Sandisk memory cards - a LOT of fakes out there

Raider

Raider

Raider

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Leamington Spa / Oxford
Well it's my own fault, I recently bought what I thought was a 2Gb Sandisk Ultra II off Ebay. It turned up today, and although it looked fine at first, upon closer inspection the labels on the memory card looked a bit funny, with the text being a bit fuzzy, and the colours inconsistent.

Now that I've done a bit of searching on Google it turns out that that is a huge market in fake memory cards on Ebay.. can't believe I didn't realise this. After all £30 for a 2Gb memory card is too cheap.

I've just tested the card now, and it works, and it is 2Gb, but it's not as fast as my Sandisk 1Gb. In 10s my Sandisk 1Gb can cope with 14 photos, and they're all written within 12s. The fake 2Gb can only take 10 photos in 10s, and it takes around 16s to write them all.

The seller hasn't responded to my email yet.. but if he offers me a refund I'll take it. I'd rather spend £65 on a genuine card.
Although £30 seems cheap for a 2Gb card that works (albeit not ultra fast), I can't help but be a bit wary about it failing whilst i'm out and about, and i'd hate to lose a day's worth of shooting :(

Anyway it looks like the bulk of the cards on Ebay are fake. You can tell the difference here:
http://martybugs.net/articles/fakesandisk.cgi
 
yak.h'cir said:
Can't trust ebay at all for memory cards. Especially the bulk sellers.

It may work for the moment, but if you can't get your money back (and if you used paypal you should be able to) then bin it.

If its fake you can never trust it. And you know its going to fail when you've just photographed your best friends wedding or aliens landing....
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I'll give the guy another 24hrs to reply, then i'll try and contact Ebay or Paypal. I'll probably get negative feedback, but i'll sure as well give him some..
 
yak.h'cir said:
Saying that are you sure this website isnt also a hoax? I've got a 1gb extreme III, a 2gb ultra II (both purchased from decent high street shop) and a 256mb I (came with my 350d from canon) and none of the cards have a serial number on the side...
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The serial number thing isn't consistent I admit that (mine had no serial number either). But the slower speeds and poor quality copied labels are a give-away.

Check this picture out:
http://martybugs.net/articles/images/sandisk_back_large.jpg

That's the key for me. Nice crisp text on the right, blotchy copied text on the left.

In the movie poster collecting world I've learnt to spot badly copied print :p
 
Ignore the serial number stuff. The main thing is the quality of the labels, plus the packaging.

The 5-year warranty is a give away for sure.

I don't think i'm sticking my neck out if I say that 99% of Sandisk Ultras on Ebay are fake. How else could they sell £75 cards for £25 + P&P?
 
^^Gord^^ said:
Mine mentions 5 years as well so I don't have high hopes. The seller doesn't have any negative feedback and is a powerseller. To keep his powerseller status he needs to keep feedback about 98% so I don't think he will risk negative feedback.
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Well my seller has perfect feedback too, at around 198.
My bet is that most don't notice that they're fake, and if they do they don't care or can't be bothered.
 
No reply from the seller yet, i'll give him till the end of today then i'll have to decide what to do..

Grrr :mad:
 
Well I had a reply from my seller:

"it is genuine not faked. please test it on your device, if there is problems, please let me know.

Dave"

I've responded and said that I've tested it and it's slower than a proper card, hence I want a refund. Will see what he comes back with, luckily I think I have the upperhand what with Paypal protection etc..
 
The fake labels do look like the type that you print yourself. The genuine article looks quite a bit different once you can compare them.
 
Right.. Paypal dispute has started. Bit concerned about this in his feedback:

"transacion cancelled as seller canot receive Paypal anymore and agreed to cancel"

"Cancelled, by mutual agreement. Seller unable to use Paypal"

Hmmm :mad:
 
In order to judge whether the card is fake or not, the only certain method is to do a few speed tests. As I (and others) have found, the fake cards are noticeably slower in writing and reading.

My Paypal dispute deely is now open, and apparently if I just return the card via Recorded delivery I should get a refund. The return address, surprise suprise, is a Mail Box Ltd. address :rolleyes:

All the tell-tale signs of the scammer!
 
Hmm there must be something out there can do speed tests to any kind of removeable media, be it USB / HDD / Compact Flash.. :confused:
 
Yeah that was the simple test I did.

I held the button down for 15 seconds and recorded 1) How many photos were taken and 2) How long it took to clear the buffer.

Clear difference in both!
 
Going from their customer service for TV I wouldn't trust NTL to sell me a memory card :p

Unless NTL does mean something else...
 
Ok update on my dodgy seller. After I opened the Paypal dispute I was told to mail the card back to him (well his Mailbox Unlimited address..). Just about to send it off when I received this email:

i refund you full amount, sorry for the problem. i also graduated from
imperial as well. please accept my apologise,all the best!
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At which point Paypal sent me the £30 refund, and I still have the card, so I emailed him again asking whether he still wants the dodgy card:

leave me a positive and i will do the same. the card you just keep it as a
gift from an old imperial friends. thanks and all the best in the future,
my friend!
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His attempt at pretending to be from Imperial fails considering he can barely speak (or type) English. I'm not sending the card, because I don't want to pay the postage.

But I sure as hell aren't going to leave him positive feedback! Any advice on what to do next? If I leave him negative feedback, he'll hit me probably. As cowardly as it is, i'm minded to just ignore him (leave no feedback) and just put my £30 towards a real memory card. :(

I'd like to report him to Ebay / Sandisk, but I just know that they won't be bothered. Ebay especially.
 
The problem is, I have no contact telephone number, no real address. So what could they go on?

For some guy selling counterfeit memory cards, I can't see them looking into it.
 
mrk said:
Well by law they have to, it is fraud afterall
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Yeah well my Dad's company credit card got ripped off last week (again). The guy who had used it, bought car insurance, DVD rentals etc.. My Dad phoned the police and they weren't interested.

As far as they were concerned, my Dad was covered by insurance, so what's the problem? :rolleyes:
 
Yeah I can leave feedback too. Was your case reversed via Ebay? Because I got the refund via Paypal. Different setup I think.
 
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