I got a counterfeit and ebay wants 3rd party opinion

General
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I just escalated a case I had opened about a counterfeit card I received on ebay. They are asking for more evidence and a third party opinion. Here is exactly what they said:

I reviewed your case and I understand that you suspect that the card that you received from the seller is not authentic Nintendo Pokemon card. I’ll be more than happy to help you out with the case.

Since the item you received might not be authentic, I will put this case on hold for 10 days to give us more time to investigate further on it. In addition, please ask for documentation from the manufacturer of the brand name item or qualified third party stating that item you bought is not authentic. They must clearly describe how the item you received differs from an authentic item and how the person evaluating the item determined that it isn’t authentic. If possible, the statement should include a serial number. In addition, it must be made on letterhead that includes the name, address, and phone number of the business. This allows us to contact them if we need more information.

So who can help me or has experience with this? I already sent detailed pictures and explanations but they want more I guess. This case should be open and shut but now I have 10 days to supply more evidence and 3rd party testimony.

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@smpratte has helped with stuff like this in the past. I’m sure other major sellers would be qualified and glad to help as well, Maybe @garyis2000 or @kkthxbai ?

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Link the listing here first

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This should be an easy one for you as the buyer.

Buyer Always wins… Usually… Dont worry

Just keep answering their questions
.

explaining that the item is not as described.
Tell them you are extremely unhappy that the item was not as described and want a full refund, as it was a present for Xmas.

It is different to what was shown.

Also if you want to screw the seller faster, just say the item arrived damaged. And only accept PayPal refund / return / no replacement.

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HERE

It was clearly a risky move and I’m well aware of that. I realized later that it was posted in the Garbage thread as well. His other listing appear to be fakes too.

The card I received is a bad quality image of the card glued onto what appears to be a real card. It’s laughably bad! Anyway I have pictures that I have taken. I can upload them tomorrow. Perhaps this thread can help serve as evidence.

I appreciate the help so far guys! @kkthxbai and @fourthstartcg
Anything you can do or say is also appreciated @KingPokemon

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Have you had a reply in the case dialogue or in a PM from the seller yet?

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This was posted in the GAT awhile ago. The description says “Unofficial”, so it shouldn’t be too difficult explaining that the card is not official.

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This is why I asked for a link to see what he said about it and his return policy.
As Scott said, he hung himself by putting “unofficial” in the description. Unofficials are counterfeits.

By the way, watch Scotts new YouTube video on fake cards,

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Looking at their feedback could have been a red flags from the get go, bunch of fake sales to get them over the probation period.

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Surprised eBay and the buyer didn’t read the “UNOFFICIAL” in the description.

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Talking to most eBay reps is like talking to a wall. Yes there are helpful people that work at eBay but they are few and far between. I have had many conversations with representatives and no matter how clear and concise my point may be, many either cannot understand (foreign?) or just do not care to (lazy?). You can point out the “UNOFFICIAL” in the description until you’re blue in the face but once they ask for a third party opinion, they’re going to require that and remain firm.

It’s probably not what you’ll want to hear but it’s likely you will need to open up your checkbook again and pay a few bucks for this. A formal letter/expert opinion like you need isn’t usually free and no one at eBay is going to bother reading through an entire thread of randoms and conclude that the card must be fake and to issue you a refund.

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There was “0” feedback at the time of purchase.

I did read the description, however, “unofficial” isn’t a sentence and has no context. Coming from someone foreign who knows. Like I said I know it was a risk. The item was presented as real. I had a few private messages with the seller. So you are missing context to make that judgement.

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To answer the E4 members who are questioning this purchase, allow me to chime in because I completely sympathize with raichuforyou. I in fact purchased a card from the same ebayer but I had a bad gut feeling so I immediately backed out of the sale.

  1. The feedback was done after the sale of this card, and obviously this gave red flags now but before the sale there was not much about the seller, and if you did not check E4 you just assumed it’s a newbie offloading cards.

  2. The “unofficial” was added only to the recent listings, and honestly was ambiguous on purpose for the seller to try to get away selling fake cards. If it was an old user who sold a ton of cards and one of them said “unofficial”, you would guess it’s probably not legitimate. A new seller selling a card that’s unofficial? It can simply mean they thought you cannot play it in TCG or something.

  3. The card back looked legit, which made sense now because the seller simply glued a picture onto a legit card. But it’s hard to guess back then since no one knew what the seller was doing.

Tropical wind 1999 seems nearly impossible to find nowadays so I get why this is worth the risk, and hopefully you will get your money back soon raichuforyou! I only backed out because I sent a best offer that’s like 25% of what was listed and he accepted right away, which was incredibly suspicious. Then, I saw the E4 post so I just did not even bother. I should have posted something again to warn you guys :confused:

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A couple updates on this situation. I sent another message to eBay and they sent a reassuring reply:
"Thank you for contacting eBay in regard to case that you filed for the Pokemon tropical mega battle (item # 192033013357) that you recently purchased here on eBay. I reviewed your case and I understand that you suspect that the card that you received from the seller is not authentic Nintendo Pokemon card. I’ll be more than happy to help you out with the case.

This means that you will be refunded for the full purchase price plus the original postage costs (if any). At this point, we have gotten in touch with the seller and asked them to provide a shipping label or issue you funds through PayPal to purchase a return label. We have given the seller 5 days to successfully facilitate the return with you.

While the case has been put on hold for 5 days, I strongly suggest for you to ask your postal office the amount that you need for a traceable service for return and inform the seller about it. In this way, your seller will be aware of how much they need to send in to your PayPal account to facilitate the return.

You can also contact us again as soon as you received a shipping label from the seller so we can take the next action for this matter.

If after the given timeframe and no resolution has been reached regarding the return shipping, eBay will then proceed with a final decision regarding the case base on the information we have available on file. We will get in touch with you within 24-48 hours from the time the hold is released.

While I was reviewing your case, I can’t help myself but appreciate your effort of letting eBay know your issue and having us mediate on the situation. You have just taken the right step to ensure as a member of eBay community is always protected.

Please let us know if you received it or not. We will get back after 5 days to take action on the case. If your seller has not responded with an acceptable resolution within the given timeframe, we will give your refund (includes the original price of the item and original shipping fee if applicable).

I know that this information will help us to work things out with your trading partner. Thanks for your cooperation and patience regarding this case!

Sincerely,
eBay Customer Support"

This morning a decision was made in my favor. I was refunded in full. The seller never replied to myself or eBay. I’m actually glad I didn’t have to try and send it back. I’m also thankful eBay was able to expedite the case by 5 days after my second message. Hopefully this can help anybody that runs into an issue like this in the future.

Edit: Also thank you @nuttun for the supportive words!

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Nice :blush: Im glad it is sorted :blush: Sorry you had to go through that…it sucks!!

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That’s awesome. :blush:

I think it does suck that in most cases ebay issues the refund, but do they ever have the seller pay up or they just get to keep the money and continue scamming other people?