Psst, wanna buy an XBox One for two hundred bucks?

caveatus emporius maximus (to truly mangle latinus). As an example, just before Xmas I was looking for a new hard drive SSD and found a bargain on ebay for 2/3 the price of the nearest competitor, 10 available, overnight shipping, the usual conditions. No feedback though, but 4 already sold. I reported it through their alert system and it was gone the next day. Had it not been reported, someone, perhaps the customers, perhaps paypal, would have been paying for the scam.

I imagine the CT terms and conditions would cover scenarios such as this where advertising is just that, advertising, and the customer is always responsible for confirming the legitimacy of any advertised product. Anything else would lead to an absurdly unwieldy and impossible situation for both buyers and sellers.

I notice Canberra Times has published an apology for running the bogus ad.

Canberra times ran the ad again today. Third time running.

johnboy said :

The whirlpool discussions suggests the company named has little to do with this ad.

hm, perhaps should have written ‘behind this’,

The necessary inference being that a company running these kinds of scams probably wouldn’t be allowed to operate for so long, and if it were, would be a lot better at it than this mess of an ad portrays.

So most definitely it’s probably hijacking a legit company’s name. Unfortunately this time of the year lends itself to it, with companies closing down for weeks.

Almost certainly a scam.

If you did get anything for your money, it’s likely to be an ex-warranty refurb in questionable condition.

The other problem is that anything you get would be considered by the manufacturer to be a “grey import”. This is where you buy a product that was supposed to be for the US (or other overseas) market, and bring it into Australia. The manufacturers can tell from the serial number where the product was supposed to be sold, and will deny any warranty claim for anything they can identify as a grey import. Some manufacturers even go so far as refusing any form of support at all.

To sum up, wouldn’t touch it with the proverbial barge pole.

AsparagusSyndrome said :

So what happened to the basic security cross-checks on advertisers? Who signed for this ad? Who accepted it, and on what grounds?

What kind of business model is this for a newspaper whose core business is advertising?

If your customers can’t trust the ads you publish, why would other legitimate advertisers want to be associated with that kind of rubbish? It would be like setting up shop in a bad neighborhood.

And as a potential customer, I might as well just surf the web visiting disreputable unhygienic sites and downloading malware. Same outcome in the end.

I believe only ads relating to alcohol and adult services have to be formally lodged with Fairfax, the rest can just be phoned in to their now outsourced classifieds people.

None of those products are made in the US, and most aren’t even designed in the US.

As for the company behind it, ASIC records suggest its been around since 1984, with an auction subsidiary registered in 2000.

I suppose enough people on the Internets have wised up to them (as our American friends would say), so they’ve moved to print.

Man, the forum spammers have infiltrated the Canberra times?

S***. Bogans are going to be all over that. Someone has cocked up bigtime.

So what happened to the basic security cross-checks on advertisers? Who signed for this ad? Who accepted it, and on what grounds?

What kind of business model is this for a newspaper whose core business is advertising?

If your customers can’t trust the ads you publish, why would other legitimate advertisers want to be associated with that kind of rubbish? It would be like setting up shop in a bad neighborhood.

And as a potential customer, I might as well just surf the web visiting disreputable unhygienic sites and downloading malware. Same outcome in the end.

Are any products made in “US California”? I thought they were all made in China (at least all the components anyway)…….

Interesting ad…I really overpaid for my iPhone 5 😉

You probably can buy the products at around that price O/S, they just won’t work here (if you ever want to connect them to our networks – phone or internet…)