I bought a Venasaur plushie on ebay as part of a gag gift for a friend. Since it was for a joke, I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention and mistakenly bought one from Hong Kong. I just got it in the mail today, and it is a very obvious fake. It seems to be made of very cheap felt, and feels like it is stuffed with fiberglass. I have both reported the listing, and requested a return. I know ebay is very much against people selling counterfeit goods, do you think they would give me my money back? I didn’t spend much money on this, but I hate that I helped some scammer.
They probably will. If they don’t, request a refund through Paypal (but eBay won’t like that), and if that fails, request a refund through your credit card processor (but eBay and Paypal won’t like that). Assuming you used a credit card and Paypal.
What does the seller stated policy say? That’s what should/could/would happen.
Bootleg “Venasaur.”
Huh.
eBay’s policies are very much slanted towards the buyer. So much so that I know a few people who stopped selling on there because too often they were scammed or extorted by buyers and eBay always sided against the seller. So I’d say you have a better than average chance of seeing your money returned.
Is the seller going to pay the cost of return shipping? Will the return shipping be trackable end to end?
If the answer to either of those questions is no, it may not be worth trying to return the item - in the latter case, the seller may just deny ever receiving the returned item.
Also, there’s a risk that the seller will get his account shut down in the interval between when you return the thing, and when you’re supposed to get your refund. Not sure there’s always a guarantee of refund in those circumstances.
I have no idea what a Venasaur is, or what it costs. Is it even worth trying to get a refund?
It’s a Pokemon soft toy.
Even if you can’t get your money back, making it harder for anyone else to get caught by their mediocre bootlegs is a win in itself.
eBay’s policy on “Not As Described” items (such as a bootleg/counterfeit presented as new and authentic) is that the seller eats the shipping both ways:
Fair enough. Although I reckon that could still go wrong if the seller gets shut down (or just disappears) while the item is in return transit, or maybe if the seller refuses to sign for the returned item.
Forget it. I worked with copyright infringement, Asian suppliers, and Ebay for years. The people you purchased it from do not care what you or Ebay will do, or fail to do. They just laugh, laugh and laugh, keep the money and move on to something else.