Do NOT purchase products at Retail for Resale by BULBHEAD (Tree Dazzler,Star Shower, etc)

[daniel-low]

It has been common practice since the internet's beginnings for small Sellers to be on the lookout for heavily discounted items at Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc. for resale on eBay or Amazon.

New items are easy to list and usually in demand.

However, the BULBHEAD company is strongly adverse to this practice, and when they see their products listed on Amazon, eBay, etc, will file a VERO complaint that the item is counterfeit. And the shopping portal will remove it - often with a strong warning to the Seller.

I have gone thru this. I have offerred and supplied Receipts from Home Depot to prove lawful purchase. I have called Bulbead, emailed, even written a letter to the Company President. All to no avail.

I'm not going to say the products of this company are inferior in any way - I do not belive they are. I'm not going to say don't buy them for your personal use.

But if you see a deal after Christmas 50%- 75% -90% OFF - on BULBHEAD products - don't get dollar signs in your eyes. You will not be able to sell Bulbhead products online.

[pjcdn2005]

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@emerald40 wrote:

https://www.onlinesellerenforcement.com/first-sale-doctrine/

Look under quality control exceptions

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Well, you said to read the first rights doctrine and that certainly isn't the first rights doctrine nor does it say that the doctrine specifies those exceptions. That article is really not about what what is covered under the first sales doctrine, it is more about how the law can be interpreted so that a manufacturer could get around the first sale doctrine.

Something like quality controls would have to be taken to court as it would have to be established if the manufacturer really did follow such conditions and the reseller did not.   It isn't an automatic intellectual property rights infringement issue that can be enforced by VERO.   The manufacturer would have to prove to a court that an infringement even existed before it would become  property rights issue.    This would not be covered by VERO.

[pjcdn2005]

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@emerald40 wrote:

You buy one.  Sale complete.  Company made one sale.

You then sell it to someone else.  Company makes nothing on that transaction.  - total one sale.

If i bought it from them rather than you, they would now have two sales.

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So what? It is not against the law to resell something that was legally purchased.  You may think that it is wrong for someone to sell more than a few of something that they have purchased but it isn't against the law.  

[daniel-low]

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@atikovi wrote:

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@daniel-low wrote:

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
But they DON'T have the right to fraudulently claim items are "counterfeit" when the reseller can prove they got them legitimately and has the right to resell them under the First Sale Doctrine.

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There may be VERO Members out there that will work with people on eBay, and when you can demostrate your product is genuine, purchased from a legitimate source, that's great !

But that is what I did with Bulbhead.

Phone Calls, Emails, Letters - Nothing helped.

I offerred to provide them with copies of my Home Depot receipts.

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You should have done that with Ebay. Ebay is the one preventing you from selling. If Ebay let you sell them, would Bulbhead sue you, or Ebay? Maybe, but they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

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Every eBay rep I have every spoken to was offshore, and barely spoke English (sorry - I speak only English and if you just barely do, communication is going to be difficult).

And the worst part is they, and their supervisors, have no authority to deviate from a tightly controlled script.

In other words, a total waste of time.

And in VERO matters, eBay makes no decisions at all.

They rely totally on the VERO owner to decide.

[atikovi]

When I search on BULBHEAD I get over 800 listings and ten are of your tree lights. There must be a reason they singled you out.

[daniel-low]

You see Ten Tree Lights because all the others have been already removed.

Yeah, Bulbhead hates me - ONLY ME - because I bought 3 of their Dazzlers at HD and tried to sell them on eBay. Really ? I'm that important to them ?

Go ahead, buy the darn things and you sell them on eBay.

[atikovi]

List as USED. State in the listing that package was opened only to test the bulbs. If either Ebay or Bulbhead pull the listing again, lawyer up. You could get a big settlement.

[equid0x]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

https://www.onlinesellerenforcement.com/first-sale-doctrine/

Look under quality control exceptions

---

Well, you said to read the first rights doctrine and that certainly isn't the first rights doctrine nor does it say that the doctrine specifies those exceptions. That article is really not about what what is covered under the first sales doctrine, it is more about how the law can be interpreted so that a manufacturer could get around the first sale doctrine.

Something like quality controls would have to be taken to court as it would have to be established if the manufacturer really did follow such conditions and the reseller did not.   It isn't an automatic intellectual property rights infringement issue that can be enforced by VERO.   The manufacturer would have to prove to a court that an infringement even existed before it would become  property rights issue.    This would not be covered by VERO.

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The quality control exception has historically been used in cases of a consumable product that has been resold after circumstances have occurred that would render a product of lesser quality in a way that is not readily detectable by the consumer.

The first case of this involved a lawsuit between a hair products company and a pharmacy, where the pharmacy was selling hair products beyond the expiration date printed on the bottle.

Other examples are:

-  Removing expiration dates from a product

- Selling contaminated gasoline

- Selling beer that was not stored with proper refrigeration

I think it is quite a stretch to try to argue that this type of exception would apply to a product that doesn't degrade with age or expire, like those the OP mentioned.

See: https://books.google.com/books?id=oAFpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1283&lpg=PT1283&dq=first+sale+doctrine+quality+c...

[themankaveshop]

This is also from Bulbhead there distributer telebrands.  I picked up a Hurricane Fuz Wizard (as seen on tv) pet lint remover from goodwill and was going to resell it. They shut me down a week later. I'm not touching there products for reselling again. Not worth the headaches. Noted I didnt have any of there pics up all mine and no copy and paste description. 

Hello themankaveshop,

After reviewing your eBay account, we've taken the following action:
- Violating listings have been removed. A list of items that were removed can be viewed at the bottom of this message.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

Your listing or product was removed after receiving a report from the rights owner that it violated their design right.

We urge you to contact the rights owner directly for more information on why they requested the removal of your listing or product and whether you can sell the item.

For more information on our VeRO program, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/vero/infoforusers.html

If you have more questions, contact our policy experts:
http://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/cusr?query=1337&=PTB1251 



Please be sure your current and future listings follow these guidelines, keeping in mind that additional violations could result in the suspension of your account.

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Telebrands Corporation, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.

We encourage you to contact Telebrands Corporation directly if you have any questions.

You can send an email to: 
ip@telebrands.com

For more information on how eBay protects Intellectual Property, or for additional information if you believe that your listing has been removed as a result of an error or misidentification, please visit the following Help page: 
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/programs-vero-ov.html

Here are the listings that were removed:
183690636120 - FUR-WIZARD Hurricane Pet-Fur amp Lint Remover Dog Hair AS SEEN ON TV SALE 


We appreciate your cooperation.

Thanks,

eBay 

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[lightsguy]

I just had BulbHead successfully shut down my Amazon marketplace  by FALSE counterfeit claims.    I came across this post.  Like the posters here, BulbHead has not responded to any of my attempts to contact them.  Monday, I'm sending a registered letter asking them to remove their complaints in return for my agreement to never sell BulbHead again.

If they do not respond, I will be hiring an attorney.  I am not concerned with regaining the couple thousand bucks of profits from selling BulbHead.  I am concerned with getting my business back ($327K gross revenue in 2018).

If they refuse, I think that I have a very good case for Libelous Defamation.  

1) They made false statements
2) Their false statements were presented to a third party (Amazon)
3) Their false statements caused actual damages.

Unless they can prove that I was selling counterfeit stuff (They can't. I wasn't.), they better recall those claims.

[magicjohnsonsvariety]

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@lightsguy wrote:

I just had BulbHead successfully shut down my Amazon marketplace  by FALSE counterfeit claims.    I came across this post.  Like the posters here, BulbHead has not responded to any of my attempts to contact them.  Monday, I'm sending a registered letter asking them to remove their complaints in return for my agreement to never sell BulbHead again.

If they do not respond, I will be hiring an attorney.  I am not concerned with regaining the couple thousand bucks of profits from selling BulbHead.  I am concerned with getting my business back ($327K gross revenue in 2018).

If they refuse, I think that I have a very good case for Libelous Defamation.  

1) They made false statements
2) Their false statements were presented to a third party (Amazon)
3) Their false statements caused actual damages.

Unless they can prove that I was selling counterfeit stuff (They can't. I wasn't.), they better recall those claims.

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This is such a huge problem that goes unnoticed by the general public. Unless you've been the victim of Vero lies, one cannot even begin to understand how horribly one sided the whole process is.

And it's only going to get worse as shady companies, and even a few legitimate ones realize they can easily turn the first sale doctrine into a joke. The only consequence for companies is the possibly of perjury, which they know is unlikely.

The sad reality is that any company can falsely claim anything is counterfeit in order to limit competition in the marketplace and keep prices artificially high...both of which negatively affect consumers in the long run.  

[membersinceaug2001]

Bulbhead, those on TV scammers.

[extrememobility]

Bulbhead is is number 1# when it comes to junk that will not work or at least come even close to product claims! we contacted them a year ago about advertising a product for us and they were so insistent on starting a marketing campaign immediately even before the product was approved or tested. they said it(quote) makes no difference if the product works or not?    Lets get it advertised and package up for sale they said"

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@emerald40 wrote:

I am a firm believer in Vero.  In fact I am a Vero member.

I created a couple of my own designs.  Worked very hard on them.  Expensive to get a patent on them.

So I would not appreciate in the least someone coming on here and stealing it.

Companies have a right to protect their own product.  And as per the link I posted they can control where you can sell it and how you store it.  They are protecting their name.  Also, selling one or two is fine, but creating a business out of it is not, imo.

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While I agree companies have rights they are not allowed to take away the purchasers rights.  Any time I come across a company who tries to violate the first sap doctrine using vero they hurt their own business because I won’t do business with a company who does that.   They do not have the right to tell someone who purchased their item what they can do with it.  If they bought it they can sell it.  It’s theirs.  

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Because they're NOT making any money on your sale, just the first sale to you from the retailer.

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Exactly and they are losing the next sale when a buyer purchases it from ebay and not them.

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They already made the first sale.  They aren’t entitled to money from the sell of it again. They aren’t entitled to say you can’t sell it because we don’t want you to.  

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@lightsguy wrote:

I just had BulbHead successfully shut down my Amazon marketplace  by FALSE counterfeit claims.    I came across this post.  Like the posters here, BulbHead has not responded to any of my attempts to contact them.  Monday, I'm sending a registered letter asking them to remove their complaints in return for my agreement to never sell BulbHead again.

If they do not respond, I will be hiring an attorney.  I am not concerned with regaining the couple thousand bucks of profits from selling BulbHead.  I am concerned with getting my business back ($327K gross revenue in 2018).

If they refuse, I think that I have a very good case for Libelous Defamation.  

1) They made false statements
2) Their false statements were presented to a third party (Amazon)
3) Their false statements caused actual damages.

Unless they can prove that I was selling counterfeit stuff (They can't. I wasn't.), they better recall those claims.

---

Essential elements of defamation are 

1. that a statement is made 

2. that the statement is about you 

3.  Publication of that statement which simply means it was said to someone else 

4. Damages 

5. That the statement was the cause of your damages 

I do hope you’re successful in taking them down. I’m tired of seeing companies who try to do this