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There are several ebay stores using our photographs (lifted from our website) to offer Windstone for sale. They do not have permission to do this, and MOST LIKELY, they do not have the items in hand (we had one such ebay seller buy things from us to fill their ebay store order after they got their ebay store order). This has been going on for some time now. When the package is received by the buyer, it may have someone else’s name on it with their own address. A scam of some sort is going on and we are not happy about it and hope that you do not patronize sellers who operate in this manner.
If you see someone showing Windsdtone store photos to illustrate the item they are offering for sale, have the seller email you a current photo of the actual product with a slip of paper with the current date and their name written on it contained within the photograph. This way you can see what they are actually selling and confirm that they have the item in hand.
Because of this issue, we are stopping the ability to buy something from us and have it shipped to an address other than that of the buyer. We apologize for this inconvenience – it may take longer to have a gift shipped to yourself and then to resend it to your loved one.
Edit: We hope that this change to our webstore is temporary. If you must have something shipped to a different address from your own, please contact me at service@windstoneeditions.com
More edit: We think that if you pay with paypal you can put your ship to location address in. If you pay with credit card, I believe the address you give us needs to match that of the card.
I’ll be honest here. This is a very upsetting change. I fail to see how unauthorized eBay sellers using stock photos to sell items relates to individual people buying gifts for others or PYOs to have shipped directly to the person who is receiving the gift or painting the commission. This now means paying double (or triple in the case of PYOs) for shipping and having the additional likelihood of an item getting damaged in transit. So, I buy a PYO piece that I would normally have sent directly to the painter. But, now you’re not allowing that, so instead of paying two shipping fees, I pay three – from you to me, from me to the recipient, and then from them back?
I ship to my house so I can use UPS. My billing address is the PO box but I can’t trust USPS to put a notice in my box that my package arrived or to not deliver my package to the wrong box. UPS is much better so not sure what to do there.
It sounds like they’re drop-shipping. They’re sellers who charge more for the same item, then buy off the official websites, have them ship it to the buyer, and the drop-shipper pockets the difference. It’s a real crappy thing to do, because the buyer could just get it off the websites for like half the price.
We hope that this change is temporary! We needed a way to stop the scammer orders before we accidentally filled them. They may be using stolen credit cards to make the purchases from us.
If you need to have something shipped to a different address from your billing address – please contact me and I’ll see what I can do! email service@windstoneeditions.com -Susie
I totally understand the issue with unauthorized ebay sellers. I’ve been seeing htem for awhile and have wondered what was going on. To sell an item you don’t have is unscrupulous but Amazon resellers have been doing it for years. It also means buyers don’t really know what they are getting until it arrives. What if it arrives damaged… who then is responsible?
In the case of Windstone, I feel it is very unfair to the loyal buyers and to Windstone Editions to have an unuathorized reseller selling things directly from the Windstone website. That person doesn’t have to bear the costs of maintaining a website or shipping service. It’s underhanded. And it’s less stock for the loyal customers to choose from. I should also add, to use a photo without authorization is stealing as it’s proprietary information belonging to Windstone. I support their decision even if it it is a minor inconvenience to some.You guys are the best ❤️
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Toaster Dragon)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.Update on the “two address” situation: For those concerned about having a billing address that is different from your shipping address, we are planning to allow different addresses when we add a new product to our store so that during a big rush on our store, ordering should not be difficult. Meantime, while the store will only allow one address, please put a Customer Note on your order or email me if you have difficulty placing your order. My hope is that the scammer will give up and go away if they cannot buy anything from us easily. -Susie service@windstoneeditions.com
Update on this scam situation as of early Sept 10, 2025: Our restricting orders to billing and shipping addresses that match seems to have stopped the “Triangulation Fraud” ebay seller for the moment. Thank you for putting up with the inconvenience of not being able to put a different shipping from billing address in when placing an order.
Triangulation Fraud is where someone sells something they don’t have (in this case they lifted photos from our website to show their customers – ALWAYS ask the seller to show you real time photos of the item you want to buy) and then buys the item from us, using a stolen credit card to make the purchase. They have us ship the item to their customer (not knowing we are doing this for them), then when the owner of the credit card complains of fraudulent activity on their credit card – our company gets a charge back . The result is that the customer of the scammer gets their item (but wonders why its addressed to another person), the scammer has been paid by that customer, and our company gets no money and has sent out product to fill the order.
If you notice any sellers showing pictures that look like the ones on our website, please let us know! We thank the sharp eyed collectors who alerted us to these photos that several ebay sellers were displaying, and the help from a couple of the scammer’s victims who helped us see what was going on.
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