Does anyone have recent experience buying luxury items on eBay?
My adult son wants to buy a luxury second hand Rolex watch from ebay. I have strongly advised him against it, but he feels determined. The watch is still expensive (£8000 on ebay), but it would be £9500 on a site like WatchFinder. He received the money from his grandparents for his 21st.
He guarantees that ebay checks the item, and then he said he would take it to a rolex dealership to ask them to check it too and return it if it is a fake. Does anyone have experience with this?
- Do Rolex dealerships even do this checking (he is refusing to call to find out, because "he knows best")? Surely they can't have time to check everyone's ebay purchases.
- assuming Rolex say it's a fake, how difficult will it be for ebay to agree and return his money? What's the process? I've found ebay horribly difficult in the past with the smallest sums of money. What proof would he be asked to send. Imagine the seller dissappears, will ebay be ready to take the £8000 hit???
I worry because I imagine there are some excellent "professional" fakes out there. And the ebay checking team might not have the best knowledge- they can't be experts on every luxury product.
What makes matters worse, DS is buying in cash/debit card. He isn't approved for a credit card with that limit, so won't have the charge back protection if everything goes belly up.
Obviously he doesn't want to listen to mum. He has "read everything online", but doesn't want to speak to a real person. I don't want him to learn the hard way. My parents have been saving this money for him since he was a child 😪
Am I worrying over nothing? I also don't want to be the controlling mum, but I'll step in firmly if I have to. I just want some facts.