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Second hand but still counterfeit goods sold to my 10 year old son
Aginoth
Posts: 124 Forumite
My 10 year old son spent a four weeks saving up pocket money to buy a Game Boy Advance (GBA) game. A couple of days ago he bought it, Pok!mon LeafGreen. Cost him £6 for the unboxed previously owned game.
The game was acting oddly this evening so he asked me to look at it, it was constantly deleting his saved games after being used in his Nintendo DS, and then also on my old GBA.
First thought was that it was a dead battery for the game data memory. So I went off to the web to look for how to replace it...and opened a whole can of worms.
found out the following information proving the cartridge is a fake, these are all things that unless you're in the know you might not spot.
1. Model number on the back for all Genuine GBA Pok!mon Cartridge cases is AGB-002, this supposed Pok!mon LeafGreen Cartridge is AGB-033 meaning the case has been scavenged from another game.
2. Plastic of cartridge case of genuine GBA Pok!mon LeafGreen should be slightly Opaque, not clear as this fake has
3. Sticker Label on Front is not Foil (which it should be for LeafGreen) it is plastic coated paper
4. Sticker Label on Front does not have Numbers stamped/imprinted onto the sticker that a genuine cartridge would.
The following required me to open up the cartridge, to investigate.
5. Internally the Cartridge has a round button battery on the right hand side powering the memory chip to hold game data; a genuine Nintendo game cartridge does not use this method. A genuine GBA Cartridge will have no battery. It should have 1 game chip and 1 EPROM chip to hold game data.
6. The standard of soldering of the connections in a fake game is obviously sub-standard and done by hand, in this cartridge this is obviously the case the standard of soldering in abysmal.
7. Connector Pins - If you hold your game label-up and look into the connector pins, you'll see that, on a real game, "Nintendo" and "AGB E05" (or something like that, its slightly different for each game) is actuall printed on the pins or circuit board. Fake games don't have this.
and finally, the original fault that started it all off...
8. When fake cartridge is inserted in an NDS the message "The save file has been deleted..." appears after you press START if you have played a genuine copy of Pok!mon Diamond on that NDS. (source: Nintendo)
Pretty damned convinced this is a fake as you can see.
So anyway I'm off back to the shop tomorrow (local games trader) to try to get his money back.
What do I do with the fake? Should I give it back in return for the refund, or should I pass it on to Trading Standards?
I'd quite like to get Trading Standards involved, the shop owner has been in this business for almost 10 years and I would have thought the onus was upon him to make sure he is not selling counterfeit goods; even second-hand. I really don't want to give him the oppurtunity to sell the game on to some other unsuspecting child.
If he refuses a refund without giving him the game I will, if necessary I will refund my son the £6 it cost him.
What is the law regarding the sale of counterfeit goods, secondhand by a shop? The same as selling "new" fake goods?
Am I actually legally allowed to give the trader the counterfeit game cartridge back (not that I want too), or is their a duty upon me to report this to trading standards and the police?
The game was acting oddly this evening so he asked me to look at it, it was constantly deleting his saved games after being used in his Nintendo DS, and then also on my old GBA.
First thought was that it was a dead battery for the game data memory. So I went off to the web to look for how to replace it...and opened a whole can of worms.
found out the following information proving the cartridge is a fake, these are all things that unless you're in the know you might not spot.
1. Model number on the back for all Genuine GBA Pok!mon Cartridge cases is AGB-002, this supposed Pok!mon LeafGreen Cartridge is AGB-033 meaning the case has been scavenged from another game.
2. Plastic of cartridge case of genuine GBA Pok!mon LeafGreen should be slightly Opaque, not clear as this fake has
3. Sticker Label on Front is not Foil (which it should be for LeafGreen) it is plastic coated paper
4. Sticker Label on Front does not have Numbers stamped/imprinted onto the sticker that a genuine cartridge would.
The following required me to open up the cartridge, to investigate.
5. Internally the Cartridge has a round button battery on the right hand side powering the memory chip to hold game data; a genuine Nintendo game cartridge does not use this method. A genuine GBA Cartridge will have no battery. It should have 1 game chip and 1 EPROM chip to hold game data.
6. The standard of soldering of the connections in a fake game is obviously sub-standard and done by hand, in this cartridge this is obviously the case the standard of soldering in abysmal.
7. Connector Pins - If you hold your game label-up and look into the connector pins, you'll see that, on a real game, "Nintendo" and "AGB E05" (or something like that, its slightly different for each game) is actuall printed on the pins or circuit board. Fake games don't have this.
and finally, the original fault that started it all off...
8. When fake cartridge is inserted in an NDS the message "The save file has been deleted..." appears after you press START if you have played a genuine copy of Pok!mon Diamond on that NDS. (source: Nintendo)
Pretty damned convinced this is a fake as you can see.
So anyway I'm off back to the shop tomorrow (local games trader) to try to get his money back.
What do I do with the fake? Should I give it back in return for the refund, or should I pass it on to Trading Standards?
I'd quite like to get Trading Standards involved, the shop owner has been in this business for almost 10 years and I would have thought the onus was upon him to make sure he is not selling counterfeit goods; even second-hand. I really don't want to give him the oppurtunity to sell the game on to some other unsuspecting child.
If he refuses a refund without giving him the game I will, if necessary I will refund my son the £6 it cost him.
What is the law regarding the sale of counterfeit goods, secondhand by a shop? The same as selling "new" fake goods?
Am I actually legally allowed to give the trader the counterfeit game cartridge back (not that I want too), or is their a duty upon me to report this to trading standards and the police?
0
Comments
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In all fairness this may infact be a genuine mistake by the trader.
If this is second user they may maintain records of where goods came from, so by returning the item to the trader they can trace the source. I doubt very much you will get a refund if you do not return the counterfeit item. By returning it, you are also giving them the opportunity to inspect and verify the claim.0 -
I've printed off the list of pointers to why I think it's counterfeit, and I was going to give that to the shop so they can indeed verify that it is.
Was going to go down to the shop tomorrow anyway and have a quick look to see if I can spot anything else "dodgy" before I return the item, probably on Monday.
If I do spot anything else I will be getting in touch with Trading Standards whatever as under the law the shop/trader has to show he has shown due diligence in preventing the sale of fake items, and as an experienced second hand games trader I would expect him to inspect trade in games for their authenticity before sale.0 -
You can report it to actionfraud:
http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/fraud_protection/counterfeit_goods
Personally, I would see how they react before taking action. If it seems to be a genuine mistake then probably not worth reporting, but if it looks like its quite common practice then it could be more serious and worth reporting.0 -
You can report it to actionfraud:
http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/fraud_protection/counterfeit_goods
Personally, I would see how they react before taking action. If it seems to be a genuine mistake then probably not worth reporting, but if it looks like its quite common practice then it could be more serious and worth reporting.
It is always worth reporting this. These guys are supposed to be the experts and they should know they should have checked. They rely on people not bothering to report them, so they can continue getting away with selling dodgy stuff. If it is a "genuine" mistake, they can explain that to Trading Standards and let them determine whether it was just a "mistake" or not.The greater danger, for most of us, lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark0 -
How can a 10 year old buy?0
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Just what I was thinking.
I would imagine they save up their pocket money, walk into the shop and say, "I'd like to buy this game please," hand over the required six pounds and leave the shop.
The greater danger, for most of us, lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark0 -
I imagine the likely outcome is you will get your £6 back and the manager will want to look further into it. It is most likely if he was selling it as secondhand that he was cheated by whoever sold it to him in the first place, so will want to work out how he handles it in the future, and will keep a keener eye out.
Don't jump at shadows, the store is probably the ones who will do the losing out over this.0 -
How can a 10 year old buy?
Strange question...he goes to the counter and hands the money over like anyone else.
We (his parents) were outside the shop waiting for him, he was not totally unaccompanied if that's what you are implying. He was being taught life skills important to any child, and even more so for my son as he is autistic.
And for clarity I am not jumping at shadows, hence why I have asked on here first and not gone storming off to the shop. Plus I want to check out the shops other stock before I decide how to approach them, as pointed out they may not be aware and they may have a bigger problem with having fakes foisted upon them, despite their legal duty of due diligence.0 -
Don't storm off to the shop. Walk in calmly assuming the shop didn't know it was a fake. Explain that it appears to be fake and ask for a refund. Storming comes later if the shop does nothing to help.0
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