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[Conrad Muzoora]

A month back, I ordered a pair of these used off of ebay at an attractive price (850$ for the two). Now due to my location, i have to ship in batches through intermediary shipping companies and it can take up to a month to get my item even by air shipping. Finally my babies arrive and i set them up. On scanning for free frequencies, i see almost interference on every channel. Finally i try to sync the receiver and the transmitter but the receiver automatically returns to a default frequency after a "successful" sync. OK. Manual set up and the sound is horrible. Not the sennheiser sound am used to from my trusted ew 100g3's. I smell a rat here. Checking the units, i find the receivers all have similar serial numbers and the transmitters are the same (See pics). I contact the seller and he insists he used the units successfully for 3 years (He was using 6 of them). On checking further, one of the units is 780-822mhz range (The picture that was listed) but the other is in the 734-776) range. Now all these are in a range banned by FCC in the US since 2010 .
Am trying to return the item but that means 2 months and 200$ shipping . First eBay fraud on my part after thousands of items and years of flawless eBay.
Am really interested in upgrading to sennheiser mostly because of the robustness (Unlike my line 6 that breaks into 2 peaces when dropped accidentally) and i like the mic mute button on the 300s, but how do i spot authentic sennheiser???
Conrad

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

I must say if those are knockoffs they are very good knockoffs.

I would maybe contact your local Sennheiser distributor and have them run the serial numbers. If they turn up solid then send them in and have them repaired, considering it was a good price I doubt you would have too many issues paying some more for repairs.

Sent from my 2014817 using Tapatalk

[Douglas R. Allen]

Is it normal for both units to have the same serial numbers?

Douglas R. Allen

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Probably not. As I said run the serials, they could very likely have copied a sticker seeing as one sticker looks significantly more worn than the other.

A phone call to his local Sennheiser distributor with a followup email is really not a big deal and 200$ in shipping to get a refund is probably not cost effective.

They would be the best people to look at the units as well, probably won't charge him an arm and a leg to open the unit and confirm. We usually pay pretty low fees for them to replace antennas that "fell" off belt packs, significantly less than 200$.

Sent from my 2014817 using Tapatalk

[Lee Buckalew]

I would definitely contact Sennheiser or their Rep in your region. 
They should not have like serial numbers, the two receivers pictured appear to have the power switches and the headphone jacks protruding through the faceplates at different distances.  The RJ45's on the rear also seem to be at different depths from the rear plate. 

Here is a link to a Sennheiser page that gives you a link to use the QR code and the ID above the QR code on the label to confirm that a product is or is not authentic.

https://en-us.sennheiser.com/about-sennheiser-at-a-glance-counterfeit-a-guarantee-of-quality

Lee

[Keith Broughton]

Is it normal for both units to have the same serial numbers?

Douglas R. Allen

That's a BIG red flag right there!

[Justin Goodman]

Is it normal for both units to have the same serial numbers?

Douglas R. Allen

Both the tx and rx have identical serials ... at a minimum, even if they're genuine Sennheiser produced, there's SOMETHING shady going on. 

IMO: Best case scenario is somebody has access to stock that was replaced for the original owner under warranty and/or was traded in for FCC auctions or something ... then replaced the serial stickers so it couldn't be traced back to their source. Worst case is straight up knock off. 

[Ray Aberle]

Most importantly- where did they ship FROM?

Regardless. No genuine Sennheiser will have identical serial numbers between two receivers. That's a major sign of a counterfeit unit- the factories making counterfeit units don't take the time to create unique serial number stickers for units.

Sounds like you're already starting the returns process through eBay-- "Item Not As Described" (You were told they were genuine, I assume!) --  Seller has to pay for return shipping. Even if you have to pay some to get it close to them (the international part) you're still better off than if you just keep them and are out the whole purchase price. You can open a case through PayPal if you need to as well-- both eBay & PayPal's policies are designed to protect the buyer (often more so than the seller, unfortunately!). ACT FAST!

As for determining if something is genuine in advance of your purchase- that's difficult. A scammer is going to have stock photos of known good product to send you, so unfortunately, if someone's determined to rip you off......... Because of that, I would advise against purchasing used product unless you know/trust the seller. Even with new product, if you're going to someplace like eBay, it's hard to know if the seller is legitimate or not. It's smart to stick with "known" major retailers; i.e. Sweetwater, Full Compass, etc. (That being said... being that *I* sell both Sennheiser and Shure products on eBay, to be candid, I'm not "large enough" to be a "known retailer" -- so I'm surprised I get sales at all!!) When a company name is listed (but not a website or phone number because eBay won't let us post those anymore in a listing!) you can always call the claimed-to-be-a-reseller-for-company and request verification. In my case, if you called Shure at 800-434-3350, you can confirm with them that Kelcema Audio is indeed an authorized retailer.

I don't have the precise details, but both Shure and Sennheiser can help you with determining if a purchased used product is genuine or not. They have plenty of indicators that they look for.

Good luck and hope you can get your money back!

-Ray "Has been ripped off on eBay with counterfeit Sennheiser before" Aberle

[Keith Broughton]

I would send them back even though you would loose some money, but not all.
Also,I don't believe there is a problem with selling outlawed frequency devices to other countries where the devices are legal.

[Tim McCulloch]

Just a reminder regarding vendors of legitimate products - Conrad is in Uganda.

[Ray Aberle]

Just a reminder regarding vendors of legitimate products - Conrad is in Uganda.

Oh, absolutely understood. But I also know eBay shares the US site with their international sites, so it's becoming easy for international buyers to find product that's being sold in the US only. (My dealer agreements require that I only sell and ship within the US; all of my listings state as such. Which leads to amusement when someone messages me and is all "do you ship to Vulcan" or whatever....) They also offer a Global Shipping program, to make it very easy for a US-based seller to sell internationally without worrying about the hassles of international shipping. I choose to not participate in that program, as I feel that's too close to "Offering International Sales" to conform with my dealer agreements.

I'm sure there's legit Sennheiser channels for Uganda, but looks like he was buying used/on a budget...

-Ray

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Well just had a look, he would have to either send it here to South Africa or to the head of EMEA which is Dubai.

Maybe he is better of sending it back, should still follow Lee's link and check it there.

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[Jason Glass]

The best possible (but unlikely) scenario here is that one is real and one is fake, because serial numbers are SERIAL. That means that by definition, no two are alike. The OP can and should file an eBay fraud claim against the seller to recover every penny. No matter what the seller says. It's as simple as that. Sending them anywhere at this point is just foolish.

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[Jonathan Woytek]

Unfortunately, here is a video from 2015 describing a similar fake, and some of the identifying characteristics. Most of those characteristics are present in the photos of the OP's units. The serial number is even the same as the one in the video.

The thing that made me look closer before I even noticed the identical serial numbers? The fitment of the BNC panel-mounts.

https://youtu.be/lL6YMcaks1s

[Conrad Muzoora]

Thank you everyone for the swift responses.
I purchased the items from MA and shipped them to my re-shipper Nile Cargo http://nilecargocarrier.com also based in MA USA. It is now crystal clear from the youtube video that these are indeed knockoffs. I initiated contact with the seller and he immediately accepted return. He even refunded the 886.45$ (inclusive of shipping and taxes) to my Paypal. Only dilemma is that eBay gave me up to Monday 11th Dec to confirm the return shipment. I have a friend returning to the US over this weekend but am worried he can't have them shipped before the deadline, in which case eBay will freeze my refund.
Am going to call eBay today and see if they can extend that period given my predicament.
Conrad

[Alec Spence]

Sadly, the first red flag is buying anything Sennheiser or Shure from eBay - waaay too many dodgy items around, especially when you're in for high shipping costs.

Second red flag, obviously, is the duplicate serial numbers.

Third one is the instant offer of a refund from the seller.

I naively bought a couple of e935s a while ago.  The seller sent me e945s instead as "he'd run out of e935s and these were better".  Everything about them was fake - the pouch, the printing on the user manual, the look of the mic, the packaging.  A quick call to Sennheiser confirmed.  In the UK, you're actually advised not to return fake goods.  eBay refunded quickly, the seller whinged about not receiving his junk back to con someone more gullible.  I learnt never to make that mistake again.

[Conrad Muzoora]

Sadly, the first red flag is buying anything Sennheiser or Shure from eBay - waaay too many dodgy items around, especially when you're in for high shipping costs.

Second red flag, obviously, is the duplicate serial numbers.

Third one is the instant offer of a refund from the seller.

I naively bought a couple of e935s a while ago.  The seller sent me e945s instead as "he'd run out of e935s and these were better".  Everything about them was fake - the pouch, the printing on the user manual, the look of the mic, the packaging.  A quick call to Sennheiser confirmed.  In the UK, you're actually advised not to return fake goods.  eBay refunded quickly, the seller whinged about not receiving his junk back to con someone more gullible.  I learnt never to make that mistake again.

I was able to return these at a cost a little over 100$ with economy shipping. I obviously lost close to 300$ on this deal. Very painful, but sometimes i have no choice but to buy online. Very expensive lesson i tell ya. Ebay didn't seem to care, they said that since he had refunded, i had no deadline on the return time but still had the obligation to do so. Imagine shipping back that crap.
Next time i will be more careful.
Conrad

[Ray Aberle]

Painful lesson, but better to have recouped SOME of your money.... I got burned on some counterfeit Sennheiser about 10 years ago-- they shipped from China (red flag BIG TIME!) -- and I didn't start the refund process in time, so (at the time the limit was 45 days) I was out $1100 or so. For gear that simply didn't work. Too bad they got stolen a couple years later.....

-Ray

[Mac Kerr]

I was out $1100 or so. For gear that simply didn't work. Too bad they got stolen a couple years later.....

-Ray

Many many years ago I was working as a carpenter building an off B'way set in a downtown theater. I burned out my cheap Skilsaw and in disgust went out to lunch leaving it sitting in the middle of the job. When I got back from lunch it was gone. Made my day thinking about whoever stole it.

Mac

[ProSoundWeb Community]