Beware Replica Phones!

Moglex

xycom1 wrote:

How were they ripped off? It's not the seller's fault if people can't read (or are too lazy too!).

Any chance of mentioning your ebay ID.

I certainly wouldn't want to deal with you.

skiddy2k

i wouldnt quiet call it ripped off and wouldnt consider it a scam... if what the OP (elly_fish) said was true, the seller hasnt done anything wrong and dont see a reason to leave negative feedback and it doesnt mean he's a scum. the majority of the posters if not, none of the posters have seen the page so cant comment on wether it is the seller who done wrong or wether it was a mistake by OP. the page may have said "immitation sony..." or "fake sony.." or "sany...". this doesnt mean the seller done anything wrong, it was just a mistake by OP for bidding on something with which she didnt read the smallprint on... teaches everyone a lesson; allways read the small print!

more to the point, i think i saw a website on MSE.com where they buy your old second-hand phones... i cant find the link thou... i definatley saw it here, maybe someone can post it here for you

juno

Whilst writing it in small print isn't exactly wrong, it's still deliberately trying to trick people. Which is wrong.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

xycom1 wrote:

How were they ripped off? It's not the seller's fault if people can't read (or are too lazy too!).

I don't believe you even wrote that! How can you side with the seller. The whole purpose of the auction in question was to deliberately mislead potential bidders and as a result higher bids were placed because they thought that the phone they were getting was the real thing.

The seller has done something wrong because they misrepresented the item that was actually for sale. Bidders believed that they were getting a Sony brand not a replica.

bs7

If the seller has intentionally used small writing to hide the true nature of the item being sold then he's inducing the error. The fact that it's a unilateral error is irrelevant - the seller clearly intended to mislead the buyer into thinking the phone was genuine and as such it is the seller's fault, and a type of scam.

Granted you should always read the small print - but small print can't be legitimately used to alter the entire nature of the item in question. And it doesn't, as skiddy2k suggests, excuse the seller at all.

As others have said - if you've paid via paypal then raise a dispute. You've not got much to lose from doing so. If you get a neg so be it - better than being £50 down.

soolin

I'm getting confused now due to editing of posts...

Originally I thought were were discussing a 'replica' as in a dummy phone used in mobile phone shops for display. If that had been the case then whilst I agree that the OP is also at fault for not reading the listing, I would suggest that a complaint should be made to ebay for misleading ads and for placing ads in the wrong section and possibly an item not as described claim entered as a mobile phone is not at all the same as a dummy phone.

However it has now been edited to suggest that it wasn't a dummy phone but just a different older (?) model.

(I'm waiting to here from the recycle companies to see if I'd get anything for it...it cost £100 so I'd be happy with half of that seeing that it was my mistake)

If it is just the case of a different model then I'm sorry but I think the OP should be more careful. Yes the seller can still be reported for a misleading auction as the title should be what is being sold and not just a 'come on' but any complaint of scamming might not work if the auction listing stated what was being sold. I may well be mis interpreting the OP here and if so I apologise, but I'm getting confused by what was expected and what was actually received.

Also I would think that any neg left is likely to be returned with a remark that buyer does not read the auction listing. If browsers then showed that the listing did state it was a particular phone then it doesn't reflect so badly on the seller and possibly does reflect a little poorly on the buyer.

Never bid in a hurry it gives a buyer no opportunity to check all the necessary details and payment methods and isn't worth the risk.

Also it is worth remembering that if the buyer paid by paypal there is nothing to lose by trying a paypal claim for item not as described.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I agree that the seller perhaps should have read the auction description more carefully but surely deliberately misrepresenting a phone is not allowed.

soolin

razorbladekisses wrote:

I agree that the seller perhaps should have read the auction description more carefully but surely deliberately misrepresenting a phone is not allowed.

Without seeing the actual auction it is difficult to say for certain for either way.

If the auction title just said 'Sony ericsson w800i' then yes I think the OP would win a chargeback regardless of what the auction blurb said. However, if the title was slightly more obscure like 'Sony ericsson w800i n90 a800' (I made those other ones up as I can't think of other SE models) then it is keyword spamming and likely to earn the seller nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Likewise the words 'like' or 'style' would also be keyword spamming.

I was really wondering though, and I know we shouldn't make assumptions, why the OP didn't just go straight to a paypal claim if the auction was so obviously wrong. If I had bought a SE W800i where that is all it said in the title, and where that model and all the attributes for that model were shown in the item specifics then I would complain.

Maybe it is worth asking what th eitem specifics said..did that also give all the specs for the W800i or for the phone that was received? If it was blank then that in itself is suspicious and would have needed a second look to see what was being hidden.

Soo

Moglex

I can't believe the lack of scruples of some of the people who've posted here.

This scumbag deliberately set out to take as much of someone's hard earned money as he could be attempting to deceive them into believing that they were buying something that they weren't.

I've seen a few of these auctions linked on other forums, and the MO is usually for a massive listing with a great raft of verbiage and cut and paste specifications (relating to what the scammer wants you to think you are bidding on) and a tiny little indicator buried away saying that you are bidding for a box or photograph, replica, whatever.

[RANT]

There are no two ways about these types of auctions: They are just nasty little scumbags deliberately trying to mislead people.

It's a very sad reflection of modern life that people (presumably inured by the half truths in everyday advertising) are actually prepared to stand up and say they don't see that they are doing anything wrong, and place the blame squarely on the buyer for not noticing a deliberately hidden clause in the copy.

[/RANT]

skiddy2k

Or its a seller trying to sell a Sany phone!... as long as it doesn’t say "this is a Sony mobile" or something along the lines, you cant say the seller's done anything wrong; as long as the seller’s selling whatever the description says, the seller hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s a mistake made by the buyer if they were expecting something other than what was said on the description.

I’ve seen people sell their contact details for cars or packaging for game consoles on e-bay and it goes for hundreds, and its obvious what the seller is selling, its misinterpretations or misread by the buyers or which cause this... it blatantly says what the user is selling, so the seller hasn’t done anything wrong!

I don’t know what it says on the description on the lot which the OP brought, but providing the description said whatever the OP brought, I don’t seem to think the seller is a “scum” as some users have said in this thread and has sold a legitimate good. If the buyer misinterpreted it, it’s not the sellers fault.