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Can evidence be any plainer than this? This photo sums up pretty well the whole situation. Fake, counterfeit, fraud - its as simple as that.
What on earth can eBay do about unscrupulous sellers who peddle fake goods? Not much, it seems. Well, now its my turn to get duped. Seeing a slip billed by eBay seller specialju38 as a ‘Kayser Bondor’ and at a fair price for the brand, I went for it and won.
I should have known better. Our seller used up her full quota of photos in the item description, but I missed the fact there wasn’t one of the label. If there had have been, there is no way I would have touched it with a bargepole and I would have immediately reported it to eBay as an obvious fake. Sadly, it wasn’t until I received the slip in the post that the scam came to light.
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The bit that really rankles is that the seller takes her buyer as a fool. This is such an amateurish attempt at a fake it beggars belief. Crude stitching the likes of which I haven’t seen since my own attempts at needlework at primary school – plus the fact our erstwhile scammer couldn’t even be bothered to sew it on straight to the seam. It has even been sewn in the wrong place – clearly a collar label, it has been stitched halfway down a side seam. You’ve got to see this sham to believe it, as photos on a blog can only describe the situation to a degree.
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Somebody needs to make a stand against these shoddy practices and right now I am so angry that the longer it takes me to get a full refund, the louder I’m going to shout. As an established seller of vintage lingerie myself, I thank God I am honest enough to never even consider hurting my customers in this way and if I never get a refund off specialju38, the £8.99 I sent her for this sham will be worth every penny to expose this disgusting and illegal practice. Nobody should have to fight to get their money back after this kind of thing happens.
OK, now lets give specialju38 the benefit of the doubt and lets assume she has merely ‘moved on’ a fake slip she didn’t actually ‘make’ herself. Well, firstly, I would be truly staggered that such a crude fake would escape even the most fleeting and rudimentary inspection. I wouldn’t have listed it, thats for sure. Secondly, if this were so and the seller innocently ‘shifted’ said dodgy slip, then a full refund should be instantaneous and without reservation. I think competent online sellers call it protecting one’s reputation. Instead, I had to open an eBay dispute case against the seller as I now have absolutely no confidence that I’ll ever get my money back.
If you think I am being a tad harsh in my interpretation of a fake and you can clearly see that is how all Kayser Bondor labels were stitched on by their skilled machinists, then please comment on this article and put me firmly in my place. On the other hand, after viewing the photos you came to the same conclusion as I did, I’d appreciate a comment to that effect too. Thank you.
FOOTNOTE: its obvious from the personal abuse I have received from specialju38 that I seem to have had a brush with the ‘murkier’ side of eBay. This character doesn’t represent the values that I stand for, nor the way I conduct business with buyers. So, even though I am the victim of a fraud, I closed the case and in doing so I will let her keep the £8.99 she took from me. Not because I’m weak. Not because I caved-in, but because I have a different set of morals to people like her and I have come to the conclusion that the once vibrant marketplace that was eBay is now rotten to the core. Sorry, but what may seem to you now as some kind of victory will gnaw away at your conscience if you have one, or not if you haven’t. Congratulate yourself on a job well done – you successfully duped someone into buying your fake Kayser Bondor slip!
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