byUsers Forums

I suggest, if you are looking for flash memory on eBay, whether memory cards (e.g. SDHC) or USB Pen Drives, that you first have a look at http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/ (I wish I had!), and get a copy of H2testw 1.4, which tests flash memory (although very slowly...).

In September, for various reasons, I bought on eBay:

• 5 x Transcend branded 4GB USB Flash Drives from a seller in Jersey @ £6.97 each
• 10 x unbranded 4GB USB Flash Drives from a seller in Hong Kong @ 5.85 each - global_eshop8
• 2 x unbranded 32GB USB Flash Drives from a different seller in Hong King @ £9.50 each - larastop1982
• 1 x "Elite Pro" 32GB SDHC card from a third seller in Hong Kong @ £10.49 - evil1314520
• 7 x unbranded 16GB SDHC cards from other sellers in Hong Kong @ £9.15 to £10.03 (mostly around £9.50) - fleabase, sales-producer, rainy9413, best2all8888 and heycardtt

The Transcend drives were perfect in every way, and I was happy.

Every other item that arrived was a fake. The 4GB USB drives were faulty, reprogrammed 512MB devices. The 32GB USB drives were faulty, reprogrammed 4GB drives. The 32GB SDHC was a faulty, reprogrammed 2GB card. One 16GB card failed to arrive (although two sellers claimed it was theirs - hard to tell, as every package that arrived was near enough identical, with no way to tell who had sent it). The remaining six were faulty, reprogrammed either 2GB or 4Gb cards.

larastop1982 disappeared from eBay before I could complain. I raised a dispute via PayPal, who told me I would get a refund if I returned the items. I protested that, if I did so, they would simply be sold again. It's important to realise that flash memory that's been reprogrammed in this way is dangerous, as although it will hold some data, it won't do so reliably, and any data written to such a device is at risk of never being seen again. I dug my heels in, and was actually refunded by eBay, rather than PayPal. The same went for the other device from that seller, and the 32GB SDHC card from evil1314520, who gave me the run-around for a month or so before also disappearing from eBay. In each case eBay refunded, as PayPal was insisting I return the fake goods.

heycardtt cheerfully admitted that it was their order that had gone astray, then mucked me about regarding a refund before, again, disappearing from eBay. PayPal refunded me for that one.

I can't say whether any of those three sellers disappeared because they jumped, or were pushed. I did receive alert e-mails from eBay for the last two warning me not to undertake any correspondence with them, so I'm guessing that their cards (forgive the pun!) were marked regardless of how they actually went.

I was able to get refunds in full directly from the sellers in all the other cases, sometimes with ease, sometimes only after a great deal of effort. Just finding out whose card was whose was a big problem.

Of those sellers:

• fleabase has stopped selling SDHC cards, but is selling "spy cameras" and video players that are Flash-based and likely to be of fake capacity.
• sales-producer has almost completely stopped selling, but I wouldn't hold my breath over whether (s)he is a reformed character, based on so much feedback being for "private" items.
• rainy9413 is still selling so-called 16GB SHDC cards.
• best2all8888 was selling 16GB SDHC as recently as November 4th, but has sold nothing since then.

I have left negative feedback - with simple, honest, factual details including that the sale was refunded - for all those sellers still present on eBay, and in one case the seller has offered to pay me to withdraw that negative feedback!

So, in short, if you were thinking of buying a flash memory product from Hong Kong, you may like to think again. I had to test every item I received, using H2testw, and none passed. I had to fight, often with PayPal, for my refunds. Although I got all my money back, it took almost two months. I'd hate for anyone else to end up in the same situation.

Oh, as a final note, PayPal refuses to accept that these memory items were "counterfeit", reserving that term for copied branded items (regardless of anything to the contrary in the dictionary). This is convenient (for them), as "counterfeit" items should not be returned, but "fake" ones can, according to their own rules. I have complained about this.