Shafted by ebay seller - what to do?

Khannie

I shelled out for an 8GB memory stick for my PSP. I went with an ebay seller with 99.7% positive feedback thinking that was a safe way to go, but it looks like it's a fake. I wrote to them saying that the memory stick was slow etc. and asking where we should go from there (auction says there is a lifetime warranty), but I expect it to end badly.

Was just wondering if anyone has any advice on what to do about this? Should I just suck it up and leave the negative feedback? I assume they will just do the same to my account (though I have paid in full for the item). Is that the way it works if you leave negative feedback?

edit: Hmmm...just noticed....they got back to me within about 3 minutes saying they would exchange. I am 99.9% certain the memory stick is fake mind you.

jor el

Khannie wrote: »

but it looks like it's a fake.

That tends to be the way with memory sticks. Even though all the sellers say they're genuine, they never are. You can report the seller to Sony and eBay for selling fakes. Sony take it very seriously too and will get the sellers account closed.

I wrote to them saying that the memory stick was slow etc. and asking where we should go from there (auction says there is a lifetime warranty), but I expect it to end badly.

I have a couple of fakes sticks and one of them is extremely slow. The cost of returning it didn't make it worth doing.

Was just wondering if anyone has any advice on what to do about this? Should I just suck it up and leave the negative feedback? I assume they will just do the same to my account (though I have paid in full for the item). Is that the way it works if you leave negative feedback?

The feedback thing can be a tricky one. You run the risk of them leaving negative for you, even though you did nothing wrong. You could start a dispute in Paypal (if you paid with Paypal) citing that it's significantly not as described (it is fake after all). You'll be responsible for the cost of returning the card, by registered post, which if it's to somewhere like HK or the US will be about €10. May not be worth doing if the card wasn't very expensive.

jor el

Khannie wrote: »

edit: Hmmm...just noticed....they got back to me within about 3 minutes saying they would exchange. I am 99.9% certain the memory stick is fake mind you.

He'll probably exchange it for another fake. Could be faster though. Some of them aren't as slow as others.

Khannie

Thanks for the replies Jor el.

Hmmmm. If I report him to sony / ebay I'm likely to lose my memory stick anyway? It's an 8G stick. Cost me around 70 euro, so not insignificant.

The return address is actually in the UK. I think I'll try that out first. If I get a card that's fast and stores 8G I'm actually happy enough. The current card does actually store 8G of data (I did a binary compare, so it's definitely working).

edit: lol@sig link cnn in a cartoon!

quinnray

Khannie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies Jor el.

Hmmmm. If I report him to sony / ebay I'm likely to lose my memory stick anyway? It's an 8G stick. Cost me around 70 euro, so not insignificant.

The return address is actually in the UK. I think I'll try that out first. If I get a card that's fast and stores 8G I'm actually happy enough. The current card does actually store 8G of data (I did a binary compare, so it's definitely working).

edit: lol@sig link cnn in a cartoon!

Same thing happened me.
Got a fake that wouldn't store much more than 1GB.
Disputed it on paypal on 8th Decmeber.
Returned the item to the seller via registered post.
Paypal are 'reviewing the case' for the last 3 weeks.
Still waiting outcome.

In the PSP menu you can see if the card has magicgate (real)
As with all fakes mine did not.

Padraig Mor

eBay has really gone to **** these days with all the fakes. I bought some Gillette Fusion blades recently - or so I thought until I used them and they ripped the face off me!

quinnray

Jezz, I didn't know fake razors existed..
I also bought some clothes recently described as "100% Genuine",
turned out to be fakes.
For some items most of the ebay listings are fake.
I read for PSP cards, it's 95% fake.. uughh

vasch_ro

Khannie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies Jor el.

Hmmmm. If I report him to sony / ebay I'm likely to lose my memory stick anyway? It's an 8G stick. Cost me around 70 euro, so not insignificant.

The return address is actually in the UK. I think I'll try that out first. If I get a card that's fast and stores 8G I'm actually happy enough. The current card does actually store 8G of data (I did a binary compare, so it's definitely working).

edit: lol@sig link cnn in a cartoon!

did you do the magic gate test ? is it 100% fake ?

Khannie

I did do that MagicGate test, yeah. Wasn't aware of it before now. A kind soul on the playstation forum helped me to confirm that it is a fake.

Vikings

PayPal won't ask you to return a fake item if you file a claim for it. You will however have to provide proof that it is fake.

Sometimes what can happen is the seller will respond to a claim (before PayPal review it) and ask you to return it to them which is where that comes about, but PayPal can't ask you to return an item that is counterfeit.

If you can prove that it is fake then I recommend a claim with PayPal.

edit.. sorry, by proof I mean you will need a report from a 3rd party which confirms the item is fake.

Khannie

Vikings wrote: »

edit.. sorry, by proof I mean you will need a report from a 3rd party which confirms the item is fake.

Nice one, cheers. Sony UK say that if you post them the memory stick they will confirm if it is counterfeit. I could do that alright.

Vikings

Ok if you are going to do that then I'd recommed you post the stick to Sony first and get the report from them.

Once you have the report then file the dispute with PayPal (you have up to 45 days to file the dispute from when you paid for the item) because once you are requested to get the report you need to provide it within 10 days, and if you have to send it off to Sony first then it might take a little longer than that.

quinnray

In my case paypal did not ask for a report, they just asked me to verifiably return the item to the seller.

Vikings

I can't say for certain without seeing your case but I would wager that it was the seller in your case who asked for you to return your item to them, not PayPal.

A seller is given three options when a not as described claim is filed against them: 1 is to disagree, 2 is to straight out refund the buyer and 3 is to issue a refund when the item is returned.

If the seller chooses option 2 or 3 then PayPal have no involvement in the decision making of the claim.

quinnray

Yes, I think the seller chose option 3.
But I'm still waiting on a refund...

Colonel Sanders

ebay is getting laughable lately.

Btw 99.7% feedback means eff all, people are afraid to leave negative feedback as it'll mean unwarranted negatives for them. Its a complete you slap my back I'll slap yours mentality. The feedback system isn't worth a sh!t.

Khannie

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

The feedback system isn't worth a sh!t.

Always wondered about that. Seemed that people would be afraid to leave negative feedback alright.

eoinhealy

quinnray wrote: »

Same thing happened me.
Got a fake that wouldn't store much more than 1GB.
Disputed it on paypal on 8th Decmeber.
Returned the item to the seller via registered post.
Paypal are 'reviewing the case' for the last 3 weeks.
Still waiting outcome.

Thing about PayPal is, if they have Limited the sellers account then it could be 180 days before any money is released from it, so dont get your hopes up about getting your money back any time soon.

You might want to take a look here. I was shafted by paypal over xmas too so did a little research on them and came up with this among a huge amount of other stuff about them, they seem to be the biggest scammers out there.

Just be warned, I would hate to see anyone fall into there trap. People have lost everything because of them!

www.paypalwarning.com

It will make you think twice about using PayPal at all.

Access

Just to let ye all know, that is you suspect a memory stick is running slow you can check the read write speed with a progam called "HD Tach" (google it)

I got a 2gb card for my sons PSP and it was running very slow. checked it using the program and found the read speed to be 2.2mb/s when it should be at least 4 - 6mb/s!!!

(Sorry to go off topic, but i found it to be handy for sussing out fake or slow cards)

Anyways, with all the cheap mem cards on ebay at the moment, i find that its better to take a chance then fork out €100+ for a 4gb card in maplins or argos! It just happens that sometimes it can seem like a lucky dip with the card that gets posted out to you.

jor el

Access wrote: »

Anyways, with all the cheap mem cards on ebay at the moment, i find that its better to take a chance then fork out €100+ for a 4gb card in maplins or argos! It just happens that sometimes it can seem like a lucky dip with the card that gets posted out to you.

Sites such as www.mymemory.co.uk do official Sony 4G sticks for £32 (about €43). At these prices, it's not worth going to eBay and risk getting a slow or fake one anymore. Back when it was £100 for official, and £40 for quite possibly fake ones on eBay, it was worth the chance. The price on eBay now seems to be in the region of £15-20, not a huge saving anymore.

eamon234

Khannie wrote: »

I shelled out for an 8GB memory stick for my PSP. I went with an ebay seller with 99.7% positive feedback thinking that was a safe way to go, but it looks like it's a fake.

OK they had 99.7% feedback but what was their score? You can sell one item and have 100% feedback - doesn't mean you're a good seller. If their score is high I'd give them the benefit of the doubt - it means they've sold a lot of items without problems. It's possible they were unaware the card was fake.
I'd take the exchange. If the score is low though I wouldn't give 'em an inch report them straight away.
eBay is gone to the dogs though I'm really getting sick of it and I've been with them since day one. They're really not doing enough to stop the scamming it's getting worse every day.

Vikings

eoinhealy wrote: »

You might want to take a look here. I was shafted by paypal over xmas too so did a little research on them and came up with this among a huge amount of other stuff about them, they seem to be the biggest scammers out there.

Just be warned, I would hate to see anyone fall into there trap. People have lost everything because of them!

www.paypalwarning.com

It will make you think twice about using PayPal at all.

I would also recommend www.paypalsucks.com if you are interested in that type of reading.

How exactly were you shafted if you don't mind me asking? Just out of interest

Khannie

Well....I sent the card back and received another one. This one was much more authentic looking, but still fake crap. Write speed was faster, but still very slow. Just now it has stopped working (will only write 4G). Baxtards.

I've just opened a dispute through paypal. I'll report back on the outcome.

eamon234 wrote: »

OK they had 99.7% feedback but what was their score? You can sell one item and have 100% feedback - doesn't mean you're a good seller. If their score is high I'd give them the benefit of the doubt - it means they've sold a lot of items without problems. It's possible they were unaware the card was fake.

Just got this now. They had a very high score. Several thousand transactions. I'll be going with a real company from now on tbh. Not worth the potential money saved.