This is a hard thing to admit, but I'm telling this story as a reminder to us all of the fraud that exists in internet buying and selling. I'm also telling this story because I don't want someone else to get ripped off.
This "rare pink" Howard Miller clock was being sold on Etsy as being in "excellent vintage condition".
I own several of these clocks, so I immediately knew when this fraud arrived that the seller had taken the common red/orange pizza face version of the clock and painted it. Worse, it was one of the most disgusting hack jobs you can imagine. On the light bits, she painted it with several coats of french manicure nail polish. On the dark bits, she painted it with several shades of raspberry nail polish.
The original red/orange glaze still shows through in several areas. Many bits of red/orange glaze that existed on the black relief sections she sanded off down/scraped off to the original light brown ceramic. As she got closer to the center of the clock, it became harder for her to paint and the hack job with several layers and colors of polish can be seen pretty clearly. Nail polish brush marks can be seen all over, particularly in the opalescent french manicure top coat she applied over the white. Seller was also kind enough to leave behind her finger print marks and smudges in the top coat of nail polish.
The penultimate give away is that on the dime sized lifter between the metal hands and the ceramic clock face, you can see two shades of paint. As everyone on DA knows, the clock faces were made in Italy and imported to Zeeland Michigan where the metal hands were attached. The wet glazes and metal hands were never in the same factory together, so it's impossible for wet paint to have gotten on to the clock hands!
First time I've been ripped off on-line. Learn from my mistake! Fraudsters are careful in their photos.
Three photos and close ups can be seen here, more on Pintrest page. Anyone that wants more photos of this abomination, please let me know. Maybe you want to include it in your blog or article about fakes!
She fooled a lot of people. T...
She fooled a lot of people. This was pictured with links to retrorenovation. She was careful with her photos or doctored them. Part of the problem is both good and bad sellers can only put five pictures on Etsy- so it's easy to post not enough photos and skirt the hack.
I personally have never seen one of these faked. Has anyone else? I am not sure I am "uneducated". I own three of these clocks and knew it was a fake immediately. But she was very careful in her on-line photos. There are a lot of George Nelson Meridian wall clock patterns, so guess she thought she could get away with it. But the nail polish smell was a dead giveaway. It is such a hideous hack job with definite intention to defraud. She was originally charging 1500 for the clock because it was so "rare"! (had marked it down several times by the time I bought it)
Her mails to me included such winning statements as
"everyone knows that's the chance you take when you buy vintage on-line".
Do you have any recourse with
Etsy? I'd also report it to your local police.
edited to add: reading Etsy's terms, i see that they stress that they're only a venue and that it's buyer beware. But sellers also have terms to abide by and one of those is that they're not allowed to sell fraudulent items. If you can prove this to Etsy, that seller has a good chance of getting booted off.
If you paid by Paypal using a credit card, or if you used a credit card, period, you can file a chargeback and get your money back. I think.
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Link below to the thing if ya'll don't wanna click too much.
I notice you haven't posted a review yet...
This is totally infuriating, even disregarding the fraud a fine clock has been ruined... with nail polish. Disgusting.
I hope you find a resolution, thanks for sharing the lesson-
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/194620074?
Wasn't saying you are uneducated, keewee...
But many are. The lesson you're learning here is of venue. There should be some credibility involved. I find it bizarre that there are so many people out there slapping stuff online and demanding what I or any other serious dealer would ask times five. It's definitely becoming sketchier by the day. So you have to look at not only what you're buying but who you're buying it from and where, etc...
In the early days of Ebay her...
In the early days of Ebay here in the USA I had a few buyers send me checks that bounced. The police I talked to said that unless I traveled to that person's home State, and pressed charges there, there was no other recourse, apart from pursuing it Federally, as a case of Mail and Wire Fraud. He said that even when a person is a known car thief, stealing cars and taking them across State lines, there will be no attempt made to extradite that person at the State level, since it is simply too expensive.
At one point I did file a report for Mail and Wire Fraud on a bad check I was sent, and about a year later I got a letter from the Federal Government (I forget which office) requesting copies of the check and other information about the transaction, but as so much time had passed, I no longer had anything to send them.
One other thing I learned was that it takes a lot longer for a check to clear than the "14 days" that one often sees cited. It took about 5-6 weeks for me to be notified of the checks that bounced. My bank said that to truly be sure that a check has cleared, you would have to wait two months before sending the item that was being purchased. They said it all came down to the policy of the bank that issued the check, and how long they might wait for their client to have enough funds available for it to clear. I only accepted Postal Money Orders after that.
Like Wow.
Quote from the listing: "I have never seen this color available anywhere."
Well jeepers!
Isn't Etsy basically the same as every other internet venue? Everything is suspect. No one can be trusted. Money corrupts everything. It's time now to double deadbolt and chain-lock the door and cover the windows with tinfoil.
Okay, that's slightly hyperbolic, but jeeeeeez!
In all fairness, the seller d...
In all fairness, the seller did offer to return a portion of my money. She wanted her shipping fees and 25 of labor. The shipping fees were a little high-more than 10% of item's cost. She demanded things like a "live signature" when shipped. HOWEVER, it got sketchy when I asked her for her return address she gave me a PO box with which she was not associated. Sensed more fraud coming and games and am disputing it with paypal. We'll see how it goes.
Seller has been pretty hostile and says it's "debatable" whether or not this clock has been painted!
Of course, I'm sure those of you that are into these clocks and own a few like me know that this clock has been hideously doctored.
If I win, she will own the clock again and I'm assuming, be out there trying to fob it off on someone else. That makes me sad. I did take pictures of it and put it on my pintrest page so hoping that if I do win and she gets it back someone searching will see my pintrest pictures and know it's a fraud.
In any case...lesson learned. I haven't seen people trying to dcotor these up and pass it off as rare. Now we know...all of us know. Miller Meridian clocks never left the factory with a pink glaze. We should start a picture catalog of all the ones we know to be genuine. I started to do so on my pintrest page. If anyone wants to add more...please let me know.
Yep, agree with poster above...all things else aside, it is really really sad that she completely ruined a piece that one of us would have liked to own trying to make it "rare".
Is it possible that
she was took it on consignment from someone who had altered it? She might not want to admit that for whatever reasons---maybe she really needed the commission or whatever, I dunno. The other stuff she has listed right now isn't anything rare or valuable and her prices on them are reasonable.
Not that ignorance is an excuse.
No. She claims she found it a...
No. She claims she found it at an estate sale and denies it's painted. If you look at her etsy page, her logo is the clock in the darker shade of raspberry that is the middle shade you're seeing here. I have no doubt that she is the one to have painted it. It still smells like nail polish.
It was just a fraud she created in the hopes she'd get 1500 dollars for it.
This is the alleged...
This is the alleged seller/scammers etsy site in case anyone is interested:
https://www.etsy.com/people/MidCinch?ref=owner_profile_leftnav
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