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Hi guys,
I would like to share my recent experience with buying Xenon HID bulbs from eBay, I hope this will benefit all the other users looking to purchase bulbs online.
Moderators, please feel free to move this thread to the appropriate sub-forum if necessary.
A couple of months ago, one of my headlights turned purple, it was time to replace the bulb. As usual, the first place I started looking at was eBay.
After doing some research, I ended up buying 2 x OSRAM Xenarc Night Breaker Unlimited, from a popular seller called XenonEurope. This seller had 3000+ 100% feedback. I thought that was trustworthy enough.
This is the item I bought 2 X D1S Osram Night Breaker Unlimited Xenarc Xenon 35W Xenon HID Bulb Quality | eBay
The price is around 50% off retail.
I paid for the item via PayPal. I noticed that the item was in UK, and the seller's email address was from Poland. That was my first hint, something didn't feel right, and I thought with that price, they must stolen or something.
I have done more research, and it turns out the market is flooded with counterfeit bulbs, and from what I have seen (images and documents), fake bulbs are very easy to spot.
I received the bulbs 6 days later. They didn't look that fake (as shown in the photos and documents I have seen earlier), I had my doubts, but I wasn't sure. I didn't want to install the bulbs until I was 100% sure they were genuine.
I went to PoweBulbs, and I bought the same bulbs again. they were ~$280 delivered. PowerBulbs are Osram approved partner.
I received the genuine bulbs from PowerBulbs, and straight away, it was obvious without a doubt, XenonEurope is selling fake bulbs.
Please see the below comparison between Genuine bulbs and Fake Bulbs. The fake bulbs are the ones on the left.
Packaging:
Bulbs:
Please note the ceramic on the fake bulbs is a bit darker. The ceramic on the genuine bulbs is a bit closer to the top of the glass. Also, note the difference in glass shape and quality.
I contacted Osram Australia, and they were very kind to send the bulbs to Germany on my behalf for technical analysis.
The results are below:
As you can see, this seller and many others are charging buyers $100+ for absolute rubbish, and buyers are leaving them positive feedback.
I hope this will help you in your next purchase.
eBay is becoming the place to sell counterfeit merchandise, and when it comes to claims, eBay and PayPal are not your friends, do not trust their policies about buyer protection, all they care about is their percentage of the sale. I only got my money back after threatening to go to ACCC and the Ombudsman.
If it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
Pay extra and buy your bulbs from an authorized dealer. you can find more details about Osram partners here:
Approved partners
Good luck.
Vexed
I would like to share my recent experience with buying Xenon HID bulbs from eBay, I hope this will benefit all the other users looking to purchase bulbs online.
Moderators, please feel free to move this thread to the appropriate sub-forum if necessary.
A couple of months ago, one of my headlights turned purple, it was time to replace the bulb. As usual, the first place I started looking at was eBay.
After doing some research, I ended up buying 2 x OSRAM Xenarc Night Breaker Unlimited, from a popular seller called XenonEurope. This seller had 3000+ 100% feedback. I thought that was trustworthy enough.
This is the item I bought 2 X D1S Osram Night Breaker Unlimited Xenarc Xenon 35W Xenon HID Bulb Quality | eBay
The price is around 50% off retail.
I paid for the item via PayPal. I noticed that the item was in UK, and the seller's email address was from Poland. That was my first hint, something didn't feel right, and I thought with that price, they must stolen or something.
I have done more research, and it turns out the market is flooded with counterfeit bulbs, and from what I have seen (images and documents), fake bulbs are very easy to spot.
I received the bulbs 6 days later. They didn't look that fake (as shown in the photos and documents I have seen earlier), I had my doubts, but I wasn't sure. I didn't want to install the bulbs until I was 100% sure they were genuine.
I went to PoweBulbs, and I bought the same bulbs again. they were ~$280 delivered. PowerBulbs are Osram approved partner.
I received the genuine bulbs from PowerBulbs, and straight away, it was obvious without a doubt, XenonEurope is selling fake bulbs.
Please see the below comparison between Genuine bulbs and Fake Bulbs. The fake bulbs are the ones on the left.
Packaging:
Bulbs:
Please note the ceramic on the fake bulbs is a bit darker. The ceramic on the genuine bulbs is a bit closer to the top of the glass. Also, note the difference in glass shape and quality.
I contacted Osram Australia, and they were very kind to send the bulbs to Germany on my behalf for technical analysis.
The results are below:
As you can see, this seller and many others are charging buyers $100+ for absolute rubbish, and buyers are leaving them positive feedback.
I hope this will help you in your next purchase.
eBay is becoming the place to sell counterfeit merchandise, and when it comes to claims, eBay and PayPal are not your friends, do not trust their policies about buyer protection, all they care about is their percentage of the sale. I only got my money back after threatening to go to ACCC and the Ombudsman.
If it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
Pay extra and buy your bulbs from an authorized dealer. you can find more details about Osram partners here:
Approved partners
Good luck.
Vexed
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