Think I've been duped, argh

[snottagecheese]

On Friday I bought a "brand new" Ergo sling for what seemed a great price, and patted myself on the back for nabbing a bargain. Since then I have discovered to my horror that there is a huge market in fake Ergos. Now I think it must be a fake because of the price (it was a buy it now, not bought at auction), plus what I thought was a photo of the actual sling laid out on someone's table is most probably just a stock photo, as I've seen it on two other listings - one of which is definitely a fake, as the price is just ridiculous.

So, what do I do? I need to actually receive the thing first, I guess, but apparently the fakes are very good so I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to prove anything - it will probably look very similar to a real one, and I can't afford to buy a real one just to be able to compare the two. The seller does do refunds, but that will mean paying postage twice (£20), which if this is a fake, I don't feel I should have to do. Do I contact eBay so that I can get full postage refunds - and should I keep the 'fake' so it can't be resold? But how can I prove it IS a fake? The seller had 99.8% positive feedback over nearly 1500 ratings so I figured that meant they were reliable, but I guess it doesn't... Argh, I am so naive/un-Ebay savvy!!

I would accept delivery and then open a not as described case. eBay will look at her previous feedback and you can forward them the emails from ergo. You will definitely win and get your money back and the seller is likely to be banned.

But you only emailed last night at like... 8pm? So she could easily have posted or taken to a drop-off courier before she saw your msg. What delivery service is she using?

lljkk, Royal Mail apparently - which is odd as it's a bank holiday... She must have seen my message by now though, but she hasn't replied at all. If the carrier were legit, surely she'd have messaged me saying how dare you accuse me? To me, the silence indicates that she has no defence. I'm intrigued by your continued defence of her now that I have proof it's a fake. Not having a go at you, honestly I'm not, just wondering why...?

Not a hol where seller lives, maybe? She's a busy person who doesn't check emails constantly?

Why do I defend her.. because you initially decided it must be fake on weak evidence. & That silence = guilt. And if she's a scammer she's pretty bad at it. Maybe I just tend to underestimate how thick scammers are. Implies their victims must be even thicker, mind.

Look, there's no way you can lose this unless you return it by untracked delivery, the very worst that might happen is you'd be out of pocket for one lot of postage.

Ebay's instructions for reporting fake goods. Best to follow their recommended procedures.

ps: how did you msg Ebayers you've never had business with? Genuine question, I don't know how to do that.

Oof. It's always nice to be called thick on your own thread. Thanks for that. Well, if I'm thick for not knowing there was a market in fake baby carriers, then so be it.

Re messaging eBayers you haven't traded with - on the seller's feedback page I clicked on the member who had left negative feedback and went through to her member page, then on the top left under where the member photo goes there's a clickable link to 'Contact member'. I'm surprised a thickie like me managed to figure it out, but there you go

There's a good article on eBay somewhere about how to tell a fake ergo, if you want to have a look at it first

Thick maybe = people who let them get away with it, obviously not OP.

All I would say from experience is don't expect ebay or Trading Standards to take it seriously if you go down the official ebay 'reporting a fake' route.

I unwittingly bought a fake top a few months ago - I had an identical genuine one in a different size already so it was very obvious to me that it was a poor fake. Reported it to ebay and trading standards. No interest at all.

I told the seller I would be reporting it to ebay/TS and they very quickly refunded me. However the same seller is still merrily selling their fakes on ebay - even with lots of feedback saying their items are fake.

You should definitely report it, but don't expect anything to happen.