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Fake strings----again.
Just been stung again, I have a thread on here somewhere with my last experience buying fake EB's from e-bay.
Usual story, advice is only buy from reputable sellers etc, but it has been a while since I needed to buy any, and my previous experience told me that 'usually' buying a triple pack of EB was somewhat less likely to result in fakery.
My only option here is to buy online, and I'm sure this problem also affects retailers anyway.
This time the ad was for a 3 pack, and was suspiciously cheap, so I thought I'd give it a go.
Maybe the UK/US trade deals have resulted in cheaper prices post Brexit?? maybe???
Anyhoo, sure enough, strings arrive and it is in fact 3 packs, and not a 3pack, and I can immediately tell by the packaging that these are likely to be fake.
Contacted the seller, as in the first case he is selling fakes, and in my case, he has not sold as advertised anyway.
His reply is that he can assure me they are genuine, as advertised.
I have replied again, this time telling him that his ad was misleading anyway, so I have a case, and if it isn't resolved I will be taking it to ebay, as he is selling fake goods, fair enough, he will claim he bought them in good faith, but I still ended up with fake strings.
I think I know, before opening them that they will be fake, and have now ordered 2 sets of triple packs, from different vendors, to try and confirm my theory, that the triple packs are genuine, and the single packs on ebay are mostly fake, packaging changes I know, but there are a few 'tells', before we even get to the actual strings inside.
Makes me wonder where the fakery stops really, if they have flooded the market to this degree with fake niche products such as every variation of EB string.
Also makes me wonder if anybody even cares anymore, there must be a lot of money sloshing around Ebay and Paypal, that is generated by the sale of such things, therefore no appetite to have it stop.
I'll follow up with my experience when I get the new sets, and see what the fake seller does.
Usual story, advice is only buy from reputable sellers etc, but it has been a while since I needed to buy any, and my previous experience told me that 'usually' buying a triple pack of EB was somewhat less likely to result in fakery.
My only option here is to buy online, and I'm sure this problem also affects retailers anyway.
This time the ad was for a 3 pack, and was suspiciously cheap, so I thought I'd give it a go.
Maybe the UK/US trade deals have resulted in cheaper prices post Brexit?? maybe???
Anyhoo, sure enough, strings arrive and it is in fact 3 packs, and not a 3pack, and I can immediately tell by the packaging that these are likely to be fake.
Contacted the seller, as in the first case he is selling fakes, and in my case, he has not sold as advertised anyway.
His reply is that he can assure me they are genuine, as advertised.
I have replied again, this time telling him that his ad was misleading anyway, so I have a case, and if it isn't resolved I will be taking it to ebay, as he is selling fake goods, fair enough, he will claim he bought them in good faith, but I still ended up with fake strings.
I think I know, before opening them that they will be fake, and have now ordered 2 sets of triple packs, from different vendors, to try and confirm my theory, that the triple packs are genuine, and the single packs on ebay are mostly fake, packaging changes I know, but there are a few 'tells', before we even get to the actual strings inside.
Makes me wonder where the fakery stops really, if they have flooded the market to this degree with fake niche products such as every variation of EB string.
Also makes me wonder if anybody even cares anymore, there must be a lot of money sloshing around Ebay and Paypal, that is generated by the sale of such things, therefore no appetite to have it stop.
I'll follow up with my experience when I get the new sets, and see what the fake seller does.
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Comments
Well...
It'll sound harsh, but the fools are as much of a problem as the fakers.
https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/
Great service, sensible pricing, no fakes.
Honestly, when will people learn.
They both agreed it was a crazy situation, and understood why I wouldn't return these. Eventually PayPal gave me a good will credit for all 3 packs. It wasn't the money, it was the principal. I even wrote to Ernie Ball recommending they adopt a similar system to D'addario with coded packs that could be verified, but this fell on deaf ears. They did however say:
We are aware of counterfeit products on popular online auction sites. We will endeavour to remove any listings on eBay that are selling counterfeit goods but this is moving fast daily. If you can provide the listing link we can report this on eBay. Please raise a complaint on eBay who may still be able to provide a refund to recover your lost funds. For future Ernie Ball purchases, we recommend purchasing your Ernie Ball Strings from a reputable music store or genuine online music store.
So the situation is effectively uncontrollable, & EBay can't/won't do anything (they didn't even remove the listing.The only reason I bought these was because EBs are packed individually whereas Daddario have 2 strings wrapped together, and single packets are more convenient if a string broke at a gig. I was also assured pre-purchase that these EBs were genuine (lies of course). D'Addario's are my usual strings and because of the coding system security are now the only strings I'll continue to buy and I won't buy strings from EBay anymore (unless its a bona-fide retailer). D'addario's customer service is great - if you've been sold fakes they'll test them, pursue action against the vendors and replace them. And the security coding means you can check these before opening (and you get player circle points) so if the codes aren't recognised, you have proof these are fake. I'm not suggesting fake D'addarios aren't still possible & around, but the sealed packaging, coding, and twin string wrapping likely make this harder work for fakers and helps keep fakes less common whereas strings like EB are a much easier target.
Was there even 1% of you that believed Brexit would result in a trade deal with the US?
P.S. I'm selling some magic beans. PM me for details...
Ebay mark7777_1
No-one coats strings in the same way.
If you look at the wrap wire near the ball end or near the other end before you can see the inner core wire you will clearly see where the coating starts on a genuine Elixir string.
If you can see this, it's genuine.