Know What You’re Selling on eBay

I made a trip to the outlets seeking eBay merchandise this past weekend. Upon entering the accessory area of the Neiman Marcus Last Call outlet, I saw these amazing nova check crinkle style Burberry scarves. The sign also read “Burberry”. They were absolutely gorgeous and selling for a clearance price of $25! I couldn’t believe my eyes! The Burberry outlet doesn’t even sell plain scarves for that cheap so this was a complete score! I bought all six of them knowing the return would be huge.

The cashier even commented on how great of a bargain the Burberry scarves were and that they would make the nicest gifts! Long story short, I couldn’t wait to get home and research them on eBay. Quickly, I discovered these types of scarves were selling for no less than $150 each! I took one out of the package to snap a photo and my heart sank. The label sewed inside the scarf did not say Burberry. I cannot remember the designer’s name, but it was not recognizable. I was disgusted and threw it back inside the package. The very next day, I returned them!

The customer service manager who returned the merchandise asked me why I was returning and I said “Well, the sign said Burberry yet when I arrived home and opened one, I realized the label is not Burberry.” His response was, “they look just like Burberry but you’d never find them that cheap”. I had to scratch my head, why would the store promote them as one brand when they indeed knew they were not?

Anyway, the eBay lesson today is know your merchandise before listing. Do not assume anything. These scarves were total knock-offs which disgust me. Do not misrepresent merchandise, if you are in doubt about authenticity then do not take any chances!

It is against eBay’s policies to list knock-off items (I guess these scarves would have been considered true knock-offs if the labels had been removed and they were listed as an actual Burberry item). I still feel that Neiman Marcus broke a rule by their false advertisement. That should not be allowed! They tricked me!

The actual eBay policy is called “Replicas, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy”. In a nutshell, it reads, “For a safer buying and selling experience on eBay, we don’t allow listings for counterfeit items, fakes, replicas, or unauthorized copies.”

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