Good advice, but ebay trust & safety do at times act quite strangely.

Of late in Australia replies to some contact relating to copy goods etc is met with an auto email reply that 'strongly infers' ebay will only act upon request of the actual rights owner....ie in this case if a FMIC rep contacts them.

I have on & off watched a store here in Oz shill bidding their own fender gear..listing in batches of new fender product, listed at .99 no reserve auctions....when bidding isnt going so well they have a 'random' bidder go right across their sales and bid them up to a respectable figure ( within munites across say 10-15 items, calculated at thousands of dollars - but never quite enough to look as though they'd win anything).I got to looking around and found this seller even has feedback stating they shill bid & indeed a recent customer of mine who had also bought from them knows the business reasonably well and without a flinch said, "oh yeah, they shill bid their gear"
Low and behold the same serial numbered instrument i was looking at before comes up again for sale approx 5 weeks later...after selling before, with prior feedback to the like of "love the guitar" and "fast payer"...bla bla.....SO, I thought I fly off an email to ebay trust & safety..just reveived a reply today...it SHOULD HAVE READ " stop contacting us regarding this matter, we, ebay, as a business entity, are making money from this sellers business activities and therefore care little of what may seem to you obvious attempts at illegally controlling the bidding on public auction listings on eBay. The evidence visible is conclusive however those that you think may care are currently enjoyng a timely cruise along the Riviera, in good time for the cannes film festival, and for a stop by our swiss bank accounts as to take a quick swim in our pools of money.We understand there is little benefit for you to pursue this matter in its entirety and also advise that should you do so , we at ebay , will claim the 'Pontius Pilate Act" , whereby we wash our hands of any wrongdoing.....completely washed in the warming spring waters of the French Riviera

Maybe i am too cynical. Paypal did come good for me in my recent counterfeit strat case, and they are a sister company of ebay i believe. ebay themselves were of little use & if anything between ebay international call centres all too often these days give conflicting & incorrect advice - eg , telling me to post a counterfeit strat back to USA "marked as a toy guitar" on customs dec if I was concerned with posting counterfeit goods o/s.
In Oz we usually reach ebay in Philippines call centres.

As a side note/warning to others though, and i can only guess at this being due to the recent tighter economic times for many, I've sent quite a few bucks to o/s suppliers over the years, and during all that time constant amounts have headed toward the USA - (those figures usually for 'toys') , and I have NEVER had the problems with supply I have had over the last few months.....and I have approx 11 years of comparatave expereinces to go by.
I import pro audio direct from asian factories and am used to at times seeing 'scrimping' on quality, but having said that often they will supply newer & better products as they manufacture such, and without warning or extra charges.
USA suppliers in my past experiences have usually deserved great respect from me ....goods usually understated at point of sale, arriving in above expected condition, well packaged, etc etc .
Over the last 1-2 months / $10-20K alone from USA sourced purchases,(mostly via ebay & paypal but not all, and both private and well established US business entities ) , I have had short supply (with no word of back order situations ) , this counterfeit strat , non-supply , unexplained refunds , a situation were i paid the unit value of $595 + their stated $80 to send, then received another payment request of $890 ( wanting more for postage ...$295 more for postage to be exact, and trying to have me also pay the item value a second time ) .

There has been very little change in the way I have gone about my dealings so it may be a case of in tighter times some of the 'dodgy dealers' come to the surface , and do so via means such as eBay.

but...that's just my experiences

Does the DA have a big whackin' stick too ?

This.

I may have missed it but are there reputable ebay sellers out there who are dealing directly with Fender as their source supplier?

Here we go again, mate! Trilight being a bit new to us has, no doubt, missed the great debates of recent and long past concerning neck plates and COA's.

_________________
"Another day in paradise!"

This is a topic that means a lot to me.

I wish there was a way to contact Ebay, without becoming a member, to report this sort of stuff.

I just saw two counterfeit 50th Anv. Model Strats on Ebay. Someone might suggest to Fender have someone monitor this sort of thing and report it.

It's Fender's good name that is getting trashed.

Hi Paris! Hope the day finds you well and safe. See my post above. Though your point is well taken,we have soooo been through this elsewhere before. Rest assured that, given the effort the company made to copyright the body silhouettes of its Strats and Teles, you observations would have been a done deal by now. We really don't know what page they're on in this matter. Maybe you ought to ask Mike Eldred
Doc

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"Another day in paradise!"

ZZ, thanks for your post. I think I did write something about on Mike's section of the forum.

Paris

ebay australia contiues to have a flood of direct from china counterfeit copies...and now they are spilling over into locals on selling such -

just a couple of examples ( many more available ) 130403883642 , 220626755655 ,

I know some of the counterfeit products have been reported to ebay more than once - EBAY AUSTRALIA DO CONTINUE TO ALLOW SALES TO RUN THEIR COURSE.

recent convo with ebay aus staff re this :

*****
thank you Sherwond, though all I need now is the concise answer to my initial question - WHY, WHEN EBAY AUS STAFF ARE NOTIFIED OF A COUNTERFEIT ITEM PLACED FOR SALE ( AND IT IS VERY EASILY VERIFIED AS COUNTERFEIT ) , DO EBAY AUSTRALIA ALLOW THE COUNTERFEIT ITEM TO SELL ?
9:54:05 PM Sherwind
I understand your concern on this, however, I am not capable of answering as to when and how eBay is being notified about a counterfeit item.
9:54:20 PM Sherwind
There is a proper department which is the Trust and Safety that is trained to handle this kind of issue.
9:54:44 PM Sherwind
However, I assure you that these stiff are not allowed.
9:55:31 PM *******
Sherwind, ebay aus trust & safety dept do not answer such questions in person, but rather do not reply all emails, and when they do reply when auto generated replies
9:55:50 PM Sherwind
Breaches of these policies may result in a range of actions, includes listing cancellation, limits on account privileges, account suspension, forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings and loss of PowerSeller status.
9:56:00 PM *****
so...you, as an ebay employee cannot answer, but can only refer to a dept that ...do not answer directly...is this correct ?
Sherwind
I am not trained for this concern and once you do an inquiry about this matter, you can expect an answer from our Trust and Safety department regarding.
9:58:06 PM ******
what are you trained for Sherwind ?

latest generation of aus ebay dodgey chinese supplier can be seen via ebay user name : hoora-musicshop

item # 180525242859 was listed as :

Fender red Maple Neck Electric Guitar

now it is :

Fen* red Maple Neck Electric Guitar

Problem with this , and many other of their items for sale, they have Fender , or other logos, and fake serial numbers that would "imply" a made in USA Fender instrument.

Obvious signs of non-genuine item, BUT , ( and I draw attention to points like the 'noiseless' pick up cover labelling ) , it looks VERY MUCH like a local Aus sellers item # 220626755655 , which was listed as a standard stratocaster , UNTIL reported to ebay , afterwhich the seller adds "made in china" ????

start price $600 ???

OR , fancy a "fender style" neck ? With a Fender logo ? ....or ,maybe someone needs 50 of them !
- seller : guiguiseller
- ebay aus item # 130403883642

I guess what I am trying to say is there is a current increase of counterfeit Fender product now available on ebay aus , and ebay themselves care little about genuine reports from their long time members.

I have seen it happen before whereby sellers of counterfeit product focus on countries other than the rights owners home country...thus often preventing routine searches finding their product.

it aint going to stop...fires been burnin' a long time now, but it I do feel the incline to 'try' to keep that fire under control.

perhaps "counterfeit" may be a good guitar branding.....feit for short, Feit - on the headstock maybe...with a Fender style F ....oh wait, hang on !

aus ebay item # 120587329554

ebay aus notified of this being a copy instrument , & seller even states the neck is a copy.


ebay allow it to sell & ignore the reports of counterfeit product from ebay members.

seller says in this instance it is a squier, , squire, SQuiA , not a fender, yet it has that good 'ol Fender dashed across the headstock, & to the best of my eyes ability, 'made in usa' marking under fender logo, and what looks to be a US serial # on rear of peg head....

it's obviouslty not real, and the seller is honest enough to state this, but the real pain in the rear is the fact EBAY DO NOTHING>

Imagine, with sellers listing 50 fake Fender necks at a time - just how many years & numbers of painful transactions, disappointed buyers, lengthy credit card chargeback disputes, and in general 'bad experiences' relating to goods with Fender written across some part of the piece, are due to transpire.... can only shake my head here.

If the seller is honest about the origin of the instrument, I dont see how the sale is a violation of any law.

_________________
No no and no

This is why I'm very careful to buy anything I can't see in person. There is a good dealer on Ebay called ReliableFender. I've never had a problem with them. They scoop up Fenders, almost new ones too, and scrap them. They sell all the parts and list the condition. If there's a little fretwear, I know I'm probably getting what I asked for....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

This the guy?
http://stores.ebay.com/The-STRATosphere

Sign in the ancient Roman marketplace, "CAVEAT EMPTOR"

Buyer, beware.

Support and shop Authorized Fender Dealers. Period. End of statement.

Sorry you got robbed. On the other side of this, there are people hand-making vintage instruments, so good, even legitimate experts have trouble telling them apart. And getting enormous money.

Personal philosophy-lite: There are two kinds of people in this world, dead people...

...and people who would like money from you. Of course there are different degrees of the latter.