Don't be duped by fake software offers online
One reader learns the hard way that you need more than faith alone when dealing with some online vendors
Follow @infoworldGripe Line reader Joshua wrote in to ask for help negotiating with PayPal. He had purchased a copy of Rosetta Stone Portuguese Levels 1, 2, & 3 from a shop on eBay and was very unhappy with what he received.
"It was advertised as genuine, and the reseller claimed to be an 'authorized' reseller of the product," Joshua said. "Unfortunately, it was neither genuine nor a deal. The product I received was from China -- a blatant and obvious fake. It had all the signs, from missing logos to misspelled words on the box. So I immediately wrote a complaint to the seller."
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He got no response, so he wrote again -- and again. Fed up with the lack of response from the seller, Joshua went straight to PayPal in hopes of resolving the dispute.
"But PayPal told me it could not refund my money because the seller had delivered the product," Joshua said. "I was told that it is entirely the buyer's responsibility to verify authenticity of the product before purchase. How could that possibly be right?"
Joshua thought that he had done everything possible -- under the circumstances -- to verify the seller.
"Their ad indicates that the product is genuine and that they are authorized resellers," he explains. "How much more vigilant can I be without seeing the product first?"
That's a good question, one echoed in the comments on my previous post about Steven's experience buying a Rado watch that turned out to be a counterfeit. How much blame should consumers accept when the goods turn out to be fake?
Some readers -- rather surprisingly for this forum -- thought the onus was almost entirely on the consumer to recognize the signs that a merchant is hawking counterfeit goods. It is certain that going into the marketplace requires some savvy. As Joshua points out, you can't eyeball the goods when buying online, so claims of "authorized reseller" and "genuine" have to be taken with a certain amount of faith. The question is, how much faith?
Should Joshua and Steven have done more than simply believe these claims? Maybe.
Steven could have assumed these claims were bogus because the price was so far below typical, though the site from which he purchased the watch also claimed it was genuine. But can price alone be enough reason to assume goods are no good? That would put a damper on those 70 percent off sales that are so popular among many consumers.
A Rosetta Stone representative advised me, "Before purchasing Rosetta Stone language-learning solutions, consumers should verify that a seller is authorized to sell the program."
