www.nightvisionforumuk.com

I've bought a dozen things from our far east cousins over the last 3 months and 8 of them have been a clear case of misrepresentation. Mostly these have been batteries with vastly overstated mah ratings but the last one was a screen with stated 800x480 res but actual of 480x234 res. In the first three cases I called ebay customer service to explain the issue before writing to the seller.

At first they just told me that it is normal for the buyer to pay return postage.

In each case I explained that this wasn't just a case of a faulty item or an honest mistake, it was a case of deliberate scamming and the seller hiding behind a return policy where it would cost the buyer more to return than the worth of the goods.

Ebay then told me that I should still try to negotiate with the seller but not to pay for the return. I should tell the seller to send me a return label through the resolution centre and not accept anything less.

They said that in cases of deliberate misrepresentation where I couldn't persuade the seller to "do the right thing" then they would step in and force a resolution.

In each case the seller, as you can imagine has twisted and turned like a stuck pander and ebay has eventually stepped in and forced a full refund with me keeping the goods also.

I just thought I'd share this as, although it's a little bit of work, it's a way to get your money back.

Incidentally two of my purchases were through paypal but not from ebay, so paypal l also seem to uphold this principle.

Unfortunately in none of the cases did ebay remove the scammer listings.

The only seller to voluntarily give me a refund (cave in) was the screen seller. My ebay trail is below for your delectation, best to read it from the bottom up.




05 Jul
The seller issued a refund for £13.79
Reason for closing
Return closed with refund
04 Jul
You sent a message
First you offer my GBP& and now you offer me GBP6!!? and you are still misleading other buyers in your listing by pretending that your low res screen is a high res screen even after I have pointed this out twice. This is clear evidence that you are not an honest person/company, you are a fraudster. I will wait for ebay to step in on 9 july and force my money out of you and I request that the very least they do is to remove your listing and also give you a formal reprimand. It is only a pity that you are not in England as I would be taking you to court over this.
04 Jul
The seller sent you a message
Dear buyer, Thanks for your pictures. I am very sorry to hear that. How about we give GBP6 refund to solve this problem, then you can buy a new one. OK? Thanks for your understanding. Looking forward your reply. Best Regards
02 Jul
You sent a message
I have checked return postage costs from the UK and they are more than the cost of the item and I will not pay for the postage. I have checked with the Ebayu customer service team and in cases of clear mis representation like this ebay expects the seller to provide a return label. You have mis represented these goods as something they are not and I should not be out of pocket as a consequence. You need to send me a postage label via the resolution centre for me to send the goods back. You also need to reword your fraudulent listing, something that I see you haven't done yet even though I have brought it to your attention that your goods are not as described. This turns you from a merely incompetent seller to a cheating fraudster. I have just won an identical case against another cheat from china where ebay stepped in and took the money back off them. You will save us all a lot of time if you do the right thing and just give me my money back.
02 Jul
The seller sent you a message
Sorry for the trouble. Would you mind paying for the postage? Then we will show you the HK return address and refund the order's money to you,is that OK? Looking forward to your early reply.
01 Jul
You sent a message
Hi thank you for the offer of the refund up front that is very honorable of you and of course I accept but please double check as you got the number wrong the refund is actually £13.79 thank you.
01 Jul
The seller sent you a message
Dear buyer, So sorry for the inconvenience, how about we give you the GBP7 refund first? And Hope we can do something to make you feel better. Looking forward your reply. Best regards,
30 Jun
You requested a return
Reason for return
Doesn't match description or photos
Comments
I bought this Item specifically as it was described as a 800x480 resolution screen (high resolution). The Item delivered is only a 480x234 low resolution screen. High resolution is critical to me as this screen must match my camera software which generates a one pixel wide reticle cross which must be crystal clear as it is moved about the screen. This is clearly a low cost low resolution screen as can be seen in the instructions and is therefore a different product entirely with only half the pixels per inch as that advertised.

And lastly, NEVER buy a screen from this bandit! or anything else for that matter!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-TFT-LCD-H ... TB:GB:3160

Good that you managed to get your refunds
If negotiating with emails fails to work, I am a big believer in a quick "VODOO CEREMONY" with vast numbers of long sharp needles and a lifelike plasticine effigy of the bad oriental person who attempted the scam.
When I tell them what I am doing it usually worries the hell out of them and they more often than not cough up.
Please excuse the bad humour about a serious subject but it is a bit quiet here and I could not help myself ?
Thanks Phil

Watch out for people that can't advertise correctly worded specifications.
the spec line;
"High-resolution picture: 800W * RGB * 480H" tells me that this is not an 800x400 display.


Notice to Li-ion cell buyers.
Check the advertised weight of the cell and see if watt hours per kilogram are actually possible.
There have been times when I bought really cheap cells in the past, like less than $2 Ultrafire cells knowing full well that they would only be good for low current applications and that I would have to do my own charge/discharge analysis for quality control.

one set of batteries I bought were listed as 14000mah both in the description and on the battery casing. When I tested them they were around 500-700mah. ebay upheld the case and I got my money back. As it happens the max discharge rate was critical as I was replacing the starter motor pack on my petrol strimmer. If however max discharge rate is not critical to you then they would have been ok-ish.

What I suppose I'm saying is that you can now use ebay to beat these scamming china sellers at their own game and balance the karma in the world.

Hell if you've got nowt better to do (or you want to start your own business) you could even buy a bunch of stuff from the obvious scammers, get your money back via the ebay mis representation rules and resell the gear on ebay with an Honest (ie western standard) description!!

Of course you probably wouldn't get away with this in any volume as ebay care about profit not principal, or they would be doing more about this already.

I think the ebay market place is just too big to police.
There are obvious 'not physically possible' ads about li-ion batteries out there.
It would be nice if ebay was up to date on technology and pulled ads that could not actually be possible in this world
(ads from a parallel universe might be OK). But should they police? Or should the buyer use a little due diligence?

I've played with Li-ion cells for years. Even tested packs made from cells that went into space
There are good cells and bad cells but contrary to the common statement you get what you pay for it's more of a do you know what you paid for.

I would suggest that the buyer beware applies. If you have a low demand application for a battery pack, such as 1/2 to 1 amp current draw then just about any cell would suffice. Using a cell with a protection circuit might also be a good idea where using a cell designed for 20 amps is asking for trouble unless you really need 20amps. The ecig world (I participate there also) has long abused Li-ion cells trying to get more and more current flowing in their little sealed pipe bombs.

I sometimes buy some of the cheaper cells, knowing that a $2 cell will not perform like a $10 name brand cell. If half of them test out OK then they are low capacity $4 cells and half get recycled. I also buy some of the cheaper generic laptop packs with 6 and 9 generic cells (spelled Chinese) and a charge/discharge circuit board. The board would cost me about $6 so a nine cell pack for $15 gets me a handful of $1 cells. Do they have the advertised capacity? Heavens no.

A good read on batteries:
http://batteryuniversity.com/

Some people come to me asking why they should buy from my store, when they can get the same for less from ebay or ali.
I do get some of these people coming back later as a customer, due to that sort of problem. Some sellers in UK are a little
more expensive but we have to deal with these eastern companies on a day to day basis, Plus take the risks so you guys don't
have to. I check all my gear on arrival and I check it again when i post it out. The rare occasion I may get a customer who
has a fault and it's solved within a week, he/she then goes away happy. You cannot get that service buying from long distance.

I also have the odd eastern seller who claims this is this or that is that, but a sample of the product tells the truth in the end.

So well done that you won