taras Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I have the best girlfriend in the world. She bought me a set of Apexi EL2 Gauges from ebay from a seller called MJC Racing Parts ebay shop http://stores.ebay.co.uk/mjc-racing-parts Upon opening them I was really pleased but a little bit startled with the overall build quality of it. I mean I know how much these cost's and to see that I have a set of 3 was in the back of my mind "expensive" but when holding them and looking at them carefully I thought it's not really worth what they are. Course I didn't say it to her but my girlfriend kinda saw it in my facial expressions and asked me what's wrong? In her mind she too thought it wasn't very well made and we thought we'd research online but found very little information but definitive differences which concluded that she had been sold fake Apexi gauges. First thing we found was this: I was laughing most of the time but my girlfriend wasn't as she was getting angrier by the minute. I opened my boost gauge box and compared it to the one in the video and noticed aside from the colour, it's exactly the same. At this point I couldn't prove it's fake or not so I went to dig around and found very good evidence to compare real the genuine ones and my fake ones and here it is: These are my fake ones boxed up. All looks good. Nice box. Small circular Apexi hologram in one corner and a rectangular authentic sticker on the side. But then what came to mind is that that I have bought a boost, oil pressure and oil temp gauge and none of them have any unique numbers or item codes on the boxes. In fact they're all exactly the same. Next I compared the gauge to the youtube vid: Aside from the colour it looks exactly the same. NOTE - the boost sensor is the same one in the video too. Also the fish tank air line was very cheap. Also notice the Apexi text is different from the actual printed logo on the boxes. Real Apexi sensor looks like this: Notice the logo difference and cable quality? The manual was crisp but was missing one images and what should had been with the kit was different or missing: now look at the face and compare the logo position and size: Then I opened all of them and laid them out together Compare it to a set of genuine ones See the difference? I had very little cables in the fake ones. The genuine ones had some thicker cables insulated in some places Boost sensor was different Fake ones had chunky generic oil pressure sensor and oil temp sensor was the cheap ones with really fragile cables. Aside from the boost gauge, the other two had installation instructions from the cheap sensors, not an Apexi instruction manual. Also in all 3 boxes, there where no warranty cards in them. Now I'm not that bothered if I bought them cheap knowing they're fake but MJC Racing parts are insisting they're genuine but had offered us a refund. However they're still selling them on ebay and ebay isn't doing anything about it. If you've spent between 5-10K on building an engine, would you trust fitting gauges which will fail you? Spread this to other forum my friends to save others from being ripped off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Sorted the youtube link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexx Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I've edited to make your Youtube link work, but all your pics are missing. Assuming you cut n pasted from another forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 yeah thanks for the fix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 The writing on the back of the fake one looks like a 5 year old has done it with a hot knife Great info for anyone in the market for these Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 The writing on the back of the fake one looks like a 5 year old has done it with a hot knife Thats what is the give away to me, its not even close to being right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 Im really pi**ed off that Ebay wouldn't do anything too. I called them and spoke to an advisor and all they kept saying is to settle this with the seller and send it back for a refund. They don't seem to get the point that he's selling counter fit products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Im really pi**ed off that Ebay wouldn't do anything too. I called them and spoke to an advisor and all they kept saying is to settle this with the seller and send it back for a refund.They don't seem to get the point that he's selling counter fit products. Ebay suck. All they care about is getting their money. All this if it goes wrong we are here for you its all crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 inform trading standards if he's in the UK, they can call in customs and they'll confiscate all fake items Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Report ebay to trading standards for knowingly facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods - that should jostle them into action ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 I've reported him on ebay but they said it'll be a seperate case and won't be actioned till Feb. How do I report him to trading standards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnH Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Maybe tell Apexi? They might want to take it up with e-bay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff-r Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Maybe tell Apexi? They might want to take it up with e-bay. +1 take it up with Apexi if anyone, they would surely take it quite seriously considering their name is being tarnished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 Maybe tell Apexi? They might want to take it up with e-bay. We've emailed Apexi USA and they've not replied yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 since posting this up. I've had 2 other ebay victims private message me about the same seller. He's selling fake harnesses and BOV's too. I've now reported him to trading standards who will be in touch with him however if anyone had bought anything which is fake, they should be calling trading standards to report him. People are often giving feedback immediately even before checking the item which is why his feedback is so good. If only people check what they've bought then fraudsters like him wouln't had gotten away with this for so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 It makes me laugh this - not because of Taras being ripped off which annoys me - but laugh at companies (including ebay) that complain bitterly that we shouldn't buy counterfeit goods, that we should be vigilant, look out for rip offs and report them - only to find they couldnt give two hoots when you do report it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodgeevans Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Working in an industry where counterfiet goods are very common i often have to go to conferences on counterfiet goods and these are so obviously counterfiet from just looking at the markings etc even the dial markers dont align. As others have said report to trading standards as it is illegal to sell counterfiets, also as mentioned inform Apexi and any other company he is selling products for as they can make ebay remove the listings and if he is found to have multiple he can be banned from the site. On another note the seller may not be fully aware that they are counterfiet as there is no law against it in china etc and there are whole shopping centres selling counterfiet items, if he is buying them through a site like alibaba then he proberly thinks they are genuine and has no idea he is braking the law, i know someone that ordered aload of HKS caps off the net and paid a fair price for them too only to find out at the tail end of last year they were fakes and had to be removed from ebay enforced by HKS themselves, although i couldn't tell any difference between the fakes and the real one i got from Sumo Power they were spot on in every way to. Counterfieters are getting better all the time and the set you got is a poor example of the skills they now posscess and it wont be long before the fakes are impossible to spot by the end user unfortunately. A story at one conference told how the US department of defence had installed some cisco units in the Pentagon i think it was that contained counterfiet items Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 A story at one conference told how the US department of defence had installed some cisco units in the Pentagon i think it was that contained counterfiet items Its quite scary what they counterfeit these days. I have seen genuine chip and pin machines that have been modified at the supposidly secure manufacturing plants to have key and card strip trackers, which are also enabled to phone home to give the theives all your card details its just tracked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodgeevans Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 yeah thats the problem alot of these machines are made by the poor on production lines in the far east and they are very willing to accept bribes to add stuff into them for this sort of thing its a big problem many dont understand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 My industry suffers with the same problem cheap Chinese manufacturers steal our designs and then counterfeit our turbochargers selling them as genuine products which are quite frankly dangerous when they go wrong! Go on you tube and search for "holset burst" it's the top video about 6mins long watch from about 2mins 20 to 4 mins and see what I mean. Wouldn't want to be near the fakes when they fail!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Sorry watch from 2mins to 4mins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzman Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 A story at one conference told how the US department of defence had installed some cisco units in the Pentagon i think it was that contained counterfiet items Its quite scary what they counterfeit these days. I have seen genuine chip and pin machines that have been modified at the supposidly secure manufacturing plants to have key and card strip trackers, which are also enabled to phone home to give the theives all your card details its just tracked Who do you work for Chris...? Commidea?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonk Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Chris'I said Its quite scary what they counterfeit these days. While working in Russia a few years back I was cheerfully informed that 15% of prescription drugs were counterfeit!! Fake Medicine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubzie83 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Chris'I said Its quite scary what they counterfeit these days. While working in Russia a few years back I was cheerfully informed that 15% of prescription drugs were counterfeit!! Fake Medicine If you want to see counterfeiting at it's most worrying then go to China. I when to Shenzhen a few times for work and the markets have pretty much anything you can think of in them but all counterfeit and cheap. The most worrying thing I saw were fake Arai motorcycle crash helmets which were a snip at £8! I'm not sure they would do anything for you in a crash though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taras Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Im not a fan of branded goods and believe that fairly priced items in accordance to what it is. I wouln't pay the extra simply because of the brand but then again wouldnt aim to buy the cheapest items which don't work as they should. In this cast the item was really crap and no where near worth what he's selling them at. He says it's not a fake and says it's imported. From where? If it was from China, vietnam or Thailand then it's most definatly fake. I refuse to believe that the seller is the victim here because as a seller you must have some knowledge in what you're selling and where you're buying it from. Now I know that as well as fake gauges, he's also selling fake BOV's and fake racing harness too. All of which is now removed from his ebay shop but the same images are being used by other ebay sellers like: jdm-performance-gtr and tuningmotorsport888 The fact that he's removed the items means that there is a problem with his branded stock. People get so happy recieving the item give feedback even before noticing what they've bought was a fake thus loosing the chance to leave negative feedback to warn others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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