When that eBay steal is a fake
A Gucci wallet for $120. A Burberry scarf for $32. A pair of Tiffany earrings for $35. If prices like that for some of the hottest luxury brands seem unreal, it very well may be because the goods themselves aren’t real.
The estimated multibillion-dollar counterfeit market has become a major headache for the luxury-product industry — and for unwary consumers. Though many fakes are sold in stores, others wind up listed on auction Web sites such as those of eBay Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Overstock.com Inc., bearing attention-grabbing low prices.
Companies are stepping up their efforts to protect their brands by hiring attorneys and private investigators, and buying software programs to patrol eBay and other sites for fraudulent listings. Some investigations have led to arrests, and many have led to lawsuits. Tiffany & Co. sued eBay in 2004, alleging that only 5 percent of Tiffany items it bought through the site were authentic.
To find out what recourse people have when buying counterfeit goods through an online auction, the Wall Street Journal purchased five designer items on eBay, the leading auction site, at bargain prices for goods sellers advertised as being authentic: Chloe and Fendi handbags, a Gucci wallet, Tiffany earrings and a Burberry scarf. Finding the items was easy — a search for any designer’s name turned up dozens of results, with prices ranging from as little as 10 percent of the retail price to as much as full price. Listings offering the best deals from sellers who had mostly positive feedback and who guaranteed the authenticity of the products were chosen.
Though the sample was small, four of the five products purchased turned out to be fakes. The authenticity of the fifth one couldn’t be determined. The next step was following eBay’s recommended course of action, of contacting the seller, then filing a formal complaint with eBay.
EBay ultimately refunded a portion of the purchase price after complaints were filed. The site’s policy is to cap refunds at $200 — minus a $25 processing fee. EBay sets $200 as the limit because many of the transactions on the site are under that amount, says spokeswoman Catherine England.
EBay said that this kind of experience is rare. “I don’t think that (the test) is representative,” said Chris Donlay, an eBay spokesman. “Given the amount of trade that happens on the eBay platform, the large, large, majority of transactions on eBay are satisfactory for both sides.”
In the test, the black leather Fendi Spy bag ended up being the most expensive purchase, and also the biggest headache. At $260, the bag was 87 percent below the retail price of $2,000. Yet the bag was sewn together sloppily, with the monogrammed fabric on the inside protruding at some of the edges; and the light, flimsy hardware was suspiciously inferior.
It took three messages and a threat to notify eBay to finally get a response from the seller; he promised a refund and asked to have the bag shipped to an address in New York. It turned out that the address belonged to his next victim: another defrauded customer, who also paid the seller $40 for shipping charges.
After a month passed since the bag was paid for, a “refund not received” complaint was filed with eBay through a form on the site, and then, at the site’s request, an “item not as described” claim. EBay investigated the claim, asking for proof of payment and proof of return, then refunded $175. Including the shipping costs, the ordeal resulted in a loss of about $133.
A Gucci Eclipse French flap wallet, which retails for $375 and that was bought for $120, also resulted in the filing of a complaint and a claim. The interior of the wallet didn’t match the real version in style or color. Gucci representatives weren’t permitted to authenticate merchandise, but confirmed that a description of the fake wallet didn’t match any of their products. The seller was courteous and promised a refund, then disappeared after $29 was paid to mail the wallet back to South Korea. EBay refunded $95 after closing the investigation, resulting in a loss on this item of $71.
The Tiffany earrings in sterling silver, designed in a teardrop shape by Elsa Peretti, retail for $195. The United Kingdom-based seller listed them for $35, or 82 percent off, and said in her listing that the jewelry came from “a Tiffany & Co. manufacturer, due to a family member who works at the factory.” The earrings arrived in less than one week, but the packaging was a slightly different color and texture than the normal Tiffany blue box. At the Tiffany store in Manhattan, a sales associate compared the eBay pair with a new pair in the store and pointed out that real ones are significantly smaller.
The seller readily offered a refund and apologized for any inconvenience, and the earrings were returned right away. The seller refunded the full purchase price, so the whole transaction cost $26 (the price of sending the item back to the U.K.).
A Burberry cashmere Novacheck scarf, which retails for $160 and was bought for $32, was examined by Michael Fink, the senior fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue. He noticed right away that the scarf didn’t feel like the high-quality cashmere that is standard in Burberry scarves, and that the block-letter logo didn’t match the real logo either. The seller promptly offered to refund the money and sent a check a few weeks after the scarf was returned.
The red Chloe Paddington bag looked the most authentic, with no readily apparent flaws. Sales associates at a Chloe boutique said they weren’t permitted to authenticate bags, but in a comparison with the store’s merchandise, the only apparent difference was the leather used to wrap the brass lock on the bag, which was noticeably thinner and smoother on the eBay version. Saks’s Fink said he was impressed by the quality of both the bag, though for the price — $213 versus $1,500 at retail — it’s unlikely to be authentic Chloe, he said.