I few days ago I won an auction at ebay in holland which has "fender parts" in the topic. After a few days I recieved a guitar with a fender backplate and fender decal on the headstock. The whole guitar wasn't made by fender. my problem is that I bought a "not fender" stratocaster with a fender decal on it. This is illegal right? Is there anyway I can inform fender about this ebay seller?
Where can I find the policy about fender regarding fakes?

Contact Ebay and tell them the seller sold a guitar under false pretense. You can get reimbursed and the seller will be thrown off ebay. Fender has nothing to do with Ebay sales so contacting Fender won`t help you.

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I Notified Ebay and the seller. The seller was more then willing to give me back my money after telling him I contacted ebay and paypal.
I Know Fender has nothing to do with Ebay. People that are selling fake Fender guitars on ebay give Fender a bad image.

It was sold as 'some fender parts'. The seller covered emselves in that one misleading statement. Your lucky to get your money back.

Bigjay, the lack of walnut on the trussrod end at the headstock is a good giveaway to its non-F origins.

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No no and no

Another thing is that the way the decal was placed gave it away too........if you observe closely the "Original Contour Body" shouldn't be inline with the "Fender Stratocaster" decal but this is.Check out most strat headstock which have the "Original Contour Body" decal on it, you get what i mean........








.....but i could be wrong too.LOL!

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My Guitars :: My Rig

Now theres something i learned today. if you look at the headstock of this guitar featured in a scam that i was nearly victim to, the original contour body sticker is in a similar place to the one above.



In his summary Orvilleowner stated he couldnt say the guitar was a genuine fender. Now considering both headstocks i compared their pictures to my custom classic and hotrod. The OCB decal is a lot closer to the high E tuner on both my strats.

Cheers Belphedeus, Its another giveaway telltale sign to add to the list.

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No no and no

I would say always contact fenders customer relations about this kind of stuff. Corporations like them are usually very interested in protecting their intellectual property. Though they might not be able to directly help you out in your individual case, if the become aware of a significant problem with Ebay and counterfeits they will certainly exert their corporate muscle and Ebay will have to clamp down more closely on these kinds of things.

I see at the fake strats and Love more my real strats

Ennit just mate.

There but for the grace of God go I, comes to mind.

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No no and no

Actually eBay are doing this and the eBay community too have discuss on matter ranging from frauds, scams, fake items and now most commonly 2nd chance offer.....there are even pinned topics on Gibson, Fender, Ibanez counterfeit guitars and how to see the tell-tale signs...

Its Forum like this that i find helpful and educational for us in identifying the counterfeit.....

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My Guitars :: My Rig

As ceri has pointed out, a couple of Squier models (Affinity and Bullet) have headstocks like the one in question (with no plastic or walnut insert around the truss rod hole).

I don't think the OP's guitar is a remade Squier, however. It looks like one of those Chinese fakes.

The one posted by nikininja may be a real Fender, but someone's trying to pass it off as a vintage Fender.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Agree with the chinese fake thing, and what is up with the 1-ply pickguard on a 60's style strat?

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It's a mix between Jazz and Funk, it's called "Junk"

Hey Jay,
Not trying to start another debate here and as you said in another thread, most of aren't lawyers but one thing that I have discovered with this issue is that a good portion of how this is dealt with comes down to "intent". Since I didn't see the original auction here and don't know -all- of the specifics, the seller could very well claim that he didn't know the instrument was a "fake" (assuming that it is) and considering he offered a full refund, there's not too much anyone can do about it anyways.

This is the problem with fraud cases such as this. For example, I could very well take a bunch of "parts", put them together, put a Fender logo on them and sell them on Ebay as "genuine". Now if someone were to press the issue I could very easily say "that's how I received the guitar/neck...I didn't know if was a fake". Unless I do it repeatedly...and am caught repeatedly, it's rather difficult to prove any sense of guilt on my part. Even -if- this were to make it as far as a court room, the most a given offender would most likely receive is the proverbial slap on the wrist.

I'm not saying that a situation such as this shouldn't be reported to the proper authorities but it must be added that I really wouldn't expect them to do anything at all about it either. Unless these fakes are being mass-produced causing a significant loss of revenue to the manufacturer, chances are even Fender isn't really going to care -that- much...they all simply have bigger fish to fry. Think of it like this...technically speaking it's illegal to rent a movie from a video store then make a copy it on VHS to keep yourself....although a great many people do it. However because so many people do it and because it is such a relatively minor offense and because the loss of revenue to the manufacturer is relatively insignificant, very simply, the courts aren't really going to give something like this much consideration at all even though it's a copyright infringement. The people the courts and such are going to care about are the people who are making mass copies of said movie then selling them for 50% or less than the originals (there was a big issue about computer software in regards to this not too long ago). Even in the case of movies, someone could easily claim "I didn't know it was wrong"...after all, if it was illegal, why would people sell tape recorders and blank VHS tapes to begin with, right? Same mentality...it can simply be quite difficult to prove "intent" or that said seller was being deliberately fraudulent.

My suggestion to the OP is simply this....if you really believe the instrument is a fake and the seller has offered you a refund, just get your money back and go buy one from a reputable, Fender authorized music store. You can certainly try and pursue the matter, but chances are all your going to do is waste your time (and money) which could otherwise be spend playing.

Just my $.02 worth,
Jim