Fake memory stick on eBay

infuzion · 6 May 2008

Here in the USA, it would be considered mail fraud, a national/federal offense, reportable to US Postal Service. Also, the FBI has a department that handles these things. You can call your credit card company & report it also. You can complain to eBay, but they don't usually respond.

I hope you didn't leave a comment yet. I waited to comment when I bought a controller that came with some "free" Reason Refills, which ended up being bootlegs. Then I commented it so, & killed his rating.

angstrom · 6 May 2008

just send it back and get your money back. There's a good chance the retailer is simply inexperienced and will stop selling the bad memory if you tell them.

My brother runs an internet retail company and bought a load of branded sticks from China at a cheap price. He said to me that he had a feeling that something was weird about them and I took a look ... and said you bought " Samdisk memory? It's Sandisk you idiot!" .

He gave them out to friends and family, but in a different circumstance he could have easily sold a load of them without knowing there was a serious problem. Many Ebay retailers are very small scale and very inexperienced.

---

actually - what was the ebay trader name? I'm gonna laugh if it's my brother (although I doubt it, as he's pretty good and well established now)

electrogear · 6 May 2008

angstrom wrote: just send it back and get your money back. There's a good chance the retailer is simply inexperienced and will stop selling the bad memory if you tell them.

My brother runs an internet retail company and bought a load of branded sticks from China at a cheap price. He said to me that he had a feeling that something was weird about them and I took a look ... and said you bought " Samdisk memory? It's Sandisk you idiot!" .

He gave them out to friends and family, but in a different circumstance he could have easily sold a load of them without knowing there was a serious problem. Many Ebay retailers are very small scale and very inexperienced.

---

actually - what was the ebay trader name? I'm gonna laugh if it's my brother (although I doubt it, as he's pretty good and well established now)

I won't disclose his name for obvious reasons, but he has been in contact and asked me to send it back to him. In the meantime, I had been in touch with Kingston and they've asked me to disclose details of the transaction. I don't want to get him in trouble now that he has offered a refund, but if he's asking me to send it back then it does make me a bit suspicious as to why he wants it back.... he's probably not keen on me having the evidence I imagine...? He says he's going to get in touch with his supplier, but looking at his feedback, he's sold other counterfeit items in the past....

infuzion · 7 May 2008

angstrom wrote: ..I took a look ... and said you bought " Samdisk memory? It's Sandisk you idiot!"

LOL 😀

electrogear wrote: In the meantime, I had been in touch with Kingston and they've asked me to disclose details of the transaction. I don't want to get him in trouble now that he has offered a refund...

He could be (even if innocently) trashing other people's computers using Kingston's good name; I'd disclose the info to Kingston, perhaps after you get the money.

Yea, China is very bad about bootlegging; they stole the designs for TV transmitters that from my Step-father's company, & they never could recoup after that.

Chinese = design bootleggers as Europeans/Americans = software/MP3 bootleggers

electrogear · 7 May 2008

I checked eBay today, and he's put up a new listing with another 10 USB sticks. He offered a refund if I sent it back, but that's not gonna happen so it's up to Paypal to decide the outcome now. I've given full details to Kingston. I don't feel bad about that at all, he shouldn't continue to sell them if he knows they are fake.

Tom7777 · 7 May 2008

Kinda sucks but it seems ebay has a lot of dodgey stuff even though its got a lot of decent stuff also, it's kind of like one of those french markets where they have all the dodgey cloned versions of all the popular brands etc. Theres also people selling cd's of freeware vsts etc also and they seem to get away with it.

electrogear · 8 May 2008

Tom7777 wrote: Theres also people selling cd's of freeware vsts etc also and they seem to get away with it.

Believe it or not, it IS actually legal. They supposedly give the freeware away for free, and charge for materials and the time it took to locate the files. As long as the files are on the public domain and are freeware (free to distribute with no inflicting terms) then it is legal. of course in reality they are making money, but there's no way that can be proved really....

Acrobat · 8 May 2008

electrogear wrote: Tom7777 wrote: Theres also people selling cd's of freeware vsts etc also and they seem to get away with it.

Believe it or not, it IS actually legal. They supposedly give the freeware away for free, and charge for materials and the time it took to locate the files. As long as the files are on the public domain and are freeware (free to distribute with no inflicting terms) then it is legal. of course in reality they are making money, but there's no way that can be proved really....

A freeware software can always be accompained by a text file with the diciture "Not to be redistributed or included in any compilation" etc.. etc."

electrogear · 9 May 2008

Acrobat wrote: A freeware software can always be accompained by a text file with the diciture "Not to be redistributed or included in any compilation" etc.. etc."

Yeah, that's why I said 'with no inflicting terms'. The problem here is that if the text file is removed & redistributed, it is almost impossible to pin the blame to any individual, as they could always use the excuse that they were given the freeware by somebody else, and they weren't aware of any text file....

ARKZERO · 9 May 2008

hai m8 me too ive had a little bother from ebay sellers in the past i sent off for a midi interface and cables for my brother it was a M-Audio USB Midisport 2x2 going for £20 from a seemingly well rated seller in Japan

well the gear never arrived! i got no replies to any of my e`mails to ebay or the seller and the money was never returned to my paypal acc 🙁

the seller still continues to trade at ebay to this very day! now £20 is nothing! ive lost more running for a bus lol but it was really annoying to get ripped off 😠

i found this blog that shows how bad sellers can beat the ebay seller rating system. http://badebayers.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/bad-ebayers/ makes interesting reading!

and this for ultimate revenge on a bad ebayer! http://www.amirtofangsazan.blogspot.com/

regards ark

Acrobat · 9 May 2008

ARKZERO wrote: hai m8 me too ive had a little bother from ebay sellers in the past i sent off for a midi interface and cables for my brother it was a M-Audio USB Midisport 2x2 going for £20 from a seemingly well rated seller in Japan

well the gear never arrived! i got no replies to any of my e`mails to ebay or the seller and the money was never returned to my paypal acc 🙁

the seller still continues to trade at ebay to this very day! now £20 is nothing! ive lost more running for a bus lol but it was really annoying to get ripped off 😠

i found this blog that shows how bad sellers can beat the ebay seller rating system. http://badebayers.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/bad-ebayers/ makes interesting reading!

and this for ultimate revenge on a bad ebayer! http://www.amirtofangsazan.blogspot.com/

regards ark

there's the protection system which refunds you. I always buy from people PAYPAL certificated, who have many stars and the protection system (checking if the money refund is larger than the actual price of the item), it's the only way to keep safe. If these three requisites are passed, it's very difficult you will encounter problems... But I never tried international, only national...

electrogear · 9 May 2008

Acrobat wrote: there's the protection system which refunds you. I always buy from people PAYPAL certificated, who have many stars and the protection system (checking if the money refund is larger than the actual price of the item), it's the only way to keep safe. If these three requisites are passed, it's very difficult you will encounter problems... But I never tried international, only national...

I'm in a dilemma with this one. eBay told me NOT to send the item back in the mail, as it is illegal to send counterfeit items in the post. Paypal have completely contradicted this and told me to send the item back in the mail and provide proof of delivery. Basically they're asking me to break the law. What to do....

then again, it's only £15. I should probably just get over it 😀

Acrobat · 13 May 2008

electrogear wrote: I should probably just get over it 😀

I lost 100 euros for a couple cds ordered on psyshop, a german CDonline shop, I protested many times but they said the guilt was from italian mail services, that may be pretty true, anyway unconsciously I gave up buying from them.

Osseous · 13 May 2008

lol, i like the revenge on bad ebuyers website. very funny. 🙂

Acrobat · 14 May 2008

Osseous wrote: lol, i like the revenge on bad ebuyers website. very funny. 🙂

"bad boys, bad boys - whatcha gonna do When they come for you!" (Inner circle)

electrogear · 6 Jun 2008

OMG!!!!

I just bought another item from eBay and got ripped off yet again!!!! This time it was a R/C Hovercraft. The one advertised was a 'special mission' hovercraft that is supposed to be the biz, well at least it's supposed to work properly. Anyway, the one they sent wasn't a 'special mission' hovercraft, but a cheap one worth £9.99! I paid £29.99!! Anyway, I just rang them, they pretended they weren't aware, they were like, "Oh that's the only one we've got in stock at the moment" then she turns to her colleague and asks "do we have the special mission in stock" and he says "no not at the minute" so she says, "I'll ring you back OK"?

Ripped off twice in a month...

Andrew J · 7 Jun 2008

Well for a good news story, I just got a 50 pound refund for something that never got mailed after a purchase nearly a year ago. Faith in humanity partially restored!

electrogear · 24 Jun 2008

In the time since I posted my last message I've become pretty good at writing legally scary letters 🙂 I rang them 4 or 5 times over 2 weeks, and each time they told me they would process the refund 'the next day' which never happened.

The eBay Company (Ltd) I bought the R/C hovercraft from were basically sending out goods that looked similar to the ones in the listing/description, but were in fact cheap alternatives. The one they sent me at first glance looked like the one I had ordered, but when I got it out of the box & running (slowly) across the kitchen floor, I thought 'this is rubbish, hardly worth £79.99 (which was the RRP price they were advertising)'. When I checked the listing again the image on the listing didn't match the product they had sent. I did some more research, and I found the one they sent me I could have bought from a shop for £14.99. They had charged me £30 for a £15 product... also, the image in the listing was in fact a £79.99 model, so they were basically using that image/description for their crappy £15 model, making customers think they were getting a great (half-price) deal....

When I looked further back into their feedback system, I saw about 7 or 8 occurrences where this had happened with different items, items that they were still selling... and none of the buyers had received refunds. I realised that they were probably doing this on a pretty large scale, but many of the buyers would be unaware, or less inquisitive than I am.

Armed with this info, and info on the Sale Of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) I wrote an email saying that I knew what they were up to, and I wanted a refund, otherwise I would report them to trading standards/watchdog. Low and behold, the next day I received a FULL refund via Paypal - they didn't even ask me to send the item back (although during the previous phones calls they had asked me to send it back, otherwise I would only get a partial refund). I think by doing this they are basically admitting they are guilty. I think I'm still going to report them, I'm 99% sure that they are purposely scamming people, but I just don't know whether to or not. I did get a free hovercraft out of it after all... 😉

BasherT · 24 Jun 2008

You should report them Electrogear. Glad to see I am not the only lawyer on the SM forum! SOGA so good!! 😀