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Accused of selling phake iPhone.
 

I recently sold my iPhone that was damaged on eBay (as damaged for parts). The guy that bought it made an offer and requested I end the auction so he could get it faster. I told him before he purchased it to be sure because I couldn't take returns. He hastily bought it anyway.

Now he's opened a case against me and said I wouldn't respond before I even had a chance. He says it is a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ knock off and wants a refund. eBay is reviewing it. I don't sell phones. It was the one I had used. I received it as a gift. It is the only iPhone I have ever had. The back says Designed by Apple in California Made in America. I went by that.

What is the point of NO RETURNS if you can made bad purchase decisions and then just open a case? What will happen next? Suspension?

So you read the back of your phone before you sold it and remember what it says? Story sounds a little on the fishy side. Seems like you had a good idea that it was not genuine...

The dispute will likely be favored in the buyers favor, just because he mentioned it was f a k e.

yeah you will probs lose the phone along with the money

its a risky game to play selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ but ⊗⊗⊗⊗ iphones is guaranteed to bring you big problems

i heard they are absolutely awful copies too

in the end, you are responsible for any and all listing you put on ebay whether it is ⊗⊗⊗⊗ or not

thanks
 

Thank you for insinuating I'm dishonest, but I took a million pics of it for my listing. I still have them. The pic I posted was quite clear. I can read the back of the phone in the pic!

The buyer usually wins whether it's ⊗⊗⊗⊗ or not. Paypal thinks the best way to handle the situation is to have the buyer ship back your item and you get your money back.
The return policies you set on eBay are absolutely useless.

F a k e or Real dosent matter to ebay. Everything is f a k e in ebays eyes and if a buyer opens a dispute and says its f a k e its a instant win for them to get there $'s back.

guilty until proven innocent

What the original poster is saying is he sold a real iphone, but the idiot buyer wants to keep it and his money back. This is called a buyer scam. You will need to pursue the buyer with good emails regarding no returns policy and to get the police involved to see if maybe he is lying. Good scare tactics. :)

It is not hard at all to identify a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ iphone.
Did you sync it with itunes? that's the only proof needed because no ⊗⊗⊗⊗ iphone would sync with itunes.
*and if your iphone had the app store icon and you took a picture which shows the icon, you can post it in the case because no ⊗⊗⊗⊗ iphone has it too.

yeah if the phone syncs with itunes its not a ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Plus give ebay the serial number of the phone. It will also tell them if its a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ or not. If you never sync with Itunes and it has no serial number with Apple then the buyer has a real claim. It might be a ⊗⊗⊗⊗. There are some really good duplicates out there. Some are really bad poor copies. Some manufacturers in China just try to duplicate the look and feel but the core is nothing like Apple. You can get a really good Iphone that comes off the same assembly line as the real Iphone. It wont ever been activated by Apple though so won't connect to Itunes.

Always remember before you sell anything keep a copy of the serial number. You can go to the Apple site to see if its legit.

Is this iPhone 4, 3GS, or 3G? Because They are supposed to say "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China."

Not, "Made in America" as you stated.

Either way, as many have stated, he will win unless you get authorities involved. I've already been there with another product I used to sell and don't any more because I had so many scam buyers. There are some serious professional scammers who specifically target Apple products so you have almost no chance of survival.

Pictures are nothing. Did you list the phone to show each and every part of it that proves it is the real thing?

Many choices given by other users. Pick what to do

You are assuming ebay cares. They do not.

I am assuming, for arguments sake, that the OP is honest and that the phone is the real deal.

It still won't matter.

The Iphone is a highly counterfeited item. eBay and PayPal, will almost ALWAYS side with a buyer who claims it was a ⊗⊗⊗⊗. So, the buyer will get a full refund AND you will be lucky to get the phone back. You may not. According to their policy, counterfeit items do not have to be returned to the seller. The buyer merely needs to "certify" that the item was destroyed. By "certify" they basically mean promised eBay/PayPal that it was destroyed.

There are scamming buyers who know this and use this technique to get real brand-name merchandise for free.

Selling ANYTHING on eBay that is heavily counterfeited is, therefore, a risk. There is no way to prove 100% that it is not a ⊗⊗⊗⊗. eBay and PayPal don't have the item in their posession, and even if they did, they would simply say their representativers are not qualified to determine authenticity. They enacted the policy to discourage people from listing counterfeits. As usual, if honest sellers get hurt also, then oh well.

Apple is one of the most counterfeited brands. So is Disney, Louis Vuitton, Coach, and many others. Tales of woe abound.

Well...I can say that once i sold a high brand item and buyer opened a case BEFORE he receives the item stating it was not authentic. I stated this to Ebay and by the tracking number they could see he didnt receive the item at the time he opened the case. Anyway, i won the case because and this was the reason e bay alleged "buyer didn´t respond in the time frame" so basically they had to give credit on my side. a few months later i received a chargeback on Pay pal because of the same situation. I provided them all i could i.e. tracking number pictures of the item and stated the same thing i did on e bay (buyer opened a case on e bay BEFORE he received the item). they said they would verify if there were conditions to fight this chargeback for me. after 10 days they said that they couldn´t do it so i was put with negative balance on pay pal and my account limited for good. That was a lot of money and i never payed it and NEVER will do. reason is on my side so they could come with whatever reasons they want. I don´t find that debt as legitm and if further action is taken to harass me i will write them a registed letter stating i don´t know what they are talking about as i don´t take the debt as valid.

Sorry for writing my example but i was, still am pissed because of that and want to agree with the people here that say e bay and pay pal always (well..majority of times) line up with the buyers.

Clife brings up another interesting point. Even if eBay/PayPal see the situation for what it is, the buyer still has the CHARGEBACK option. It is decided by the buyer's bank. So, unless an online seller can prove fraud (very difficult to do) the banks usually will side with their customer.

Sux!
 

The guy is now being very rude. He sent me a message and turned around and immediately messaged eBay and said I wouldn't respond. I've decided to just wait and see what eBay says. Then I'll go from there. I do not sell phones, this was just my new phone that got damaged. I 'm sure he'll get to keep it regardless.

Actually, I've already decided to try and take my business elsewhere. Maybe I'll try another auction site if I can find one not affiliated with eBay.

Thank you guys for your input. I'll keep you posted.

Sadly, the guy will get his refund and keep your item. They are professional scammers and do this all the time. I had a Sony DSLR that got wet a few years ago and sold it strictly for parts, even put in bold PARTS ONLY, guy files a claims saying it was poorly packed and the mirror was damaged. I even had insurance on it and told him to provide pic and could file a claim. Long story short, he got his refund, keep the camers and probably even filed a insurance claim. My only revenge was using his details to open a stealth account that even got taken out and his along with it. Best thing to do is go stealth and if it happens again walk away from the accounts with a negative.

like your style;)

:hail:

That's the best thing I've heard on here for a while!

Off all items on ebay I say Iphones are probably down on the list of counterfeit. I've bought thousands of Iphones and Ipads on Ebay and Craigslist. Never got a counterfeit one. Understand lots of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ but since they can't connect to Itunes you wouldn't have much of a business selling those phones.

Your right that Ebay will side with the buyer most times. I've even had a situation where a buyer was refunded for something they never paid for. Ebay system messed up on a moneybookers sale for me. For whatever reason the buyer started the checkout process with moneybookers but never actually paid. Ebay site said paid by moneybookers but they didn't. Ebay emailed me that I need to give them a refund. When I didn't Ebay refunded the buyer and billed me. Had to get Moneybookers to call them and tell them there system messed up.