Be careful when buying the batteries being sold on eBay. I bought 2 supposed Sony manufactured from separate dealers in HK and one of them started to work when inserted in my A700, showing the number of frames left on the CF card, but then gave a message "For InfoLithium battery only" and refused to go on. Sony confirm that it is a good-looking fake.

I see from your email to me Peter that Paul Genge has forwarded the fake to Sony and reinstated your loss. Excellent! Counterfeiters should now be pursued.

David

Peter is lucky that Sony has taken up the baton. My experiences with eBay were fine in its early years but over time I have been defrauded three times - for quite a lot of money as on two occasions the items in question were guitars purchased from international sellers (both individuals) which arrived with broken headstocks. I got absolutely no help from ebay support which was also very difficult to reach and ended up greatly out of pocket. In recent times I have really only used eBay as a sales medium although I have purchased a couple of lenses from retailers using eBay as an outlet. Very recently, I have done all my photographic selling through the excellent Ffordes and have found tbat the net prices I have achieved have been at least as good as I would have got through eBay without all the hassle involved with postage, feedback and the like. Indeed, I have no hesitation in recommending Ffordes as I have been both buyer and seller with them and have always found their service to be exemplary and, when a buyer, their rating system means I can always be confident in my purchase.

You have to be careful on this. In general I've bought from ebay esp camera batteries and many sellers are genuine enough. There is a difference between counterfeit (ie passing off a fake as the real thing) and third party alternatives (perfectly legitimate) I believe most sellers are honest but there are always a few bad eggs.

Artington wrote
I would salute that 100%.
I have bought quite a lot on ebay and so far my only disappointment has been 3 "Sony" batteries that turned out to be total fakes. By the time I discovered this the vendor had exited ebay and I was too late to raise a dispute through PayPal. Now I am careful to be within the 45 days limit and so far I have had no difficulty in returning goods if they were not as described or did not perform as implied. As a rule I would not buy more expensive items from a non UK seller not bound by the Distance Selling Agreement. For expensive items I much prefer Amazon.co.uk.

Similar experience but thru Amazon.... some supplier in NYC sold them on Amazon, refused to admit that they were fake and Amazon refunded all the money and that seller no longer is allowed to sell batteries via Amazon.

I had to admit, the fake was good, only came to light when it could not be removed from the camera which ruined a whole overseas wedding for me. Later found photos online comparing the real Sony and the fake one. And the NYC seller says it does not sell fakes.