Announced today eBay Launches Authentication Service for Luxury Handbags

[ijazzu]

The service appears to be similar to using a valet to sell your high priced handbags. So if you wanted to brand your eBay store as selling high end handbags, it doesn't sound as if the buyer would even know what seller was actually offering the handbag. The Authenticator would appear to be the seller, unless you sold them yourself and the buyer requested the service?

What I find interesting is this:

If the returned item is not the same item as the one sold, not in the same condition as sold, or the eBay Authenticate tag has been removed or otherwise damaged, the return will not be accepted. If the industry expert paid for the return shipping label, eBay will charge you for the cost of return shipping. You can request to have the item mailed back to you at your expense, with no refund. The item will not be mailed back to you unless you have paid the cost of return shipping and the cost of having the item returned to you. We also reserve the right to exercise any and all remedies, including limits on or suspension of your ability to use eBay, and referral to law enforcement if appropriate.

My thoughts are what if the buyer paid with paypal, is paypal going to override a denied return by eBay after 179 days of use??

Who decides the return will not be accepted? An eBay CS rep like they do now with all other items sold on eBay and always find in the buyers favor or does the expert automatically win? Do the expert sellers word mean more then any other seller that claims an item was returned in a different condition or a totally different item was returned all together?

 eBay has always stated that items must be returned in the same condition as received and yet never once in my 17 years has a CS rep ever backed that up and allowed a return to be denied.

These are high end handbags, we need to know what is being told here will actually be handled this way by the reps that handle these escalated return cases. They certainly haven't been up till now with other items.

https://www.ebay.com/s/itemauthentication/seller#terms-and-conditions

[ijazzu]

Thank you so much Jen!

Lot's of interesting threads over here, after all the new updates I thought I better read as much info as possible.

[gracieallen01]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@mrv71 wrote:

They should stop mandating Paypal as a form of payment, and go back to cash or postal money orders, they are the safest for the seller. Much harder to fake a postal money order than to fake an email for a "pretend" PayPal payment.

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I wasn't around for those times. How does a postal money order protect a buyer? What if I buy something for $500, send the postal money order, and the seller just cashes it and never sends the item?

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It doesn't.

However, when it is available, the buyer has the choice of using it.  AND, if there are other electronic, on-line payment options available, besides paypal, that the buyer has the option of using AND is familiar with, then the risk of the buyer lacking protection is much less AND the risk of the seller loosing out from a single, money transfer company's choice in policy and rules is also much less.

Just as an addendum, I sold on ebay for over 10 years and the majority of the payments I got were by check or money order, along with a few through my merchants account.  No buyer ever lost out and only one check ever bounced (and, boy, was he embarrased).  And, I paid for most of my purchases from Japan with Postal Int'l money orders and ALWAYS got what I paid for.  Of course, that was then - this is now. 

Gee, ebay might have to vet sellers, and, perhaps buyers, too.  Or, at the very least, pay attention to the transactions ON ebay, rather than worry so much about the the possibilities of ones OFF ebay.

[mg152]

I agree! Back then, everyone was more trustworthy. There’s nothing like getting envelopes of cash in the mail.
One seller tried to scam my son years ago. He’d bid (I bid for him) & won a sega Nomad for $50. He gave me his money, I wrote the check & mailed it. Well, weeks go by with my son (7 at the time) watching the mailbox & no sega Nomad. Finally, I called eBay & CS said there’s not much we can do but we can get the seller on a 3 way call & you can talk to her. So they called her up & I said “how do you sleep at night stealing from a 7 yr old boy?”. She explained that she was sorry, she didn’t intend to ship the handheld game but she has kids & she can’t scam a kid so she woukd ship it. Lo & behold a few days later, the Nomad came in perfect condition. My son is 24 & he still plays that game.
Nomad seller if you are still here, I’m glad you did the right thing.

[jaaron7]

A more current feedback:

"FAKE LV BAG! Bad knockoff w/plastic handles. Poor seller communication. Returned"

[lookng2015]

I did not realise until this thread that the eBay "authenticator' was just one of their Valet stores. Pretty misleading.

[missjen831]

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@lookng2015 wrote:
I did not realise until this thread that the eBay "authenticator' was just one of their Valet stores. Pretty misleading.

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I believe the valet seller is just the seller and there is also a team of "expert authenticators" that will authenticate the bags. The valet seller, who again has a history of selling fakes, will not be doing the authenticating.

[mrv71]

There's no "team", it says very clearly in terms and conditions that it's the same entity as the Valet at the same address, but under a diffrerent business name. Moreover, there was a link to the purse forum here somewhere, where people contacted real luxury goods autheniticators (who are very few and are very well known), and none of them ever worked or is going to work for eBay in some warehouse looking at purses.

[chrysylys]

Anyboy that would spend that for something to carry stuff around in ....  well ....  the laughing characters picture would work well here.

[jaaron7]

@trinton , is ebay able to provide us the specific names of the expert authenticators?

[ngatrant2301]

I can’t seem to keep in touch with this company. They authenticated my bag, refused it, and sent it back and I can’t keep in touch with them to arrange for pick up because Fedex will not let me due to shipper’s restriction. This shipper is no where to be found or contacted. Address above and phone number ‬( invalid or out of service) were shown when I tracked my package. Does anybody know how to contact this person or company beside this bogus number? Thanks.

[papermoneyforme]

ZOMBIE THREAD

[kh-jenn]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!​​​​​​​