Warning!! Fraudulent Ebay Vendor!!
Decorating By playingwithsugar Updated 6 Mar 2007 , 5:46pm by Janette
This notice is to warn all members who purchase items on eBay that there is a vendor who is defrauding cake decorators who wish to purchase the pattern books for the Wilton Way of Decorating books, volumes 1,2, and 3, which are also known as the Wilton Encyclopedias.
The vendor is named grammienancies, and here is the link to the items that she is selling --
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wilton-Way-Of-Decorating-Pattern-Books-Vol-1-2-3_W0QQitemZ270095559942QQihZ017QQcategoryZ46281QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
First of all, these are not actual patterns, they are photocopies. She will be selling the same item, using the same picture and description, shortly after she sells these.
This is not only defrauding us as consumers, but it is a violation of copyright laws in the US. If you purchase these, you can be charged with receiving stolen property.
She was selling the same exact items, using the same exact descriptions, under the eBay vendor name NSchuster two years ago. I purchased these items, only to find out later on that they were photocopies. She attempted to sell them again two weeks after I received my items. I reported her to eBay and Wilton. All efforts to obtain a refund went unanswered. She has now registered an eBay business under a new name, selling the same illegal items.
Do not purchase anything from this vendor! She has been reported to Wilton and to eBay!
Theresa 
Don't count on Ebay to do anything. They don't mind fraud, as long as they collect their fees.
And if Wilton doesn't do anything or complain nothing will be done either.
Hopefully Wilton will step in and maybe Ebay will do something.
I rarely buy from there anymore.
Well, I did all I could, reporting her to both eBay and Wilton. I sent e-mails to both just a little while before posting.
I did get a telephone call from Wilton the last time I reported her. They asked very specific questions, which I was able to answer, because I kept html copies of each advertised auction. She stopped selling completely, so I am guessing that eBay bounced her out. Now she is back, and selling the same items all over again.
I wish I knew what federal agency handles Internet fraud. I would spend good money on a long distance call to report her.
Thanks for your support, everyone!
Theresa
It drives me CRAZY when I see people like this. I am a seller and it makes it difficult sometimes b/c people are always assuming the worst based on these awful people who try to take advantage of HONEST people. Why are people this way?!?!?!?!
GGGRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
Because they know they can. She has what she is advertising as a coveted item, as we all know that the pattern books are more difficult to obtain than the books themselves are.
Therefore, she must be a cake decorator, or know someone who is. The big problem I have with eBay is trying to report her. I could not report her through the fraud/security department, as they only handle complaints about auctions and purchases that have already transpired. I had to go through regular customer service to report her, which means that it will have to go through a billion departments before the right people get the information (if at all), and the auction will probably be over before then.
I belong to several forums, and have reported her to the members in every one. So if you are a member somewhere else, please forgive me, but I did not want to see anyone else get robbed by this woman.
Theresa
Well, I did all I could, reporting her to both eBay and Wilton. I sent e-mails to both just a little while before posting.
I did get a telephone call from Wilton the last time I reported her. They asked very specific questions, which I was able to answer, because I kept html copies of each advertised auction. She stopped selling completely, so I am guessing that eBay bounced her out. Now she is back, and selling the same items all over again.
I wish I knew what federal agency handles Internet fraud. I would spend good money on a long distance call to report her.
Thanks for your support, everyone!
Theresa
I was told that you can actually file charges with your local police. Not sure if that is correct, but maybe worth looking into. I would think they would know who handles it. Maybe contacting the proper authorities might get someone after e-bay.
The government agency responsible for these types of complaints is the FTC. Here's the web address I found:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm
I wouldn't count on Ebay doing anything. They make a big deal about it being against policy to charge outrageous shipping charges (in order to make up for selling low, usually), but as many as I see on there, they obviously don't do anything about it.
Since I don't have all the information about this particular situation, I can't enter the information, but I hope this helps.
I tried that, but the police here said they could not do anything for me, as she lived in another state. eBay never contacted me, but like I said, she stopped selling on there for a long time.
All I can do now is to stay on top of it. I put her into my favorite vendors so I can find her easily. I do not know what else I can do at this point except to start asking questions at the top and work my way down.
Theresa
Thanks, kbrown99, for sharing that link with us. I will take a good look at it tonight, and hopefully find a telephone number that I can call to put her out of business for good.
Theresa
Yes, I reported her to eBay and Wilton two years ago. I called the state police in her area, and they told me that I would have to come up there to file a complaint, but that the Internet is not their jurisdiction.
Right now I just want to make sure she does not rip off anyone else, so I am on a mission to let everyone know that they should not consider her product.
Theresa
I fell for this with someone on Ebay. Not sure if it's the same seller or not. I'll have to check. Boy was I mad!!!
not trying to hijack your post, but here's another bad ebayer:
endlessbooksale
I ordered a cake dec. book from them in the end of January and don't have my book, haven't gotten any responce from them, and they haven't refunded my money. I'm trying a claim through PayPal. Who knows what will happen there. I have a feeling I've been totally screwed out of my money.
Hey, it's not a hijack if it is on the same subject, right? Thanks for sharing that info with us.
Theresa
My son had a bad experience buying "Friends" DVD's before Xmas. When he received them they were in Chinese. He purchsed them through Paypal and when he made a claim to them, he got his money back and got to keep the DVD's. Of course, they're worth nothing to him unless he wants to take a course in Chinese. 
I have been buying from Ebay for several years and have only had one real bad experience when I first started buying. I have always felt like it is better to go through Paypal. Don't know if they are always as helpful as they were with my son or not.
Guess there are bad people everywhere........I would be really mad about the fraudulent books too.
Diane
not trying to hijack your post, but here's another bad ebayer:
endlessbooksale
I ordered a cake dec. book from them in the end of January and don't have my book, haven't gotten any responce from them, and they haven't refunded my money. I'm trying a claim through PayPal. Who knows what will happen there. I have a feeling I've been totally screwed out of my money.
Something similar happened to me with an ebayer. Here's what I did:
I went to their feedback and looked up every person who had never received their goods from the seller and emailed them. I told them that even if eBay won't do anything we still can.
According to federal law, if you pay someone for shipping and handling and never receive your item, you can sue for mail fraud...it is a federal offense and can get up to 10 years per offense.
After numerous attempts to email him about my item, I sent one last email (and fax to make sure he saw it), I told him I had contacted every other seller who never received items and that several of us were prepared to press charges for mail fraud and told him if I didn't receive the item within 5 days that I was moving forward with charges.
2 days later, my item showed up....
eBay doesn't care about the customer....they are all about making the money. They told me the seller would be banned. Guess what?? I just recently saw him on there again with the same name and everything!
Ebay has almost NO control over fraud. Even the arbitration feature does nothing. A seller vastly misrepresented a very expensive ring my daughter bought - to the tune of about $1,000. Ebay would do nothing. The arbitrator didn't get the entire issue...that YES, she got the ring, but it was NOT as represented. The guy ended up threatening my daughter if she said anything bad about him. She finally just ate the thousand dollar differnce in the ring's value and what she paid (she stupidly bought it as an investment, thinking she would turn it around and resell it at a profit).
Buyer BEWARE!!!!! I use eBay a lot, but not for anything valuable or expensive.
I've been fortunate to have been burned only once on Ebay for only $12.50. I always use Paypal because Ebay does nothing, but in that instance, even Paypal wouldn't/couldn't do anything because of the small amount of the transaction. They did find in my favor, but because the seller didn't have any funds in their account, they couldn't give me the money back. Anyway, I often uses Ebay as an avenue for finding reputable sellers, but I'm very anal about checking feedback. I don't say I won't buy from someone who doesn't have 100% positive, but I really look at what the negatives are for. I would rather pay more and know I wasn't getting ripped off than take chances with some of these people. And I don't buy anything out of China/Hong Kong because they're usually cheap knock-offs.
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