EBay Fake golf clubs case comes to an end

Kevinmarkham

There's a lesson to be learned here!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6813387/Fake-golf-club-criminals-jailed-for-biggest-fraud-eBay-has-ever-seen.html

george67

96'000 transactions a lot of people conned !

stockdam

When you are 65 you can have a 43 year old wife?

Kevinmarkham

stockdam wrote: »

When you are 65 you can have a 43 year old wife?

I wondered how long it would be before someone noticed that. I think it had something to do with the size of his driver. All 96,000 of them

Mister Sifter

Kevin, you've just made my day!

'Gary Bellchambers, 45, of Rainham' got almost 200 of my hard earned euro in 2007.

Tom Ghostwood

Mister Sifter wrote: »

Kevin, you've just made my day!

'Gary Bellchambers, 45, of Rainham' got almost 200 of my hard earned euro in 2007.

Did you notice it was fake? What'd you buy?

Mister Sifter

Tom Ghostwood wrote: »

Did you notice it was fake? What'd you buy?

Taylor Made Superquad. I had my suspicions about it from the get-go, but i hit it superbly. It wasn't until it was sent to Taylor Made to get one of the moveable weight ports fixed that it came back with a big sticker on it with words to the effect of 'this is a copy, cannot fix'.

To the naked eye, you'd never have known it was fake. It was only when it was put up against a real one in a pro shop that the pro was able to point out a few very slight differences.

Tom Ghostwood

Crafty ba5tards! Not so bad though, at least it was playable. I bought a north face gortex jacket a few weeks back off a guy in china. Probably fake but its a good one & only cost 60e incl p&p. Im not swinging a jacket at 100mph though

stockdam

Most of these fakes now are probably difficult to spot unless you examine them against a similar but genuine club.

It's a growing trend and many seem to come from China. It could have a big effect if not nipped in the bud. Yes we all like bargains but if the big companies stop designing clubs then who would replace them.......the Chinese fakers?

death1234567

and emails from some of the defendants recorded a complaint from a customer who found a tropical spider's nest in the cavity of a club.

Hard to tell that one was fake, I hear Callaway are shipping all new five irons with a murder of crows living in the cavity

G1032

Mister Sifter wrote: »

To the naked eye, you'd never have known it was fake. It was only when it was put up against a real one in a pro shop that the pro was able to point out a few very slight differences.

On a lot of brands now there are serial numbers on the hosel. To register the club you need to enter the serial number. On the fake clubs the serial numbers won't be accepted...........

Mister Sifter

ronaldochokes wrote: »

On a lot of brands now there are serial numbers on the hosel. To register the club you need to enter the serial number. On the fake clubs the serial numbers won't be accepted...........

Yeah, there is a serial number on the hosel of mine too - and that was the reason i bought it in the first place. First thing i did when i got it was register it with Taylor Made's website. It seemed to accept it too, but the website at that time didn't have a system whereby it told you if the club was fake or not. It may have changed since.

Waesfjord

Having used Ebay quite a lot and been caught out a couple of times, here is best way for buying gear including golf gear, still no guarantee.

Before purchasing, either get a copy of receipt when originally purchased, or ask for serial number. Serial # can be checked by Pink UK and TaylowMade Adidas UK, Callaway also I think. Unsure about other brands, probably so.

Not all serial #'s will be known to them, but most will be, so if they recognise them, at leats then you known the serial # (not necessarily the club) is correct.

When received, check against a new club in a pro shop.

Always pay via PayPal. Always start a claim on PP before the time limit is up, to get PP protection, even if not sure (e.g. genuine delivery delay). Easy to cancel, impossible to start a complaint of too late.
Also raise issue with credit card company as it is they who facilitated purchase. Again I think only have 6weeks from purchase in Ireland to raise dispute.

Ebay don't care if counterfeits are sold on this site so don't rely on them for help - business is business to them, regardless. I got caught up in one last year, they didn't reply to any emails from me on issue, or about 100 others who set up a group on Ebay user forums, even though police investigating etc.

Grumble over