To whom it concerns
This is my account of the one time I bought cheap new
branded goods on ebay.
I was not very experienced at it but I am not easily conned either. Normally
I am very wary and check all available data but this night it was late and I
was 'in a hurry' – bad move. I had spent hours scouring the listings and
watching the bidding and checking the feedback and I thought I had found
what I wanted when I came across a Lowepro Slingshot 200 with bidding
starting at $80AU and no bids on it yet and only three hours to end time.
I did wonder at the absence of bids so far but I put it down to the fact a
few other 'Lowepro' bags were just bought or about to be. I also wondered
about the look of the bag in the picture in the listing, it didn't have that
clean lines - proud look I would expect from a first class item and I did
email the seller if it was genuine Lowepro and I got a reply that didn't
answer the question. This has happened with the few low price used items I
have bought, people answer a question that wasn't asked. So I let it pass
and put my bid in, as much as I was willing to pay.
The seller also had a 100% positive feedback score.
It was too good to be true and I knew it. But I ignored the alarm bells. Bad
move!
Looking back I also suspect the other bidder was only there to up the price,
apparently not an uncommon practice.
What I 'won' on ebay was a Chinese/Hong Kong knockoff, a fake. It turned up
soon enough wrapped in a couple of plastic bags bound roughly with packing
tape. That's when all but the faintest doubt disappeared. I opened it and
everything about it said 'rubbish'. The material was low grade, the fittings
cheap, the cut and finish sloppy.
This just couldn't be genuine Lowepro I thought. You don't get a reputation
like Lowepro with a product like this.
What to do? I couldn't use it to carry my precious (to me) equipment; it
just wouldn't perform as I needed in the field. And I still had that
lingering doubt, or was it hope, is it the real thing? So I got on the net
and found Lowepro's site which led me to Maxwell's, the Lowepro distributors
in Australia.
I had to be sure before I took any action on the matter so I sent an email
on the Friday night and got a reply on the same night from Paul in customer
support who eventually put me on to Dawn. Paul offered to have a look at the
bag so I sent it off a few days later and it was confirmed. The cheap bag
was a genuine fake all the way from China. I got burned, for a lot of time
and money.
The upside of this experience is I won't be wasting my time and money chasing that elusive 'bargain' in the cyber markets any more. Peace of mind
is worth a few dollars. If I want top end stuff I'll go to the 'genuine article' and I have found in Maxwell's a company that offers service first.
Service, remember that?
That's old fashioned professionalism. The people at Maxwell's have put
significant consideration into helping me resolve the matter and I have
every reason to expect a healthy, hassle free relationship when I am in the
market and they have the equivalent of what I need.
And I thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Mark B
August 2008
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