I received an email from a reader named AnneMarie a few days ago thanking me for the posts on fake liveSTRONG bracelets and suggesting the Choose Hope website to find charitable pink bracelets. After a few emails back and forth, she shared with me a story that I asked if I could print.
The selling of fake liveSTRONG bracelets is big business right now due the popularity of the yellow bracelet (along with other colors as well). Many buyers believe they are helping the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) by buying different colored bracelets embossed with the name liveSTRONG on them. The only official color bracelet for the LAF is yellow.
The following email is from AnneMarie and describes her challenge of getting eBay to remove the fake and counterfeit liveSTRONG bracelets from their site. She wanted to share this story to make others aware of the issue.
Any questions should be directed to annemarie4606 AT yahoo DOT com.
Her email from 1/25/05 is below in entirety. I have added hyperlinks to her words for reference points and additional information..
***********************************
Hi Todd,
You should feel quite good about your
blog, and quite proud as well. I actually stumbled onto it as I was
searching Google for fake liveSTRONG wristbands.
The fake wristbands are a sore point
for me. Probably because I am too close to the situation and it has a
personal effect on me. I knew that there were unethical sellers both on
eBay and off who were selling the wristbands for their own profit. But
it wasn’t until I started searching for orange leukemia wristbands that
I learned that there were fake wristbands circulating in other colors
besides yellow.
The Choose Hope website has been an
answer to my prayers. I own an on-line support group for young widows
and widowers, and over two-thirds of my members have lost their spouses
to some form of cancer. So, not only was I able to find wristbands for
myself, but I was also able to pass that information along to my
members.
As for eBay – they are almost a loss
cause. But since you asked, prepare yourself for a long boring read! I
don’t know how familiar you are with eBay. I am a frequent buyer and
seller and I can tell you that their customer support is almost
non-existent.
I first reported the yellow wristbands
that were being sold, and I quoted the information that is printed on
the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s site that the wristbands are not
packaged for re-sale and they should not be sold on eBay. I reported
the same sellers and the same auction numbers every morning for five
straight days. The auctions were never pulled and eBay never responded
to my inquiries.
I then started reporting the fake
colored wristbands and eBay finally responded. They told me that only
the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) of the wristbands can report the
auctions for yellow or colored wristbands.
So I contacted the LAF and urged them
to become a member of eBay’s VeRO program. The foundation thanked me
for the information. Two weeks later I received another email from the
foundation. That email indicated that the LAF had become a VeRO member,
and their legal team was spending over two hours each day compiling
auction numbers and sending them to eBay. But eBay is very slow to move
and most of those bogus auctions only run for one day. Even though the
bulk of the auctions are being listed by the same sellers over and over
again, eBay has not pulled their membership. Wanna know why? Because
they are Power Sellers – the ones who rake in the big bucks for eBay.
I even contacted Nike, as they are also
VeRO members. Nike said the matter was out of their hands and that the
LAF would have to report the auctions. So there it stands. I doubt that
these auctions will ever end until the wristband fad itself ends.
I commend you for getting the word out
about the fake wristbands. Many people seem to think that the
wristbands are real, simply because the word liveSTRONG is imprinted on
them. And now with these public athletic figures wearing the colored
wristbands, even more people are under the impression that they are liveSTRONG wristbands as well. Keep up the good work. And I apologize
for talking your ear off!
AnneMarie
UPDATE, 2/11/05
I received this email from AnneMarie today as a follow up:
***********************************
There have been some developments in the past few days which I thought might interest you.
On 2/6 I sent an email to Bill Cobb
(President of eBay North America) regarding the auctions for colored
Livestrong wristbands. In a nutshell, I recapped that wristbands in any
other color than yellow are fakes. I also quoted eBay’s policy about
fraudulent listings back to him. My usual spiel.
On 2/9 I received a phone call at home
from Beatrice in eBay’s Trust & Safety Department. She suggested
that I contact LAF directly in order to have these auctions removed
quickly. Beatrice stated that since LAF is a VeRO member, eBay would
pull the auctions immediately upon receiving the report from LAF – no
ifs, ands or buts. Beatrice explained that if the reports come from a
regular eBay user like myself, the auctions must be thoroughly
researched first, before they are pulled.
I informed Beatrice that both LAF and I
have been reporting the same auctions to eBay on a daily basis, but
they still are not being pulled. I told her that the problem lies
within eBay itself - as their customer service reps are not following
eBay’s VeRO policy and removing the auctions as soon as they are
reported. I also asked her why each auction must be thoroughly
researched, when it is a known fact that colored wristbands are fake.
What exactly were they researching? Beatrice responded
that she was unaware that Livestrong wristbands are only manufactured
in yellow. (Geez, don’t any of these people read what I write?) I find
it hard to believe that LAF has never told eBay that the wristbands
only come in yellow!
Later that day I also received a
response to my email. It did not come from Bill Cobb - but rather from
Avery, on Bill Cobb’s behalf. Avery’s email made reference to the phone
call that I received from Beatrice in the Trust & Safety
Department, and it basically repeated everything that Beatrice had
stated. In effect, both the phone call and the email reiterated eBay’s
VeRO policy, but neither one of them took into account that the policy
was not being followed.
I responded to the email this morning.
My response listed five specific sellers that I have been reporting
every day for the past six weeks. Several of them are Power Sellers and
they also have eBay Stores, where they can list auctions that run for
an unlimited duration. Some of their fraudulent auctions have been
running for over three months, in spite of my daily reporting and the
reports being filed by LAF.
As a side note, Lance Armstrong is
scheduled to appear on Oprah today. In addition to telling his story,
he is expected to discuss the Livestrong wristbands. I have no idea if
he will just focus on the positive effect of that campaign, or if he
will mention the copycat wristbands.
_____
tags: livestrong | ebay
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