reporting Modernesia to Ebay
I will be reporting him to Ebay regardless of the fact that Ebay will not put a stop to it. Ebay is greedy and making a ton of money from his listing fees. I don't see them putting a stop to this any time soon. He WILL continue to sell and buy. It's a shame that Ebay has completely lost their integrity. This sort of action or lack thereof by Ebay is only encouraging people and crooks like Modernesia to continue this sort of scam because OBVIOUSLY he knows he can get away with it. I encourage everyone to write and call Ebay as I am doing. I smell a potential class action lawsuit against Ebay soon.
Why not have someone who has ...
Why not have someone who has bought a chair that is fake, a victim so to speak, contact the prosecutor's office for the county where the seller is located? Most prosecutor or DAs offices will have an economic crimes section or unit that often handles retail fraud, especially if on a large scale.
Yes, Ebay has message boards....
Yes, Ebay has message boards.
Eamescollector, do you think there will be a class action suit against ebay regarding this guy or for fraud in general? Ebay has made it very clear in their terms of service that they are just a venue. They don't do any background checks on their members (buyers or sellers) and though they do have safeguards in place it's basically caveat emptor.
They've booted plenty of shady people off. I've been buying and selling since 1998 and have reported all kinds of BS dealings to them and have seen more than a few people get kicked off. I'm not egotistical enough to think that it was all my doing, but I do think I helped a little.
From what i've seen of Modernesia, he hasn't yet reached the depths at which he'll be dumped by Ebay. There are much worse than him on there, even if he is a liar and a cheat.
No case.
You're not likely to prevail in a suit against Ebay; Tiffany & Co. couldn't, and they had a MUCH better case:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/13/us-ebay-tiffany-idUSTRE68C4PQ2...
From what I've been able to...
From what I've been able to gather, Ebay will not do anything to stop this guy from selling.
Ebay's policies seem to take a hands-off approach for most cases like this.
The only way anyone here is going to effect this guys business is by releasing his real name and by getting the word out online, especially among european collectors/dealers who appear to be his biggest marks.
Anyone whos dealt with him via ebay, should have his name, address and number. He's likely selling somewhere else, he may even have a physical shop. Someone google his address and number and see what pops up.
I wish we could summon the power of 4chan. Those guys would have Modernesia crying for mercy within a couple of days.
Con artists, forgers, and peddlers of fraud
have been with us since time immemorial and, in this case, serve only to help educate true connoisseurs and enhance the reputations of scrupulous dealers and the value of their wares.
It would seem Modernesia holds so little self-regard that he/she has chosen the low road and it's the shortcut to a bad end. If I were of such persuation, I'd pray for his/her desperate soul.
It's quite simple...
It's quite simple really.
Given that ebay buyers are 'the holier than thou' (according to ebay) people here that feel so strongly about it should become the winning bidder and give appropriate feedback
2 or 3 negative feedbacks and you'll cut his business in half
4 or 5 negative feedbacks and ebay will suspend his account. And if he decides to open another account, do it again!
or...
Send messages to the w...
or...
Send messages to the winning buyers whom have left feedback stating the concerns.
Problem is Modernesia has found himself quite a profitable niche and he'll just go elsewhere or refine it.
He'd be reading this now conjuring up ways to refine his talent and he has a talent, the talent to deceive!
Here's the bottom line
regarding eBay; if you know what you're looking for and have done your research, you have a much better experience. I furnished my home primarily from eBay auctions, and I don't think I got screwed on any item, that I can think of. I bought a Milo Baughman sofa, an Eames side chair, a Saarinen Grasshopper chair and ottoman (which i had to have the frame repaired), a Florence Knoll angle iron coffee table with a formica top, a Kartel TV cart, 3 20" square Eames work tables on wheels, a number of CSS shelves, over 30 George Nelson and Arthur Uamnoff clocks, a bunch of Bitossi blue vases, trays and bowls, 4 Eames EC127 dining room chairs with blue hopsack upholstery, an Eames LaFonda chair shell, and lots of other stuff. Only one Bitossi vase arrived broken. Most of the other pieces arrived well packed and sold by obviously good and honest sellers.
I would not have been able to find most of this stuff around Minneapolis, to be sure....so why are so many people complaining about eBay?
I'm not sure why you...
I'm not sure why you included the unnecessary laundry list of your MCM purchases from eBay, besides bragging, but no one is complaining about not being able to find authentic pieces on eBay.
Foremost the complaint is with Modernisa's fraud and dishonesty and secondly with the fact in the face of proof of fraud and numerous reports eBay does nada - because they are more interested in making a few extra bucks than protecting buyers from fraud.
People who are willing to pay top dollar for high quality pieces are being ripped off and at the same time honest dealers with authentic pieces are losing business. Add to that guys like Modernisa taint the whole community of MCM furniture sellers and dealers with their fraud and make everyone more cynical and more leery of purchasing certain high end MCM pieces. Its one thing to get burned spending $40 on a piece of MCM entirely another to get burned on a $2500 purchase.
I don't see how Ebay's particularly at fault here.
As Ebay scams go, this is pretty sophisticated-- to all but the connoisseur, his auctions look completely legit, and until recently, he had 100% positive feedback.
How seriously would you EXPECT Ebay to take the complaints of those who haven't even bought anything from a seller, when up until recently, his buyers have expressed only satisfaction?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (--or in Ebay's case, ignorance).
But Ebay often does take...
But Ebay often does take action once buyers have spoken (with enough negative feedback). Modernesia just hasn't gotten to that point yet. No, they don't put a lot of stock in complaints from non-buyers about the fine points of faked labels and this base and that base and faking a finish and whatnot. I think they must get tens of thousands of complaints like this every day, maybe way more than that. They're just not going to follow up until actual winning bidders start filing official complaints about fraud and so far that hasn't happened in any significant numbers as far as we know.
Not that I think Ebay is perfect and not that I think what Modernesia is doing isn't despicable.
The one thing I've found that gets very swift action are auctions of fake items involving manufacturers in ebay's VERO program. I reported someone selling obviously fake Coach stuff once and within hours his 100+ listings were removed. The difference was that I reported him to Coach and they told Ebay to remove the auctions. If Knoll was in the Vero program, then maybe Modernesia's buyers would have better recourse, though what he's doing is not hurting Knoll so much as a totally fake chair would. So...I dunno.
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