I would like to share a story that I hope will help others.
(I apologize beforehand for the length of this post)
I am a LAMB collector, and did not realize the counterfeit situation was so extreme on ebay when I started buying. I had bought a Coach handbag (my first) at Nordies, and thought perhaps I could get a used wallet in decent condition on ebay. (LAMB 'lux' items are not generally counterfeited, and I haven't encountered one in my history of buying on ebay.) I bought a Coach wallet, guaranteed authentic with tags and care card and gift receipt... but after purchasing I started to worry that it might be fake. It was a gut feeling, and I did some research on the ebay forums. Every practice warned against in the forum was being used by this seller.
Ultimately, I left them neg. feedback like this: "item not authentic as described. poor communication." The seller was very angry with me, and he/she did get me on one point which was that I had no proof. I actually felt bad about this, and wrote a follow up comment saying, "seller is correct in saying I have no proof, only strong suspicion."
I am skipping a lot of the acrimonious back and forth, but I will mention that the seller got angry to the point where they were calling me names and attacking me personally. They also threatened to withold the refund after they had received the item (I shipped it back priority mail, and they didn't admit receipt of it until about 5 days after it was delivered). Ultimately, they did refund me, but also left me some very strange/borderline scary messages.
***********************
Well, fast forward: when I sold my first item, a LAMB handbag, the winning bidder asked if they could pay by money order. I told them I was sorry, that I expressly stated that I only accepted paypal. After some strange back&forth, where they accused me of not responding to two messages, they then left me negative feedback, saying something like: "item not authentic as described! FORUMS CONFIRMED!! POOR communication!!" They also refused to cancel the transaction, and although they never paid, there was some loophole through which I was not able to have the feedback removed at first.
I had begun to suspect that this was retaliatory action from the Coach wallet seller. The words they used, the actions they took - were all mirroring the things that happened when I was buying/returning the wallet, only accelerated/intensified. For example, the messages I left - the first one I left for the Coach seller was a day or so after the sale and I became worried. The second, a couple of days later, and the third was a day or so after that. The seller wasn't responding, and I became more nervous and agitated, and asked why they were not responding. The person who 'won' my item then did the same thing, but accelerated the time component - the first note about one day after, the second about 6 hours after the first. All of my actions in worrying about authenticity were exactly mirrored in this situation. The statement: "FORUMS CONFIRMED!!" was in response to a message sent by me saying that I was worried as I had read the ebay forums on counterfeit Coach. There aren't any forums on counterfeit LAMB lux items at all, to my knowledge.
Also, I checked this buyer's feedback - they had 1 positive feedback, and it was from another Coach wallet seller, that I noticed used similar formatting, graphics, design, descriptions, pictures, etc. (The similarity in selling practices was one of the things that made me suspicious in the first place about these Coach wallet sellers, and what tipped me off initially to worry about the authenticity - they all sell just one, two or three wallets at a time - private auctions, same kinds of pictures, all offering Coach care card, gift receipts, and gift boxes, among other things.)
The end result was that, after over 10 hours on the phone with ebay customer service, being told different things by diff. people... they finally did remove the negative feedback. And I adopted the rule that if a buyer has less than 10 pos. feedback and did not personally message me about their intent to purchase, that I reserved the right to cancel bids and block the bidder.
*********************
Fast forward again - the last month I discovered TPF. I had heard about it from different sellers, and I decided finally to check it out myself. At first, I didn't think about the ATs, because it's not really something that comes up much with LAMB. However, several days ago, I realized that I could do a search on this seller in the Coach AT. Guess what? The seller came up in not one, but several posts, all with the response that the posted items were DEFINITELY fakes. There were even references to the same phenomenon I noticed - different sellers using the same format, pictures, style of graphics, selling just one, two or three at a time.
The Coach wallet seller was furious that I messed up his feedback, as he had had 100% feedback before I left the negative. I left the feedback because my gut was telling me that this seller was not honest, and I am GLAD that I did, even though at the time, I had no definite proof, just very strong suspicion based on lots of different pieces of infromation/evidence. They said that I was a malicious bidder with no intent to pay, even though I paid for the item immediately, and didn't start being suspicious until AFTER I paid. The seller also ignored my initial 3 messages, I believe, in the hope that I would go away (it happens - and I think it works a lot of the time, because I actually considered it -it's actually way more stressful confronting the situation than just walking away).
I am posting this now, because I want to warn others about the potential of this happening - of a person retaliating through weird methods, and behaving in a way that is frightening (this seller had my home address and phone number, and was obviously bent on getting retribution, even though it turned out that my intuition was correct, and they WERE in fact selling fakes - thank goodness they live in a different state!)
This seller continues to get WONDERFUL feedback, and each and every person who leaves those feedbacks are buying FAKES!! My feedback is the ONLY neg feedback this person has, and they attacked me with a kind of righteousness that was truly frightening, especially when you consider that they are the ones being dishonest.
I have noticed that a person who behaves in a way which feels dishonest, usually IS dishonest. An honest person will admit to making mistakes when they occur, and do their best to take responsibility for them. So please be careful out there. And to each and every individual who works very hard to make sure that the ebay (or other similar venue) experience is an honest, kind and pleasant one for all participants: THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart.
(I apologize beforehand for the length of this post)
I am a LAMB collector, and did not realize the counterfeit situation was so extreme on ebay when I started buying. I had bought a Coach handbag (my first) at Nordies, and thought perhaps I could get a used wallet in decent condition on ebay. (LAMB 'lux' items are not generally counterfeited, and I haven't encountered one in my history of buying on ebay.) I bought a Coach wallet, guaranteed authentic with tags and care card and gift receipt... but after purchasing I started to worry that it might be fake. It was a gut feeling, and I did some research on the ebay forums. Every practice warned against in the forum was being used by this seller.
Ultimately, I left them neg. feedback like this: "item not authentic as described. poor communication." The seller was very angry with me, and he/she did get me on one point which was that I had no proof. I actually felt bad about this, and wrote a follow up comment saying, "seller is correct in saying I have no proof, only strong suspicion."
I am skipping a lot of the acrimonious back and forth, but I will mention that the seller got angry to the point where they were calling me names and attacking me personally. They also threatened to withold the refund after they had received the item (I shipped it back priority mail, and they didn't admit receipt of it until about 5 days after it was delivered). Ultimately, they did refund me, but also left me some very strange/borderline scary messages.
***********************
Well, fast forward: when I sold my first item, a LAMB handbag, the winning bidder asked if they could pay by money order. I told them I was sorry, that I expressly stated that I only accepted paypal. After some strange back&forth, where they accused me of not responding to two messages, they then left me negative feedback, saying something like: "item not authentic as described! FORUMS CONFIRMED!! POOR communication!!" They also refused to cancel the transaction, and although they never paid, there was some loophole through which I was not able to have the feedback removed at first.
I had begun to suspect that this was retaliatory action from the Coach wallet seller. The words they used, the actions they took - were all mirroring the things that happened when I was buying/returning the wallet, only accelerated/intensified. For example, the messages I left - the first one I left for the Coach seller was a day or so after the sale and I became worried. The second, a couple of days later, and the third was a day or so after that. The seller wasn't responding, and I became more nervous and agitated, and asked why they were not responding. The person who 'won' my item then did the same thing, but accelerated the time component - the first note about one day after, the second about 6 hours after the first. All of my actions in worrying about authenticity were exactly mirrored in this situation. The statement: "FORUMS CONFIRMED!!" was in response to a message sent by me saying that I was worried as I had read the ebay forums on counterfeit Coach. There aren't any forums on counterfeit LAMB lux items at all, to my knowledge.
Also, I checked this buyer's feedback - they had 1 positive feedback, and it was from another Coach wallet seller, that I noticed used similar formatting, graphics, design, descriptions, pictures, etc. (The similarity in selling practices was one of the things that made me suspicious in the first place about these Coach wallet sellers, and what tipped me off initially to worry about the authenticity - they all sell just one, two or three wallets at a time - private auctions, same kinds of pictures, all offering Coach care card, gift receipts, and gift boxes, among other things.)
The end result was that, after over 10 hours on the phone with ebay customer service, being told different things by diff. people... they finally did remove the negative feedback. And I adopted the rule that if a buyer has less than 10 pos. feedback and did not personally message me about their intent to purchase, that I reserved the right to cancel bids and block the bidder.
*********************
Fast forward again - the last month I discovered TPF. I had heard about it from different sellers, and I decided finally to check it out myself. At first, I didn't think about the ATs, because it's not really something that comes up much with LAMB. However, several days ago, I realized that I could do a search on this seller in the Coach AT. Guess what? The seller came up in not one, but several posts, all with the response that the posted items were DEFINITELY fakes. There were even references to the same phenomenon I noticed - different sellers using the same format, pictures, style of graphics, selling just one, two or three at a time.
The Coach wallet seller was furious that I messed up his feedback, as he had had 100% feedback before I left the negative. I left the feedback because my gut was telling me that this seller was not honest, and I am GLAD that I did, even though at the time, I had no definite proof, just very strong suspicion based on lots of different pieces of infromation/evidence. They said that I was a malicious bidder with no intent to pay, even though I paid for the item immediately, and didn't start being suspicious until AFTER I paid. The seller also ignored my initial 3 messages, I believe, in the hope that I would go away (it happens - and I think it works a lot of the time, because I actually considered it -it's actually way more stressful confronting the situation than just walking away).
I am posting this now, because I want to warn others about the potential of this happening - of a person retaliating through weird methods, and behaving in a way that is frightening (this seller had my home address and phone number, and was obviously bent on getting retribution, even though it turned out that my intuition was correct, and they WERE in fact selling fakes - thank goodness they live in a different state!)
This seller continues to get WONDERFUL feedback, and each and every person who leaves those feedbacks are buying FAKES!! My feedback is the ONLY neg feedback this person has, and they attacked me with a kind of righteousness that was truly frightening, especially when you consider that they are the ones being dishonest.
I have noticed that a person who behaves in a way which feels dishonest, usually IS dishonest. An honest person will admit to making mistakes when they occur, and do their best to take responsibility for them. So please be careful out there. And to each and every individual who works very hard to make sure that the ebay (or other similar venue) experience is an honest, kind and pleasant one for all participants: THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart.