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Seller deliberately removing expiration dates from medication, putting buyers health in danger.
I don't know where else to write. I've reported this seller twice via the report a seller button (no response, no actions taken). Contacted C/S regarding this sellers nefarious practices via email three times (no response, no actions taken). Left negative feedback with photographic evidence of this seller's ongoing practice putting people's health in danger only to have it removed when seller requested feedback removal from eBay because the seller was forced to refund me via an item not as described case for this very reason (seller stated 04/2025 expiration date in listing but what I received had no date at all, seller removes them using Acetone.)
The product I received was fused together as one large mass (gummies) due to being expired, there was yellow residue under the cap from oxidation as the product was probably several years old. I purchased this for my children and thank God I caught it, it could have made them sick or worse.
This seller has negative feedback going back at least a year which I can see from lots of other buyers that reported what this seller is doing. Upon confronting the seller, seller denies and gets upset over the negative feedback received but does not stop this practice!! The item I purchased for example is still listed! Seller only sees money. All this seller cares about is money and ruthlessly continue this illegal practice at the expense of people's trust and health and I won't stand for this.
This is against eBay's terms of service yet this seller is allowed to continue doing this unpunished. This is a liability to eBay as a corporation and to buyers health. I need someone to reach out to me so I can report this seller and have them removed from the marketplace.
allwaswell
·1 year agoI just reported a seller who melted off the expiration date on cosmetics. I know they are good past the date but could be decades old.
eBay doesn't mind, as long as they get their cut. Total greedy B S showing a lack of care for their customers.
bryo_3145
·2 years agoLook at all the garbage the government allows that is already allowed on our grocery store shelves.
bryo_3145
·2 years agoThe problem in this country this is okay. The government allows it. I know a place in our town that sells expired food. No accountability if something bad happens.
marnotom!
·2 years agoFood doesn’t “expire†the way medication does, though. The dates you see on food are “best before†or “use by†dates, not expiry dates, that indicate that the producer of the food can’t guarantee the quality of the food after that date.
“Best before†doesn’t necessarily mean “awful after†for shelf-stable products such as canned tomatoes. Perishables are a somewhat different story. And medication is a very different thing altogether.
kathiec
·2 years agoActually medicine isn't a very different thing. This is from an article published by Harvard:
"Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date. So, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use."
bonjourami
·2 years agoYes thats true. As a nurse in a hospital for thirty years, I often had to run down to the pharmacy to pick up meds for new orders. I often saw bottles with expiration dates on the shelves, and two different pharmacists told me the meds were good for another ten years. And they were taught that in medical school.
house*of*paws
·2 years agoI've hoarded a prescription for allergy meds since 2/96. [It was discontinued shortly thereafter.] It's the only one I can take without feeling drowsy ... so I use it sparingly on special occasions. It still 'works' ... and I'm still alive. 😋
[I'm not recommending that anyone do likewise ... but wanted to call out the common misconception that expired meds become dangerous. They may become less effective with enough time passing ... but that's negligible for OTC meds.]
bonjourami
·2 years agoAnd Im sure the op opening a mass of melted vitamin gummies fused together was upset, and understandably so. Of course he wouldnt give those to his children, so how could they get sick.No responsible parent would do such a thing.
kazeboon
OP2 years agoI've encountered 4 different sellers peddling expired medication/dietary supplements with forged expiration dates since my last post. This seems to be an epidemic on eBay. I've reported all 4 sellers and have yet received a response to any of my reports. Keep attacking me and making petty jokes at my expense though. We will see how funny it is once someone gets seriously ill or worse for consuming recalled medication that was re-sold on eBay by these nefarious merchants.
On an aside, in the first example; the pressurized seal over the bottle that looks ready to burst is not an indication of fermentation (bacterial growth)?
bonjourami
·2 years agoFour sellers selling expired meds is an epidemic? You probably need to give this a rest for your own well being. A dog with a bone comes to mind.
kazeboon
OP2 years agoMost comments here speak to the health risks of expired gummies. I never claimed to be an expert nor explicitly stated that anyone will absolutely get sick. I alluded to it being a possibility based on my assumption of products containing sugar and moisture to be a breeding ground for bacteria. If it is in fact not dangerous in any way, thank God for that.
My main reason for making this post was to bring to light eBay's negligence in taking buyer's reports seriously. I expect eBay to be a moderated marketplace. I don't expect eBay to moderate each and every single listing or seller but at a minimum they should take and investigate buyer's reports seriously instead of simply ignoring them.
In my case, I took the time to put together a factual report regarding this seller and their nefarious practices. I showed photos of the product received with the expiration date removed along side the same product without the expiration date removed. I went through the seller's feedback history and put together a list of all feedback received by the seller which referred to expiration dates being wiped away or cut out from boxes— feedback spanning back the length of this seller's account history for dozens of various products. I showed communication with the seller where I called them out on their practice and instead receiving an apology and the listings pulled from their store, I was met with denial and continue to see the seller offering the same expired product for sale with the same falsely claimed expiration date. It is clear to me that this seller is up to no good and if nothing more, is clearly ripping buyers off and insulting their intelligence by sending them expired products.
When I purchase something from someone claiming it expires sometime next year, I put my trust in the seller being honest but I also put my trust in eBay to ensure that these sellers stay honest.
bonjourami
·2 years agokazeboon
OP2 years agoYou're always right Cathy.
bonjourami
·2 years agoTrue, but my name's not Cathy.
doc-holmes
·2 years ago"Surely, you can't be serious."
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."
tenbigdogs
·2 years agoHI @kazeboon Your point is valid. It took those gummies a lot longer than a couple of years to get in the shape you describe. A google search says gummies are OK for a couple of years past the expiration date, with only a loss of potency. What you describe sounds like they lost a lot more than potency. It sounds like they were in a fire.
So why won't eBay heed your warnings and shut down the seller? Because eBay just doesn't have the means to do it. eBay has no means to inspect the seller's products to see if you're right. eBay takes everything as fine unless they hear differently about a specific transaction. If they hear from a buyer that the item they received is not as described, the eBay Money Back Guarantee will get them a refund. But if a member has an opinion on a seller's items that they've never actually seen, eBay can't act on that. You may be absolutely right, but eBay can't act on it.
You've done everything you can. At this point you're just going to have to trust that other responsible adults will know better than to give their children any product that has disintegrated as you describe. I did a quick search for Vitamins on eBay and got over 180,000 results. Over 85,000 sold. It would seem a lot of people buy their vitamins on eBay. Find a better seller. Time will take care of this one. Good luck!
simba6
·2 years agoNot an item I would buy in a flea-market anyway.
Unavailable member
·2 years agogummyies? As in vitamin gummies? If that is the case, that wouldn’t be illegal.
kazeboon
OP2 years agoGummies of all things actually can go bad and make a person sick as opposed to hard caplets or even dry powder capsules. No, this seller's practice is illegal in the state where this seller resides,
"False advertising is a class A misdemeanor under New York law."
- New York Penal Law § 190.20: False Advertising
Seller is falsely advertising products with future expiration dates but shipping out products that are 1-2-3+ years old. eBay, by allowing this to continue may be putting themselves at risk of liability or be seen as an accessory to a crime by looking the other way and/or ignoring/being negligent in their approach to buyer's reports of such sellers.
Not to mention this is against eBay's terms of service so I do not understand why my reports are being ignored.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoMy bet is that you can’t find a source for the dangers of expired gummy vitamins. Absolutely, it isn’t right to mask or erase the expiration date. But let’s not pretend that anyone’s life was in danger. Take comfort that with more customers like you filing for returns because the item didn’t match the description, the seller will eventually be shut down. Maybe your case was isolated?
kazeboon
OP2 years agoWhen an innocent 4 year old child ends up in the emergency room with unbearable stomach pain from stomach poisoning due to bacterial growth on the expired gummies, it will be eBay that will need to pay the hospital bill, legal fees and compensation for pain and suffering, not these trash sellers looking to turn a profit from literal garbage.
This is a black and white liability and I suspect eBay upper management have no idea it's going on because C/S simply do not care to report these things to them.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoI don't know why anyone would give a 4 year old kid any medicine bought from a complete stranger off of a site like Ebay.
I wouldn't buy any medicine or food here, unless I knew the seller.
nyr134
·2 years agoI agree with Ken. We just don’t know the conditions under which food and medicine sold on eBay have been stored or for how long. And even if the sellers try to do the right thing, they may have picked up these products from estate sales where they were in attics for years. I’ll stick with buying food and supplements from known entities.
monster-deals
·2 years agoYeah and don't by used toilet paper either.
Sheesh. The lengths people go to save a nickle.
Unavailable member
·2 years agothe ingredients in gummy’s have antimicrobial properties. You aren’t going to get sick from eating an expired one.
safan80
·2 years agoUnavailable member
·2 years agoAnd the sugar-based gummies are even better - nothing is going to grow on them. Ever.
tinsoldierunderground
·2 years agoNice catch!
bonjourami
·2 years ago"When an innocent 4 year old child ends up in the emergency room with unbearable stomach pain from stomach poisoning due to bacterial growth on the expired gummies, it will be eBay that will need to pay the hospital bill, legal fees and compensation for pain and suffering, not these trash sellers looking to turn a profit from literal garbage."
Where in the world are you getting these 'facts' from?
bryo_3145
·2 years agoWho's going to in force this law. Letita James has bigger fish to fry.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoYou can return item not as described for a refund. Rather easy.
I don't understand all the " --" feedbacks left by others and left for others. I only see one negative given to you.
I actually know what they mean but thought a response could change what I think they mean.
gosimus
·2 years ago@12345jamesstamps
< I don't understand all the " --" feedbacks left by others and left for others >
I can explain those "––" because the same thing happened to me, too. I bought some bottles of over-the-counter analgesic pain reliever – Aleve, if it matters – and everything went fine, and I left my usual type of Arrived Fast, Well Packed, blah blah blah, feedback comments. At least, that's what I thought I'd be leaving.
When I clicked to submit the feedbacks, instead of posting my well-thought-out, and well-deserved, praise, eBay changed them to "––" and eBay also changed the feedback that the seller left for me to "––" too. And obscured the usernames.
Somebody told me it was to protect my privacy. But eBay doesn't protect my privacy when I purchase glucose meter test strips, or vitamins, or zinc supplement tablets, or, come to think of it, anything else at all.