fake kingston datatraveler 128gb usb stick

brian0635

hi guys may i ask your advice on an item i bought on ebay.
the item is a kingston 128gb usb stick.

i had my suspicions the item was fake as i was expecting a write speed of 20Mb/s but when i tried to write data the speed was only 1.28Mb/s
so i checked the capacity of the drive with HTESTW as the stick was showing 128gb capacity free on my computer.

HTESTW confirms the drive as fake, the actull capacity of the usb stick is only 8Gb.

The seller is a private seller and i have since checked the sellers feed back and the last few of his auctions have been set to private and all of them have negitve feedback, when i checked before i bought the usb stick he had 100% positive feedback

Am i able to goto the police and report this as a crime, am i within my rights to demand a real 128gb usb stick ? or just get a refund i really dont think this guy should get away with this scam and am intend on going to court if i have to.

thanks

custardy

i would start a paypal dispute and get a refund THEN you can worry about police/trading standards or just contact Kingston

rchiileea

Mate, to be honest i would report the guy to kingston themselves, send them screenshot of ebay page, user name, ebay and paypal response and photos of the product.

ask them to cc you any corispondace with ebay and then put in your claim on paypal using the replies and such as evidance.. to be honest as soon as Kingston contact ebay about the seller things will get fixed, because if they dont well ebay will be pulled down..

Piracy and such on the web can cost 1000s in legal fees so ebay will be forced to respond once kingston contact them.

Drop an email to

[EMAIL="eu_pr@kingston-technology.com"]eu_pr@kingston-technology.com[/EMAIL]

and

[EMAIL="intlsales@kingston.com"]intlsales@kingston.com[/EMAIL]

shroffn

Hi. I have a fake 64GB Kingston USB memory stick that I bought on eBay (got a full refund no problem). Can anyone help me make the USB properly usable? I need a step by step guide. I would be grateful for the help. Thanks

Jen_Jen1985

If you got a refund why dont you just buy a new one instead of trying to use the fake?
Also why not start a new topic rather than dig up one that is nearly 2 years old

gavjbrown

shroffn wrote: »

Hi. I have a fake 64GB Kingston USB memory stick that I bought on eBay (got a full refund no problem). Can anyone help me make the USB properly usable? I need a step by step guide. I would be grateful for the help. Thanks

You'd be better off binning it. Mostly likely it will keep corrupting and lose your data.

shroffn

Sorry, I'm not a regular Forum user and I am not completely aware of the correct etiquette for asking questions. I just found this thread about fake Kingston USB sticks and as it was the only one, thought it would be the appropriate place to ask my question. I appreciate your responses. It just seems such a shame to throw the stick in the bin. I did a test using a piece of software (H2testw 1.4) that I found when I googled my issue. This indicated that the stick has 32GB of capacity. That would be useful in itself for putting my kids DVDs for use in our DVD player. Can anyone point me in a direction other than the bin?

forgotmyname

? If the stick works use it, If not bin it?

globalds

lots of info advice and critical posts on this thread here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/251243-14-problem-flash-drives

I would try one of the reformatting tools ..You will more than likely find it is an 8GB drive or something like that.

shroffn

Thanks globalds. That thread was very useful. I tried a couple of the HP tools suggested (using my old XP machine) and the capacity came out at 2.5GB when I formatted it as FAT32. Worse than predicted. It has gone in the recycling.

Crowqueen

rchiileea wrote: »

Mate, to be honest i would report the guy to kingston themselves, send them screenshot of ebay page, user name, ebay and paypal response and photos of the product.

ask them to cc you any corispondace with ebay and then put in your claim on paypal using the replies and such as evidance.. to be honest as soon as Kingston contact ebay about the seller things will get fixed, because if they dont well ebay will be pulled down..

Piracy and such on the web can cost 1000s in legal fees so ebay will be forced to respond once kingston contact them.

Drop an email to

[EMAIL="eu_pr@kingston-technology.com"]eu_pr@kingston-technology.com[/EMAIL]

and

[EMAIL="intlsales@kingston.com"]intlsales@kingston.com[/EMAIL]

Not sure that works.

The claims are more against the individual seller than against eBay or Paypal. They have warnings when you go to list items in sensitive categories that are often full of fakes. These would help them to argue that it's the responsibility of the seller - as emblazoned on every listing - as to what they sell. The company may take action against the seller, but not necessarily against eBay or Paypal because of their liabilities not being as great. I'm sure eBay and Paypal in response to a complaint about fakes will be more than happy to strike him off - thus the OP should put the claim about a fake through eBay as this will force the seller to prove that the items are genuine.

Trading Standards would go after the seller. Kingston will go after the seller. The tax people might not be getting their fair share if he is actually trading in these (if he is not registered as a business but buying these items to sell on he is also doing something else unlawful); they too will go after the seller, not for eBay/Paypal.

eBay and Paypal may certainly ban him from using their services, but that's the extent of their liability for this.