papercut2008uk Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 TL/DR Got a fake, emailed Ebay customer support and seller, what can i expect to happen?? (OCD over here!) i know, everyone will say dont buy off of ebay. :D so i bought a LED Lenser P17, after looking at the sellers feedback 1700+, going through the negative feedback it's about things not turning up and the seller being ill in hospital for a month so i disregarded it. bid, won, paid, then realised the seller is from China. Feck! so then i look all over the net for things to look at when i get it, what other people have found on them that are fake. when i get it, i look for everything, the slightest sign of it being a fake, nothing arouses my suspicion except the sellers address. so i'm relieved that it's most likely a genuine product. email LED lenser with the serial number, they say it's fake! contact seller, comes up with the usual bull, 'supplier sent samples and i sent one out to you by mistake' 'i make big loss, you get good bargain' then 'i refund you half and keep it'. i'm not risking using a fake unreliable torch, especially with all the fake stuff that has been exploding in china! as soon a i learnt it was a fake, i emailed Ebay about it, and then the seller, first he sort of confirms it's a fake, then he says it's not, then he says half refund, then full refund. waiting on what ebay will say. he has sold hundreds of these, i'm sure no one who bought one from him suspects they bought a fake, because they are really good fakes. so what should i do? wait, let ebay sort it out and they will most likely ruin his whole business? take the refund from the seller, (he wants positive feedback, which i'm not going to leave)? anyone know the process to all of this, never had to go through the whole 'fake product' thing. hopefully i'll be uploading some high resolution pictures of the 'fake' at some point, so anyone searching for it can find what to look for easier than i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techbeck Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 Get the refund and report to EBAY and let them decide what to do. Copy any email correspondence and send to EBAY as well. Regardless if the seller refunds the money, he wouldnt of if you didnt catch what he was trying to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 19, 2013 Author Share Posted September 19, 2013 can you believe thats a fake!? even the documentation looks real, the box, the torch, they even done the batteries! Charisma 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaP Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 You got to realise that lot of fake from china are pretty much the real deal. Everything is done there these days. Often they illegally get access to the plan and they are able to build a mostly perfect replica. If it performs as well as the original for 10-15% of the cost i say keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaP Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 can you believe thats a fake!? even the documentation looks real, the box, the torch, they even done the batteries! The people behind those fakes are often the same people who are in charge of the manufactory where the build the real product. They have access to all the plans, docs, expertise, etc ... they create a smaller home made manufactory whwre they build fake the same way the build the real ones for a fraction of the price. If you paid more than 25% of the real price then return it. If you paid 25% or under and it works i would not bother. Albert 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisp Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 as soon a i learnt it was a fake, i emailed Ebay about it, and then the seller, first he sort of confirms it's a fake, then he says it's not, then he says half refund, then full refund. waiting on what ebay will say. So he offered a full refund. Take it, bin the torch and move on. Albert 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anibal P Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 The people behind those fakes are often the same people who are in charge of the manufactory where the build the real product. They have access to all the plans, docs, expertise, etc ... they create a smaller home made manufactory whwre they build fake the same way the build the real ones for a fraction of the price. If you paid more than 25% of the real price then return it. If you paid 25% or under and it works i would not bother. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be something more like they ran the production line an extra hour everyday and used the extra production for cheap sales, who would know then and it's a lesser risk overall for them, if the company questioned anything they can easily claim it was to makeup for lost production or downtime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anibal P Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 So he offered a full refund. Take it, bin the torch and move on. Why throw it out? Get your full refund and use it with the knowledge it's "fake" and possibly unreliable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 19, 2013 Author Share Posted September 19, 2013 hopefully the seller is going to give me a refund on it tomorrow, i'll probably keep it, there seems to be a hell of a lot of the fakes about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COKid Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 In eBay, you can filter your results to US sellers only. I never buy international from an unknown seller. I hope you gave them some negative feedback and I would definitely let eBay know what happened. Albert 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxondale. Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 You got to realise that lot of fake from china are pretty much the real deal. Everything is done there these days. Often they illegally get access to the plan and they are able to build a mostly perfect replica. If it performs as well as the original for 10-15% of the cost i say keep it. This is so far from the truth. They can replicate the look of the product very well, but the build quality is shockingly low. I've seen thousands of these replica products in China, met people that buy them and i can confidently say that i haven't seen any that are close to the real deal. True, a lot of manufacturing gets done in China, but the factories that make these knockoffs aren't anything close to the quality that foxconn etc produce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John Teacake MVC Posted September 19, 2013 MVC Share Posted September 19, 2013 I love torches for some reason and this one looks cool (The real one lol)! Might have to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 19, 2013 Author Share Posted September 19, 2013 I love torches for some reason and this one looks cool (The real one lol)! Might have to check it out. i've got a few others, P5 and a P7. (which are Genuine! ) by far, the most surprising and the best is the P5, small, runs on 1 AA, and damn is it powerful! took it camping when i first got it, and i (along with everyone else) was surprised at how powerful it was, it lit up a whole cliff face, not the best running time, about 2-3 hours, but it's 1AA battery! the P7 is a little bulky, 4AAA, extremely powerful, has 2 settings, the full power is double the P5's and the second is about the same as the P5's output. lasts absolutely ages on the battery's. also got a little 'Mini Cyba-lite ETL5054' which is quite impressive for it's size. got a few others, but there nothing special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John Teacake MVC Posted September 19, 2013 MVC Share Posted September 19, 2013 I might have a look at the P5 then! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted September 19, 2013 Supervisor Share Posted September 19, 2013 This is so far from the truth. They can replicate the look of the product very well, but the build quality is shockingly low. I've seen thousands of these replica products in China, met people that buy them and i can confidently say that i haven't seen any that are close to the real deal. True, a lot of manufacturing gets done in China, but the factories that make these knockoffs aren't anything close to the quality that foxconn etc produce There are knockoffs, copies, and unreported inventory. Knockoffs are easy to spot and only superficial copies of the real product. Copies aim to be passed off as the real deal. Unreported inventory is the real deal - made from the same design, with the same materials, on the same equipment, in the same factory, just without records and without compensating the company that contracted production. You've probably seen knockoffs. You might have caught some copies. Off the books manufacturing is basically impossible to track down by simply looking at one sample. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 Ebay will always side with the buyer, so you'll definitely get your money back. The caveat is that they will probably make you ship it back to the seller, which won't be cheap since it's China. Depending on how much you paid, you might just have to chalk it up as a loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 19, 2013 Author Share Posted September 19, 2013 i got a full refund and he said keep the torch! although it's not genuine, i think it's a great result. not sure on what i should do now, should i ruin him and report him to trading standards (UK police/watchdog on fake/counterfeit products), or just let it go, as i got a full refund, no one who purchases from the guy will ever suspect they have a fake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxondale. Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 leave honest feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 20, 2013 Author Share Posted September 20, 2013 he's been pestering me to leave 'positive 5 stars', getting a little annoyed about it, haven't left any yet, going to think about what kind of feedback i can leave so people will get an idea he sells fakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoochieMamma Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 Leave neutral at least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 23, 2013 Author Share Posted September 23, 2013 Update: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99208797@N02/sets/72157635703337146/ some of the buyers i've informed have also found out that theirs are fakes, they have also contacted Ebay. also got a message from Trading standards London, turns out this is the first time they have heard about fake LED Lenser products being sold, they plan on buying one from the seller to investigate. they also informed me that the seller is from China and uses a trading estate in London to ship goods, probably why the items are listed as in UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papercut2008uk Posted September 25, 2013 Author Share Posted September 25, 2013 Just got a message from the seller, guess he knows who reported him. :woot: 'Conglatuation sir.. You made my account down.. I can't sell anything on ebay from now on. MC008 MC067 Restricted 100% We can't sell anything on ebay in the futurn... best regards' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neufuse Veteran Posted September 25, 2013 Veteran Share Posted September 25, 2013 Just got a message from the seller, guess he knows who reported him. :woot: 'Conglatuation sir.. You made my account down.. I can't sell anything on ebay from now on. MC008 MC067 Restricted 100% We can't sell anything on ebay in the futurn... best regards' eh, wont stop them from starting up a new account and starting all over again :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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