eBay's authenticity guarantee introduced to the UK
eBay has always had a certain stigma surrounding authenticity issues, as it’s very easy for people to get away with selling ‘knock-off’ designer/luxury items on the site including watches. But not for long because eBay is now introducing their authenticity guarantee for watches to the UK. This scheme first took off in the USA, and after major success they are bringing it here. Yay! So let’s take a deeper look at what this guarantee will look like.
Step 1: Finding an eligible watch
All watches at the value of £1500 or more will be eligible for the authenticity guarantee, and the cost of the procedure will be covered by eBay. These watches will be easy to spot for buyers as they will have an authenticity guarantee badge next to it which will look like this:
To be able to qualify for the authenticity guarantee, the watch must meet certain criteria which can be found on the eBay page.
Step 2: Getting the watch to the authenticators
Once you have purchased your watch, the seller will then ship it off to the professional authenticators at Stoll & Co who have recently opened their new UK facility. Stoll & Co are one of the leaders in their industry so you can stay sure they can be trusted with your new watch.
Step 3: The authentication
The specialists will perform visual & physical multi-point inspections on all parts of the watch to ensure its authenticity, as well as the documents provided with the watch and its packaging. They will also make sure the watch matches the listing title, description, and images. Once the inspection is completed, the watch will be entered into a tracking system and a security tag will be attached. Both the buyer and the seller will be able to track this entire process.
Step 4: Getting the watch to you
The authenticators will aim to complete the authentication inspection withing 2 working days of receiving the watch. Once they are done, they will ship the watch to the buyer via “fast, tracked, signature-required delivery”.
Returns
You may be wondering where this leaves each party in terms of the return process. Well, it's actually very beneficially for both parties. The buyer will simply send the product back to the authenticators, who will then make sure the watch is in the same condition it was when sent to the buyer. The authenticators will then ship the item back to the seller, and a refund can be issued.
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In my opinion, this whole scheme is very beneficial to both the buyer and the seller, protecting them from authenticity issues as well as protecting them both during the returns process. I think eBay will see a massive increase in luxury watch sales, here in the UK, thanks to this process.
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