I love eBay - having been a member since 1998, I have had a number of great buying & selling experiences. My experience with Haili Telecom wasn’t one of them. These guys have reached a new level of deceptive advertising & seem to know the eBay & Paypal systems quite well, using the system to screw consumers. The following emails chronical my experience after winning Item number: 120121556908:

 BRAND NEW (3RD GENERATION)8GB* 1.8” LCD MP3/MP4 PLAYER

Me: Hi There - got the unit, which is great, but the tech support url
http://www.home.netvigator.com/~hintlam does not work. Please advise

 Haili: Hi, you can try http://home.netvigator.com/~hintlam or http://www.mympxplayer.org, thanks.

Me: Hi There - Please explain how an item marketed as: MP3/MP4 PLAYER can’t play mp4’s. I am having quite a difficult time getting the avi converter to work (missing codecs) & am somewhat frustrated & disappointed as I already have an mp3 player & purchased this for the video capability :(.

Haili: Hello, a MP3 player refers to a music player, and a MP4 player refers to a video player. You need to convert all video formats to AMV format first as clearly stated in the video section of the eBay item description page.And if that’s not what you expect, please return your player to the following address for a refund:Heqi Sheng
155 Zhi Dan Lu
Hong Kong Ge 3/F B
Shanghai, 200065, CHINAPlease let me know again as soon as it’s shipped, thanks for understanding.

Me: Actually, MP4 refers to a file format and one would expect an mp4 player to play the mp4 format. Also, when one sees 8GB, one expects an 8GB drive, not a hacked drive: http://www.mympxplayer.org/image-vp29234.html This is misleading, at best - fraudulent at worst. I don’t think that I should have to pick up the shipping expense. What do you propose?

Haili: No problem, please return your player to the following address by using the cheapest (no more than $10) available airmail from your local post office for a full refund plus a reimbursement of the return shipping fee:Heqi Sheng
155 Zhi Dan Lu
Hong Kong Ge 3/F B
Shanghai, 200065, CHINAPlease let me know again as soon as it’s shipped, thanks.

Me: As you know, it is not possible to ship this back for $10. Is was returned the exact same way that it was sent - the cost was $28.00. I expect a full refund of $72.38, which includes shipping. Both of us could have saved time money & hassle if you had simply listed the item correctly & not deceptively.

Haili: Nope, that’s not true at all, how much do the post office charge per oz for the cheapest airmail? 100% of my US customers return the package at no more than $10, unless you use the Global Priority Mail, or Global Express Mail that I never recommend you to use.

Me: Not true according to the post office. You created this problem. If you had not run a deceptive ad, there wouldn’t be a problem. I will not let this go. Failure to reimburse in full means that I will press eBay and Paypal both to shut you down - no kidding. You should not be allowed to continue to cheat buyers.

Haili: Have you returned your player yet? I’ll issue you a full refund (every single penny that you directly paid to me) as soon as your return package comes back.

Me: It’s on its way - USPS ED762196479US. I have not contacted eBay yet, nor responded to their cancelled transaction inquiry, in the hopes that we could resolve this. If the full $72.38 which includes shipping is refunded, I am a happy customer & will go away - no fear of Neg

Haili: Hello, our record indicates that we had already issued you a full refund, that’s every single penney that you paid to us, thanks for understanding.

Me: This is your last chance - I am done playing games. You have not issues a refund for the freight. Either I see a $28 credit for the shipping, as agreed to in the last email, or I go nuts with eBay & Paypal. My neg feedback will be very clear and precise pointing out your scheming ways. You have until Sat eve to send a $28 payment to paypal address: XXXX@XXXXXXX.com. You have tested my patience enough. I will not accept being ripped off by your deceptive advertising. If you think I’m kidding, you have a rude awakening ahead. This is my last email to you. From here on in its eBay, Paypal & the US Postal service. Postal Fraud is a federal crime in the US - thanks for using the USPS.

Haili: Haha, this is so funny, I’ve already issued you a full refund through PayPal, so there’s really no way for you to open any PayPal disputes, because I’ve already returned every single penny that you paid to me through PayPal. And for eBay, I’ve already issued you a full refund too, all you can do is to leave me a negative feedback, and I don’t care, I’ll leave you a very negative feedback in return for sure, because I’m a very MEAN guy. This is a eBay approved listing, everything is clearly listed, including the capacity, the warrany and return policies, so I’m fully protected. Postal Fraud? hahahahahaa!!! Ok, ask them to come arrest me in China, lol

——————————————————————————————————

Ha Ha Ha - yeah, real funny Sheng. I guess you showed me. I wonder if eBay & Paypal see the humor in this?

The Problem with eBay feedback

Many scammers get away with selling on eBay due to their ability to post retaliatory negative feedback against the buyer.
Next, they attempt to get the legitimate negative against them withdrawn. I have never understood eBay’s reasoning for allowing this, and I’ve never let this lousy policy get in my way in exposing scammers.

Here’s the latest email from hailitele - the self described “Mean Guy”

Haili: Hello, I had issued you a full refund already through PayPal, you can log in to your PayPal account to verify the refund, so please withdraw the negative feedbacks that we left to each other.

He completely ignores the issue that I am out $28 in shipping due to his misleading ad. True to his word he left negative feedback. Take a look at all of hailitele”s “neutral” feedback. This would likely be all NEGATIVE feedback, if only these poor buyers didn’t have to be worried about being screwed a SECOND time by this clown - in the form of him leaving THEM negative feedback.

 His negative feedback against me is actually quite humorous, as follows:

Very unreasonable buyer, with no response to email, not willing to communicate!!

Hmm… based upon the above emails, how much more communication does this guy need?

You can read about more eBay Sellers Selling Hacked Players at: http://www.mympxplayer.org/146-ebay-traders-reported-as-selling-hacked-players-vt3556.html

Update- June 25, 2007 I continue to get daily emails from this guy looking to remove the negative feedback, so I sent this email in response:Me: I’m just waiting for the $28 credit. I’ve been trying to resolve this since day 1. By the way - how many people do you suppose read a blog, without ever bothering to comment?
Haili: Go head and remove the feedback, and I’ll pay $28, if not, just ignore this email. I mean what I said. Yeah right - based upon his behavior up to this point, why wouldn’t I believe that?Then I got a couple more interesting follow ups:

Haili: By the way, I really don’t know how many people have read your blog, but I only know that I have 6 eBay accounts and I’m selling over 1300 units just on eBay everyday, plus 400-500 units from my other websites such as http://www.hailitele.com, hope you will get real.

and…

Haili: I have a team of over 50 pple working here (full time) day & nite for me, and if you think that you can affect my sales for just creating a blog, well, I’m sorry to tell you that your idea is too silly, that won’t work. It will really lucky if you can get 20 pple reading the stupid thing daily, lol, but the thing is, I’m selling over 1200 units just on eBay every single day! So what’s the point? I hope you understand what I mean.

So…

It looks like Haili is a LARGE SCALE SCAMMER and proud of it. Funny how someone who doesn’t care about this blog or negative feedback is so anxious to get the feedback removed. It is clear that negative feedback hits this guy in the pocket book. If you have been scammed by him PLEASE take one for the team.

Leave negative feedback, reference this blog post: http://www.nnim.org/?p=1 and DO NOT REMOVE IT!

If you have been saved by this blog, please LINK to this page, so others can find it.

It also looks like this guy has thrown down the gauntlet and says that this blog alone won’t have any affect on his sales. So… I ask you my dear readers, just what can we do to get this guy’s attention? More importantly, what can bedone to get eBay’s attention, to ban these products and end retaliatory negative feedback?

Update: June 29

The requests to withdraw the negative feedback continues:

Hali: Hello, please withdraw the
negative feedbacks that we left to each other, so I can process you the $28
refund.

Me: Hmmm… this would really be out of
character. Here’s what I think will happen: I withdraw the neg & you laugh at
what a gullible dumbass I am for doing so. Tell you what - I’m the one that has
actually followed thru with my promises. Just do the refund THEN I will deal
with the neg F/B.

Hali: I mean what I say, if you don’t
believe my word, it means you don’t trust me at all, that’s no point to continue
the conversation, I’m really mad this time.

ROTFLOL - Now why would I have a reason
to distrust this guy? The level of Hubris that this guy operates with is
breathtaking! Now im making HIM mad - WTF?

Update 7/12/07

After I exposed the standard retaliatory feedback:

"Very unreasonable buyer, with no response to email, not willing to
communicate!!"

Haili has now come up with
a new tack:

• There are 2 drives, 1 is 0.98MB and another 1 is 7.99GB, please double
  check!

I have to commend this scammed buyer, who actually understands the hack &
replies:

"A compressed 8GB of files on 1GB flash is still only 1GB of memory. I feel
duped"

I also wish this buyer had NOT withdrawn his negative feedback. He really
should have taken one for the team to bring this clown down.

Partitioning & compressing a 1 Gig drive to appear as 8 Gig is MISLEADING and
in my opinion fraudulent!!! This guy counts on you to remove the negative
feedback & is relentless in his requests - PLEASE DON’T DO IT! Until his
feedback suffers he will continue to ripoff buyers.