Please Help me: Are they real or fake pigments?

[hyazinth]

Hi,
I am a new member and found your wonderful while searching for information how to find out whether a mac pigment is real or fake. Maybe you can help me?!
I know it is risky buying from ebay but I did :/ What's confusing me is that I bought 3 pigments from the same seller and I think one could be real and 2 are fakes. Could that be? Sellers mixing genuine and counterfeit pigments?

What do you think, are they fake?

I took some photos:

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ac/rubyjar.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...yjarbottom.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...c/revedjar.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...edjabottom.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...c/radarjar.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...arjabottom.jpg

And finally the link to the seller: MAC PIGMENT "REVVED UP" - L/E - BNIB - AUTHENTIC on eBay (end time 24-Jan-10 19:51:57 GMT)

Thanks a lot for your help

 

[panda0410]

All 3 are fakes sweetie, all 3 bear a specific insignia and two of them have extra errors on the backs of the jars themselves. Sorry

 

[gildedangel]

Yep, those are all fake. Sorry hun.

 

[tofuglory1]

You're right about seller's mixing genuine and fake products--it sucks cuz it's harder to tell them apart. You should threaten to leave negative feedback asap. Be as angry as possible in writing; usually that convinces them to refund you. And then you can leave them negative feedback to warn other buyers

 

[hyazinth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 All 3 are fakes sweetie, all 3 bear a specific insignia and two of them have extra errors on the backs of the jars themselves. Sorry

Thanks a lot panda. I found a typo mistake on "off the radar" according to the forums guides. Which one is the second with a mistake and where ?
I am angry about myself for fallling for it. I thought the price was to good to be true but did not follow my feeling

Quote:

Originally Posted by tofuglory1 You're right about seller's mixing genuine and fake products--it sucks cuz it's harder to tell them apart. You should threaten to leave negative feedback asap. Be as angry as possible in writing; usually that convinces them to refund you. And then you can leave them negative feedback to warn other buyers

I will do that, the next minute I finished answering here..thanks for your tip beeing as angry as possible. I will get back to you if it worked. I hope she will not insist on sending them back first.

 

[smellyocheese]

I can't tell at all that they're fake. I mean, the fakes that I've come across are pretty crappy and obviously fake but these... wow
Don't beat yourself up, I would've fallen for it too

Hope you manage to get your refund!

 

[hyazinth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tofuglory1 You're right about seller's mixing genuine and fake products--it sucks cuz it's harder to tell them apart. You should threaten to leave negative feedback asap. Be as angry as possible in writing; usually that convinces them to refund you. And then you can leave them negative feedback to warn other buyers

Hi,
I wrote like you said and got the following answer:

I am really amazed at your email which I have just read. My wholesaler gets them from a Mac make up artist and she also had them authenticated by Mac themselves just to make sure that they were the genuine article and Mac assured her they were and they were happy for them to be sold. If I had any doubt they were counterfeight I would not be selling them on ebay. I have also bought mac on ebay to find they are chinese copy and I can assure you mine are not. I do not like having unhappy customers and as you obviously are please return them and I will refund your money once I have received them. Regards

What do you think? Should I send them back first or tell her she will have to refund first and pay for the returning shipping fee?

thanks again for your help

 

[chickatthegym]

If you paid through Paypal, just open a paypal claim. Do not shut it until you get your money back because you cannot reopen a case once it's closed.

 

[panda0410]

Her response is garbage.... does she have every item she sells authenticated? No of course not. These are fake, no MA in the world gave them to her or to any wholesaler.

You will have to post them back BUT before you do open a paypal claim. If you mail them and she claims she never received them then you are in trouble. Paypal will make you return them as well - but you need to cover your own backside with an open claim first. When you do post them back, make sure you send them with tracking!!

 

[aussiemacluvrrr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyazinth Hi, I wrote like you said and got the following answer: I am really amazed at your email which I have just read. My wholesaler gets them from a Mac make up artist and she also had them authenticated by Mac themselves just to make sure that they were the genuine article and Mac assured her they were and they were happy for them to be sold. If I had any doubt they were counterfeight I would not be selling them on ebay. I have also bought mac on ebay to find they are chinese copy and I can assure you mine are not. I do not like having unhappy customers and as you obviously are please return them and I will refund your money once I have received them. Regards What do you think? Should I send them back first or tell her she will have to refund first and pay for the returning shipping fee? thanks again for your help

These eBay sellers will say anything to try and trick people in to thinking that the products are genuine, but they really aren't. I had my doubts about some fakes that I had bought last year (which looked exactly like yours), but now after buying over 30 genuine pigments from MAC in the past two months, none of the store bought ones look anything like the fake ones. You can trust Panda on this. She knows her pigments!

And yes like everyone has said above, open your claim before you send the pigments back. eBay has some kind of agreement with PayPal, so even if the seller doesn't want to refund you the money, PayPal will recover it for you if they resolve the case in your favour.

 

[hyazinth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 Her response is garbage.... does she have every item she sells authenticated? No of course not. These are fake, no MA in the world gave them to her or to any wholesaler. You will have to post them back BUT before you do open a paypal claim. If you mail them and she claims she never received them then you are in trouble. Paypal will make you return them as well - but you need to cover your own backside with an open claim first. When you do post them back, make sure you send them with tracking!!

Tought so too...I emaild her back that I am only willing to send them back first if she agrees to pay for the signed for shipping return. And guess what happened...she agreed. I think that's like a confession...
I will send them back with signed for shipping on monday. But before I will open the paypal claim like you lifesavers told me to

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussiemacluvrrr You can trust Panda on this. She knows her pigments! And yes like everyone has said above, open your claim before you send the pigments back. eBay has some kind of agreement with PayPal, so even if the seller doesn't want to refund you the money, PayPal will recover it for you if they resolve the case in your favour.

I do trust all of you

I will open the paypal claim. But I do hope I will not need the papal recover you mentioned because paypal will only refund if you can prove the sent items are fake and requires some written doc from an expert. That's why I will take some more pictures before sending them back.

I will keep you posted.
And despite all the trouble, the good thing is I found spektra and its nice people

 

[Kristina626]

I'm sorry hun but all three are fake

 

[BellaItalia1969]

Correct me if i am wrong but when would MAC get the time to authenticate their products?!What a load of old rubbish!Hun,your seller will not admit to you that her Mac is fake,because she knows it is against ebay rules to peddle this crap!
MAC does not even have the time to establish VeRO programme on ebay,so when would they have time to authenticate stuff

Hyazinth,panda is an expert on fake Mac pigments

so please have faith and file your claim and tell the seller to stop telling porkies!

 

[hyazinth]

Good news! I got my refund today.

I am really relieved. The tips you gals gave me helped a lot. Thank you all!!

Oh, the seller wrote me an email:
".... would ask if you will please let me know why you are so convinced they are counterfeit. I always spend a great deal of time checking out my wholesalers and what they are selling is the genuine article before I start to buy from them on a larger scale. It is very important to me that I sell the genuine article and I take every care to ensure that before I start to sell anything on ebay so it was a shock when I got your email...."

Would you answer to that? Or do you think she might use the information, if I gave it to her to sell better fakes?

 

[panda0410]

Um, thats a risk I guess.... but if she is honest (and she did refund you) then you might possibly be denying her the opportunity to become a legitimate seller by witholding the information from her. I like to think that everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt

 

[hyazinth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 Um, thats a risk I guess.... but if she is honest (and she did refund you) then you might possibly be denying her the opportunity to become a legitimate seller by witholding the information from her. I like to think that everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt

My thoughts exactly. Perhaps she really did not do it on purpose and will try to improve. I decided to write her and give her some of the obvious things like typeos, font-weight,space between letters etc. With that she should be able to check her stock.