John M. Setzler, Jr. Life in Black and White

Shame on Ebay!

Back in December, I was shopping on Ebay for a 4gb compact flash card to use with my camera.  I found some really good deals on Sandisk Ultra II 4gb cards from a seller using the ID "UT-TRADING."  The auction I was looking at was about to end, so I put in a bid.  The auction ended, and I thought I had gotten an excellent deal on this compact flash card.

A few minutes later, I was telling a friend of mine about this deal.  He asked me if I was sure that it wasn't a counterfeit card.  I had no idea that there was such a problem in the compact flash market.  I did some research and found this article:

http://martybugs.net/articles/fakesandisk.cgi

I read the article and then decided to go look at my seller's feedback.  About 24 hours before my auction ended, I noticed a feedback in his list where a buyer had filed a complaint about this seller pushing counterfeit Sandisk compact flash cards.

My Mistake #1:  I did not check the seller's feedback before I made a bid on his auction.

At this point, I'm frustrated.  I sent the seller a note via Ebay and asked him to confirm that the product I had purchased was not counterfeit.  I got no response.  I sent a second request several days later.  I got no response.  I filed a complaint with Ebay about my issue.  Ebay promptly responded with a letter telling me that I had to work it out with the seller.  I sent the seller another note telling him that I had filed a complaint with Ebay and did not intend to pay for the auction.  He sent me a note back telling me that the cards worked fine and he sold them all the time, but he did not deny that the cards were counterfeit.  I responded that I did not intend to pay for the auction and I never heard anything back from him.  I did tell the seller that I would not post negative feedback for him on this auction, but that I would not pay him for it.

Yesterday, almost 2 months after the auction ended, I got a note on my ebay account where he filed a complaint with Ebay that I had not paid for the auction.   I responded to the seller that I was still not going to pay for the auction and that I was going to leave negative feedback for him because he was pestering me.  I left him negative feedback.  The worst thing that could happen to me would be that I could lose my Ebay account, which was actually threatened in the letter I received from Ebay voicing the complaint of the seller.  That wouldn't be a huge deal.  I don't trade on Ebay that often anyway.  Later in the day, I got another note from Ebay informing me that the seller had requested credit for the listing fee on my auction.  All I had to do was check a box indicating that the auction had been settled with the seller.  I did so and everything should be over with now, and I havent' lost my Ebay account over the whole deal.

What's wrong with this picture?

#1 - There is a seller (and probably lots of them) on Ebay who are peddling counterfeit goods.

#2 - The seller is aware that he is selling counterfeit goods.

#3 - Ebay is aware that this seller is selling counterfeit goods.

#4 - Ebay is not doing anything about it.

I think Ebay is ignoring this problem.  I'm sure they don't really care because they are making money either way.  I wonder if Sandisk would care?  How can Ebay allow somethign like this to go on?  They keep saying that they want to protect the buyer, but they aren't walking the walk...