On November 27, 2007, The New York Times published an article with the following byline: Tiffany and Co. is still waiting for a verdict in its lawsuit against eBay after a weeklong bench trial in which Tiffany's lawyers argued that eBay is a distribution network that allows counterfeit Tiffany items to be bought and sold.
I read this article with both a personal and professional interest. My personal interest stems from a devastating jewelry purchasing experience through Ebay in 2000, before I opened my own jewelry business. Indeed, it was this experience that inspired me to open my own online jewelry store. Here is my sad experience. When my husband asked me to marry him, we were just starting out, burdened by college debt, and unable to afford a diamond ring. After 10 years of marriage, we had saved $5000 to be used to purchase the diamond I had been dreaming of wearing. Wanting the most ‘bang for the buck’ I spent several months researching the four Cs of diamonds and the best places to purchase. A friend suggested looking on Ebay. So I did. I found what was represented to be a beautiful stone slightly over 1 carat for $5000. I bid on the item, but did not win the auction. Nobody won the auction, it had not met its reserve price. So I contacted the seller through Ebay and asked him what the reserve was. He told me it was $5000. I was delighted! It appeared that this supposedly beautiful diamond was meant for me. I felt protected because the seller indicated in the listing that he would provide a refund if the diamond does not appraise at least at the value paid and indicated grade. So I used PayPal to send our hard saved $5000 to the seller, and he sent me the diamond. It did not look right. I contacted the seller. He became belligerent. He refused to acknowledge anything was wrong with the diamond. So I took it to a local jewelry store who employed a GIA certified appraiser and I paid to have the diamond appraised. The official appraisal stated that the diamond was seriously flawed, rated I2, and worse had such bad cracks that if it was ever knocked it would probably break apart. Furthermore, it had been artificially enhanced, which was not indicated by the seller, and the value was only $1700. I sent this information to the seller, who denied it, and refused me a refund, then disconnected his phone. I contacted Ebay, and they refused to help because of the fact that the purchase was completed after the auction closed. I contacted PayPal and they refused to help because of the fact that the time it took to get the appraisal and try to work with the seller took just over 3 weeks, which is their deadline for making a claim. So I contacted the local police department, who told me that they could not get involved because it involved interstate commerce. I contacted the state attorney in Nevada (the seller resided in Las Vegas) and they told me that this case had no chance of ever being pursued because on a relative scale it was minor. I had been scammed.
It took me about a year to recover from this experience both financially and personally. I began doing market research into online jewelry stores. I decided that I surely was not the only person who had a bad experience on Ebay or online jewelry purchases. I knew there would be an opportunity to create a reputable online jewelry store. In fact, Kay Jewelers had not even begun to sell online (they are now one of the top online jewelry sellers) and Tiffany had not even begun to sell diamond rings online (they only began in October 2005). The online jewelry market was young and there were still too many sharks in the waters who were hurting the online jewelry industry.
In December 2005, I launched my online jewelry store, with the guarantee of selling only top quality jewelry. I have enjoyed this business so much that I consider this fact alone to be the happy ending to my sad Ebay jewelry purchasing experience.
So, some words of advice. Online shopping can be fun and convenient, but be sure to conduct some basic research on the retailer. Look for a guarantee, and read the fine print about that guarantee, look for a Better Business Bureau Seal, and look for a Secure Site Verification seal to ensure that your credit card information is protected. Also, make sure that the online seller conspicuously displays its address, and Google-Earth that address to be sure that it is a valid address. Check to see if that address is a residential address or a commercial building (you can do this by going to Google Earth). Chances are that if an online retailer has a commercial facility, they have more invested in their business and they are more likely to be around longer than somebody who is just working out of their home. Finally, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
As for this court case, it took a large entity like Tiffany & Co to effectively address these issues with eBay. I await the verdict simply to see how the courts handle eBay’s “hands of” approach to sales.
Have a great day.
