Advertised new Shure SM57 mic on ebay and the item location was listed as Japan. Promised it will be shipped in less than 3 days. I didn't hear from them for 10 days. So opened a dispute <br />
of 'product not received' with paypal. After a week I received a package from China which was posted two days after I initiated the dispute. I accepted the package (big mistake).<br />
I opened the package which was in a bad shape to see a cheap knock-off not worth even one-tenth of the price. It won't even work.<br />
The package has the sender's address: <br />
BEI JING TIAN BAO TENG TA HUO YUN YOU XIAN GONG SI Bei jing xi zhi men bei da jie 45# .<br />
And the correspondence in the paypal dispute is from [email protected] .<br />
<br />
A search of the sender's address on google reveals stories of many people ripped by a company Planet DVDs which also has the same address. <br />
<br />
A few points to note in this scam: <br />
1. False advertisement and counterfeiting<br />
2. Item location fabrication (had I known that the location is China I wouldn't have bought). Ebay should have done more.<br />
3. Item was sent after I opened a dispute to make claim resolution difficult. Now that <br />
I received a cheap knock-off, technically I cannot claim 'product not received' which would have been easier to resolve. Now I can only claim 'product not as advertised', the resolution of which needs me to send the product back to China with a shipping confirmation online.<br />
That will cost more than I am prepared to spend.<br />
<br />
Best Regards, <br />
kumar