Ebay Reporting fakes is useless, Ebay seem to condone fake items being listed!

[pjbracer1]

I like to browse for things like watches and other luxury items to keep up to date with pricing and trends, and maye find a bargain!

Of late i was looking at Rolex GMT Master 2, and found several items clearly fakes but with people placing bids on I assume what they think is a bargain, they even had the authenticty blue tick! 

I know a fair bit about them as ive been a watch nerd for many years and owned a few, I decided to use the report function to hopefully save some poor person being scammed out of money and a fair chunck of it too. 

I reported them as counterfeit which they are, and some were laughable, they were so bad! All of the items reported were allowed to continue after and ebay customer servcie person reviewed them and found them not to be in conflict with the there terms! 

This has to raise questions on the safety of any value items listed and that the authentcitiy program is also not fit for purpose (i appreciate that its happens after the sale but perhaps a quic glance at the listing by a pro for high value items wouldnt go a miss and and to stop alterations after any edits require re-apporval by a pro so stop listing a gen item nd then updating pics to the couneterfeit or not even bothering.

There is on the other hand the idea that this is not a listing for the item at all and is just a fake listing to pay for other types of goods, in plane sight, as it often the case of "getting paid" through legitimate channels so to speak! 

I guess i dont expect Ebay to really care in the slightest however they, do have a duty of care. 

Food for thought but for anyone reading this be extra careful with any high value items even if through a high posi feedback account, its worth checking the previous sale items as many will be pennies and ebay only allow the last 6 month or so! they should at list put the desctipion for the listings on the feeback previous sales to stop that too! 

Good luck and browse safe 

[samyoza]

I reported 6 obvious fake watches today, one even had a AAA replica sticker on the face.

ebay got back to me and said.....

" We looked into your report and didn't find the listing to be in violation of or policy, this decision was made by a customer service agent."

They were obvious fakes being sold as genuine high end watches, the Agent wants sacking as he/she is not doing his job.

This illegal activity has been ignored by ebay, so let us see if Trading Standards are interested.

There are so many obvious fake watches being peddled as genuine on ebay - that it has become embarrassing.

[dch2112011]

Ebay seem to have adopted the policy that they will only take action against sellers of fake items if the complaint comes from the rights holder or trading standards.

Reports from members are simply responded to with the standard no violation response probably because ebay do not feel that it is worth their while endorsing their change in policy towards fake goods - it simply would not cast them in a good light.

I suspect that like all things ebay they only take action when forced to do so (it affects their income) as a result ebay is perfectly happy to be known as the place to be for the dishonest, scammers and conmen. 

ebay justify this by proudly touting their MBG as the saviour for all the unsavoury traders and buyers on ebay. 

Sadly the MBG is very limited in the protection it gives - once 30 days are up - no protection - private seller businesses - limited protection - cancellations within the law -  no protection - poor feedback - removed at will - sellers claiming authentic or offering guarantees or fake copyright - no protection 

[beerbeerbeer!]

I have , in the last week, reported two items that are clearly counterfeit as the manufacturer do not sell these items separately, therefore they have to be fake.....

eBay dismissed my report out of hand and when i appealed, they did the same....

eBay are clearly uninterested in removing clearly fake items, they are actively facilitating the selling of fake goods , they dont care at all

Another reason why i dumped eBay ..... sooner a large manufacturer sue them the better

[dch2112011]

A couple of major heavy weight manufacturers did take ebay to task concerning sellers selling their branded items without permission - these manufacturers were serious heavyweights and the result was the introduction of the VERO program to avoid legal action which ebay considered would not end happily !

[lucy_farmer]

'Ebay seem to have adopted the policy that they will only take action against sellers of fake items if the complaint comes from the rights holder or trading standards.'

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Well, ebay's largest selling customer base is probably Chinese. And China is well known for being the home of, shall we say, ...'copies' 😎.

If ebay chased down the sellers of fakes they'd lose a fortune....

[pjbracer1]

Of course it's best nothing is done about it! Just because there are a lot of Chinese sellers on there doesn't mean they are all selling fakes! 

The point is if something is reported then its should be reviewed not just a tick box exercise by Stevie Wonder! The cant do it at source but if a report is made then it should be fit for purpose! 

[owt4sale]

Reporting an item is a waste of time. Reported someone selling FAKE iPhones, openly stating they were fake and running Android, eBay replied stating it didn't go against their policy of selling counterfeit goods. eBay give zero fks and will get worse. They are so big now they really don't give a hoot what gets sold on their platform, and will continue to screw over sellers.

[fishy-people]

I couldn't agree more. 

I am a nerd for Alpine car audio and its just the same . 

Slowly falling out of love with ebay. 

[navichron]

An excellent observation.  I also reported an outrageous Ollech & Wajs chronograph fake, having previously discussed it with the seller who didn't seem too bothered.  Everything about it is in flagrant breach of eBay's 'Counterfeit Items' policy, but my report was rejected; I think eBay must have used AI in an attempt to filter key words.  Undeterred I appealed, requesting that a human being review what was blindingly obvious, but to no avail.  I've come to the conclusion that unless you're certain about what you're buying then it's best to avoid.  I do feel sorry for those who buy fake rubbish in ignorance; goodness knows if/how eBay supports a buyer when they learn their mistake.

[idunno2000]

To be honest I dont think they do do support buyers, Ive heard some horror stories on the Rolex forum of the untrained making a purchase trusting the Authenticity Guaranteed feature, which you would hope would be inspect by a professional or someone who know what to look out for, but as some replicas are getting hard to spot they can slip through the net. To be fair to the authenticators they wont open the watch up to inspect the movement but perhaps that should be performed and if it isnt then ebay have to refund the buyer in the event of a fake. The 3 people Ive heard about said they bought it in good faith and when they looked at it they thought something was "off" often after someone cast doubt in their mind, making them think the other person knows something they dont! So had it inspected at an RSC or similar watch outfit to authenticate only to find it was a high end fake! And even when they presented evidence to Ebay BPP from the official Rolex Service centre Ebay refused to accept that their authenticity program was at fault and did nothing.

Now Im sure there could be cases where someone really in the know and that has the skills has purchased the legitimate item and them maybe harvested some parts like movement, dial and hands and maybe the bracelet, and then tried to return it as being a fake and getting a refund stiffing the seller, but i suspect this to be very rare and this is also what the authenticate program is supposed to help both parties.

Facts are Ive seen plenty of fakes with bids on with the authenticate option and Ebay do nothing, so its either a fake sale for something else dodgy in the back ground or those that never make the reserve but a second chance offer get send to a punter who buys for a deal price but the authenticate option has been removed and they do not notice! 

Either way buyer blind like that without it being a brick and mortar or well known business is asking for trouble unless you can arrange to meet a watch specialist somewhere of your choosing who can authenticate it for a fee there and then or risk losing out. Which is a shame as Im sure there are some deals to be had but its just too dodgy really.

Ebay are not interested in reality  

[edwardian-dreams]

Report the listings to the company concerned then eBay will be obliged to take them down I believe 

[idunno2000]

Already done that but in all fairness Rolex are not really that interested nor are the many other brands