Counterfeit AP post satchels being sold on ebay

[chameleon54]

I had heard that there where counterfeit Australia Post satchels being sold on ebay but didnt realise how common they where. I have had a few packs of ten I have purchased over the last six months that have looked a bit different from the norm, but all have mailed succesfully.

Today I recieved a letter from AP advising that I had used a fake satchel and enclosing an account for the postage cost and an extra fee for the delivery service. I had already used most of the satchels from the pack, which had passed through the AP system unquestioned, and I suspect I may have inadvertantly mailed up to 50 other fake satchels over the last few months, all purchased on ebay.

So what to look for. .......

The biggest give away is that the fakes have a different stick on bar code sticker in place of the normal satchel sticker. This is a genuine AP bar code, given away in rolls by AP to customers to attach to parcels and pay for when used. The second indicator is the fakes I have seen all have two round punch holes in the satchel corner. The third indicator is the fake satchels are more difficult to write on. The last lot I had required a texta as a normal biro would not write on the surface. As the bar code stickers are a genuine AP product, they scan in succesfully when presented at the post office counter.

According to my local AP office. the counterfeit satchels are made in China with Australian sellers attaching the AP bar code sticker to the bags before selling them on ebay. Unfortunately I buy a lot of these satchels and so cant be sure which seller I got the fakes from, but will be keeping a close eye out for them in future.

Below is a photo of one of the fake satchels.

[countessalmirena]

chameleon, that is disgusting.

Being made in China... hence cheating Australian sellers even further while at the same time they're undercutting Australian sellers with their subsidised postage... I'd say that words fail me, but my loquacity is not actually affected. It's simply that the main words I feel like posting are epithets and different ways of saying "Outrageous. Ridiculous. Disgusting. Unconscionable."

Those fake satchels do look quite convincing, particularly if one's not expecting them to be fake.

[countessalmirena]

For a little light relief...

       I'm appalled.

[digital*ghost]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

Being made in China... hence cheating Australian sellers even further while at the same time they're undercutting Australian sellers with their subsidised postage...

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Whatever the initial intention is on behalf of the manfuacturers, it's the Australian sellers who are cheating both their fellow Aussies and Australia Post - they know exactly what they are doing, and the satchels would be worthless if they didn't do it. 

It may be the Aussies commisioning the fakes, for all we know. 

[mildred9*123]

Satchels should have peel off label for sender to keep, good idea to take a photo of a satchel at Aust Post outlet and compare to the items on line before buying. I would only buy Aust Post products at Australia Post store.

[phorum_junkie*]

I presume they were selling at a much cheaper price than you would get buying through the AP site, that would have warning bells going off in my head. I know there are sllers who buy satchels and stamps etc in huge quantities and so get a discount for selling on at below AP's price however they are usually not very much cheaper.

To make absolutely sure just buy them from AP then you know they are thr real deal.

[brerrabbit585]

chameleon, why don't you check your purchase history and check the pictures in the listings of anyone you've bought satchels from?  If you can't access the old listings or the pictures are too small to tell, check their current listings to see if they're still selling them.  They may not use pictures of the fake satchels but if they do they'll never be able to prove whether yours came from them or not, unless they kept the roll showing the numbers and the peel off half of the stickers, but they can't use that without revealing that they've deliberately been defrauding AP.  If you report them to AP and/or ACORN you may eventually get some compensation.  I'd say AP will tell post offices to check satchels now that they're aware of it and I doubt as many will get through.

If they get through undetected it's AP (taxpayers, honest AP users) who are being defrauded because the buyer gets what they pay for, but if they're detected and the sender is charged for the postage then they're the ones who are defrauded.

I'd suggest if anyone buys satchels on ebay that they write the sellers details and the date they bought them on the plastic bag they come in.  If they turn out to be fake I'm quite sure AP would go after them as that's the only way they'll stamp out such a practice.  Word obviously gets around amongst such sellers and if one of them got prosecuted I'm sure a few of the others would soon hear about it.

I've always wondered how some sellers can afford to sell them cheaper than AP, especially as the selling fees would be more than any discount they'd get for buying in bulk.  I thought perhaps they were just another seller who didn't have any idea of what their fees were or that they were making a loss.  I've bought a few when I've had 20% off vouchers but always from sellers who only had a few and it looked like they were clearing out a few that they no longer needed.  I sold my registered post stickers on ebay because it's better for my buyers if I use prepaid reg'd envelopes.  I got my money back because I sold them when they had a no-fee promo.  

I just checked the 3kg and 1kg express satchels that I bought a few months ago.  No holes in the corner, easy to write on, and a peel off sticker under the barcode.  I noticed the stickers on mine don't have express post written above the barcode, obviously because it's written on the satchel so it doesn't need to be on the label, but it does need to be on the ones that come on a roll to identify what they're for.  If mine had been fakes I would have gone after the sellers because I know they were the last ones I bought.  It would be too late for ebay or paypal claims but I would have reported them to ACORN, AP, and anyone else who'd listen!

If they're selling fakes they're doing it deliberately and are crooks and deserve to be punished!!  Some of them sell thousands so they're making a fortune at the taxpayers' expense (or buyers if they're caught out)!  I suspect AP might make post offices more aware of this now that they know about it.  It must be costing them a small fortune, and if nothing's done it'll only get worse and cost the honest people a lot more to post things.

I'm hesitant to buy them on ebay because my PO looks after me, but they get nothing when I buy my satchels elsewhere, however when I can get them for 20% off it's a bit too good to pass up.  I don't use a real lot of satchels and my PO gets all my letter business.

[brerrabbit585]

PJ, a lot of us buy when we have an ebay voucher. I paid around $9 for express 1kg satchels at the start of the year and less than $12 for express 3kg satchels.

[chainsawandmowerparts]

Here is more fake satchels i got from a seller today

[chainsawandmowerparts]

all 3kg post satchels all fake