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My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them on FB Marketplace. Clearly marked them as fake. Person came and picked them up and I said again that they were fake. Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes. The fake sellers must make enough off of people who don't realize that they are fake that they can just write off the few that do.

tomdeboer 3y ago
Or buyer will try to resell as non-fake…
- latchkey 3y ago
  I doubt it. Zero profit (since I charged the going rate) and a real waste of time/gas to drive to my house to pick up a single pair. The fake sellers must buy them by the crate for cheap to see any real profits.
  - dspillett 3y ago
    If you charged the going rate for pre-used, maybe the buyer is planning to put them in official looking packaging (likely really official packaging picked up elsewhere, perhaps from their own purchase of an official product) and sell them as new for a profit?
    - latchkey 3y ago
      Probably more likely: 1. Buy a new pair off Amazon. 2. Return the fake and get a refund from Amazon.
      - dspillett 3y ago
        That does seem a more reliable option. I need to update my thinking of I want to be a good scammer!
      - _yb2s 3y ago
        Jokes on them… the Amazon ones will also be fake
frou_dh 3y ago
Seems kinda like "kids eat free" at restaurants... fake-spotters eat free at eBay.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  But in this case they ended up with no product, the same starting money and a bunch of time/energy lost.
  - poszlem 3y ago
    They ended up with twice the amount of money and some time wasted.
  - mathematicaster 3y ago
    > We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. So they made some? Spent time/energy for science of course ...
  - Tade0 3y ago
    The way I read it they ended up with double the starting money, because they both got a refund and sold the headphones.
    - AlecSchueler 3y ago
      Ah yes, apologies for the miscalculation.
- everly 3y ago
  Until this happens a few times and their algorithm flags you as an 'abuser' of the refund system (despite you doing nothing besides correctly calling out fraud) and you're banned or automatically ruled against in all disputes going forward.
JCharante 3y ago
> but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. I heard that there are fake airpods that will connect and behave just like a normal airpod to iphones, as if they have a fake H1 chip or something. Can anyone confirm?
- thomasqbrady 3y ago
  Yes. I have a set that appear to my iPhone to be legit, including auto-connect/disconnect, noise-canceling modes and all, though the functionality isn’t actually reliable. My iPhone doesn’t seem to know any difference between my real AirPods Pro 2 and these fakes.
  - ewzimm 3y ago
    I got my first AirPods off eBay recently that I was expecting might be fake, but they arrived new in the package with all the usual Apple paperwork and pull tabs and registered normally, even the Apple warranty, and everything seems to work, except if I get a notification when I'm playing audio, it just goes silent until I pause and resume the audio. It seems like other people have the same issue. Is this a real issue with genuine AirPods Pro 2, or is this potentially an incredibly good fake?
  - thebigman433 3y ago
    Feels like this could maybe be a pair from a fake/third shift or something? Seems like that level of functionality with (fake) Apple products is super rare.
- civilitty 3y ago
  Might not even technically be “fake”. Apple has ghost shift problems just like every other major manufacturer that contracts out semiconductors to China. I’ve heard that Apple drives such a hard bargain with some of their suppliers that selling ghost shift parts and the parts that fail QC to counterfeiters and repair shops is the only way they make any profit. The Apple contract pays for the factory and the bills but they make the real money on the side.
darkclouds 3y ago
[dead]
dspillett 3y ago
> We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. A good will gesture to reduce the chance of you reporting them as selling fakes, and tarnishing their carefully manicured feedback scores, if they were in the business of doing this regularly.
- latchkey 3y ago
  They asked for a positive review and we refused and threatened to contact Ebay, so yes... exactly that.
pbhjpbhj 3y ago
>Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes. Someone wants ear buds, they want to signal wealth so choose expensive brand, but they want knockoffs because they're actually poor[er]. The main risk with knock-offs is they arrive broken, or just don't arrive, or... basically it's a scam of some sort. So, you took on the risk of buying, assessed the earphones as working, the earphones are now probably worth more as they've been QC-ed (by you), moreover the buyer can actually see them working and refuse them if they wish. Within the context the buyer seems relatively rational.
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  >signal wealth >$100 product It really boggles my mind that this works on anyone. We all see the commercials for financing. We all see teenagers with no jobs having them. I'm a bit mind boggled that Apple was able to turn <$1000 tech products into 'luxury' products. Maybe it makes more sense if you didn't get screwed by iTunes DRM and were more open minded during iphone Era.
  - latchkey 3y ago
    When I lived in Vietnam, getting the latest iPhone (or really any product), as soon as someone smuggled it into the country (usually from Australia or Singapore), was a national pastime for people there. That logo is everywhere.
    - tuankiet65 3y ago
      I concur. My mom sometimes talked about how her friends / coworkers just got the latest iPhone and that made her want to get one herself. I guess part of it is just FOMO but there's also something about the brand that drove people to do "unusual" things (like you said, smuggling phones from other countries just to be the first)
  - stronglikedan 3y ago
    Where I grew up, $100 sneakers were a signal of wealth. Nothing new under the sun.
heisenbit 3y ago
Same here. My wife washed the old airpods so she got me some new and "better" AirPod Pros. They looked perfect and since I did not really care about getting other ones I did not much research. In any case they looked genuine and worked for a while until their flakiness got on my nerves and I went to a slightly embarrassing Apple appointment where I was told there were scores of service requests for this particular serial number. She got her money back since at least in our country EBay the company is now the seller and could not run away and as it was bought with PayPal... What convinced me that they were originals - packaging looked genuine - paired out of the box without much hassle - showed up as air pods with serial number Lesson learned and bought the new ones and these were the differences: - print inside the lid was 20% larger in original - packaging of original was not shrink wrapped - slight off-colour white of the packaging - the lightning port of the fake was not feeling right - the button on the case did not click distinctly - the button on the case did not enter the special mode after 10 seconds like original - ANC of original light years ahead. More modes displayed on the menu. With hindsight the biggest give-away probably were the - shrink-wrap plastic around the package - lightning port feel - much, much lower microphone quality. But since I never checked that out myself as I don't use them much for talking and so complaints from others were not so frequent. - imperfect find-my performance but since I did not care about this feature much I suspected I mis-clicked somewhere and gave up. - transitions from case to ear to case with sometimes not registering that it was back in case (contact issues in the case?) not so reliable with impact on battery. - battery erratic behaviour I guess if I would have been in the market for them and then bought them I may have found out immediately but so I just started feeling Apple starts slipping on quality with new products more complex but worse. As I got them as a replacement and just wanted to get on with listening during my walks they were able to fool me. They are certainly good enough to fool casual buyers and they are certainly bad enough to hurt Apple's reputation for quality products.
- latchkey 3y ago
  Oh right, yea... the sn# gives it away immediately, you can google it and see that it is fake. Another pro tip for buying used stuff online... request a photo of the sn#. Even a partial will get you a match in google.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

tomdeboer 3y ago

Or buyer will try to resell as non-fake…

latchkey 3y ago
I doubt it. Zero profit (since I charged the going rate) and a real waste of time/gas to drive to my house to pick up a single pair. The fake sellers must buy them by the crate for cheap to see any real profits.
- dspillett 3y ago
  If you charged the going rate for pre-used, maybe the buyer is planning to put them in official looking packaging (likely really official packaging picked up elsewhere, perhaps from their own purchase of an official product) and sell them as new for a profit?
  - latchkey 3y ago
    Probably more likely: 1. Buy a new pair off Amazon. 2. Return the fake and get a refund from Amazon.
    - dspillett 3y ago
      That does seem a more reliable option. I need to update my thinking of I want to be a good scammer!
    - _yb2s 3y ago
      Jokes on them… the Amazon ones will also be fake

frou_dh 3y ago

Seems kinda like "kids eat free" at restaurants... fake-spotters eat free at eBay.

AlecSchueler 3y ago
But in this case they ended up with no product, the same starting money and a bunch of time/energy lost.
- poszlem 3y ago
  They ended up with twice the amount of money and some time wasted.
- mathematicaster 3y ago
  > We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. So they made some? Spent time/energy for science of course ...
- Tade0 3y ago
  The way I read it they ended up with double the starting money, because they both got a refund and sold the headphones.
  - AlecSchueler 3y ago
    Ah yes, apologies for the miscalculation.
everly 3y ago
Until this happens a few times and their algorithm flags you as an 'abuser' of the refund system (despite you doing nothing besides correctly calling out fraud) and you're banned or automatically ruled against in all disputes going forward.

JCharante 3y ago

> but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. I heard that there are fake airpods that will connect and behave just like a normal airpod to iphones, as if they have a fake H1 chip or something. Can anyone confirm?

thomasqbrady 3y ago
Yes. I have a set that appear to my iPhone to be legit, including auto-connect/disconnect, noise-canceling modes and all, though the functionality isn’t actually reliable. My iPhone doesn’t seem to know any difference between my real AirPods Pro 2 and these fakes.
- ewzimm 3y ago
  I got my first AirPods off eBay recently that I was expecting might be fake, but they arrived new in the package with all the usual Apple paperwork and pull tabs and registered normally, even the Apple warranty, and everything seems to work, except if I get a notification when I'm playing audio, it just goes silent until I pause and resume the audio. It seems like other people have the same issue. Is this a real issue with genuine AirPods Pro 2, or is this potentially an incredibly good fake?
- thebigman433 3y ago
  Feels like this could maybe be a pair from a fake/third shift or something? Seems like that level of functionality with (fake) Apple products is super rare.
civilitty 3y ago
Might not even technically be “fake”. Apple has ghost shift problems just like every other major manufacturer that contracts out semiconductors to China. I’ve heard that Apple drives such a hard bargain with some of their suppliers that selling ghost shift parts and the parts that fail QC to counterfeiters and repair shops is the only way they make any profit. The Apple contract pays for the factory and the bills but they make the real money on the side.

darkclouds 3y ago

[dead]

dspillett 3y ago

> We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. A good will gesture to reduce the chance of you reporting them as selling fakes, and tarnishing their carefully manicured feedback scores, if they were in the business of doing this regularly.

latchkey 3y ago
They asked for a positive review and we refused and threatened to contact Ebay, so yes... exactly that.

pbhjpbhj 3y ago

>Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes. Someone wants ear buds, they want to signal wealth so choose expensive brand, but they want knockoffs because they're actually poor[er]. The main risk with knock-offs is they arrive broken, or just don't arrive, or... basically it's a scam of some sort. So, you took on the risk of buying, assessed the earphones as working, the earphones are now probably worth more as they've been QC-ed (by you), moreover the buyer can actually see them working and refuse them if they wish. Within the context the buyer seems relatively rational.

hospitalJail 3y ago
>signal wealth >$100 product It really boggles my mind that this works on anyone. We all see the commercials for financing. We all see teenagers with no jobs having them. I'm a bit mind boggled that Apple was able to turn <$1000 tech products into 'luxury' products. Maybe it makes more sense if you didn't get screwed by iTunes DRM and were more open minded during iphone Era.
- latchkey 3y ago
  When I lived in Vietnam, getting the latest iPhone (or really any product), as soon as someone smuggled it into the country (usually from Australia or Singapore), was a national pastime for people there. That logo is everywhere.
  - tuankiet65 3y ago
    I concur. My mom sometimes talked about how her friends / coworkers just got the latest iPhone and that made her want to get one herself. I guess part of it is just FOMO but there's also something about the brand that drove people to do "unusual" things (like you said, smuggling phones from other countries just to be the first)
- stronglikedan 3y ago
  Where I grew up, $100 sneakers were a signal of wealth. Nothing new under the sun.

heisenbit 3y ago

Same here. My wife washed the old airpods so she got me some new and "better" AirPod Pros. They looked perfect and since I did not really care about getting other ones I did not much research. In any case they looked genuine and worked for a while until their flakiness got on my nerves and I went to a slightly embarrassing Apple appointment where I was told there were scores of service requests for this particular serial number. She got her money back since at least in our country EBay the company is now the seller and could not run away and as it was bought with PayPal... What convinced me that they were originals - packaging looked genuine - paired out of the box without much hassle - showed up as air pods with serial number Lesson learned and bought the new ones and these were the differences: - print inside the lid was 20% larger in original - packaging of original was not shrink wrapped - slight off-colour white of the packaging - the lightning port of the fake was not feeling right - the button on the case did not click distinctly - the button on the case did not enter the special mode after 10 seconds like original - ANC of original light years ahead. More modes displayed on the menu. With hindsight the biggest give-away probably were the - shrink-wrap plastic around the package - lightning port feel - much, much lower microphone quality. But since I never checked that out myself as I don't use them much for talking and so complaints from others were not so frequent. - imperfect find-my performance but since I did not care about this feature much I suspected I mis-clicked somewhere and gave up. - transitions from case to ear to case with sometimes not registering that it was back in case (contact issues in the case?) not so reliable with impact on battery. - battery erratic behaviour I guess if I would have been in the market for them and then bought them I may have found out immediately but so I just started feeling Apple starts slipping on quality with new products more complex but worse. As I got them as a replacement and just wanted to get on with listening during my walks they were able to fool me. They are certainly good enough to fool casual buyers and they are certainly bad enough to hurt Apple's reputation for quality products.

latchkey 3y ago
Oh right, yea... the sn# gives it away immediately, you can google it and see that it is fake. Another pro tip for buying used stuff online... request a photo of the sn#. Even a partial will get you a match in google.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]