Fake! - Counterfeit Bluetooth Accessories
We are all aware of the problems with counterfeit designer brand clothes, hand bags and shoes. However, this is also a big problem for the handset industry. Especially when it comes to cellphone batteries and bluetooth accessories.
I received an email from Shaffin with a harrowing story about a simple purchase of a bluetooth headset fraught with problems. Luckily, a great an assistant manager at the Nokia NY flagship store could elevate some of the problems. Read and learn:
My iphone is already here: it’s the e61. As I’ve noted on a previous post on the e-series blog, I don’t think this device, rightly lauded everywhere else, gets enough praise in the U.S. But it needs a companion. In December, I started to look for a bluetooth headset. I narrowed my search to Nokia BH-800 and BH-900. And there begins my run-in with an aftermarket product - and what kind of support I received from the marketplace.
In December, I bought a BH-800 from a Hong Kong-based seller on ebay with, at the time, great feedback. The package arrived. It looked original. There was no warranty card and the manual looked suspect, I thought, but maybe that was an Asian version - all would be forgiven if the product itself was the real thing. Sure enough, the product charged. It paired with my e61. Then, within 15 minutes it started to beep: low battery. I tried to recharge the unit. No luck. The red light wouldn’t even come on. I e-mailed the seller. He promised quick action and asked to me keep trying to charge the headset. No luck. I e-mailed him again. No response. I e-mailed again, no response. This is where my ire kicked in, as both a Nokia user and a Nokia shareholder. I reported my experience with the headset and the lack of Seller communication to PayPal - and filed a claim for refund.
Online, I read about Nokia’s efforts to shut down fakes. I thought, great: they can be like Tiffany, aggressively fighting the after-markets. So I e-mailed Nokia Customer Service, which, to its credit, asked me to send them the item number and the Seller info. I did. Then PayPal wrote me back. They wanted proof (or as they call it, authentication by a third party) that my BH-800 was a fake. I had 10 days to do it, or the claim was canceled. I wrote Nokia Customer Service again, asking for their help in authenticating the product - at my expense. Not hearing back, I called Nokia Customer Service and explained what I was trying to do. “Is this about a phone,” they kept asking. No, about a fake headset - you guys care about fakes, don’t you. I was asked to e-mail again. I did. I got an e-mail that said my query had been forwarded to the “appropriate product department”. I noted the urgency of the the PayPal 10-day deadline, again. So, then, I called the Nokia flagship store in New York. Someone said to bring the piece in. I happened to going to NY on business. I took the piece in.
Assistant Manager Joanne Losinno was great. She agreed to help me. She had never seen anything like it. The piece was smaller than an original BH-800, there was no UPC code, the manual was a fake, the accompanying pouch was not the standard. What Losinno couldn’t do was state on paper, for legal reasons she said, that the item was an out and out fake. But she could make darn close in a letter. Which she did. In turn, I faxed her letter to PayPal, as instructed. Two days ago, I received my response. Yes, I could get a refund if I a) I returned the item to the Seller in Hong Kong at my own expense; b) reported a confirmed tracking number within 10 days to PayPal; c) I wait until the Seller confirms that he has received it. In the absence of all that, I lose my claim. As of this writing, I have satisfied two of those three conditions. Sending the package registered USPS cost me $17, or more than 50% of the original PayPal charge.
Meanwhile, Nokia Customer Service has never gotten back to me - on an effort that I wanted to believe I was undertaking on their behalf. You see, I am also a Nokia shareholder, which I had mentioned to Customer Service. As far as I know, Nokia CS has no idea that their NY flagship store was even involved, since they neither suggested it nor responded when I said I was going to do that - a critical piece that would have brought everyone in the loop effortlessly. Meanwhile ebay continues to host this seller and others like him. Sister company PayPal continues to accept payments on behalf of this Seller. Recently, the Seller’s negative ratings have started to pile up. I also went back and dug deeper into his ratings. I’m not the first to receive a fake BH-800 - a fact also reported to Paypal. Meanwhile, I bought a BH-900, an authentic one, on ebay, from a U.S.-based seller, and am very happy with it. Still, I wonder about Nokia, which can integrate complicated functions on its phones but not its responsiveness to a diligent customer. I doubt I’ll hear from Nokia, but it’s a nice thought. Life goes on, and so do fakes.
Thanks for sharing this story Shaffin!
Additional reading:
How to spot a counterfeit battery (Nokia)
Avoid buying a fake Nokia cell phone battery (eBay)
Counterfeit alert (Article about Nokia’s counterfeit issues in China)
January 15th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Once in my life I was trying to get my wife’s Nokia phone repaired (it turned out to be defective CPU - huge batch of 7370 was affected).
It was a worst customer service I’ve ever seen. Ever. Their service centers in Moscow are a joke - you wait for months and they don’t even know, what is the status of the order.
After that I was stupid enough to buy E70. The only good thing about it is a keyboard. Otherwise it is slow as hell (with latest firmware and no 3rd party apps). What’s the use of the phone which is slow as WinXP on i486?
January 15th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Wow, interesting. I think everyone should no better than to trust an eBay seller shipping electronics from Hong Kong, though.
BTW, if this whole entry is about a headset, why are the pictures all that of a phone? Haha.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:00 am
***know
(haha, sorry, I hate when I spell things wrong)
January 15th, 2007 at 2:25 am
THIS IS NORMAL
NEVER BUY GADGETS LIKE THIS FROM EBAY SELLER THEY ARE 80% FAKE THEY ALL CAME FROM CHINA.
TRY YAHOO AUCTIONS! HONG KONG IT IS SLIGHTLY BETTER..
January 15th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Hello.
Am very sorry to hear of your experience but it is not a new thing here in China on the counterfeits products, especially phones. Even the more established manufacturer here copy the style so very closely and are being offered in the shops, the most recent report I read about is on the Nokia N73 by CECT. Almost identical but of course the software is rubbish.
I can’t seem to post photo on this site or I would send in a photo showing the original and the copy.
Its not just a Nokia issue surely, over here the Sony Ericsson fakes are all over the place as well. Next time, if you do want to get a phone from China, do let me know, maybe I can be of some help.
Thanks.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:35 am
I’m based in Singapore and I recently bidded for a Nokia BH-800 at a fraction of the price. What I did was smart, as Singapore is small, i suggested a meet-up to test the equipment.
The item turned out to be a fake. I rejected the goods and the seller had the audacity to leave a negative rating on my account.
“Please note that Nokia is unable to regulate dealers or unauthorized dealers from selling parallel imports. As such we advise customers to purchase phones and enhancements from the authorised distributors.”
That’s all Nokia Singapore did.
“Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Singapore.
Yahoo! asks anyone who detects what appears to be a copyright violation on Yahoo! Auctions, to please report the violation to those persons who can claim rights to the work — rather than to Yahoo!. In this way, the rightful persons can evaluate the use and determine whether to assert a claim against the webmaster and alert Yahoo! of the infringement. ”
and that’s Yahoo Singapore. No one wants to take action.
It’s a sad situation.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:53 am
China has very different laws and regulations about patents and copyrights compared to those used in the US and Europe. The market is flooded with counterfeit and blatant copies of hardware but very little is done about it by the authorities. Another clear example is all the iPod knock-offs you see. Engadget often reports on these rip-offs. The best way to prevent buying a fake is just to purchase from reputable resellers. Ebay is always risky. Sure you’ll get a lower price, but especially when purchasing from places like China you have to be very aware of the fact that there is a fairly high probability you will receive a fake.
January 15th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Well,
Shaffin, looks like he had u. Nevertheless u r fighting a big battle, but sadly, I sincerely doubt that u can beat the fakers. Lets settle this, I am 100% on ur side. I hate fakers too. Luckily, here at Serbia, I cannot buy anything on E-Bay, ’cause there is no way they can ship me my stuff, or make me pay. PayPal also doesn’t know about Serbia:) So, here I have to go to a dealer and buy something. So if he gives me a fake, and doesn’t want to refund me, he has to face that he has a family, an unsafe trip home, has about 200 bones in the body all very fragile under a baseball bat. I hope every1 understood this. Ofc. because of all this Serbia won’t be a PayPal member for a very long time
January 15th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Well, for China, its best to have someone around the area check out the equipment and then purchase it on behalf first. Thats why its a common practise in to pay only when item arrives, if it does not fit what you think of it is to be, you can just reject the item and not pay for it. This practise however limit within China.
I got my E61 from China and did make the effort to visit the shop to know that its at least credible and test the system there before taking it.
My 2 cents worth.
January 15th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Thanks for the responses so far. The parties I would most like to hear from is ebay/Paypal. As disappointed as I am with Nokia’s lack of support, how exactly do ebay/Paypal justify making the agrieved party jump through so many hoops. It seems to me that as a marketplace, ebay/Paypal have a responsibility to put the onus - and expense - on the Seller at some point. That never happened. I’m therefore curious if the various attornies general/FTC might not see this as, in effect, support of counterfeiters. Let’s face it: this was not about the money. I lost way more time and money than the cost of the fake. I went as far as I did to test the overwhelming absurdity and effective complicity of how ebay/Paypal behaves. Tiffany litigators, take note.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:59 am
While my E61 doesn’t appear to be a fake they packaged a knockoff cigarettle lighter adapter that when I recently plugged it into my car the phone simply said no charge. Fortunately I had another adapter from a previous nokia phone, and with the help of the plug adapter, I was able to use that one to charge my phone while in the car. Buyer beware, what is in the package may not actually come from Nokia.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
In Pakistan we usually get original equipment when bought from auhtorised dealers , my E 70 was not and still Nokia Care Line Pakistan helped me in fixing it , for fakes , we have fake batteries , chargers , covers , accessories , bodies at a fraction of the cost but no one complains
January 26th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Have you not considered a chargeback through your bank? Assuming you used a credit card, which you would be wise to do? They would likely be more sympathetic to your point of view…
January 26th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I’m comfused - the article is about bluetooth accesories so why have photos of a nokia phone? where are the photos of the fake bluetooth accesories?!
January 27th, 2007 at 6:46 am
To Janek: I used PayPal and my bank account funds, not a credit card, and PayPal has its own resolution mechanism - that is what I tested and documented above. What I really want is a response from ebay, PayPal and even Nokia to this post - to explain their actions in all this. Even if my claim is ultimately successful - incredibly, PayPal is now evaluating copies of my Registered Mail documentation to Hong Kong, so this isn’t over - buyers like me are no better off. Thanks.
January 27th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Hi Tomtom,
If you look carefully at the photos you can clearly see that they are fake. One of the devices have a “Nokan” logo. I couldn’t find any pictures of fake BT accessories to I used photos I had of fake phones. Sorry to confuse you
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I too have just been a victim of purchasing a knock-off BH-800 headset from China and have just filed an ebay dispute to try and obtain a refund.
Can someone tell me if the real and original headsets are made in china? The box sure does look real…
February 15th, 2007 at 4:57 am
Yes,I just bought a Nokia bh-800 from Radio Shack, and it says made in china.This whole bootlegging thing is so out of control that ever since i bought the headset,I am still hoping it is real(I am confident it is after looking at various websites that have insight on fakes).http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Counterfeit-Headsets—How-to-recognize-and-avoid-them-what-are-the-differences-article-a_1753-p_6.html
Counterfeit Headsets - How to recognize and avoid them; what are the differences? (phone Arena)
Check out this site. It is very helpful!!! I worry now that people will buy fakes from ebay then realize that they are fake and buy a real one from a store, then return the fake one in the real package to get the money back ,and its like paying the bootleg price for the real thing,then people like me or you go buy one from a regular trusted store and end up with a damn fake!Thats why I am still wondering about mine.
April 21st, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Most of the time it is very easy to detect a Counterfeit item; first look for the size and also the weight, the copies are usually lighter, also the button will not have the same feel and like the BH-800 when you pair it with your phone you will see BH800 no dash in between or if it has it a funny noise when pairing. For the Samsung it look like they are closer to the real thing but still there it will be harder to pair and same thing in the pairing a weird noise. Also look for the Instruction book in the English part, you will find many mistakes, you can tell that it’s not theirs first language, just like me!
Overall price is also everything, how can they sell a BH-800 under the cost price??? If you see a BH-800 under $90 it doesn’t smell good because it’s under the cost!!!
Be carefull they are also many phones from China that’s are Counterfeit but hard to tell from the outside if you are not working in the cell phone industry and they don’t last very long!
The MORALITY of this story stop buying from Asia and buy Made in USA, Canada & Mexico at least buying in North America keep the jobs on this side
YOU WANT YOU JOB BACK OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW? WELL START BUYING FROM YOUR COUNTRY ****AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS THIS****
Thanks for ready….
August 27th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
An ebay seller earns million of dollar from counterfeit motorola bluetooth.
He is gamalogic/superbigstore! Anyone bought bluetooth from him please post here.