I have just been watching BBC News and one of their features was ‘Why shopping online could reward’.
The feature really focused on the fact that shoppers who like to spend their money online could also be earning at the same time and used an example from a woman who would only purchase items once she had sold a few on eBay and made a small profit. Great example of how online shopping can really work well with the current credit crunch. However, I do wish the BBC had highlighted some of the risks involved in online shopping, like CNBC have done.
Yesterday we launched in the US and have already seen some coverage including from the Denver Post and it states we aim to curb the cybercrime of selling suspect second-hand goods. Hopefully there will be more to follow.
Anyway, hopefully the USA launch will be just as successful as the UK. According to the US Census Bureau the population of USA currently stands at 304,381,960 with:
• One birth every 7 seconds
• One death every 13 seconds
• One international migrant (net) every 29 seconds
• Net gain of one person every… 10 seconds
From the global population of internet users 27% are in the US and having read a lot of online articles and blogs e-fencing is proving to be a problem which the US are struggling to control. E-fencing laws have been discussed as being essential to combat organised retail crime. However, CheckMEND should now be an answer to their prayers, so let’s see how it goes.
This is what we do best and we have had plenty of stories from people who didn’t discover CheckMEND in time…
For example; Andrew Gudelajtis, from Mansfield, bought a Vodafone Nokia mobile phone from eBay for his wife. The phone arrived in a sealed box and was sold as being brand new, but after using it for six weeks the mobile phone stopped working.
He decided that he should use CheckMEND to check the IMEI number on its database. The search came back and identified the phone as being stolen or blocked. Unfortunately Andrew was then unable to re-trace the eBay seller and is left with a phone that doesn’t work and at the moment he is pursuing Vodafone to see if they can help – either by unblocking the phone or chasing the seller.
Hopefully he will have some luck at some point, but it is a great example of why you should use ‘CheckMEND before you buy’ or insist on sellers having a CheckMEND report. Or as I mentioned within my last post we should push for eBay to insist all sellers conduct a CheckMEND report!
Any questions – please fire them this way!
Checkmend is not 100% accurate
1. Checkmend shows that a phone is blocked or has been blocked in or or on its lifetime, but in the UK it will only be blocked if its been reported as lost or stolen.
But Checkmend shows no lost or stolen reports !!!
2. I have had a few phones checked that show green but in fact they are blocked , so therefore its misleading.
3. A blocked phone will automatically be blocked on all the networks sharing EIR and CEIR , within 48 hours at the latest.
So Checkemend is also misleading by showing” phones blocked’ but ‘may still work on 1 or more network’
Checkmend does not say what it does and i have heard there is going to be a new service that shows you whats blocked and whats not by a new company in 2010
‘robby’
Thank you very much for your comments and the opportunity to correct some very common misunderstandings in this sector.
“1. Checkmend shows that a phone is blocked or has been blocked in or or on its lifetime, but in the UK it will only be blocked if its been reported as lost or stolen.
But Checkmend shows no lost or stolen reports !!!”
It does not follow that if a phone has been blocked then it has been reported stolen to the police. It simply means the subscriber has told their network it has been stolen. If a stolen report exists and we’ve been made aware of this by the police it will show.
“2. I have had a few phones checked that show green but in fact they are blocked , so therefore its misleading.”
As you correctly state in your next point, up to 48 hours may lapse until a block is effective across networks. CheckMEND does not get its information any faster than other networks are able to. Therefore there is a window during which a CheckMEND check could be performed in which the block may not be apparent. Our advice for buyers suggests that you wait 48 hours from first being offered a phone before checking and making a buying decision.
“3. A blocked phone will automatically be blocked on all the networks sharing EIR and CEIR , within 48 hours at the latest.
So Checkemend is also misleading by showing” phones blocked’ but ‘may still work on 1 or more network'”
The statement “Phone is blocked but may still function on one or more networks” is demonstrably true and serves as a warning for the consumer that we think is valuable.
All networks do not absorb the block information from CEIR at the same time. It is therefore possible that a consumer could find themselves with a CheckMEND report showing the phone has been blocked (recently) but the phone works on a network other than the one it was blocked on. In this case, the unwary consumer may distrust CheckMEND. This would be a mistake as the phone will stop working within a maximum of a further 24 hours. Hence our warning.
“Checkmend does not say what it does and i have heard there is going to be a new service that shows you whats blocked and whats not by a new company in 2010”
The CheckMEND service is described on its website at http://www.checkmend.com and we invite people to read the information there.
We thank you for the information about a new competitor next year and look forward to the challenge. Competition drives us to continually improve our performance and maintain our market leading position.