To those who keen to buy a GPS from trademe--for better for worse, you should read this

Forums › GPS, maps and mapping software › To those who keen to buy a GPS from trademe--for better for worse, you should read this

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69 posts

Master Geek

#322233 23-Apr-2010 22:06

kingjj: It certainly has been interesting reading your posts but I've got to wonder whether you are pushing for others to do dodgy deals and install warez (one of the sites you link to is warez related), this is against the forum FUG. If a mod/admin approves of this discussion then it would be interesting to learn more.

i think that you are right. I will try not to expose more. thanks

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saikit

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Master Geek

#322234 23-Apr-2010 22:06

kingjj: It certainly has been interesting reading your posts but I've got to wonder whether you are pushing for others to do dodgy deals and install warez (one of the sites you link to is warez related), this is against the forum FUG. If a mod/admin approves of this discussion then it would be interesting to learn more.

i do not know how those things affect free trade, but i have to say: it is mutual side problem. as you can see nz custom and trademe have not done they suppose to do.

saikit

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Master Geek

#322237 23-Apr-2010 22:11

kingjj: It certainly has been interesting reading your posts but I've got to wonder whether you are pushing for others to do dodgy deals and install warez (one of the sites you link to is warez related), this is against the forum FUG. If a mod/admin approves of this discussion then it would be interesting to learn more.

I hold such a belief: people here should choose by themselves. without those details, i believe that most of readers will think I make up those posts.

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#322249 23-Apr-2010 22:39

i've been following this with interest, however pardon me for being stupid! i don't know what the point of all these is - can someone tell me the problem with the GPS units being sold on trademe?

is it the profit that's of concern? if so - this is a free trade society anyone can charge anything they want right? plumber, computer guys etc charges 100/hr etc

software? free trade agreement? so sorry i'm lost someone please explain?!

freitasm

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#322254 23-Apr-2010 22:53

joker97: software? free trade agreement? so sorry i'm lost someone please explain?!

The sales of counterfeit goods is one of the biggest problems in modern society. Governments (pushed by lobbies of course) are working hard to create agreements that would make it harder for fake goods to be sold. One of these agreements is ACTA.

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saikit

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Master Geek

#322266 23-Apr-2010 23:28

It looks like i am not allowd to put too much details about how to hack a tomtom unit. So I make this as simple version. I will try to post my original post later or in other forum:

it is good to see different views from different peoples now. It is good. I think I should rather state the fact. I should not make my opinion into it. So for all the guys' inputs. I will try to improve my future posts. Now this post will be really exciting.

Now it is time to dicuss tomtom units. I mean really tomtom untis. before I can discuss those units, let me introduce a recycle business of used electronic products in shenzhen:

As you can see dick smith is selling a large amount electronic products every day, it definitely will generate a lot of electronic waste, such as returning goods to dick smith, goods you do not want, second hand goods. You might not care about where those used/wasted/returned electronic products go. Let me know tell you. Generally, those products are just sold to some recycle companies. yes it is true. TomTom or dick smith do not get bothered to repair them. Replace them is the simple solution. SO yes, 7 days /14 days return policy generate so much electronic wastes. but they are just sold to recycle company. It is business. New model is coming, dick smith and tomtom have make enough profit from last models and just move to next models. So do not blame me to so straightforward, but our modern life is really a waste now. If you can put a little heart to those wastes, you really can contribute our earth.

Anyway, let us go back to those wastes. after those wastes in the warehouse of recycle company, some HK companies will come up and buy them. Those wastes are measured by weight and sold in weight. After those HK companies purchased them, they will be shipped into shenzhen. Many workshops will take those wastes. clean them, repair them, re-package them and sell them back to western countries via ebay and trademe. So you might get shocked by this fact. Let me give you several samples here:

tomtom go 700 and go 300 are only sold in europe and US/ cananda by tomtom, so in australia, it is tomtom go 500 sold by tomtom.

1.tomtom go 700: i believe that most of you might see quite a few sellers in trademe who are doing this selling. Those sellers claim that those units are brandnew items with pre-load maps. Those go 700 are waste collected from Europe and US. They are refurbished in shenzhen. I am not kidding here. Those tomtom go 700 units does not have product code card, CD, carry cases. The refurbished workshops are not recognized by tomtom. Actually those wastes are supposed to burn or distroy. (but i have to say here again. so many electronic waste, no matter how you handle them, it will eventually generate poisons into our earth just because our human desires to get more electronic products). What i heard is 5000 those units in shenzhen and they are still coming to NZ. here, need to come to this seller "[name removed]" in trademe again. he/she should be the first one who start selling this product. According to his/her current listing, you can see how much he/she can sell in trademe. There are some other sellers too. I believe that you can search in trademe easily. Those are all second-hand. It is very easy to tell: open the cover of those units and you will find the inside is dirty. All the accessories come with those units do not have good qualities. The price of one go 700 in shenzhen is 300RMB(60NZD). yes it is. I am not kidding here. It is really cheap. well, you might think that even if it is second hand, i will be fine to get one because it might be a good bargain. Really so? let us take a look the price in www.totalPDA.co.uk. It is a website recognized by tomtom so that it can sell refurbished tomtom with tomtom one yeart warranty. Can you see the attractive price in that website? yes, it is also cheap there and they have tomtom approve. Their maps are genuine.

Now I have to talk about a little more about tomtom unit. Tomtom unit is linux-based machine. TomTom designed its GPS software in a linux platform. unfortunately tomtom uses linux GPL license. So Microsoft sued tomtom before and tomtom is forced to expose its code on its website. Those source codes provide convenient chances for hacker to hack tomtom's GPS software. if you have time to read through those two posts(removed , sorry I can not give details here),, or you can take a look a tutorial in OZ forum: removed.. sorry) you will soon realize that how those people can sell tomtom go 700 in such a high price: the official kernel for tomtom go 700 is 7.9xx. TomTom has stopped to update the kernel for tomtom go 700. After reading those two posts from ppcwarez, you soon will realize that you can install a hacked latest kernel into tomtom go 700. after that you can also install a hacked tomtom latest map into tomtom go 700. So can you see those softwares and maps are illegal copies? So when you are so happy to pay 300NZD for those units and get lastest maps in go 700, you actually get hacked software and maps. So with new hacked kernel, you can install IQ map, TTS function and ALG functions. If you purchase a map from tomtom website, you need to pay 150AUD for new zealand map. Now 300NZD, you get australia, new zealand and europe and they are hacked maps in a second-hand unit. if you do not trust me, you can purchase one from them and open the machine to take a look the inside. And then connect this unit to tomtom home to see whether your map is genuine. So yes, computer guy charges you 100$/ hours in helping install XP in your computer, but he did not install a illegal copy of xp on that. It is legal copy. The cost of those legal copies give the reason for those computer guys to charge you 100$/hour. However those sellers in trademe claim that their units are brandnew and genuine maps and charge you 300NZD. it should not be the same thing.

2. tomtom go 300. So is tomtom go 300. second hand or refurbished. a tomtom go 300 with 2G sd card in shenzhen is 250RMB(50ZND). It comes with hacked kernel and hacked software. It is so obviously hacked kernel. official tomtom go 300 kernel can not take IQ maps and ALG function. again, [name removed], this seller even put wrong specification of tomtom go 300 in all his/her advertisements of tomtom go 300. tomtom go 300 is a unit with cpu 200Mhz and 32MB memory( you can take a look the specification in tomtom official website: http://www.tomtom.com/products/features.php?ID=72&Lid=1&Category=0).

3. tomtom eclipse: the same things, they have plenty of second hand stock now. So it is easy to repackage and refurbished. I do not know how much in shenzhen, but it is cheap......

so you might ask how tradme can not notice those cheapings. well if you have read my previous posts, you should soon realize that it is only about money. Those sellers are the most active sellers in trademe. Take a look their current listings and you can count how many items they can sell in one week. It means a lot of success fees to trademe. So if tomtom does not push trademe, why trademe should cut off its own income. So that is business, Just like why dick smith or tomtom just sell their waste to those company in Hong Kong. It is the most simple solution in business.

So after reading this post, you soon realize that if those workshops in shenzhen can do those cleaning process to tomtom GPS, they might do to other products. Yes they can. next post, let me talk about black berry and other mobile phone! Next post will come with some photos. if you are intersted, use replies to tell me.

[Moderator edit (MF): names and links to Trade Me removed)

saikit

69 posts

Master Geek

#322268 23-Apr-2010 23:34

c71931f:
saikit:
kingjj: It certainly has been interesting reading your posts but I've got to wonder whether you are pushing for others to do dodgy deals and install warez (one of the sites you link to is warez related), this is against the forum FUG. If a mod/admin approves of this discussion then it would be interesting to learn more.
i do not know how those things affect free trade, but i have to say: it is mutual side problem. as you can see nz custom and trademe have not done they suppose to do.

I've tweeted the link to this forum discussion to someone that works at trademe

actually no need to do that. I just post facts here. not try to blame anyone, but let people to undersand more. just like 20/20 or 60 minutes. people just need to know the fact.

freitasm

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#322304 24-Apr-2010 09:18

An update on this discussion. While I have no problems with seeing an interesting story, I have removed a name and specific links to a Trade M seller. Seeing some of the comments points out to a counterfeit importing activity I've decided that having this Trade Me username here could be seen as defamantion.

In future please do not post Trade Me user names or links to Trade Me profiles and auctions in this thread.

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kobiak

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#322334 24-Apr-2010 11:30

freitasm:
And by sponsoring this kind of trade you give some countries more power to negotiate trade agreements like ACTA.

I'm sure it's none of my business to check if goods sold have been certified (have software licence), imported correctly and so on. I bought it in the good will.

Well - two things:

1/ I hope you don't need to get support for this.
2/ I hope you don't end up supporting yourself through software.

The only thing I could think of is maps updates that is crucial. I'm satisfied with current almost year old map (maybe older) but it served well on North and South islands. :)

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#322343 24-Apr-2010 12:11

Very interesting reading, seeing how the more darker sider of consumer electronics works,,, keep it coming ..

I was in the market for a GPS ( for tagging successful fishing spots) a few months ago via the TM route, had a few on the watchlist but didn't close any sales. Sorta glad I didn't pursue it any further ..

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#322361 24-Apr-2010 13:28

I'm wondering why did the original poster stop selling the highly profitable fake GPS units?

Add to the list Tom Tom Navigator 7. Very easy to find for free even with NZ maps and installs on any Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro phone. I've tried it for a week to see if it is any good before spending money on it, only to find Tom Tom sells it only for a handful of specific phones and to phone networks and you must use their memory card. After trying it I've wiped it off the phone, only get wares for try-before-you-buy.

It is normal for a factory to charge more when selling to a small distributor/customer than when selling to a large distributor. It is an insentive to become a large distributor and to build a relationship who will support the product in the long run and give the brand a good name. That is why some manufacturers have multiple brands for identical products, means they can have multiple distributors in one market.

100% markup is normal for any product, but good that more people are made aware of it. A 20% discount is a lot for a consumer, but it is not for a shop. It is the cost of getting people into your shop so you can sell them more stuff.

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saikit

69 posts

Master Geek

#322374 24-Apr-2010 14:18

freitasm: An update on this discussion. While I have no problems with seeing an interesting story, I have removed a name and specific links to a Trade M seller. Seeing some of the comments points out to a counterfeit importing activity I've decided that having this Trade Me username here could be seen as defamantion.

In future please do not post Trade Me user names or links to Trade Me profiles and auctions in this thread.

it is not necessary, either. I am 100% confident with those tomtom go 700 and go 300 are second hand with illegal software licenses. Because they are all from one supllier in shenzhen.

saikit

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Master Geek

#322376 24-Apr-2010 14:23

No need to ask me any source of supply, or whether i can provide those tomtom units. or how to install hacked tomtom softwares.

I just state the fact here. I will not help you to do anything beyong stating the fact.

freitasm

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#322377 24-Apr-2010 14:31

You might be right. But the other side is also right if they decide your posts are just cause for a defamation action. That's how it works in New Zealand...

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kontonnz

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Master Geek

#322397 24-Apr-2010 16:02

in order for defamation to work in NZ they would need to show you were not 100% accurate in your statements about the trademe trader, and even if you are 100% factual they can still bring a case against you which could be cost prohibitive an example of this would be the BCA versus Simon Singh. So prob best not to highlight specific traders.... :)

in regards to the above posts been really enjoying reading them, and the practices outlined give strength to those who are pro ACTA, as they only need to point out these types of things. But here is the question I have to wonder are the laws in NZ currently "inadequate" to deal with this. I.E. they gps units on trademe if they are saying the unit is a tomtom or garmin and you purchase it and its not really a genuine product are the NZ laws inadequate in dealing with this. If they are not inadequate but its a matter of enforcement then you have to ask why bring in something like ACTA.

otherwise been really enjoying reading this thread.

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