Lotus Online eBay Store Regularly sells rooted, altered phones as new with fake seal Internet

This eBay seller has a large number of postings of Android phones, such as a Samsung Galaxy S6. These are listed as brand new.

These phones are not new. They are minimally unpacked and rooted, and then re-packed with non-OEM wrappings for individual pieces in an OEM box. A fake "Samsung" seal of authenticity is then stickered on the box giving the impression it came directly from Samsung.

Beyond being rooted, a batch of 10 of these phones I purchased each had various random situations, which included:

- Bad batteries / phones randomly shutting off

- Bad cell reception / data

- Calls from phone creates a loud echo after speech.

The phones I purchased apparently came from the United Arab Emirates.

On contacting the company, I first got repeated insistence that these phones were new. After challenging them for a while I got them to admit the phones were rooted. After more challenging they stated the phones were rooted by Samsung. I contacted Samsung who confirmed they never root phones. After contronting them they admitted they were rooted by a third party. Even more challenging got them to admit the "Seals" were in fact fact and not printed by Samsung.

I have had over 30 back and forth conversations with the store in an attempt to get them to correct their postings by properly reflecting that the phones are rooted and probably refurbished, though definitely not new. This has gone absolutely nowhere. Every response I get from them is repetitive and robotic with a refusal to get me in contact with someone in the company that can actually update the postings.

In other words, rip-off and criminal, taking advantage of the fact that eBay offers zero recourse for correcting a rip-off posting past a personal refund.