Was possibly sold a counterfeit phone battery in July 2017; found out in Dec 2017. Too late?

[fllay]

Hi,

I bought a LG G5 BL-42D1F battery from a seller who claimed that the battery is genuine in July 2017.

I'm sure most if not all of you've heard of how counterfeit items can look nearly identical to the originals.

So because the fake battery looks so similar to the original, I didn't bother to scrutinize its authenticity.

The fake battery price is so much lower than what LG Canada/authorized retailers want for the genuine one.

Anyhow, my phone has been acting funny since the beginning of this month. December 2017. It'd randomly restart. It'd randomly say that the battery was low and the phone would shut down. However, after rebooting, the phone would say that it has 50+% of battery left, sometimes even 80+% left. Yesterday, the phone got really hot. Today, it's basically unusable, I thought I run into the notorious LG boot loop issue where the phone cannot get pass the booting screen. However, upon removing the battery, I found the battery stuck inside the phone. After I was able to remove the battery from the phone, it's actually swollen a bit.

So I started comparing the original and the one I got from eBay and there were subtle differences. (Just like when I got Hoya filters off eBay from certain country and there were differences that made me sure the filters I got from certain country were fake.) 

1. The colors of the fonts and background are different--could be batch variation.

2. The "LG" and "G5" logos are different. The eBay one have skinnier logos.

3. The cutouts of the stickers that wrap around the batteries are different.

4. The battery from eBay doesn't have the tiny white circle (about 3mm in diameter) on top of the battery like original does.

5. The battery from eBay doesn't fit the G5 battery holder as well as the original.

I think I've been misled by a seller who claimed/advertised that his battery was genuine, when it's likely fake. What are my options? Just swallow up the loss?

Thanks.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

Very few.

EBay allows Disputes for Not As Described for 30 days after delivery.

Paypal allows Disputes for 180 days from Payment.

Unless your purchase was made between July 25 and July31, you are too late for their Dispute window too.

You might be able to get a chargeback from your credit card, if you sensibly backed your PP account with a card. Policies vary from card to card. The 1-800 number on the back of the card is your next step there.

Paypal and most cards insist that the buyer return the disputed item to the seller and use Proof of Delivery.

If your seller is overseas this will cost you a minimum of $40 with Canada Post, which is usually the cheapest tracked service.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

And just a pedantic point.

The battery from eBay

You didn't get it from eBay. You bought it from a seller who advertises on eBay.

If you bought bread from Loblaws, you can't blame the newspaper who carries the Loblaws ads for the pricefixing.

[fllay]

Thank you, reallynicestamps. I really appreciate your reply. 

I'm going to file a dispute with PayPal. 

I should have learned about deals that are too goo to be true.

I bought a power adaptor from an eBay seller (yes, not eBay itself) who claims his power adaptor was "genuine". Upon receiving, it was obvious that it was not genuine (very similar form factor, but the stickers are obviously fake and different, poorly applied with bubbles), but I was busy, and it's been working fine for me for about 8 months now. 

With this battery, if the phone didn't start acting up, I wouldn't have notice the differences--as it's a grade A counterfeit, in my opinion. It looks so similar to the real genuine battery. If the seller had been more apologetic, perhaps, I might let this go. The fact that the seller brushed me off and insisted that I did something wrong that cause the battery to swell--and insisted that his battery was genuine--was not pleasant.    

[fllay]

Yes, I stand corrected; the battery was not from eBay itself, but from one of the eBay sellers. 

[patken123]

All cases of poor customer service we hear about or personally experience have one thing in common, the vendor blames the buyer /user of the product for the the poor performance of the product, it is their first line of defence.