Counterfeit Products and Ebays` response

[ratso208]

Yet again EBay fail to live up to their counterfeit products "poilcy" . After purchasing a cycle chain to fit to a customers` bike from a company claiming to be a UK seller I got the delivery. Straight away I could tell this was not a genuine Shimano product (incorrect spelling on the flimsy packaging, no instruction leaflet, incorrect cheapo joining link and far too light for this model). When checking the seller (that uses UK SELLER logos all over their images) I of course find that they are in fact based in China. Okay, we all know this happens despite Ebay being well aware and sometimes it`s no problem. However when you have a safety critical product then counterfeits are super dangerous (if you have ever ridden a bicycle or motorbike and had a chain snap you will know what I`m talking about). As usual the Chinese based seller does not want to accept a return so offers 50% refund - why the heck would I want a partial refund on this rubbish? No thanks - stick to my guns , tell the seller its a fake and get a full refund and the chain goes in the bin.

All that is a pain but okay (apart from the awful waste of resources and time) but as this is a dangerous item I thought I`d take the time to report to Ebay as they have such a comprehensive policy regarding their zero tolerance of counterfeit goods (Yup , I do like a little sarcasm). Well what a waste of time - I report all the issues and include several photos proving the product a fake and it gets passed to an AI for checking. A few minutes later I get an email telling me the AI has checked and the listing does not violate Ebay policies. I even appealed and got the same answer shortly after.

So when their customers (of over 20 years) tell them their website is selling fake goods Ebay no longer gives a monkeys. They are perfectly happy to carry on wasting customers time and money , pointlessly wasting the worlds` resources and even putting customers lives at risk just to get a few pence - THANKS A BUNCH EBAY!

If any Ebay employee would like to contact me regarding this I`d love to hear from you. As for the rest of you - be very carful out there and perhaps look elsewhere if you want a safety critical item that you are not sure about...... 

Rant over , nothing to see here.....

[red_magpie]

You don't undrstand how eBay works. If you believe a listed item to be counterfeit and report it, you will get the brain dead reply that everyone now receives. This is because eBay's policy is not to accept reports of counterfeits from anyone except the regisered brand rights owner. eBay's apology for AI keeps rejecting reports but seems unable to explain this policy, or to pass on eBay's own instruction that counterfeits should be reported to the brand owner. The brand owner can then report them to eBay under its VeRO scheme, see foot of page. When the item will be removed from sale.

However, if you actually buy a suspected counterfeit and open a money back guaranteee case eBay's response is very different. The will accept your word that the item is not as described and require the seller to refund you. The item has to be returned if the seller wishes to have it back, but they are responsible for payng for the return. Note that eBay isn't necessarily agreeing that the item is counterfeit, they are just automatically taking your word against the seller's as they do for almost all alleged faults in money back guarantee cases.

If your item is a fake you should use the money back guarantee to get a refund. If the seller is in China and doesn't have a registered address in the UK they may try to make you pay for the international return. If this happens, we can pass on the advice that an eBay rep. once gave here about how customer support can enforce this requirement, even for international returns.