Monday, September 5, 2011

Beware of Coupon, Gift Certificate Color COPIES / FAKES

Beware of very well-created copies of coupons, gift certificates, and the like. Sometimes the digital image looks to be genuine, but upon receipt the texture, paper material, lack of perforation, and slight blurriness can quickly lead you to discover that they are not genuine or authentic. I unfortunately learned this the not so easy way and purchased such items for a total cost of almost $100. The Seller said a refund would be considered, but then shortly thereafter ceased gemunicating.
Among those items, I did not receive 90% of the shipment. Also, no return address was provided on the 1 item I did receive. I found this to be quite suspicious also. For the item received, PayPal intervened and said I could return the item, but would need to purchase proof of delivery. This item was $10, and tracking would have cost $1.35, plus the original postage when received of $0.39, plus the postage to return of $0.39. That cost to me, plus the fact that the Seller claimed to have sent the other 90% of items (which never arrived), makes me suspicious that the Seller would claim the item never arrived if I did not purchase delivery confirmation. PayPal notes that possibility as well.
Another intersting thing is that the large sized photo on the item for auction was removed quickly after a dispute possibility began. And, there were 45 or so available, so it was interesting that upon this purchase, the remaining 35+ were no longer listed as an auction.
Fortunately, PayPal Dispute and Resolution is available. However, PayPal was only able to recover a partial amount of my purchase price.
It is unfortunate that there are Sellers that do not wish to resolve discrepancies with Buyers, but instead stop gemunicating. I gave this Seller several opportunities to resolve before submitting a dispute, and withheld feedback on the items for several days, awaiting Seller's response on working to a fair resolution. Unfortunately, the Seller never responded again until PayPal became involved.
True, it is Buyer beware. But it really takes the fun out of okaying when experiences such as these occur.

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