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Warning for Ebay and Paypal policy on authenticity scams

letmefly

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This is somewhat of a long story but here it goes. I bought a Hermes belt (with what turned out to be fake documentation) from a UK seller a while back and upon receiving it immediately recognized it as a fake. Since I consider this hassle with fakes on ebay a plague I decided to make a stand and instead of sending the item back to the seller for a cashback ("hey I tried to scam you and failed so how about you spend time and money on sending the item back and lets call it even") I opened a claim with Paypal and followed their procedure regarding fakes.

Unfortunately this meant the trouble of going to the Hermes store and having the item shipped to Paris but what the hell - right should be right. It also takes at least three months which I checked with Paypal and they said this was fine. They will shut the case down meanwhile but once I get the proper documentation I use that to appeal and get my money back. I was quite surprised by the fact that the case during this time will look like it was decided to the scammers advantage and that he might withdraw the money meanwhile. "No worries" said Paypal, "even if he would withdraw the money you will get it from us (because of our buyer protection policy) and then it will be our (paypals) problem of getting the money from the scammer". Fine.

After some months passes I get the (very nice actually) certificate from Hermes Paris stating that the belt indeed is fake and talk yet again with Paypal. They tell me how to upload the document so that the can open the appeal which is done during the call and the appeal is finally open. The promised 72 hours passes but still no reply. I give a call to Paypal and the make an additional note regarding the document in question to make certain things get done in the correct manner. A few more days passes and when I log into Paypal I notice that they have decided the case against me as the document was not produced within their original time frame. Amazing.

I guess we've all known that Ebay and Paypal don't really care about fakes being sold but I guess now it is offical. Even if you go to a store and follow their procedure to produce the information Paypal requires they will still side with the seller of the fake item.
 

letmefly

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Had the final chat with PayPal / Ebay on this matter now. It seems that the reason I lost the case is that I did not produce the proof from Hermes that the belt was a fake within TEN (10) days of opening the case. Rather odd since I've had several phone calls with them discussing the case since then and they've been asking me to get back as soon as I have the proof and appeal...

I was "lucky" enough to live next to an Hermes store but even so it would not be possible to produce the proof within the 10 day limit as the stores themselves are not authorized to state authenticity thus it has to be sent to Paris (taking at least 2-3 months). This means that the buyer protection on Ebay/PayPal does not apply for Hermes products. I guess noone needs to be told not to buy this stuff from ebay in the first place but now you have twice the reason.

The irony of the whole thing is that ebay claims to be hard on fakes while their own policies actually promotes it. How many live close enough to stores so that they can get proof on official paper within 10 days of opening the claim?
 

taxgenius

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That's a sick story.
 

Jr Mouse

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Doesn't surprise me at all. PayPal reps are some of the worse I have ever had to deal with.
 

masernaut

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For everyone's knowledge, who is this seller so we can avoid them? I'm sorry to hear about your trouble.
 

jrd617

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Should have gotten them to promise in writing.

Link to the eBay seller?
 

letmefly

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Considering he doesn't seem to sell them anymore and more than 99 percent (yes) of the hermes belts on ebay are fake I don't really see the point of outing his name. Then again, why not:
thomasross04

Since I wasted so much time already I'm considering my options to proceed currently. There's no point of pushing it in the US however the European Union might have an issue with it as lot of the companies that are being ripped off are based here. They should have an issue with this policy from ebay/paypal.

Regarding getting the policy in writing: I (way earlier) actually asked for the transcripts / notes from the case but not surprisingly they don't give them out.
 
Last edited:

othertravel

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Sorry it didn't work out for you. That being said, thanks for sharing the story.
 

md2010

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This is somewhat of a long story but here it goes. I bought a Hermes belt (with what turned out to be fake documentation) from a UK seller a while back and upon receiving it immediately recognized it as a fake. Since I consider this hassle with fakes on ebay a plague I decided to make a stand and instead of sending the item back to the seller for a cashback ("hey I tried to scam you and failed so how about you spend time and money on sending the item back and lets call it even") I opened a claim with Paypal and followed their procedure regarding fakes.

Unfortunately this meant the trouble of going to the Hermes store and having the item shipped to Paris but what the hell - right should be right. It also takes at least three months which I checked with Paypal and they said this was fine. They will shut the case down meanwhile but once I get the proper documentation I use that to appeal and get my money back. I was quite surprised by the fact that the case during this time will look like it was decided to the scammers advantage and that he might withdraw the money meanwhile. "No worries" said Paypal, "even if he would withdraw the money you will get it from us (because of our buyer protection policy) and then it will be our (paypals) problem of getting the money from the scammer". Fine.

After some months passes I get the (very nice actually) certificate from Hermes Paris stating that the belt indeed is fake and talk yet again with Paypal. They tell me how to upload the document so that the can open the appeal which is done during the call and the appeal is finally open. The promised 72 hours passes but still no reply. I give a call to Paypal and the make an additional note regarding the document in question to make certain things get done in the correct manner. A few more days passes and when I log into Paypal I notice that they have decided the case against me as the document was not produced within their original time frame. Amazing.

I guess we've all known that Ebay and Paypal don't really care about fakes being sold but I guess now it is offical. Even if you go to a store and follow their procedure to produce the information Paypal requires they will still side with the seller of the fake item.


I would'v been happy with seller's offer getting the money back + original shipping. Why not take the easy way ... why try to take the hard way ??
And why you were buying Hermes belt at the first place ?!!!
You have learnt a very important lesson my friend .... in a hard way .
 

Jr Mouse

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Sounds like a quality seller.
 

MikeDT

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What's the moral of this story? Don't buy Hermes from Ebay, in future buy from a Hermes store?
 

Superfluous

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Not sure why you'd buy something like Hermes on ebay to begin with... do you like to play with fire?
 

Dranakin

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They don't care, as long as they get their fee revenue.
 

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