seller of fake fossil-vertebrates listed as sent from US but actually from China
Last year I purchased an expensive Keichosaur (fossil marine-vertebrate) from the seller shown in the subject Title of this post. I have my US purchases amalgamated in the US by a friend for forwarding to me in bulk to save on shipping costs, so by the time I received this 'fossil' -- and immediately realised it was a Fake -- it was too late to return under either the Ebay Buyer's Guarantee or to claim through PayPal. I contacted the seller to seek redress and was just ignored and blocked.
Ebay were absolutely useless in helping me and so I waited until this fraudster listed another similar item (and boy, you wouldn't believe how similar -- see photo) and purchased from my partner's Ebay account so that I would then have the opportunity to leave feedback alerting other buyers to this scammer. The seller absolutely refused to send to anywhere other than the US, offering such absurdities as "I have spoken to Ebay and they told me that the Global Shipping Program can't send to France" then "Ebay told me they doesn't allow fossils to be sent to France", all the while refusing to invoice and stopping me from paying so that he could cancel the order 4 days later for non-payment. Ebay were again useless (indeed, effectively complicit) in doing anything about this deception, and this scmbag has got away with hundreds-of-pounds of my money all with Ebay's apparent blessing.
How such behaviour is permitted in a global online platform is beyond me -- scmmy sellers will always find a way to play the system, but it is incumbent on Ebay to close these loopholes once alerted to them (e.g., the fake return-label one described in other fake-chinese-fossil posts) -- instead, they just let these people get away with it.
Note in regard to this specific seller -- 100% of his fossils are fake, but his photos are sufficiently small and the fabrication of the fossils sufficiently artful that you won't notice until it's in your hand and by which time you've been had. The way it's done is that the 'fossil' is excavated into a limestone slab with dentistry tools and the 'bones' then painted into position with black paint.
I shall take further photos and repost but for now just look at these two fossils, the one on the right that I lost £300 on and the one on the left that I tried to purchase last week. Identical. Buyer Beware
klhmdg
·2 years agoThis is the US site. (.com) so things may be different here -
You have 30 days from receipt to file "not as described" with eBay.
PayPal is 6 months.
Most CC are 12 months.
If eBay gets enough complaints especially Not As Described, they will, and lately have been removing these sellers.
Im unsure who you in France would report counterfeit item shipments to.
hoe239
OP2 years agoI ordered it on Ebay.com -- where purchases are shipped to is independent of which Ebay Domain the item is purchased from (e.g., .com., .fr., .co.uk).
klhmdg
·2 years ago@hoe239 yes thats true but its being shipped to France through GSP.
So the laws may be different.
US does not have GSP.
Customs will be different.
Unless you had it shipped to the US, US laws are different than other countries and there are different government orgs for reporting counterfeit items.
Had you filed a "not as described" case for return within 30 days of receipt you would have returned the item nad been refunded.
hoe239
OP2 years agoI did have it shipped to the US. Anyway, once the 30-days are up Ebay washes it hands and trousers the fees -- read my OP again.
klhmdg
·2 years ago@hoe239 Sorry I misunderstood -
You had it forwarded so you had extra time for shipping.
Having items forwarded is a chancy thing for 2 reason. 1 the extra time so you lose the 30 days and 2 any returns are from the US where is was originally shipped.
I misunderstood because you were then talking about GSP and China.
Sorry this happened BUT had you had it shipped directly to you, you would have been able to return it.
AND yes the mods will remove anything that "calls out" buyers or sellers on here. There are rules that need to be followed. The Mods on here are not eBay employees this is run by Kronos.
hoe239
OP2 years agoDid you not see in the OP where I described this seller as showing his sale-items available globally but once you buy will only ship to one country worldwide: the US (look at the Chinese sellers of fake terabyte hard-discs on Ebay and you'll see the same phenomenon), thus forcing purchase and forwarding in this manner.
These are experienced scammers who have researched every potential loophole. That such people exist in the world is no surprise to any. That Ebay lets them get away with it completely on their platform is surprising and the problem that is being ignored here.
No 'Accepted Solution' here.
Ebay: where fraud is facilitated.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoEven if it was within the 30 days, you lost your MBG because you had the item forwarded from the US to your country.
hoe239
OP2 years agoI have been defrauded by this seller and am considering a social-media campaign duplicating the OP post to X/Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/Reddit/Tik-Tok, etc. If Ebay won't stop this seller and those like him, perhaps public exposure can...