damn.... accidentally bought some counterfeit bits on ebay
Discussion
I bought a Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost for the MTB off the 'bay. At ~£25 new I suspected it wasn't legit but carbon is carbon! On receipt it was clear that the design wasn't the same as any WCS of recent years. However there was a serial number inside the tube and after some interweb investigation I found out it was actually a Bontrager seatpost that had been painted up as Ritchey. From what ive read, in the Chinese factories they do an official run of whatever product they are supposed to make, then lock the doors and do another couple of hours of the same product with fake brand names on.
Anyway, used it for months without issue, and for the money I was pleased with it.
I would draw the line at stem/handlebar though - if the seatpost fails it would mostly be an annoyance, but if the front end goes that could be serious.
How much cheaper was this stem than the official online retailers?
Anyway, used it for months without issue, and for the money I was pleased with it.
I would draw the line at stem/handlebar though - if the seatpost fails it would mostly be an annoyance, but if the front end goes that could be serious.
How much cheaper was this stem than the official online retailers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14NGMBZy2B4
If a stem snaps then you could end up crashing, open a dispute and return it
If a stem snaps then you could end up crashing, open a dispute and return it
itsnotarace said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14NGMBZy2B4
If a stem snaps then you could end up crashing, open a dispute and return it
If a stem snaps then you could end up crashing, open a dispute and return it
The giveaway is where it says "corbon allov" instead of "carbon alloy"... A quick Google for "Corbin allov" reveals lots of links to the stems originally on aliexpress.
The pics on the ad were good, looked legit, was from the same people I got my bars from -which seemed legit. 40 quid for the stem - for something that sells on aliexpress for a fraction of that.
Ok quick question, eBay only gives a "I'd like to return for a refund" option. Wtf? Surely returning a counterfeit to the seller is legally dodgy ground?
The pics on the ad were good, looked legit, was from the same people I got my bars from -which seemed legit. 40 quid for the stem - for something that sells on aliexpress for a fraction of that.
Ok quick question, eBay only gives a "I'd like to return for a refund" option. Wtf? Surely returning a counterfeit to the seller is legally dodgy ground?
TheLemming said:
The giveaway is where it says "corbon allov" instead of "carbon alloy"... A quick Google for "Corbin allov" reveals lots of links to the stems originally on aliexpress.
The pics on the ad were good, looked legit, was from the same people I got my bars from -which seemed legit. 40 quid for the stem - for something that sells on aliexpress for a fraction of that.
Ok quick question, eBay only gives a "I'd like to return for a refund" option. Wtf? Surely returning a counterfeit to the seller is legally dodgy ground?
If you're that bothered - and I would be personally - I'd get on to your local trading standards first. There's no way counterfeit goods should just be sent back to the sender, as they'll just end up as a potential death trap on someone else's bike. The pics on the ad were good, looked legit, was from the same people I got my bars from -which seemed legit. 40 quid for the stem - for something that sells on aliexpress for a fraction of that.
Ok quick question, eBay only gives a "I'd like to return for a refund" option. Wtf? Surely returning a counterfeit to the seller is legally dodgy ground?
I've been the victim of a couple of fakes on eBay, first one was a set of headphones and the second was an SD card that claimed to be 32GB but was just a hacked 2GB card.
You can raise a dispute on eBay for situations just as this:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Buyers-and-Sellers-Dispute...
In my instance, I included all the evidence I had that the items were fake, and in both situations eBay resolved in my favour and forced a refund via PayPal without me having to send back the items to the seller.
This is the way to go if you want a full refund without sending the item back
You can raise a dispute on eBay for situations just as this:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Buyers-and-Sellers-Dispute...
In my instance, I included all the evidence I had that the items were fake, and in both situations eBay resolved in my favour and forced a refund via PayPal without me having to send back the items to the seller.
This is the way to go if you want a full refund without sending the item back
In my industry we have a particular problem with fake goods of Chinese origin. Quite frankly these things can be very, very dangerous, partcularly if they are load-bearng parts. Carbon is not Carbon as a poster above suggeted wrongly.
Counterfeit parts risk your life - and they don't give a feck!
Counterfeit parts risk your life - and they don't give a feck!
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/T5Mye6eN.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/9j50CMUd" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/9j50CMUd.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/wIxX0yBu" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/wIxX0yBu.jpg)
ro55a said:
PurpleMoonlight said:
Did you sign for delivery?
If not, just claim as not received and avoid all the hassle and inconvenience of not as described. The seller deserves what they get in these circumstances.....
Spot on!If not, just claim as not received and avoid all the hassle and inconvenience of not as described. The seller deserves what they get in these circumstances.....
Report that is is a counterfeit to eBay and try to get them to stop him selling these parts. Pulling his Paypal account would be a good start. eBay own Paypel so shutting him down shouldn't be too difficult.
The point about factories doing production runs for themselves is rubbish. Main brands only use QA accredited manufacturers and such companies do not risk their contractual ties by selling their own production runs on eBay. These parts are cheap copies, or quality control rejects that should have been destroyed, nothing else. The QA rejection could just be a spelling mistake, or it could be a spelling mistake and a resin mixing/mat lay-up error. Send it back.
Tom Ritchey may want to help, if you drop him a line.
It this were fake PZero's, what would you do?
Raven Flyer said:
ro55a said:
PurpleMoonlight said:
Did you sign for delivery?
If not, just claim as not received and avoid all the hassle and inconvenience of not as described. The seller deserves what they get in these circumstances.....
Spot on!If not, just claim as not received and avoid all the hassle and inconvenience of not as described. The seller deserves what they get in these circumstances.....
Report that is is a counterfeit to eBay and try to get them to stop him selling these parts. Pulling his Paypal account would be a good start. eBay own Paypel so shutting him down shouldn't be too difficult.
The point about factories doing production runs for themselves is rubbish. Main brands only use QA accredited manufacturers and such companies do not risk their contractual ties by selling their own production runs on eBay. These parts are cheap copies, or quality control rejects that should have been destroyed, nothing else. The QA rejection could just be a spelling mistake, or it could be a spelling mistake and a resin mixing/mat lay-up error. Send it back.
Tom Ritchey may want to help, if you drop him a line.
It this were fake PZero's, what would you do?
Mac. said:
Don't send it back - eBay will side with you if you take the time to report it as fake. If you send it back, someone else is going to be on the receiving end and might not be as savvy as you. You have an obligation to take it off the market in my view.
Already posted this morning - frankly I want my money back.However I don't intend to leave it at that.
TheLemming said:
Already posted this morning - frankly I want my money back.
However I don't intend to leave it at that.
You'd have got your money back by raising a dispute. Shame you sent it back, I hope someone else doesn't fall for it now. You'd have hurt the seller by taking their stock AND forcing a refund. However I don't intend to leave it at that.
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