A buyer orders a watch in March, wears it for a year, takes it to a jeweler in December, and learns it is fake. The marketplace window closed in April. PayPal's window closed in September. The card chargeback window closed in May. The buyer is 21 months out and every door is shut. The lesson is not that the buyer was careless. The lesson is that the refund is a race against four clocks, and the buyer did not know the clocks existed.
The refund comes first and the report comes second, because the report does not pay anyone back. The marketplace case is the money. The counterfeit report is the enforcement. File them in that order.
Amazon's A-to-z Guarantee takes a counterfeit claim from 15 days after the order date, and within 90 days of delivery. eBay's Money Back Guarantee runs 30 days from the delivery date. PayPal's buyer protection for a not-as-described item runs 180 days from the payment date, and 30 days from delivery for the claim itself. A card chargeback runs 60 days from the statement date on which the charge appeared. Each clock starts at a different moment, and the shortest one is usually the card.
The buyer who finds the fake early has options. The buyer who finds it late has none. A purchase from March that turns out to be fake 21 months later is past every window, and the seller knows it. The counterfeiter's business model depends on the delay: sell the fake, wait out the clocks, and keep the money.
File the marketplace case first, before the counterfeit report. The case is the money, and the report can stall the refund while the seller disputes it. Keep the item until the marketplace tells you to return it, because the return is part of the evidence, and a buyer who returns the item before the case is decided has given away the proof.
Gather the evidence before you file: screenshots of the listing as it appeared when you bought, photos of the fake against the genuine product, the order number, and the marketplace case number. The photos should show the specific differences, not just the product: the stitching, the logo placement, the batch code, the weight. A report that says it is fake without showing why is a report that gets ignored.
If every window has closed, the options narrow to the report and the review. File the counterfeit report anyway, because the report builds the seller's record and helps the next buyer, even if it does not pay this one back. Leave a review that states the facts, the date of purchase, and the date the fake was confirmed, so the next buyer sees the timeline.
The lesson for the next purchase is to check the item when it arrives, not a year later. Open the box, compare it against the genuine product, check the batch code, and photograph the listing before it disappears. The 30-day eBay window starts at delivery, not at discovery, and the buyer who checks on arrival has a refund. The buyer who checks at Christmas does not.
Keep reading: Why That Too-Cheap Listing Stays Up: Marketplace Triage in Plain Terms, Fake Earbuds and the Battery That Swells: The Safety Check Before You Wear Them, Counterfeit Chargers: The Nine-Dollar Cable That Overheats cover the nearby cases in this series.
File an A-to-z Guarantee claim from 15 days after the order date, and within 90 days of delivery for a counterfeit item. After 90 days, the A-to-z route closes and the card chargeback window may also be gone.
eBay's Money Back Guarantee runs 30 days from the delivery date. File the case inside that window, and do not return the item until eBay tells you to, because the return is part of the evidence.
PayPal gives 180 days from the payment date for a not-as-described claim, and a card chargeback runs 60 days from the statement date. Both are shorter than they sound. A purchase from March that turns out to be fake 21 months later is past every window.
Refund first, report second. File the marketplace case, get the refund, then file the counterfeit report with the evidence. Reporting first can stall the refund while the seller disputes the report.