How can buyers effectively deal with fraudulent sellers?

[grondeau]

I have been frustrated by policies that seem to make it very difficult to flag offending sellers and fake products.  I understand the need to protect sellers from competitive retribution.

My story- I bought some transistors.  They blew up immediately.  I disassembled one of them and discovered they were fakes.  I complained to the seller.  He gave me a refund.  I still left a negative feedback that described why the devices were unsuitable.  Seller asked I remove feedback, since he gave a refund.  I said he still had the parts listed and needed to let other know.  He took some (not all) of his listings for this item down for a couple of days.  He added a comment to my negative feedback that:  "After refunding your order and checking with my supplier it is determined that these parts are 100% original parts. The issue is most likely in your unit as I have sold hundreds of these for years without any issues."  This seems to be standard verbiage for sellers of fake garbage.  All the listings are back up - my feedback remains amongst the 0.2% of negative feedback for this seller for now.  The seller also operates another account that also lists the same items.  The fake items have "reviews" common to both sellers' accounts - all positive.  I wished to add a "review" of this item, but was impeded in getting it listed because it went afoul of "community content" policy.  I carefully edited the review down to only my observations - but still no go.  What is up here.  I am certain that hundreds of buyers are being taken by these scams that seem impossible for us to self police.

[kathiec]

You deal with fraudulent sellers by opening a Money Back Guarantee case and getting a refund. Had you opened the case through eBay it would have been noted on his seller metrics. According to eBay they make note of NAD cases even when the seller voluntarily refunds and avoids the account defect they receive for making eBay force the refund.

You left feedback, to which the seller responded. That's all you can do. At the end of the day it's not your job, or indeed the job of any member, to police listings. I know that reality may be hard to take, but on a platform with 1.7 billion listings it's just the cold, hard truth.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Since this site has no way of knowing which one of you is telling the truth; it is the sites take to 'just let both parties remain quite' (although that's not 'official- I would say it is right on as anyone reading this has no way of knowing if the 'thing' you are putting them in is faulty and even more prevalent, how many 'positives' has this seller received if they truly have sold 100's without issue??- afterall, most places back in the day, did NOT allow 'returns' of electronic items (Auto Parts, Electronics stores etc.)

[12345jamesstamps]

You did received a refund. I wonder if this had damaged where you used it..I did notice the word "Made in Malaysia" on it. A lot of items are not compatible to American products or whatever country it came from.

However, I am a little concerned with "they blew up immediately". What's to say it might have started a fire?

Glad nothing serious happened...as far as we know...but something like this can even damage using the item you bought. I wish there was more you could do.

I did see a couple other feedbacks where buyers mentioned seller selling fake items.

Got to be very careful how to word feedback so eBay or the seller does not get to remove it.

[kensgiftshop]

You could have saved yourself some trouble checking the sellers feedback.

Looks like they've had a few saying their items were fake.

[gosimus]

@grondeau 

< Seller asked I remove feedback, since he gave a refund. >    

Did you notice that the seller already has 28 revised feedbacks?  Yours would have been the 29th.  

[grondeau]

OK thanks folks.  I guess what really bugs me is that this fellow is running two accounts - really pushing these fake parts.  Both sites are "Top Rated Plus"  sellers. 

There is a general knowledge that there is problem with Chinese fakes, which was why I chose a seller with 99.8% good reviews.  I know many hobbyist buyers may not be a tuned into what to expect from the transistors advertised, so maybe he gets away with it because the good review comes in since he shipped them quickly, before they are even tested.  I did a "cut the top off" autopsy to verify that they were junk.  But for some reason that evidence can never hit a "review," because it's not "community content."

[grondeau]

That is interesting -- I never noticed the revised feedback number before.  Do you know over what time period that is?  Thanks.