Revenge of the MP3 player

I must be cursed, or something. The new MP3 player - or should I say MP4 player, for this is what it was - arrived a day or two later after my last post, all the way from Tokyo via eBay. Which was all very well and dandy - an 8GB iPod Nano clone for a meagre £5 (plus the small matter of £15 shipping!) And a built-in radio. And look, it even plays videos! My prayers are answered!

Only the radio's preconfigured for the Japanese FM band, so I can't listen to the radio. And it refuses to play videos. And the conversion software supplied with it is full of viruses. And to cap it all, it's not even a bloody 8GB player at all, more a 1GB player which has been hacked to display a capacity of 8GB in Windows!!

So I wrote off to the seller to tell them that the item was not sold to me as described, and to enquire about a refund. Much to my surprise, they wrote back apologising for "any inconvenience caused" (this is a matter of fraud, which in my opinion elevates it far higher than a mere triviality), although on reflection I decided not to bother; I considered that I probably won't get a refund for the extra postage costs, and besides, a 1GB MP3 player is better than none at all.

When it works, that is - because today, the 15th day of ownership, the whole thing has died on me, displaying nothing but an eggtimer icon. Frankly, it should be a donkey's face, because that's how I feel right now. As someone who prides myself on my inability to get caught by scammers and fraudsters, I cannot believe I have been so foolish.

What options do I have, then?

Well, I could send the faulty player back, but frankly I don't know whether I can trust the seller to refund all my costs.

I could always report the seller to eBay, but then at best eBay will only cancel their account, leaving them free to start again; a little light research tells me that apparently, MP4 players like this are the second-highest cause of fraud on eBay.

Or I do nothing, which means the scammer is free to carry on his little game and makes me feel like a coward and an apath.

The internet has been good to me over the years, providing me with boundless entertainment and keeping me in gainful employment. Fifteen years in, that bubble has finally burst. I lament the passing of the old-fashioned shop; at least if I had bought a faulty player from Dixons or Currys, I could take it back, complain to Trading Standards or take some kind of action. I am instead left feeling impotent and 20 quid worse off.

Support your local shops, then. You'll miss them when they're gone.

L

R.I.P. Jazz, 1995-2008