Dealing with *some* Ebay sellers!

[wotnot]

Making them last longer will cost more than we are buying them for however. :0)

Yep, that's the crux of it with these.

Given the low power rating of the lights, one could also just work out the forward current and get a couple of 10W Ceramic resistors of the right ohm value and put them in circuit to pull the current down to where it needs be as well.

Ummm...no, not really -- there are 2 primary considerations first up ; how the led array is wired, and exactly what led devices are (do we believe they're genuine Cree? Are these the Cree made devices that made it into the bottom bin 'coz they'll only do 700mA?) - lots of variables.

If you want a real curve ball...theoretically and going by the Cree datasheets, and the 16 leds are wired as a single series string, the output of the bucky should be around 48volts with a constant current of 1amp... ie; 48watts

[george65]

Here is part of today's instalment on the life and Times of a serial ebay Purchaser.

Got a reply regarding the 6 48W lights I got. Their reply to my message before:

Hello,

Thank you for your reply, and offers to resolve the issue in a timely Fashion.

I will accept a full refund in apology for the mistake made, provided I do not have to take the items to return as I live far away from the Post office and will have to be reimbursed money for fuel to do this. Going by the standard legal Mileage Rebate of .67C per KM and living 19 KM from the PO, that would make the cost $25.46. You can credit my account with this amount and I will take the items to the post office and send them COD.

If that does not suit you, you may arrange a courier to collect on your behalf or I will just keep the lights and they may be useful for something. This will resolve the matter and I will not have need to leave neg feedback.

If you are happy with a full refund and no returns, please go ahead refund the purchase price to my credit card and this will remedy the mistake your partner made.

Thank You.

Thanks for your understanding, we have refund you, please view and check it later(system needs time to transfer), We are deeply sorry for the trouble. If you are satisfied with the solution and our service, could you please give us positive feedback with all 5 star point? Thanks again and if any need, please contact us any time. Have a nice day.

Maybe I should ask them why they think a refund for goods not as advertised should be a positive experience? That's what I did with the other people after they refunded me and their response was to refund me again!

The refund has appeared on my statement, even before the email was sent.
I expected that with 3 sets of lights this might be a Whole lot harder than what it was. Question now is have they barred me from buying on that account and if not, how will I go buying another 3 or 5 sets? Can always say I thought they would have fixed the mistake the partner made and I did postulate that the wrong description may have been put on the lights. And.... at the end of the day, if they are still selling product which does not match the description.....

Lets see how far I can play this.....

That said, Looking at our Favourite scammer.... Store, Not a lot left I want. Looking at the HID light reviews they may be a bit on the sus side. The 48W lights have gone up a lot as well but amazes me they are selling the same units for 19 and $29 a pair at the same time. There are other styles but brings me back to the question are they just going to write off $100 Lights without a lot of fight? I figure If not banned from buying already, I only have limited plays per account to buy things so want to make those spins count.


The refund of the refund I was suppose to get is Still MIA not that I expected anything other than that. I'll let that one sit and see what they come back with. If I say where is my refund they will just say we have already refund and then it will be back to the twilight zone again saying well then why did you tell me you were going to refund me when you already had?

No mileage in that.

The people with the light bar they couldn't supply but have 23+ of just got back to me saying good news, replacement is in stock today and we are shipping to you.
Bought one of those on my daughters account as well so will have 2 of those! :0) Might be worth doing a Vid and then I can use that as evidence for the 2nd one as well. Maybe I should order a 3rd and maximise the effort!

[wotnot]

You are done ~ they've accepted your offer with no indication they expect returns ; be nice to them now, having agreed to your offer, they can't come back at you with a return postage slip. You are done, curtly slip away into the background noise, where it's well lit by new lights =)

[george65]

Yep, that's it. Take the product and run. Mission accomplished quick and easy.
3 working days from recipt of order to refund. Got to be happy with that.

I will leave no feedback at all. To leave pos would be a lie, to leave neg may work against me. As you helpfully advised, this has just been between us and not involved fleabag so that is a good thing from my POV. I checked and they have not stopped my buying so that is a plus as well. I'll give it a week and see what else comes up and have another spin of the board.


My Purchasing account which is a debit card with limited funds for protection is running low waiting for the orders I have made and refunds to arrive. It will get a top up from my YT earnings in a couple of days so I might look at other opportunities then.

I noticed a number of listings on the 48W Lights in lots of 10 from china. That should be an easy refund but I also notice they seem to be the slimmer lights with more of a design on the back than a finned heat sink. Wondering how these will be? They must be doing them in different generations or series of manufacture. As the deep finned ones seem to be less popular than the thin non heat sinked ones, I take it they are the older style.

Given the weight and therefore greater use of raw material and higher shipping weight, this would also make me think they have made the thin design after the the ones we have to save on costs. Did you notice when you looked them up on Allie what form factor they were advertising?

[george65]

Out of Curiosity I set up one of these 48/20W lights on a bracket on the back of the house and mounted it with a clamp on the guttering.
I am throughly impressed how much of the back yard it lights up and I can see it hitting the neighbours house up the back over 120M away. Pretty decent for a " Flood" Light.
I also notice the fall off isn't bad either. the lighting is very consistent over the 40M or so of even ground I can see. No hot spots, a little centred as one would expect but over all, I have see a lot worse from a lot more expensive lights that's for sure! I should have ordered 10 Lots at that price.

It will be interesting to compare them to the other series they are selling in bulk lots.

I reckon I might put 4 of these along the back of the house and mount them on brackets through the tec screws holding the roof on. They are certainly better than the 70W measured mains flood light I have. Come to think of it, got that for half price too when it wasn't the 120W it was supposed to be and also got a bunch of 30W lights that were only 20w. Could probably use some more of those too.

Can't speak to the longevity as yet but these series of lights are pretty Impressive when considering how little power they draw. I do wonder how the lenses will fair in time. I had some of these in the round series before and I remember the lenses yellowed badly and then the lights mainly fell apart. I wonder if some window glass cut to fit and put in front would screen out the UV and keep them clear? Perhaps a metal shade would also help to keep the direct sunlight off? would act as a reflector too bounce some of the light going into space back down.
Have I got any thin stainless up the back? I know where I can get some....

Maybe just stock up on the things and swap them out as needed.

Be able to see the Foxes and rabbits up the back easily with a few of these going.

[wotnot]

So I kept rattling the google cage ~ usually these sorts of fakes are based upon a real item produced, and I was still considering the thermal management of sticking 16 x 3W leds in a light case that size... found my answer.

Back towards the end of 2016, a company by the name of Ruian Hongjin Light Co., Ltd started make this size of light rated at 48W with 16 x 3W leds in them (they weren't Cree) ; the lights weighed about 1.4kg each ; these fake ones are around 515grams. The additional weight would be the heatsink footing ..never had one to pull apart, but I'm guessing we're talking about a thick slab of copper or such, and the case metal/thickness was likely heavier ; either way, I think you might be able to pick the 'real' 48W units based on unit weight, that's likely the only external clue. Of course, if they woke up to this, you'd find fake lights with a slab of lead/pigmetal in them to make up the difference... although adding a kilo of weight to these lights may in itself be cost prohibitive to hit their pricing point ... but there you go.

After my last reply, the seller who sold me the kit that can't figure out how to get those instructions to me, has returned with *3* replies, 1 from the UK end and 2 from HK by the looks...doesn't matter if it were all from HK, one reply to generate 3 means 'they got my message' =) All the replies are the same of course ;



If that's for real, excellent, they've decided to comply & obey, hopefully forgetting all about the nonsensical email approach... I still need hold considerations that they might not even have a web-browser on their workstations to do this...time will tell. I've given them 48hours to get their shit together, and if they can do as per instructions, they'll make the deadline ... see how they go ; it's hard to be a remote educator with so many possible obstacles to think about. Either way, they are costing me a bit of time here...on the other hand, they're helping contribute to this thread..(and I've got that filename, a look at their system screenshots), so in my book they're earning some brownie points. While they're being useful, I can leave this aside until Wednesday ; they'll get extra brownie points if they send me the download URL before then.

However, they're going to need pay for my time here, so lets see if I can fix that for them, so they don't have to worry about it, and can concentrate on the practical IT exercise I've set them to do for homework. I'd like to meet this girl... just because she's my type...



Bit of ecommerce pr0n to lighten the night =)

Ok...lets see here....ah, "it's the little things that count most", he said;



...quick search of their other other other other other ebay store, here we go...




Phuq me! That's more power than my car on highbeam with 2 x 130w halogen & 2 x 70w HID!! Amazing.... it's the little things that count...



I reckon that's the same bucky. I can grease the palm of old'mate next door with that, for a couple of hours use of his johndeer with posthole auger setup, so I can use it...kinda looks like something I've seen SCA sell?...no matter. That'd do for now to cover my how to transfer large files over the internet course, but I'll have to charge them more for message drafting etc etc if they fail lesson #1

Yet to hear back from the other seller in reply to my pre-purchase strafing... maybe tomorrow.

Monday's always a bit of a day off with this game anyhow, so I finally fixed my old 25A linear powersupply, for use in the multimeter testing of the next lights to arrive ; I really want to put that seller with the 'no faking scams' stuff to the test ~ I feel like calling a bluff =) May actually pre-purchase confirm with them, the actual weight of their $70something 48W lights first tho', just to see if they're real or not.

[george65]

I really want to put that seller with the 'no faking scams' stuff to the test ~ I feel like calling a bluff =) May actually pre-purchase confirm with them, the actual weight of their $70something 48W lights first tho', just to see if they're real or not.

I was thinking about them.

That's a pretty dangerous or very brave game they are playing telling people to test their lights if they are selling fakes. I think you are right, they have to be fake because I see no bricks and mortar 4WD place on line selling them and thats one indication of genuine. They are using a real confidence play there but I spose they think that it reassures 20 People and maybe only 1 in 20 or 50 or 100 Will test it and claim a refund so all good.

Looking at those lights, seems a load of people selling them as 80W. The thinner design is questionable as they have to be lighter than the other ones and therefore less heat sinking.... but does it matter that much when they are only doing 20W??

I found some ripper scam lights tonight!


99,999W!
At say 13.5w, that's a measly 7407 Amps! The wiring for those is going to have to be as thick as your forearm! Make the start current of a mack truck look like the Current draw of your fridge light. The gob smacking part is the reality they have sold a stated 3756 pair of the things. All those people running round with them with out the first dam Clue. They look nice and with 90 LED's should throw some light if their output is relative to the 20W lights we have been buying.
Put them next on the list. About 90-$100 so be interesting to see if I can hang onto them and get a refund.

Might have to offer to keep them and they refund me the price less $4 !! :0)


I ordered some 100W outdoor floods but I have little faith I will get them. I'm pretty sure there was something wrong with their pricing calculator. I got 10 for $27.xx being 100W 240V floods with an Au plug. The pricing didn't change from 5 to to 10. I expected it would when I went to my cart but it was still 27 and still showing 10 Pieces. I paid, only 27 and the order went though. 99.9% sure I'll get an email " Sorry no stock left, have to refund" but worth a spin of the dice. Pretty sure their little drop down menu thing was out of kilter somehow.

The double whammy was when I went to my other account, the same listing came up as $62 for one light and $467 for 10. Got to be some glitch somewhere and I'm sure they will shit a kidney when the order comes through and pull it. If I can argue one light for $27 will be OK then I can claim when it's not 100W as my YT research shows it isn't going to be.



I am surprised and dismayed by these YT reviews. Most will crap on about what you can plainly see and lack of instructions ( when no one with a brain would need them anyway) and packaging etc but so few actually put a meter on the things to test the power consumption and ratings. The fake sellers must love these other useful Idiots, no wonder they send them shit to test. I was looking at a couple of channels with only 5 and 6K Subs and thinking why are they getting all this stuff sent to them?

Duhh, they plug it every time and never show it up for what it is, a scam.
I got 38K subs and a vid coming up to 8M Views and another with 1.3M views so I should be able to get free stuff to review but as much as a bastard as I am, I really couldn't do that. You could be potentially stitching hundreds of people up by saying this is great when it was garbage. I know how when you get a following people hang off every word. I could sell shit sandwiches without the bread but dumb as I am, that would eat at me.

I did see one Bow Fishing ( bow and in bow and arrow ) guy testing different flood lights. Has a stack of them on his boat to attract the fish I take it. He had a clamp meter, a Light meter and a temp gun testing them. made some interesting comparisons between 50 and 100W lights with the 50's often coming out on front.. but still largely shy in their ratings too.

Seems I should hopefully getting some Visits from the courier this week.
Then the fun will really start.

ATM got 3 Light bars on the way, 2 HID driving lights, 1 Handheld "1000w" hunting light, the 10 , never will appear, LED mains floodlights and a " Mppt" / PWM solar controller on order.

[Jma]

...I found some ripper scam lights tonight!
...

A great example of how p*ssweak fleabay's anti-parasite moderation is.
Notice that if you click "report item" the only option available under the Report category is "price gouging"
Select that and the only option available under the next header of "Reason for report" is "price gouging"
Then, under the bottom header of "Detailed reason" you get a few other options, one of them is "other" that gives no chance to explain the problem and none of them relative to the deception at hand.
What a f*cken joke

From that same page:

Refunds by law: In Australia, consumers have a legal right to obtain a refund from a business if the goods purchased are faulty, not fit for purpose or don't match the seller's description.

Oh the irony...

[hinekadon]

dont want to throw this spanner in the works but they claim the "99999w is the model number "

[george65]

dont want to throw this spanner in the works but they claim the "99999w is the model number "

I can't find that.

What I can see is:

Power: 99999W high intensity CREE leds
Lumens output: 9999900lm per pair

Led power: 99999W per pair (90pcs high intensity CREE LEDS)
Lumens: 9999900Lm per pair

That is from the 2 description/ specification boxes. One would easily get them on the Lumen output spec in any case.

Another thing my YT research revealed and going by their own numbers is another misrepresentation, is the light size. They are promoted at 9" yet if one looks at their own numbers for size, They indicate 8.5" for the over all dimension of the casing with it being 9.5" tall on the bracket. From what I'm reading the reflector would be about 8" or less.

As far as I'm aware from playing a Lawyer on television, in the case of a dispute, where there is ambiguity ( Confusing model number made to look like specs) the favour goes to the plaintiff. In other words if you argue that the 99999W was taken to be the wattage and show the other specs as well, You would get the win because the seller is obligated to make their description clear and unambiguous.

I'm sure an analytical and investigative mind like wotnot would catch them on a load of other things however I think the power, lumen and size specs would be enough. But you know, he just likes to really obliterate them! :0) The more " Features" they specify, the more points of contention they create.

I definitely want to put a pair of these things on my list.

[george65]

A great example of how p*ssweak fleabay's anti-parasite moderation is.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Seen other things before that I knew were a total rip that most other people wouldn't be aware of and tried to report them and it's like they do all they can NOT to let you put in the scammers.

Exactly the same mentality with their HELP thing with disputes as I had last week. Instead of making it clear and easy where to go, you actually have to clip on options that DON'T apply just get to the chat bot.... who then fixes it in 15 sec flat. Can see myself availing of that again in the near future.

Another one is to try and claim under their "Buyer protection" scam Fleabag makes so much of. Read the not so fine print with that and the hoops you have to jump through.
" Sorry, your purchase was not made on a covered item and you did not purchase 17.5 of them on the 2nd tuesday of the 13th month in a leap year when the moon was in the waxing Gibbons Phase with the ambient temperature in your location not being 252.593 degrees kelvin. As such we can't cover you and if we did, we have all sorts of Bullshit limits as to what amounts we will cover and only if we can claim it back from the dodgy seller who ripped you in the first place and......"

Yeah. And some people try and put the guilt trip on US for using the rigged an biased system they thought they couldn't possibly loose under. Still wondering the real motivations behind supporting scammers . Only thing I can come up with is some have the same irons in the fire.

Maybe we are going about this the wrong way?
It's really fleabay we need to cost money. If we did that, things would be cleaned up over night!

Mate last night asked me what I was going to do with all this stuff? I said I might make it a goal to get enough to give all my friends lights for their Vehicles/ Boats etc and then have enough left over to set up a stall at the local markets at Christmas and sell it off for a Christmas Bonus for my time and effort.
Not much I can do to earn a crust ATM but I can sit here and do this so maybe I need to get really serious and make something worth while out of it.

Plenty of others are making plenty out of fleabay though far less honourable and legal means than I would be.

[george65]

Refunds by law: In Australia, consumers have a legal right to obtain a refund from a business if the goods purchased are faulty, not fit for purpose or don't match the seller's description.

I don't know if I was just missing it before but I noticed that last night several times as well and I don't recall doing so before.
I'm not sure if it's something new or something they just made more visible or I just missed it and took no notice but it struck me too. I thought well there is our operational basis right there in black and white. Making it clear as day to the sellers and taking any argument out of it.

I wonder if fleabay has also upped the awareness of this and had someone onto them about it Like ACCC or someone? I was also postulating if the apparent ease and speed of the refunds I got on the 6 Lights was due in part to this? Have plenty of other things coming to try it out on.

Geez, I hope Fleabane doesn't become clean and honest, My game will be over and I'm just starting to feel like I have it a bit sussed.

Not much chance of that happening or much to worry about I don't think! :0(

[wotnot]

Show you something else, I have mentioned it before but not sure if the point stuck, We'll use that 400W light I found as example -- on their other other other other other other other other ebay store, I can get the same lights some 4£ cheaper. However the delivery time is out to June or beyond, so at the moment things are slower than normal..I'll try find someone in oz selling them. As the same supply chainer will be selling to multiple stores, in multiple locales, which have multiple descriptions in different wording for the same thing in multiple languages...how do you track this?



Now, years ago when I first saw that in listings, my very first conscious thought is/was "why the hell are they citing an International Standard Book Number to assign identity to an LED light?" I mean if you want to start with some BS, you may as well start right there. The EAN/UPC numbers are basically barcode data expressed numerically...this is the number workers at supermarket checkout key in when the barcode cannot be read by the laser scanner. These numbers, are supposed to form a unique product identifier, (or in the ISBN case, a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique) -- so what 'book' is being referred to? All of these numbers are supposed to be unique, so what are they uniquely identifying?

The answer is, those numbers identify both product (inventory item) & buying/selling company. So for these 400W lights, I do this -> ..do it, see what you find.

Eventually I'll rattle out the same upc number for the same item being sold in AU, which is -> [for a comparo, replace ean with upc -> ]

See what I mean? =) Pretty sure I was taught about isbn & Dewey decimal system back in primary school...but my guess is most folks look at it these days and see nothing, because they weren't taught it. The 'book', as it were, is the sellers book. Usually the ebay database will present the other sellers/same product with the 'sell similar items' widget,..that'll give you a different set of numbers pertaining to the same item being sold by other 'e-commerce facilitators' as they like to be called. This is one of the first searches I ever do on a listed item, because the information returns are high.



So that's the AU listing and price, still out of HK. It doesn't actually matter if I spend more buying from the UK seller, if I want to target that seller, because full refund. If I don't care who I target, or operate under the premise that the OEM/ODM who is manufacturing the scam from the get go, then I'd be effectively targeting that entity by buying these lights from multiple sellers in multiple locales/markets.

When I was searching the UK seller's store, one thing I remarked to myself was it's a pity I don't own/know anyone with a Honda Jazz or a Kia Rio...because if I did, I'd buy the dubiously described DLR replacement lights they sell for those cars, knowing a full refund is in the offing.

[wotnot]

However, today I can lead in with another quote.. "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! , he chortled in his joy." ..Lewis Carroll of course =)




Yep, against truly staggering apparent odds, they got it together!! In a word - outstanding. Still gotta check contents of the archive to confirm, but I'm getting a good feeling about it.

If it checks out, they'll get their 5 star feedback, along with an honest comment akin to "Diligent seller - was able to get kit instructions for me, you should ask for them too!" ... seeing as I went to all this bother to remotely setup that process for them, I've actually improved their seller performance in a way. Now they have practical experience in how to transfer large files across the internet, even crossing a strict international data boundary like china's (they did end up using the site I suggested, but seems they had to go out of band & use another email address not linked back to their ebay operations...I'll check that out later, and see if it's a direct portal to their backroom 'office', often it is). Folks over at banggood are going to flip a pancake when I set up disseminating the archive contents, and buyers of these kits will rejoice.. \o/

This, is a win win win ..none too shabby really, unexpected but rewarding result. To leave a fitting footnote, part of these operators 'training manual', okay? ;

“Discipline,” according to Sun Tzu, “is enforced through consistent application of reward and punishment.” Information security managers ensure that secure policies and practices are enforced with appropriate penalties for nonconformance.

Never, ever, not even for a moment think my constant references to Sun Tzu are folly or whimsical ; they're not ; it's woven into the fabric of these operations, in a very tacit and real way, as expressed in the manual of how to do this sort of thing.

ref.

edit: if you ever need do something like this, get a seller in china to transfer large files etc, this experience has shown me that I should have referred them to -- my first message should've pointed them there, with one of my last message bits of 'should only take you 24-48hrs to do this' rolled in... now I know for any future engagement like this. For interest's sake -->

[wotnot]

...and quoting those immortal words, "But Wait! There's more!!!"...



...follow that up about 30mins later with the obligatory double-tap so I feign the doddery old fool look...



All good, will be a few hours before they take their next turn in the game. As they sent 3 replies, I'll get a triple-tap in... but going by the datstamp on the message, good timing for that send will be in 3hours time. Attention to detail is paramount =) Getting in the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' tangent in last para, works better than you'd immediately suspect ; think about it =)

What was in the archive? Everything...BOM, schematics, gerbers of the PCB artwork, video and written instructions (all in chinese, but the .doc files will translate ok at a hunch using libraoffice), all the source code right down the the MCU header file... everything I need to start making the things myself...change the artwork a little, change the silkscreen overlay print in whatever English I want, done. OH!...also included are the win32 executables to futz with the kit real time, define your own patters, etc and blabla...there's quite a bit in here that's not available in the wild. Very useful stuff... just doesn't pertain to the kit I've got. Still, worth cleaning up the archive, hoisting the video on YT with a link there to the archive location...when I decide where to host that.

[george65]

I was wondering what it was with these files and you mentioned Bangood points or something.

Having the Gerber's and the software is Hilarious! I had some boards done the other week. The postage cost more than the 5 boards.

[wotnot]

Alas, the trick in the tail, and we have come full circle back to my initial surmise that if banggood says there are no instructions, there are no instructions.. period. I know this, it's how they operate...you develop a product, keep all the documentation close to your chest so nobody knocks off your product, then you change/revise the product to make it better/cheaper, you then keep this new product documentation close to your chest as before, and let the last documentation out into the wild, which helps facilitate quick sales of the older design, because the docs are now available.... very familiar (to me), I was sort of expecting this much, but hoped for better...the docs I've got tho', are more comprehensive that what's available in the wild....and just to stave off anyone calling me out on the source code being non cross compatible between the two MCUs...yes, I know that's not the case and we're talking about a 8051 based MCU in both cases, and the source code is relevant to both ; I know that, the seller doesn't, and nor do I expect them to know ; not their job =)



What else have I found out here?...well, the contents of that .rar are interesting / is an interesting wade through.... the kits themselves are marketed out of TaoBao -> ... 'ssydz' (the PCB I have is marked so), is actually this mob... Guangzhou Rising Edge Electronic Technology Co., Ltd...this is the OEM/ODM of the kit itself --> ... they used to be here, but this whole area has been demolished and rebuilt;




I could try contacting them directly for the correct file, but chances are they won't release it....I'll decide later whether or not I draft that request in English and send it to my chinese mate to translate for me before launching the attempt...see how enthused I get =)

It must be pointed out here, that this little exchange has been somewhat bipartisan in reality -- they've been using -me- to sort their listing out...true... we now have this;



Now the 'error' in the listing, is actually this;



Those 2 broken image links -- they depicted the kit PCB that I received, which proves they were selling 2 different products under that same listing. Those images are actually hosted on/from the following location , and the 2 images have been deleted from that directory ; they shouldn't have been there ; they did not relate to kit #167905

This has, quite obviously, made my return claim actually easier -- there's now nothing in the item description that points to the fact I should've expected to get one or other of the 2 kits. It doesn't matter the images are gone, because I still have the item, which I can photograph. They've also dug themselves a hole by proving that -can- provide the manual/software for the item listing, but *not* for what they sent me.

At this moment in time, I can hit them for a full refund & return, and it'll go my way, no doubt about it ...however... I did make an offer right at the beginning, right? So I can fall back to that, and probably expect them to ignore it, and swallow the full refund.

However...I noticed their stock level for this kit dropped significantly, and a noticed a 'new' listing under one of this kits EAN numbers, on a different online store, that probably reflects the true cost of these kits;



Yep...same operation would you believe, it really is like peeling away layers of a rotten onion...4pound11pence ...that's a long fall from the 8pounds I paid ...always bank on a 100% minimum markup...always.

I'll decide how to close this out later, after dinner....not a bad game, opponent acquitted themselves reasonably well in the end... no match for my skullphukkery, but certainly more entertainment than our favourite shonky light seller, who just rolls over & plays dead after blaming 'my partner' ...at least this was a 'real' exchange B^]

[wotnot]

Full tummy, time to remove the kato mask to reveal the ever popular smiling assassin ;



I think that was 1993char .. not too bad. A couple of other tidbits from this -- if you're wondering about the somewhat stilted & terse English I use (replete with weird looking typos and grammar)... some of that it artifacting from the online translation tools I use. See...a lot of these folks have as much chance reading English, as I would have reading Mandarin, so I draft the English, translate it, and then pop the translation into an CN->EN translation phase to make sure it all meshes correctly ; weird shit happens =) That's what they're going to do, and often what you type in English, doesn't come out with the intent it was written when translated. Reminds my of that Monty Python sketch about the English-Hungarian phrasebook... Bailiff: I quote an example. The Hungarian phrase meaning "Can you direct me to the station?" is translated by the English phrase, "Please fondle my bum." hahaha... read it all here if you're not familiar with it ->

Also...the LEDs in this kit a rather funky (for the technically minded here)...they are 3mm, 2 legged RGB leds...bias the voltage one way to get greem, reverse bias to get blue, and momentarily at the polarity crossover point they'll do red.. pretty cool.

Edit: wrong (tiny text) ...led tester got in the way..the leds will do 8 colours, and are switched by pulsing vcc ...still cool =)

[wotnot]

Sigh... every time I take the kato mask off, suddenly the clock rewinds and the whole message conversation gets reset to starting point. A decade ago I used to wonder about it, but after comparing notes with other aussies I know, and others in EU/UK/US who also buy off ebay I know, this is actually a common turnout.. not the kato mask wearing, the evolution of the message discussion. I'm ...you can use the word polite if you want, but 'ambivalent actor reading a script' is much closer...many folks start like that, complain to the seller something's screwed up, the exchange goes back & forth half a dozen times, and after proving your position calmly and spelling it all out, right at the end the seller replies with something like this;



M'kay? Normal inner aussie reaction.. "WTF!? Are you kidding me? Haven't you read anything of what I sent you? Are you that much of a moron, you've learned how to send large files over the internet, but in doing so, that's displaced your memory of wtf is going on here?", and you figuratively reach through your monitor and strangle them, go outside and shoot a few canetoads, one for every message they sent you, and then go bang your head up against a brick wall, as if to remind yourself what a senseless waste of effort this has been, just like the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that..etc etc =) When it gets interesting, is when you find out the same thing is happening to folks all around the world, of different locales, languages and so on.

That is to say, this entire exchange between myself and the seller of the kit, could've been in Dutch, from a buyer in the Netherlands shopping on ebay.nl (or even the same item listing I used), and followed the same pattern, and end up at this exact same spot. We know, we've tested the theory in 3 different languages, same message 'formal' from the buyer, same result -- seller loops back to 'Is there a problem?' ...hands up if this is familiar to you...and most irritating. It makes me laugh now, because I understand the possibilities of doing that buyer test, from 3 different nations in 3 different languages to arrive at the *exact* same position, cannot be coincidence ; this is design. If you code software and/or understand/use databases, you'll appreciate where I'm coming from.

I used the word bipartisan interaction ..I send them a message including pics of their listing, and pics of the PCB I got ..that was my move, their move was to delete the files from the image server/repo they use to hoist ebay images, cancel the listing due to error, relist the item without the pictures of what I got. Having the rar file, my move was to point out that didn't fix the problem because it wasn't the right file for the kit I got, but they will say the file they gave me is correct for the item listed...which is -now- correct, now that they deleted those image files from the repo.

What they haven't factored in, is they may have deleted the images from -their- repo, but the kit I got is sold by other sellers, and I can raid their repo for replacements. I often think, this reset back to beginning, in reality looks like a building floor with 100 ppl sitting behind workstations fielding these ebay messages from buyers, and I'm being 'recycled' to help train other employees of theirs, with how to deal with 'buyers like me'. The other extreme, is to think this has been autobot up to the point someone typed 'ok, we try this' to setup the file xfer... hell, for all I know, that may have been the coder of the software stepping in to break a logic loop...you never know, whatever, this is their move as such ; they think they've fixed the problem - play again? Like on an old Space Invaders machine...Play again? Please Insert Coin ..

What has to be understood, is this entire message exchange between buyer & seller, has proceeded ex-party to the ebay return/refund process itself. In some virtual parallel reality, the ebay guidelines&policies really haven't been invoked, we're more operating under the umbrella of cordial, non-abusive behavior expectations between the two parties ; we're being civil, that's all that matters. It's all being recorded anyway, that's the beauty of machines ..use them all .. for simple example, when you're sending messages via the ebay system, there that little tick-box at the bottom... USE IT! ;



*Always* tick that box, and get a copy sent to your email address. That is your 'out of band, offsite backup' ...if the ebay system goes nutso or is in fact being manipulated in some way, this'll be all you've got to prove/see that off. For mine, the default state for that widget should be ON (ticked) and the wording should be 'Uncheck the box if you do not wish to receive a copy'..blabla.

Remember, it's a game ; had I not played it so, that inhouse archive would still be a mystery article, that normally folks just posit *must* exist *somewhere*...but can never find. Like the same stuff for that kit I *have* got =) It hasn't been a waste of time. It will be a waste of time to play again though, because as they say, that's the only manual they've got, that'll be the truth, and as aligned with banggood's position....I have reached the end of the line here. What they should've done, is taken the hint that I had already found instructions for one kit, but they were the wrong instructions, and they should've looked at that archive they dug up and found the same thing...then they could've avoided sending me the file, with a reply of 'you are right, we checked, the file we have is the wrong one as well'....yeah, perfect world scenario, but hey...still correct. Certainly the folks at banggood didn't piss about, quickly replying with 'there are no instructions' ... like, how hard was that? =)

Hmmm .. I can't find that rar file in the wild, anyone else care to check/confirm?..



Let me know if you find it, but perhaps they shouldn't have released this file 'raw'....I can work with this...you'll see...oh FFS....alright, even when you get this mystery inhouse archive, the hold close to your chest stuff is still evident... these aren't .pdf files in the normal sense, these are constructed images embedded in a .pdf container...



So you can't just copy plain text and feed it into a translator... what you have to do is upload the .pdf to an online OCR, set detection language accordingly, and you'll have the plain-text output. Next, you pipe that output into google translate, and get the text rendered into language of your choice, and you get something truly beautiful like this at the end;

Kill, first move, thank you very much for buying our kit! Please take a closer look here before making
Oh, thanks!

When making the Canton Tower:

1. Please call the board for ancient welding, and watch the Guangzhou Republican Welding Dog Course in the production tutorial or
Watch the bottom plate and welding video

2. It is to make a kwai, and watch the Guangzhou media welding pain tutorial or Guangzhou lost led and its
Welding video tutorial

3. After the completion of the final production, if there are any problems, try to see the problems

4. How to use it, answer the instructions

The pot kill is successful!

Rotfl..

[wotnot]

...ok, settled down and got a coffee, reprocessed it comes out;

Dear, first of all, thank you very much for purchasing our kit! Please look carefully at this slaughter before making
Oh, thanks!

When making the Xizhou Tower:

1. Weld the bottom plate first, check the tutorial of Yuezhou Tower Welding Circle in the production tutorial or
Watch the bottom plate welding video

2. Is to make a lighthouse, check the factory graphic welding tutorial or the factory LED training
Welding video tutorial

3. After the completion of the final production, the existing problems are published, and the current problems can be viewed.

4. How to use Tianben, check the instructions

I wish pro-production success!

That's just a tip for when you're confronted with scanned images of instructions in another language ; I use for this, chinese/tranditional is usually the target for language detection. The archive has 2 main directories, one contains all the sales promotional stuffs, the other all the nittygritty files. Eventually you find an online translation engine that doesn't end up using the words kill and slaughter, and package Part 1 like this -> and Part 2 like this -> ...right, note the comment at the bottom of part 1 description turning any YT viewers, to this ebay seller I'm dealing with. With the 'plant' set, next it's time to generate hits, by fielding every question I can find on *banggood* about instructions for this kit, and let nature take it's course ...oh, any members here that want a copy of said archive, PM me...happy to tar up the stuff and link =)

This....is the peril of ignoring a $7 partial refund/no return offer from me...I'd be pretty sure george65 saw that horrendous error on their part. If you thought I got nasty after being snubbed on a $4 resolution offer, the evil curve rises exponentially the larger the monetary value of the ignorance increases. Having setup the banggood marketing campaign for them, I'll consultant with my advisors later (a couple of green tree frogs outside) as to the best time to launch that campaign.

Meanwhile, it's Johnny time again...but this time, unlike the teevee ad, I'm threatening Johnny with a taste of the wooden spoon, no cake batter ;




...drink it...