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.

[chainsawandmowerparts]

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[chameleon54]

@ Brerrabbit - Why dont I go back through my history and compare pictures in listing ?

The sellers use photos of genuine satchels in listings. I went through all of the old, used satchels that sellers had used to deliver the fakes ( and genuine ones ) in and suprise, suprise, they are all genuine AP products too. I keep all of the old satchels as I use them for storage.

There are a couple of reasons I buy satchels on ebay. The first, as some -one has mentioned, is that I can use the ebay vouchers to reduce the price, secondly I use a lot of these and they are cheaper in the first place. Most of the time I dont have any problems with them.

The other reason for purchasing on ebay is I charge my clients the cost of a normal red satchel on sold items, quote the postage times for normal red satchels, but use the money saved on ebay satchel purchases to send items express post. I dont pocket a lot of profit from buying satchels on ebay, but it is just another way I provide clients with a better service at an affordable price. It helps to keep my ebay account clean of defects, improves my customers experience as they often need my items quickly and helps to keep my feedback scores up.

I have just purchased another lot of satchels from one of the sellers I have purchased from in the past, who I suspect may be the dodgy seller. Will wait and see what turns up.

[countessalmirena]

Good strategy, chameleon,

If the seller does send you the fake satchels, presumably you'll be having a chat with AP, as well as reporting as counterfeit under eBay's MBG.

[countessalmirena]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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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. 

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That's certainly true. It turns my stomach to think of Australians who are cynically involved in this criminal swindle.

[chameleon54]

AP are aware of the scam and on the look out for the fake satchels. The letter below is the one from AP that alerted me to the problem. One AP manager told me they have also recently taken legal action against several ebay sellers and achieved succesful court convictions.

[countessalmirena]

Good. That's a very well-worded letter; AP clearly have a handle on this, and going after the eBay sellers involved is the only way to stop this proliferating.

I imagine any eBay sellers caught selling these fake satchels will be very eager to give their suppliers' details. AP may be able to wield a big enough stick to get eBay to do something with those suppliers, but given the ability of Chinese eBay sellers to pop up with new IDs in scarcely a blink, that may not stamp out the problem.

Perhaps eBay will disallow any Chinese seller to list Australia Post satchels on eBay. I imagine that eBay would be closing down the account of any Australian seller involved in this.

[chameleon54]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

Good. That's a very well-worded letter; AP clearly have a handle on this, and going after the eBay sellers involved is the only way to stop this proliferating.

I imagine any eBay sellers caught selling these fake satchels will be very eager to give their suppliers' details. AP may be able to wield a big enough stick to get eBay to do something with those suppliers, but given the ability of Chinese eBay sellers to pop up with new IDs in scarcely a blink, that may not stamp out the problem.

Perhaps eBay will disallow any Chinese seller to list Australia Post satchels on eBay. I imagine that eBay would be closing down the account of any Australian seller involved in this.

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It is Australian ebay sellers with good feedback who are flogging these things, although I gather several of the big sellers may have been closed down. One of the biggest, may have sold up to 100 k of these things in the last twelve months according to other non ebay threads I have read..  The suppliers where selling direct from a Chinese site, but they may have had their listings removed from that site. It appears AP is being quite proactive about this. 

[countessalmirena]

I misunderstood - I'd thought that the fake satchels were initially sold by Chinese sellers on eBay and then onsold by Australian sellers on eBay.

I suspect I know which site. I'm glad that the site is apparently co-operating with AP. AP have a strong financial incentive to shut down this practice, so I imagine they are playing hard-ball.

[sarahs_preloved_booksnbits]

I received some Parcel Post 3kg satchels yesterday  that didn't have a time stamp on them (under the adhesive strip).  However when I contacted the seller - they advised that this was because they were old satchels (from 2012) and time stamps weren't being used then.  I then went to my local post office to see if the barcode (on the back of the satche - rather than the tracking barcode) was genuiine and it did in fact register on the Australia Post computer.  I am pretty much convinced that the satchels are genuine but would appreciate any other point of view.

Thanks in advance.  

[brerrabbit585]

If you look at the photo in the first post you'll see that the stick on label with the barcode doesn't have the peel-off sticker underneath the barcode. That's because the sellers are using a roll of stickers that have the bit you keep on the roll as a separate thing, like reg'd stickers where you peel part off and put it on the envelope and keep the other bit yourself. If there's a peel off sticker underneath the barcode (with the number on it) they should be okay.

I have no idea what you mean by time stamps.