My HTC Desire » bluetooth megastore

Disclaimer

This article solely aims to consolidate various points raised by HUKD members regarding the auctions of an eBay seller. This by no means is a definitive conclusion, and you can choose to buy from this seller if you like – I’m not telling anyone not to!

Introduction

We’ve been discussing this on HotUKDeals, where a seller named bluetooth_megastore (bluetooth megastore) is supposedly selling HTC Desire’s for £245 £265, and in some auctions even multipacks of the phone. He claims to have over 300 of these phones, and has underpriced them so much that the offer seems too good to be true. After careful analysis of his whole auction, I personally decided against buying and here’s why:

The Auction

The auctions by him have been posted on eBay since early this week such as this one. Here’s a few things to note:

There’s almost no description of the item
Standy time is only 6 hours
His postcode (BS20 0XX), isn’t a real postcode, it’s just a postcode district i.e the BS20 is real, so gives a rough geographical location, but the second half is just dummy values.
The contact details on his auction:
John Gilligan
Bluetooth Megastore
Portishead
Bristol
Avon
BS20 0XX
United Kingdom
Phone: 01275|460005
Email: john.gilligan@hotmail.co.uk
The above details don’t match up with the one’s registered to his domain name:
Richard Thorpe
41 Cherry Ave
Clevedon
N Somerset
BS21 6DX
United Kingdom
One his auctions stated that the phone’s were running Windows OS, instead of Android. When asked about it he replied:
Q: Hello, I notice the description says the phones have Windows Mobile installed on them. The HTC Desire usually comes with the Android operating system. Is this a misprint?
A: Hi there, we ship the product in from the states where they use Windows Mobile 6.5 as they do in Asia. European phones use Android. We prefer Windows operating system. Thank you for your interest.
Item location. He actually claims that he doesn’t have phones in person at his address. Instead they’re stored in a secret location in Wales, and will be sent out from there after 7 days. Doesn’t make sense does it? If you have them already, why make people wait? If you’re sending expensive phones surely you’re going to send Special Delivery in which case they should be delivered next day. Collecting up to, and over 300 orders before processing just seems like making more work for yourself. Here’s his reply with regards to that:

Hi thank you for your email.
The phones are not stored at that address for security reasons. All our sales are dealt with from a secret location in Wales and thus we do not accept cash on collection i’m afraid. Dispatch time is between 5-7 working days.

Sorry to disappoint, thanks for your interest.
7 days is how long it takes for Paypal funds to clear into a bank account. When you open a dispute with Paypal, they will only return money that is in the sellers account – Paypal won’t pay out of their own account. Allowing 7 days means that he can empty his Paypal account, and if you open a Paypal dispute then even if you win there’s not a lot you can do about it.
Feedback. He has no recent positive feedback for expensive items, especially phones (a couple in the last couple of days, but both of which are from buyers that asked for refunds).

Here’s an email received by a buyer who asked him for a refund:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your recent purchase. Due to the large amount of interest and sales over the past 48 hours, EBay have on a number of occasions, closed our online shop and removed our listings as a automated fraud prevention action. They have accepted this is a mistake however, are proving most difficult to deal with in regards to rectifying the situation. We are currently awaiting confirmation that we can re-list again without our products being taken off line for a 5th time. Until this happens, we will not be listing any more products. However, please be assured that we have received your payment (unless you’ve been refunded) and will be dispatching your phone within the allotted time frame stated on the listing at the time of purchase. This is typically up to 10 working days from the date you paid.

I would ask you do not file any disputes with PayPal in the meantime as this will only delay the shipment of your item. However, if you still wish to be refunded after reading the above information, please email us with your name and user ID and we will process the refund. Of course I very much hope you decide not to take this action as we value your business greatly.

On a final note, please do not read in to any negative feedback left on our account at this difficult time. We currently have 100% as of 15:00hr 12/05 and any reduction in this percentage is simply due to the problems we are encountering with EBay. EBay have confirmed any negative feedback left whilst this matter is being dealt with will be removed.

Thank you for your patience with this matter.

John – Bluetooth_megastore

At least he’s honest about how many times eBay have closed his auction. He’s also specifically asking you not to open a Paypal dispute. He is claiming that if you ask him for a refund, he will give your money back. How true that will be if all buyers make that request remains to be seen.

Summary

Here’s the whole thing condensed into a nice paragraph by a HUKD member:

There are loads of signs, feedback dates, name changes, address details and date details from whois, host of landing page for the URL and the fact that it is a flash based supplement sales site, no photos of item, sparse description, no feedback from anyone who has bought high value items. I could go on but you get the idea, these could all of course be explained away but I usually go off if theres even a slight feeling things might not be right then I stay away.

Final Word

As I said from the start, this article only highlights some points made by HUKD members. I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to make your own decisions, so don’t let me put you off what could be a true bargain!

Questions and Answers (Last Updated: 15 May 09:58)

Due to some various good questions and points raised in the comments section, I’ll answer them as best as possible here:

Please can you get your facts right?
Yes. All the information I have provided is purely facts. I have linked to the various webpages where possible, any quotes are completely unedited and I have also created screenshots of all webpages referenced by me in the article. If you find that any of my facts are wrong, then do specify and I will correct myself.
I ordered my phone, and have received it within the given time, what do you have to say about that?
Please can you post dated photographs of your phone, along with some form of proof of purchase. This would be very reassuring for both myself and other buyers.
Along with this, can you state where you bought the phone from eBay or the website? If eBay can you state the item number? How long did it take to arrive? Which delivery method was used?
I heard that their eBay store got closed because of overwhelming demand that eBay had not anticipated
Sorry but until now I have never heard of eBay closing down a sellers store and prematurely ending all their running auctions on account of them being too popular. Here is a copy of the email I received from eBay after the auctions were cancelled, make of it what you like:

Dear XXX,

We can see that you’ve had contact with bluetooth_megastore through eBay recently.

We think this eBay account has been used without the account owner’s permission, so we’re now restoring it to them. To protect this member’s privacy, we can’t share any more details about their account.

People sometimes misuse eBay accounts by sending emails from them. In these emails, they invite you to buy or sell outside eBay, or ask questions that have nothing to do with eBay. They do this in the hope that you’ll respond and give them your email address.

We strongly recommend you treat emails from this member with caution and don’t respond if you hear from them again.
I see nothing wrong in their feedback so why have you written this report?
To reiterate myself: “As I said from the start, this article only highlights some points made by HUKD members. I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to make your own decisions, so don’t let me put you off what could be a true bargain!”
Are you an eBay seller that is trying to put out the competition?
Nope, I’m just a HTC Desire owner running a personal blog to share my experience with this phone. The only gain I can make from this seller is a few hundred more visitors to this site when everyone receives their phones!
You say he has no feedback, then contradict yourself by saying he has 2 from issuing refunds
I probably should have been clearer about the point I was trying to make which is: “He has no recent feedback from selling expensive items that have been received by the buyer”
Buying through eBay, aren’t I covered by Paypal, eBay and my credit card company?
No, in reality you’re only truly covered by your credit card. Paypal and eBay are restricted in terms of what action they can take. I fell victim to a fraudulent seller who was advertising iPods for £100. After realising that it was a scam after speaking to other buyers I opened a Paypal dispute. The only money I was able to get back was money the seller had in their account.
10 days sounds a fair amount of time to wait if he’s really busy doesn’t it?
Possibly, but if the seller knew he was going to be so busy these 10 days processing previous orders, why not just list after 10 days and provide next day delivery? It would attract a lot more trust and buyers would very quickly know for definite whether the auction was legit or not. Listing over 300 phones for sale when you’re already stuck with a backlog of previous orders doesn’t sound like a very good idea.
If you don’t like him, then don’t buy from him!
That’s exactly what I have done. I’m not asking or telling anyone to avoid his auctions. People can make their own decisions.