DHGate.com

There's this site I've been seeing advertised all over the place, but I haven't really paid any attention on it. Every tech site I've been on, I've seen banner ads for DHgate.com. So I was just getting my updates on the Mobile World Conference going on in Barcelona when this little advertisement caught my eye on engadget.com:

Check out what I found next after the break.

Hmm, seems too good to be true ain't it? I thought so too, till I looked at it again. See the spelling of Blackberry? Oh no, it's B1ackberry! As if no one with a 20/20 vision would be able to notice that it's a "1" instead of an "L". I guess 1337-talk is really doing the rounds these days. Anyways, I went ahead and visited DHgate.com (no, I didn't click the ad...I don't want to earn money for anyone if I don't absolutely have to). So what do I find? iPhones selling for 100 bucks a pop, blackberries (oops, b1ackberries) for a shade less. Seems like paradise. That is, until you go check the product details. Most of the products out there are labelled as iPhones and the like, but it's clear they're all fake. The screenshots are, well, either pretty shabbily faked or simply lifted from eBay with some of them still having the eBay watermark. Lovely. 

Most of the products on the site claim to be "factory made", but that's tough the believe that the screenshots of the iPhone back cover have "Phone" written on them rather than iPhone. Most often, these supposed iPhones are actually the now popular iPhone fakes going by the name of hiPhone and Sciphone. They look almost identical to the real thing, but then, half the features don't work- touch screen interface is buggy, camera is hazy, voice clarity is almost non existent and anything more than GPRS speed isn't possible. That is, of course, if you can actually get it to recognize any network outside of China. But hey, we're digressing from the point of this post.

The fault isn't entirely DHGate's. They claim to be simply a marketplace and that is what they are. However, with hundreds of complaints regarding sale of counterfeit items though the DHGate interface, some action should have been taken. Most of the user feedback seems to be faked as well. Customer service is reported to be non existent and refunds are usually only partial even though it's obvious the seller was fraudulently presenting the product. Most of the reviews I've read seem to suggest that the sellers never even replace the product, nor do they refund without the buyer having to ship the product back (at his own cost, may I add). A few people though, reported some good deals if you use the escrow system to make the payment only when you receive the product and are satisfied with it.