I am not 100% sure if the Sennheiser CX300II (Cherry red) earphones that I purchased (from an anonymous ebay seller) are fake. There are instances that suggest they are counterfeit and there are instances in which suggest they are genuine, at least from my point of view.
If I had to make a call however, I would say that they are fake.
Why?
Well, I compared the packaging and contents of mine to the review of the red CX300II's on fakeheadphones.com and found there to be some distinct similarities with the fakes: http://fakeheadphones.com/finally-fake-sennheiser-cx300ii-review-im-seeing-red/05/2010/
*My earphones had the same number "6" on the ear bud holder
*The "S" on my pouch was extremely shiny.
*The stitching on my pouch was pretty bad in places, especially inside.
*The general build quality isn't great
*I purchased them from an unknown Ebay seller
*They cost me half the retail price
The genuine side...
The general packaging is flawless. I was almost convinced they were genuine before I opened them. The rest of the build work is hit and miss. The ear buds themselves look pretty solid, although there is a few shoddy glue bits hanging around on one bud. The wire was wrapped fairly neatly in all honesty - tie wraps and all.
The sound:
I am no audiophile. My experience in being able to measure the quality of headphones is somewhat limited. I have had one pair of SH headphones before (I remember them being white and costing around £35/40 from Ebuyer) and cannot recall in detail how they sounded. Of course I know the quality was high.
With these specific headphones it is difficult to come to an objective conclusion. I would say for the price "RRP £40" that they were sub-standard, but fairly decent. I initially tried them in my PC and the sound was terrible. There seemed to be no separation between lows, mids and highs and it all sounded very loud (over the top loud). I then tried it on my MP3 player and sound was much better, however. Were they magnificent? I don't know. I don't really have the experience to make a genuine comparison. All I can say is that they sound pretty reasonable in my player.
I have already sent the seller an email put forwarding my concerns - even before I decided to open the packaging. Given the information provided on the fakeheadphones.com website and the fact that the seller did not send a VAT receipt with the item, I was a little suspicious. He has since replied and although it wasn't the most convincing of retorts to my objections (if anyone is interested in helping me out further I can pm them the message); it did at least acknowledge my concerns.
Anyway... Am I able to claim that these earphones are counterfeit, or must I get them independently verified first? Could anyone help me to interpret their quality/genuineness?
Main question: What are my options and where do I go from here!?
P.s. I can upload photographs if required.
*I have tried to contact Matt from fakeheadphones.com multiple times, most notably through his website as a guest. Registration was closed and when I attempted to post a message of this nature, I got a message saying that I had been banned and it was not set to expire...*
EDIT: I posted this on yahoo answers but have only received ignorant replies thus far. For example:
"its NOT worth a company to make fake RRP £30 headphones they are more interested in making fake £200+ headphones like beats BY monster cable, thats where they make the money NOT selling £30 headphones
that website you went on fakeheadphones.com are blacklisted from monster cable due to them selling FAKE items with monster cable name stamped on them
so they are NOT the best people to ask about fake goods"
This guy clearly doesn't know what he is talking about. There are fakes all across the price range and fakeheadphones.com don't sell headphones, never mind fakes...
Anyway, thanks for your time.
