Ebay and Counterfeits

A few weeks ago Ebay lost a court case in France over the selling of counterfeits. As I have mentioned here previously I do buy via the site, but there is a serious problem with counterfeits and more importantly the attitude of Ebay regarding the problem.

When I first joined Ebay one of the products that I would buy was DVDs. I really enjoy films and I was intending to buy the films, watch them then resell them, that way it would be cheaper than renting and I would have far more choice. However, I soon discovered that many if not most of the films were either cheap foreign imports that may not be genuine and quite blatant counterfeits

Eventually I just got fed up with the problem and stopped buying any DVDs from Ebay at all. While that is hard on the many genuine sellers there, I just could not trust that I would get something genuine. Further, Ebays attitude to the problems of counterfeits was and is appalling. While publicly they state that they are against “Theft of Copyright” and intellectual property, the reality is that they are very slow to take action. Further they will only accept that an item is a counterfeits if a buyer can provide documentation from an expert, at the buyers cost, that an item is a fake. Even then the seller will only get a warning or have listings removed.

A poor seller has to be really bad to get suspended or removed and then only when the bad seller is costing Ebay money. What I don't understand about Ebays attitude is that all this is seriously damaging their business, yet Ebays management can not see this.

While this is not a polemic about Ebay and I have had some fantastic trading experiences, I have also had a few bad ones. Recently I tried to buy some Video Editing Software via Ebay. Now software is just another area where it is so easy to sell fakes and copies that I normally avoid buying items like this. And here part of the problem is that some people are willing to buy what is in effect stolen property, as it cheaper. However, I don't as if there is something wrong with a fake or a copy I have no legal consumer rights.

So I placed a bid on a software package, while the seller was new, it was being sold as Ebay for Charity so I thought it would be fine. While I was out bid, I finally won. Because of my previous experiences though, I used Pay Pal as that way I have some protection. I waited for the software to arrive and I waited. I wrote to ask when I could expect the software, but no reply. All this time, the seller is selling more of the same, about six to eight per day. At thirty pounds a time that's a substantial sales volume.

It reached a point where I could not see any reason why there was a delay, so checking the listing again I discovered that there were links to a gambling site hidden in the listing of the item I had bought and on all his other items. That did it for me and I reported him to Ebay, not just for the item not received but for the links to the gambling site. Further, I posted negative feedback to alert other buyers. I had ten contact me all with similar stories, no product received by anyone.

Eventually, Ebay did shut the fraud down, but not before he had sold about three thousand pounds worth of non existent products. While I did eventually get my money back, it shows just how easy it is to commit a fraud on Ebay. There are details I have deliberately left out of this account as I don't want to enable anyone else to copy the method. But I think that sooner or latter Ebay will have to acknowledge that they have a problem. I personally know of five people that will not use the site because of the risk of fraud and getting ripped off. I suspect that in Britain alone there are millions of people that feel that way too.

It is not that Ebay don't try to stop the scammers, it is just that they give the criminals the benefit of the doubt. And even if when they find someone acting like a little child who is covered in chocolate and standing there saying “no I didn't eat the Chocolate” Ebay believes them.

Without any training I can spot suspect listings without difficulty, if I can do that then there staff can too.

All that said, this weekend I have finally bought the video editing software I needed and will be annoying my readers with the films I have been shooting.