Christine
Bergenfield,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, February 18, 2006
I am not at all surprised by your story. In case you hadn't heard, Tiffany & Co. actually hired two full time employees whose only job for an entire year was to sit on their computers and bid on "authentic Tiffany's jewelry." At the end of the year, the company released their findings which are pretty scary: something like only 4% of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on Ebay is actually real while over 80% of the pieces are total frauds. The final remaining percentage is sold by people who make no claim to the authenticity of their items at all. Bottom line is, you just CAN'T get a deal on this stuff. The worst part of your story is that you not only were lied to, but seriously ripped off because the item you said you won (sterling silver heart toggle necklace?) is worth under $400 when bought directly from the Tiffany catalogue. If you want real Tiffany's just get the catalogue, its worth paying their high prices for the peace of mind, and finally I know that they are suing Ebay for the sale of these frauds so if I were you, I'd stay on top of any news. As it turns out, Ebay may not exist much longer because they are the real scammers! They know half the stuff on their site is crap and they still take out ads on Google and other search engines which trick customers into bidding on fakes. For example if you typed "Tiffany & Co." into Google, you will get a sponsored link on your results that say "Looking for Tiffany & Co.? Find it on Ebay" or something to that extent. I hate them and I'm sorry they helped steal your money.