advice needed on how to proceed with hacked 4GB player

[cypher007_uk]

ive bought a 4GB (turns out to be a 1GB) mp4 player from mensan666 from ebay. so far there denying they sell anything less than 4GB players. heres some of the responses:

Dear cypher007_uk,

Hello,

Yesterday I sent a mass email to all my previous buyers informing the software
issue. Today I was surprised to see that I got 800+ replies and over 90%
of the emails have serious misunderstandings on what I said. I sent the brief
message out on the assumption that my buyers have general knowledge about
computers and electronics, which I was apparently wrong. Sorry about that
and in view of the confusions created, I am writing this email to explain
further again and give you more details. For those who understood what I
said may just delete this email.

To clarify here, the MP4 player you will receive or have received is in FULL
working condition and the bundled CD software issue does not need to be rectified
as this is NOT a problem at all.

What you got (or will get) is a software package containing many useless
applications and 2 of them were found to be not fully compatible so you are
advised not to use them. The 2 incompatible applications are useless for
the player and I just warned my buyers not to run them. If you bought graphic
cards, motherboards etc before you probably encountered similar situations
before - the package usually comes with lots of useless applications and
some are not just compatible with the model you bought, and some of them
won't install at all. They just put as many applications as possible in a
CD so that the same CD can be used for a wide range of products. In your
case, please simply do not use 1) the firmware upgrade tool and 2) the disk
tool that come with the package. The ONLY application that is required by
your MP4 player is the AMV conversion tool and this application just works
fine. You may just ignore ALL the rest. Please note that all OEM MP4 players
and some brand name players like Samsung, Casio, etc MP4 use the SAME software
package as it is the ONLY software package available that contains the AMV
conversion tool. The package just contains too many applications but not
all are useful or compatible.

So will they corrupt your player? For those who ran the firmware upgrade
tool, do not panic. Unless you actually used the firmware upgrade tool to
upgrade the player with something downloaded from the internet, your player
should be fine - just running it won't corrupt your player. And for those
who ran the disk tool, the tool simply fails to operate and ends up with
an error message. Unless you spend several hours drilling on them to make
them run, they won't corrupt or affect your player in anyway. That the two
tools will corrupt the player in the worst case said in my last email is
a very conservative statement to discourage buyers from drilling on these
two useless applications. I can't take the risk that some buyers spend days
and nights getting these two incompatible applications running and eventually
destroy the firmware etc. Sorry for the confusions.

I hope this email will clear up all technical misunderstandings. Please note
that the player you received (or will receive) has the best quality available
just as advertised, and the player shares many identical component with other
brand name players like Samsung and Casio. If you understand this email you
do not need to reply. Thank you very much and sorry again for the confusions
caused by my overly brief explanation.

Best regards,
mensan666

so after this bullshit i got fed up and started a disputed item procedure. his response:

I did reply to all your emails and your last email was sent just a few hours ago at mid-night. I received over 200+ emails everyday and usually you will hear my response within 24 hours. I am a victim as well and that fraudulent seller shinybeast failed to compete with me and tried to defame me. If your player is defective I can of course offer you a partial refund and reship you another earphones. However this resolution isn't offered by Paypal and since you opened a dispute here the only solution will be returning the item to me for a refund. Please advise what to do next and work out a solution together.

what should i do next?

p.s. his paypal account name is:

Forest Scorpion, raptorred1959@yahoo.co.uk

hope that helps other people avoid this seller.

[lattesurf]

cypher007_uk , even if you did open an ebay/paypal dispute, you can still demand a partial refund, if that is what you are after.
The dispute channel that ebay/paypal has created is just to force the seller and buyer to respond to each other, failure to repond, they would decide on the outcome and/or suspend the accounts.

If you are after a partial refund (which the seller says is not an option in paypal), tell him to send you the partial refund via paypal, and you will close the dispute. Be warned that once you close a dispute, you can never re-open it again, so only close when you are fully satisfied.

I would not recommend sending the player back, as most of the people in here ended up sending the player back at their own cost and only got a purchase price refund. You would have lost money on two postages.

However, it is entirely upto you, whether you want a partial refund or full refund. You need to work out the sums and see which is much more viable. Don't be swayed by all his BS on being cheated by his suppliers and crap. All loads of rubbish. Stand firm to your decision, if he refuses, escalate the dispute to a claim.

[Canadiantj]

Guess what cypher007_uk, I just received my "4GB" player from mensan666 and it is a 1GB version as well :evil: . I got that mass mailer as well which got me thinking too. I did the reformatting and then sent him and email stating that this is a hacked player and want most if not all my money back before I report him to ebay and paypal. Of course, he sent an email back similar to yours, that he is the victim due to his supplier. I'm now waiting for his response back. I will still be letting ebay know about the seller selling false products. The funniest part was the postage from Hong Kong was 32HKD which is approx 5 CAD but the description tag on the product shows this is a toy which has a value of 8 dollars. I'm guessing that is pretty close to actual cost so they are making a fortune. I also see that most people are still not aware of the hack as his feedback still shows over 98% and only a handful of people have actually posted neg feedback saying its a hacked player. I'll let you know what his reponse is to me.

[Leeroy]

How did you get on with getting a refund or anything from this mensan666?

My girlfriend brought me a '4GB' player from him/them for me for xmas and I've had many problems trying to get mp3s on there (as soon as i used 1GB , i got all sorts of errors trying to add anything else!).
Found this site, done a format of the player and found out its actually a 1GB player.

I've just emailed them, had a good complain, told them it was falsely advertised and demanded a refund.
Haven't had anything back from mensan666 yet but hoping you boys did get somewhere with them?

Cheers