slip. And you can’t force them to use your name otherwise because, again, they’re a retailer, and not a supplier. This is suggested, so you have more freedom to try out different products and see what sells. No negotiation required unlike dealing with suppliers. However, using a retailer’s service on Amazon is a no-no since their way of fulfilling the orders on your behalf clearly violates Amazon’s policy.
You might get away for some time, but trust me, it only takes a complaint from one confused customer of yours to get your store completely shutdown. Just imagine their puzzled look when they ordered from you, then saw someone else’s name on the package. If I were to receive that, I’ll complain too. Complaints lead to investigations, and investigations lead eventually to shutdown. Then, the said shutdown means all your Amazon funds gone and $997 as the cost of buying Ecom Whitlock, er, Peter’s Amazon Dropshipping course wasted. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend the said course.
You might ask, hey J, if he and his course is THAT bad, why did he gain some traction on the ‘gram, then? Oh, you sweet summer child. I’ll just remind you that paid promotions exist. He got noticed not because he showed great promise as a mentor, but because he’s promoted by big propaganda, er, political pages with cult following.
I’m talking about millions of followers here. So, the promotion will likely reach those who value suggestions of who they look up to and they’ll get curious of Peter. One way or another, the news spread to others, now curious on why everyone’s curious. A domino effect of some sort that leads to Peter getting the clout. Don’t chase the hype, um-kay?
