Last week, I placed bids for an unlocked Sony Ericsson K810i mobile phone on eBay. I was very happy when I won it at $192.50, considering that the phone sells around $230-240 in stores, and the Buy It Now price was $228 on the auction. I even felt bad for the seller that I won the auction for such a low price, and decided I should pay for the higher shipping option, so he could get a few more dollars.

Here’s where things got interesting. Sit back and read through this to the end, I think it’s worth it.

When I got the phone, I realized I’d been cheated. The seller (adam81578) had lied about the phone’s condition. The phone is used, dusty, scratched, smells of cigarettes, and even has muck (grime) around the button used for taking photos. This was not a “NEW” phone, as the seller indicated on the auction. I should have realized something was wrong when the seller didn’t answer the message I’d sent him as soon as I won the auction.

Me on 9/30: “Just sent payment. I know the auction said it was a new phone but can you please confirm that it’s new?”

Never got a reply to that message, but I did get the phone yesterday, and this is how it looks. Have a look at the photo gallery below and judge for yourselves whether this is a new phone. If it is, then the world must be flat.

You know what bothers me about this? Not the fact that I got a used phone. If the phone had been marked as used on the auction, and if it had sold for something like $150 or so, it’d have been okay. What bothers me is that the seller (adam81578) insisted the phone was new, and that, get this, I “scratched it”. He insists on continuing to lie about it. What also bothers me is that he made veiled threats in each of his subsequent emails to me. I wonder how many other unwitting buyers he managed to intimidate into keeping quiet about their purchases by doing that? Well, I will not be intimidated, nor will I keep quiet. I don’t back down when people threaten me.

The first thing I did after I got the phone yesterday morning was to tell him that the phone was used, and that I expected a refund, and that I would post negative feedback on his eBay profile and even blog about it should he not give my money back. I sent this message to him both through eBay, and through his PayPal email address. I gave him a deadline of several hours. He did not reply in time, even though I allowed for an extra 40 minutes past the deadline. I then left the promised feedback on eBay, and wouldn’t you know, he got back to me within 15 minutes:

“I’m sorry but the phone is new. I received it as a promo from a photo shoot. All I did was test it to see if it worked and it did. I’ll leave whatever feed back you leave, I didn’t sell you a used phone. I wouldn’t post me on your blog either.”

Did he just threaten me in that last sentence, not to mention that he continued to spout lies? I emailed him back and told him that I would go ahead with my plan since the phone was NOT new, and that I would take photos to prove it. His reply was:

“Ok. You obviously are not happy but I stated it was a new phone in the auction and it is.  If you can’t get over yourself then post whatever you want, it will be taken care of.”

There’s another veiled threat in the last sentence. What does he mean by “it will be taken care of”? Who does he think he is? So this was my reply to him:

“It’s very simple really. You have two choices:
A. Give me a refund so I can mail this used phone back to you. Then we both move on.
B. Do nothing and see yourself on my site.
Stop making veiled threats. It won’t get you anywhere. Don’t forget I have your mailing address, and should you try anything funny, the police will know where to get you.”

His last reply to me gave me a clue about how crooks like him can get around eBay’s system and lie about the condition of the items:

“I’m sure you know your laws.  The phone is just like the way I received it in NEW CONDITION.  Did you noticed that where the condition box was it was blank?  There are three options: New and Unopened, Refurbished, and Used.  Your phone is new.  I didn’t make a threat, by the way, but you did.  Thanks.”

So apparently an item doesn’t have to be new, even though you state it’s new in the auction title, if you leave the box condition field blank? In that case, eBay should do something about this. They’re leaving the door open for crooked sellers to lie to buyers about the real condition of their products. I took another look at the auction, and sure enough, all the Condition field says is this: “–”.

There we go, ladies and gentlemen. I learned a hard lesson. First is, I should have used the proverbial fine-tooth comb on that auction before I placed a bid, and second, don’t buy from eBay if you can help it, especially when you can get something for just a little more in the store, where you know it’s new. Third, I should have looked at his eBay feedback page more carefully. Sure, he’s got a lot of positive feedback, but all of it is as a buyer, NOT as a seller. In other words, he bought stuff from eBay, not sold it there, and he paid for it, which you have to, since there’s no other way to get the stuff you won at the auction. I guess when he decided to unload his cellphone on eBay, he found a sucker: me.

However, this still doesn’t excuse the fact that the crook lied on the auction itself. If you look at the auction title, it says the phone is “NEW”, when it clearly is used, grimy and scratched. He may have passed the eBay test, but he didn’t pass any halfway decent ethics test. He’s still a crook in most people’s books, not to mention that he threatened me in his messages.

I still have to tell you the best part. I thought to myself, what else could I do to prove that this phone is used, now that I’m stuck with it? Why don’t I run some file recovery software on the photo card, to see if it can recover any photos taken with the phone’s camera? That way I could know if it’s been truly used or not. So that’s just what I did. I ran Zero Assumption Recovery on the card included with the phone, and guess what it found? 642 (that’s six hundred forty-two) photos on the card, and I recovered a few tens of them, to get a sample of what was done with the phone.

The photos that I recovered from the card were all personal photos taken in personal surroundings (not at photo shoots or at stores), covered dates from 6/6/2007 to 2/5/2008, and they all appeared to be taken by the same person (common elements or people in all of them). Judging purely by the photos recovered from the phone (not even taking into consideration how the phone looks right now), I can safely and very legally say this phone has been used thoroughly and for a long time. It is not a new phone by any stretch of the imagination. And also judging by the photos themselves, this phone was not gotten as a “promo” at a “photo shoot”, as the seller claims. Having seen the photos, it doesn’t look to me like adam81578 would ever get invited to any photo shoots. No, what we have here is a liar whose own photos are proof enough of his lies; they speak for themselves, and they say volumes about the person behind this crooked deal. That’s why I decided to cut him some slack and not reveal his real name, even though I fully intended to do that originally.

But I warn you, adam81578, I recovered some incriminating files from the phone card. There’s no telling what a full-fledged forensic examination of the phone card, conducted by experts, would find, so you’d better pray that the police don’t become interested in you, because if they do, I’ll turn the card over to them and cooperate fully with their investigation.

Yeah, I got cheated, but I’ll get over it. I’ve learned my lesson, and I hope that the folks who read this post will be more aware of the intricacies of buying stuff from eBay. I will avoid eBay altogether from now on. Unfortunately, I’ve paid for the phone and I don’t know if I can get a refund, although I’ll try to speak to my credit card company to file fraud charges.

In case you’re wondering what I’ll do with the phone, the first thing that will happen is that I’ll disinfect it. I’ve seen where it’s been, and I know it’s full of nasty bacteria. After a thorough disinfection and scrubbing, I will rehabilitate it. I will put it to good use taking good photos when I’m not using my regular camera. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to buy it: it has a 3.2 MP camera in addition to 3G connectivity and other goodies. I’ve gone on Flickr and seen what nice photos it can take.

I’ll keep the phone’s photo card untouched, in case I should ever need to turn it over to the authorities. Like I said above, I’m not happy with the fact that this liar made threats to me. As my wife says, people don’t make threats unless they feel guilty, and I think that’s the case with him.

adam81578, I’d better not hear another peep from you, ever. You’d better get your life in order and not do this sort of thing to others, because there’s a force bigger than all of us (call it what you will) that has a way of making you pay for the nasty stuff you do in life.

Updated 10/22/08: I decided to try and get my money back, and started a dispute with eBay and PayPal. The dispute was successful, and I’m going to get $200 back!

(12 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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