Thursday 19 June 2014

Cheap 'upgraded' USB Flash drives for sale on eBay - again!

Why do eBay allow this ad?

TITLE: 64gb Pink Crystal USB Flash Mermory Stick with FREE Keyring



So it says  (with my highlighting and colouring of the text)...
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64GB Reformatted/Upgraded USB Flash Memory Stick
The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains.
It is also marked as a reformatted/upgraded USB stick so they may vary in speed and capacity (4GB to 64GB), though they are able to store up to 64GB of data hence the low and competitive price.
These USB sticks vary in capacity and this is explained in the second paragraph of this listing which has been taken exactly as it is printed on the rear of the packaging.
THESE USB STICKS HAVE BEEN UPGRADED USING THE VERY LATEST COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGY. THIS MEANS THAT EVEN THOUGH IT MAY SHOW 64GB AVAILABLE THE ACTUAL CAPACITY WILL VARY AND CAN RANGE FROM 4GB RIGHT THROUGH TO 64GB AND ONCE THIS LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED OLD DATA WILL BE OVERWRITTEN OR NEW DATA WILL NOT BE SAVED. THIS IS THE SAME WILL ALL CHEAPER MEMORY STICK ON EBAY BUT MANY SELLERS DO NOT TELL YOU THIS HENCE THE VERY LOW PRICE. THESE ARE ADVERTISED AS 64GB AS THIS IS WHAT WILL SHOW AS THE AVAILABLE MEMORY WHEN IN USE.

THESE ARE BEING SOLD AS UPGRADED USB STICKS HENCE THE VERY LOW PRICE.
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Why do they allow this seller to sell these suspect sticks as 64GB when he states in the small print that they may not be? Why does he say it has a 'very low price' when it is in an auction!

There is a 14-day refund on these USB drives with 'buyer pays return postage' - but how many people will realise they are buying defective USB drives within 14 days of using them?

He mentions a compression technology???? Well if he has a compression technology that can store 64GB of all kinds of data on just 4GB, why is he wasting his time selling dodgy USB drives on eBay when he could make a fortune selling the compression technology!

'The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains.' - so therefore it MUST contain 64GB of chips right?
He says 'they are able to store up to 64GB of data' and 'Minimum consumer-usable memory capacity is approximately 62.2GB.'  These are clear, unambigous statements - but then he says 'ONCE THIS LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED OLD DATA WILL BE OVERWRITTEN OR NEW DATA WILL NOT BE SAVED'!!!!!

How about I sell a '22 carat 40g Gold ring' on eBay and then say in the small print that 'it looks like gold, smells like gold and has 22ct stamped on it but may be 0.001 carat gold or may be gold-plated or may be just brass - hence it is advertised as 22 carat gold'

If you buy any USB flash drives or SD cards, please test them with FakeFlashTest and then H2TESTW before you use it!

More...

I emailed the seller
You say in your ad that 'The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains'. From the picture, it is labelled as 64GB - so does it contain 64GB of memory chips?

Their reply was:
No its has been previosly 64gb (62.4gb) but due to its reformatting it has a different capacity depending on the uses software or device, the sticks have to be formatted using exfat and can hold anything between 8 and 64, they have to be filled using 4gb transfers at a time but depending on how they are used it is possible to get max capacity, i cannot stress though this isnt always the case hense the low price. i hope the information was useful.


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