Cheated on eBay

After a long and fortunate experience of purchasing on eBay, I've finally hit a dud. Not that I wasn't prepared for it since I went it with my eyes wide open, but still disappointing to find my streak broken at last.

What was the object of forgery? A pair of Vibrams KSO from China.

After returning my KSOs and trying out the Treksport, I was a little uncomfortable about wearing down the sole of the Treksport and preferred the thinner 2mm sole for roadwork. Deciding to take my chances online, I went for a cheap pair of KSOs on eBay.

To be honest, it's rather expensive even for a pair of knock-offs. I'd expect half-price, but it was going for around 75% of retail, one of the reasons I bit. Another reason was that Vibrams were made in China anyway, so I was taking my chances that these might be factory rejects or extras produced out of the actual factory. I had contacted the seller to ask if these were original or knock-offs, and all I received was an ambiguous 'made in China factory'.

Turns out, it's not authentic. Having worn actual KSOs before, I could instantly tell the difference. The sole of the fakes were much stiffer, the material of the uppers were different. Those guys even had the cheek to include the Vibram and Aegis tags to make it look like the original product. The only thing missing was the box.

Unhappy with the lost money, I reported the incident to eBay since selling fakes is against their policy. Unfortunately, eBay was slow with their response, and simply told me to contact the seller and get a refund. If the seller refused, I could escalate. In my mind, I was going WTF. So even though it's against policy to sell fakes, and I clearly know it's a fake, eBay would have me discuss with the seller so he could deny it? I could easily submit documentary evidence with photos if eBay required!

Moreover, even if I resolved it with the seller, it meant that the seller could continue selling fakes to others. If you've never tried Vibrams before, you probably couldn't tell the difference from the knock-offs. I'd thought eBay would take a greater interest and try to shut these kind of sellers down. So much for eBay customer protection. I even replied their email with the concerns about, and all I got was another templated 'contact the seller' reply, with no regard for my email contents. It's as though they can't read!

Fortunately, the seller was pretty affable despite the fakes. I contacted him and he agreed to refund me after I sent the shoes back. On my side, the cost was the $17 for shipping back. It could have been worse. Oh well, the price to pay for learning that eBay's buyer protection policy is weak.