$99 Airpods Cancelled by eBay (Update: eBay Responds on Twitter)

harivision on 17/07/2019 - 11:14
Last edited 17/07/2019 - 16:07 by 2 other users

Update 4: Official communication from eBay regarding this issue that got sent to OzBargain.

Update 3: eBay have responded on twitter.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ebayau/status/1151310851833397248

Update 2: They have removed the airpods from our purchase history.

https://imgur.com/download/lxUhWO5/

Update 1: eBay promoted their sale through multiple channels.

https://i.imgur.com/vTmoE7y.png

Customer Care have advised that every single one of the 800 items are affected. “The seller has claimed their account was compromised” However, this is an official eBay account.

What a joke. Make sure you contact the news outlets on twitter.

Transcript of email:

Your recent eBay transaction may be from a compromised account.

You were recently involved in a transaction for the following item:
Brand New Apple AirPods (2nd Gen) with Charging Case (MV7N2ZA/A)

We’re writing to let you know that an unauthorized third party may have accessed the seller’s account to list this item. The item has been removed from the site, and the transaction was cancelled. We ask that you take the following precautions:

THANKS EBAY!

Electrical & Electronics Apple Bluetooth Earphones

Related Stores

eBay Australia
eBay Australia
Marketplace

Comments

  • Linkwick on 19/07/2019 - 17:32

    PSA - I actually got an email with tax invoice today from Titan Gear. Just in cace it's needed for any warranty etc.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/07/2019 - 00:05
    +12

    Everything about this promo was a bit fishy, from eBay choosing a seller that has a low feedback score, with no other listings, to an email about a "compromised account".

    So after I received the tax receipt, I decided to look up the ABN. If any of you are interested, here's what I found:

    • Titan Gear was registered on the 16th July, which happens to be on a Tuesday. Guess what else happened on this day..? Yep, the whole drama of eBay sending us a cancelled transaction email, before a supposed "system error" email, stating we will receive our Airpods.
    • The address given for Titan Gear is at the same address for a current Pharmaceutical company. It has been confirmed on this company's website, and on Google Street View. Notice anything suspicious?
    • No information about the Entity Name can be retrieved from a quick Google search.
    • The entity also holds another business "MV STORE" (currently registered and has not been cancelled), which appears to be at a random address given for a solar energy company.

    All in all, I have a strong feeling that eBay is affiliated with the seller and has purposefully made an attempt to cancel all orders through the whole deal of a "seller's compromised account". However, after realising the amount of backlash they would face from customers' complaints, they felt that this would strongly damage their reputation, forcing them to fulfill all orders - if not, less, due to some who have followed the previous email and proceeded with an immediate refund.

    eBay, please plan your budgets carefully before you decide to go ahead with a promotion. Based on my personal observations, in this scenario, you decided to promote a deal on national news websites, getting all the attention of potential customers nationwide, tricking them into signing up to eBay Plus free trial (with the hope that they forget to cancel before being billed) or pay for your absolute joke of a premium service, to end up (for successful checkout customers) with you resorting to your scammy tactics to back yourselves out of the deals you hyped and other websites have promoted for you. SMH, eBay.

    EDIT: I know I will be recieving the Airpods I spent ages trying to get, which I am grateful for, but this comment was made so that this community is aware of businesses like eBay. I think companies should be called out for their wrongdoings.

    • jlogic on 21/07/2019 - 22:25
      +3

      What I believe is that they got a junked eBay account/business to let another merchant to use it. When it had all the activities that look like a compromised account, the system auto flagged the account and caused eBayPodGate.

      Whoever paid with PayPal would of received the PayPal receipt with the merchant name being Brilliance Trading (AUSTRALIA) Pty Ltd - where a simple Google search leads to the following ABN registration - http://www.abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View/77080345615 - Which leads to Sydneytec.

      Which I believe they did to possibly (I say possibly) to prevent Apple from finding out and affecting the current relationship with Sydneytec, due to selling them for low prices. Apple likes to maintain a tight grip on their prices to maintain a price floor.

      Case in hand - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Apple-AirPods-Charging-Case-… - Sydneytec listing with the current PILOT coupon code - brings the price down to $247 which is $2 cheaper than the Apple Store.

      So I don't think there was any nefarious in terms of backing out of a deal, eBay would of had a budget that paid Sydneytec for the promotion. It was just ballsed up in terms of using a junked eBay account and them trying to sort out all the legal backend stuff (hence the dates in ABN register and eBay user profile) for a proper invoice with a valid ABN etc. They would of needed the original holder to sign over the business name and ABN over to Sydneytec. The ABN and original Pty Ltd had documents lodged with ASIC changing the company details.

  • 00000000 on 20/07/2019 - 21:48

    I got an email from ebay today forcing me to reset my password on my account because they have seen suspicious activity.
    Is this just a coincidence?.

    I have 2FA enabled on my account and never got an alert.

  • theguyrules on 22/07/2019 - 11:46

    Got mine today, best deal ever.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join