[Scamdalized]

As a brand new eBayer, I am being scammed by eBay seller johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, Room 1921, Heng Fung House, Heng On Estate, Shatin, Hongkong, according to the address stamp on the packaging. First problem I noticed was that the device couldn't even keep the correct time (gained something silly like 9 hours in 24!), so the voice recordings don't even get a valid timestamp. Tried following the instructions to update the firmware, but that required the mp3 utilities program to be installed before the device could search online for an update, but neither that nor a web address were to be found on the accompanying CD - no small wonder after I've become educated by this site - thanks u guys. So I write to the seller - am very detailed describing the problem, but he just sends me a download link for video conversion software like he's a fool or something. I tell him I need a firmware update so that the clock will work, but he talks flannel to me that I don't need to worry coz it's got the latest firmware! He comes across as genuinely helpful, though a little daft (yeah right!), so I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt. He offers a replacement, but points out that return shipping is down to me and possibly expensive (well yeah, when he advertised the goods as being located in the UK but actually shipped from Hong Kong), and he offers me a partial refund. All things considered, I thought I might as well just take that and order a different model, coz I figure it's probably just a software problem with the first model, and I can always give an 8GB mp3 as a Christmas stocking filler to someone who doesn't need the voice recorder. I go back on eBay, bid on, and won a slightly different model, and slightly cheaper too, so I have a short-lived sense of fairness. Then, johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, writes and tells me that he would like to make the partial refund at once, but could I kindly leave him positive feedback first. I had intended to give him positive feedback anyway, coz he seemed genuinely helpful, but I told him that I couldn't leave positive feedback until the transaction was complete. I didn't like being coerced like that. Next thing, he starts writing me direct to my e-mail and not through eBay, and he says his workmate made a mistake and that she doesn't know all the details, but he asks me to kindly check the last message that he sent me, and he just re-sent the same request for positive feedback before I get the refund. I wrote to eBay support, but although the reply initially seemed understanding and helpful, it just turned into the same kind of flannel, where they tried to fob me off saying that "situations such as these are considered by eBay as a member-to-member conflict, which users should resolve between themselves", and after posting a link to the 'user_agreement', they started referring to me as a seller saying "please keep in mind that whether or not you will issue a refund is entirely dependent upon whether or not you have a return policy in your listing, and whether you choose to honour that policy. eBay is not involved in transactions between buyers and sellers and therefore is not responsible for issuing refunds", and then told me how, as a seller, eBay could e-mail the contact details, including the personal telephone number, of the buyer (which would be me!), though they would at the same time send the seller's (which they thought was me!) details to the buyer as they “feel it maintains trust and fairness on eBay if members are made aware when other members request their contact information” (!!) I was astounded that I was being informed that eBay was actually going to disclose my personal telephone number at the request of a seller. I replied to this eBay support person and informed them of their blunder, told them that it most definitely was not equitable to trade a personal telephone number for a publicly available business number, and pointed out that the seller had actually breached the 'Feedback Extortion' clause of the very 'user_agreement' whose link had been included in the e-mail! I didn't get a reply to the corrective e-mail, but I was again astounded when I instead received a request for eBay support feedback! The problem was nowhere near resolved, they'd more or less washed their hands of it, and they wanted me to give feedback for their ‘support’. "Give until it hurts" is definitely a logo that eBay should attach to their banners.

After more time-consuming correspondence, johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, eventually makes the partial refund, but then the device shows up again in my activity record as ‘unpaid’!! More time-consuming correspondence with both johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, (who continues to ignore me) and eBay support to whom I inform his maladministration which I now find hard to ascertain as unintentional, and suspect is a contrived attempt to discredit me and perhaps launch an unpaid item case should I leave him the deserved negative feedback. The best that eBay support could offer so far was to assure me “in the event that the seller files a dispute and escalates this into a strike, kindly email us again and we'd be happy to remove the strike for you”, as though eBay should even allow it to escalate into a dispute from the seller’s side and leave a stain on my profile!! It had already become an absolutely ludicrous transaction, but then whilst reading johnnymagasin’s negative feedback posts, I discover the possibility that it’s also a hacked memory device, and upon trial discover it a reality. It’s not the 8GBs it’s supposed to be, but a measly 1GB! And even after reformatting it, it is so slow to transfer files! The other device that I ordered as a replacement for the first is also sitting in my activity list waiting to be paid for, but I wrote and told johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, that I’ve had no intention of paying for it until he removed the false claim that I haven’t paid for the first one, so he prevented that payment himself, and since I have now also discovered that the devices are just hacked, there is no way that I’m going to pay for another piece of junk. It would possibly be a good thing for him to call me on it, and then everything would have to become a matter of record. And if it went onto national television news, then all those people who left him positive feedback might just check their players and bombard parliament with complaints and then eBay and PayPal would be held responsible for criminal negligence and all sorts of other offences… well… I can dream can’t I?

So please, please blacklist this sleazy conman johnnymagasin, aka Lei Sio Hong, as black as is possible. What a pity eBay can’t simply be shut down for their blatant pandering to villains like him who line both their own and the internet barons’ pockets with their ill-gotten gains from our hard-earned dosh.