Just wanted to share this topic with my fellow FC friends

[cwortman544]

About a month ago I had purchased football jerseys online from a seller in china.  At the time I must not of been searching the right things on Google because I couldn't find anything bad about these companies over there selling items that may not be genuine.  Being clueless at the time and knowing now that I should have known 99.9% of the time really good offers are too good to be true and DO NOT DO IT!  I even talked to a representative from China from this company that assured me all of their merchandise was genuinely from Nike.  (No thanks to Nike headquarters in any of this on my end they could've cared less which makes me suspicious of why.)

To say the least I received the jerseys and could sense something weird the way they were stitched and the way they were packaged.  Long story short it turns out these items were imitation only/counterfeit items (DUHHH OF COURSE!!) Is what I basically wanted to smack myself and say.  So let's say I wanted to get rid of the jerseys one day I could be thrown in jail for counterfeit items and not even know the difference if I wouldn't of paid attention to the fabric and researched the items on Google.  Of course I could find a ton of stuff after I had already purchased the items which did not do me any good.

I also read on forums of different products being sold from China that they are counterfeiting to U.S. customers daily like cribs, shoes, handbags, etc. I even seen a post from a person that said she had to work something out with the seller and the seller agreed for a partial refund if she sent all of the items back except one.  That rang a bell with me because she did something illegal.  You are not allowed by any means to send counterfeit items through the U.S. mail and if these items are found, you could face a fine and prosecution.  The smartest thing I could've did though was pay through PayPal for these products.  I opened a dispute through Paypal which takes awhile, then you escalate it to a claim which can take even longer. then their original decision was again something ILLEGAL.  They wanted me to pay to ship the items back ($50 and some change is what it would've cost me) and the original purchase price was $118. 

I contested this and emailed their protection services and explained in detail what had happened and exactly how it would be illegal to send items that are counterfeit through the mail and in PayPal terms of service counterfeit items are to be destroyed and then the full refund would be given for the purchase.

All I had to do was print a letter out they gave me an outline for and added in the details of the items and the original brand names of the items then signed it and dated it.  Then I used a free fax service to fax the paper after I had scanned it onto my laptop.  After a couple days of investigation they ruled in my favor and the refund from the sellers account in China was given back to me in my Paypal account and the entire thing was settled.

Now I know as a learning experience to never buy items that can be counterfeited from China because counterfeit products is a huge Industry to criminals over there.  In the midst of this whole thing I had a conversation with someone from the company through their website and the person assured me I would not get any refund and would only get $98 of the $118 given to me if all of the products were shipped back (at my expense of course and even though it was illegal) and told me I would lose any disputes.

This is EXACTLY why you use PayPal and stay persistent with what is right and you will prevail.  Moral of the story is....don't buy anything overseas. lol 

[Garydh]

Thanks for the info. I hope you realize everything overseas is not crap etc. But yes, somehow China seems to be in every fabric of our lives here in the Americas. It is hard to find things not made in China. And, soon you will not know because of whatever regs are, they will be able to hide it. For example a company here had made in Oregon, and found out, no the materials were from Oregon, but the product, such as steel, and wood was shipped to China,. and sent back to the US, but oh well you get the idea