4GB Mp4 Player ebay Scam
Just before Christmas, I decided I was going to get an MP3 player for my girlfriend as she wanted a new mp3-player, as her 40gb one was too much and now old, so she was looking for something with around 4gb or 8gb of storage space.
A friend suggested there were tuns of 4GB MP4 Players on ebay, I questioned him and said, I wonder why they are going so cheap, his reply was thats because there are so many. I figured something wasn’t quite right, but as the sellers had over 98.99% positive feedback I figured it seemed like a half decent deal.
The MP4 Players I was looking at were comparable to the Apple iPod nano in appearance, I knew they wouldn’t function in the same way, but these offered way more features and were far cheaper than a nano.
So I spent some time bidding on quite a few of these mp4 players, making sure I wasn’t paying over the odds to get one, as there were simply loads on ebay, it was silly to try and outbid other people. They were going for between £28 and £40, I was going for £34 max.
Eventually I ended up with 3, two (1xBlack, 1xPink) came from one seller (e-britain), one (1xBlack) came from another (ugoole).
So I ended up with 2 too many, I decided to keep a black one for myself, wrap the pink one for my girlfriend, and then wrap the spare black one for my dad (I figured he’d work it out eventually). I also wrapped mine up, so my girlfriend wouldn’t suspect what I had got her for Christmas, as I knew I couldn’t keep my hands off it.
Note: At this point I have not left feedback for my items, as I know I had not fully tested them.
Christmas comes and goes, all is well. My girlfriend asks me to put some music on her mp4 player, which we do by spending a long time looking through my 80gb external hard drive. We collect 4gb of music she wants to listen to and place it onto the device.
She goes home. The next thing I know and she’s on the phone to me complaining about how she can’t play some of her music and it seems corrupt in some way. She brings it around the following day and I check it out, and try new music on the device.
After some playing around I realise that anything over about 1gb of media and the data is corrupt. I send her away and begin my research.
I took upon me the impossible challenge of trying to work out who the manufacturer of the devices are. I checked all the firmware on the device, nothing, so I check the software that comes with it.
I run the MP3 Player Upgrade Tool (”C:\Program Files\MP3 Player Utilities 4.00\RDiskUpdate\RdiskUpdate.exe”), and low and behold the device name and manufacturer is there.
Device Name: S1 MP3 Player
Productor: Wilson Co. Ltd.
Version: 9.0.43
With these details I soon found a page in the Wikipedia entitled S1 MP3 Player. The Mp3 player displayed here was nothing like the mp4 player I had, I figured they just forgot to update the details in the software I have.
Also I managed to locate the Wilson Co. Ltd. Website, which appears to be down or no longer exists as it did, however through the powers of the internet I am able to use the web archive and view a previous version of the Wilson Co. Ltd. website. To no major benefit, the website contains limited details, and clearly the products are no longer supported.
I go back to the wikipedia page, and find the S1mp3.org forum. A quick search on there and I soon find a thread where people are experiencing the same issues as me.
So just by chance I decide to do a bit of research based on the ebay sellers, to see if I can find where these items came from and what the deal is here.
All the images they use on the ebay auctions are hosted on store724.com which when I visit brings up details about tronfydirect.com.
A quick google search for tronfydirect.com brings up details of ebuyhk.com, i’ve also seen the username ebayhk on ebay quite a few times in the past. A quick search for ebayhk.com very quickly brings up a few references including maskpay.com which is VERY dodgy. However, I will leave that for this time as this goes beyond my concern.
I also searched for tronfy.com, which brings up details of downloads for mp3/mp4 players and an FAQ.
After looking at my paypal transactions again I discover the company is “Tronfy Technology Co. LTD.”, the domain’s whois details the following names: “, David Chen and ” at the address “RM2614, Wang Yung House, Cheung Wang, Tsing Yi, NT, HONG KONG”.
I also did a search for store724.com, and instantly top of the list a bunch of websites are returned with people referring to one of the sellers I purchased my mp4 player from “ugoole”.
I take a look at the Procopy Perth website which appears to detail this very well, however it is .au based.
From there I also find a UK based website entitled “mp3 / mp4 players on ebay beware!” reporting the same details.
From here I discover some useful details, including a guide on how to check the size of your mp4 player and details of how to restore your mp4 players size to the correct capacity, which is as follows:
- If you haven’t already done so, install the “MP3 Player Utilities 4.00″ from your CD now, also sometimes known as “AMV Convert Tool 3.68″.
- Backup any data/media on your mp4 player onto your computer.
- Plug your device into your computer via USB.
- Run the MP3 Player Disk Tool (”C:\Program Files\MP3 Player Utilities 4.00\RDiskUtility\RdiskUtility.exe”)
- Once it has successfully loaded select the format type as low, and click on the “Partition and Encryption” tab at the top.
- Drag the slider entitled “Setting encrypted disk capacity” to the far right (until the disk size has reached its full capacity), and press Start.
- Once complete, return the slider back to the far left, at 0, and press Start. (this will re-format the device to its TRUE capacity).
That is it, exit the program, and your device is set to function correctly. I also found a longer guide here.
Although it seems like i’ve accepted that I’ve been ripped off and solved the problem with the device, I did not stop there.
I contacted the sellers on ebay and threatened to leave negative feedback if they didn’t agree on a deal with me. They eventually refunded me £8 per device, and I have yet to leave them feedback.
Well that’s just about everything, I hope that you find this information is useful.
Also read the The Official Fake 4GB+ MP4 Player Scam On eBay FAQ on ebay, and whatever you do if you DO have one of these items, DO NOT send it back, but DO demand a refund like I did, chances are at least you will get a partial refund.
Note: I have noticed since that e-britain and ugoole have changed their feedback to “private” probably because people were posting links in their feedback. You can still email and .
pat said,
January 20, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
Please also see this site it needs as many signatures as possible. http://www.petitiononline.com/eBay666/petition.html
also http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs? to see all negative feedback. I personally think this link should be available in ebay so that you can check a seller out before bidding because it takes an age to go through all the pages of feedback especially when sellers like ugoole have been selling so many and the buyers have been leaving feedback before even testing the players.
Best wishes
Pat.
John said,
May 15, 2007 @ 8:09 am
8GB MP3 MP4 Player purchased via Ebay. Sadly as you say these products are a SCAM. After installing around 2GB of MP3 files, the first problems were encountered. I opened the casing and checked the chip ID it was a “SAMSUNG” K9LAG08110M and identified as a 2 GB chip.
Needless to say the seller evaded all the crucial questions. All I could do was to leave negative feedback and a referal to (www.mympxplayer.org/how-to-removing-memory-hack-vp13762.html) in the comments.
What I have since been doing is searching round the web and reporting this SCAM on appropriate sites hoping that somone can challenge Ebay as knowingly allowing this to go on and hopefully bring them to task………very unlikely that Ebay will shoot themselves in the foot as this SCAM is being operated by the big power sellers from HONG KONG.
savanna said,
May 15, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
i hava a “digital mp34player music no limit” and i cant find one thing on it so if you can help me that would be great… yes i did look on there for it and mine is so different than the black one……..
hm2k said,
May 16, 2007 @ 3:39 pm
Just a quick update.
About 2 months ago, mine broke, careless mistake on my behalf really.
Anyway, I returned it back figuring I had nothing to loose.
About a month ago or so I actually got a replacement.
Amazing!
Anyway, I’m going to sell it on ebay I think, unless anyone wants one cheap?
It DOES work and IS only 1GB.
Keith said,
June 5, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
I have just baught one ffs and i cant get any response back about a refund (surprise ) well i cant even get the CD to install as im on vista can any one help im not to worried about the ipod not being 4MB i just want it to work aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh Can’t get any songs in to it its a real pain wish ide never got one now what’s wrong with the good old walkman lol Please Please help if somone know’s how to get it tnto vista please leave comment or email me thanks
Keith said,
June 5, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
ops i meant GBn hehe
kam said,
June 10, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
its really well done, if anyone knows how, please contact me on
thanks
Nicole said,
June 19, 2007 @ 8:23 am
I also purchased a 2mb MP3 through an Ebay seller in Hong Kong (supposedly item located in Sydney). Broke withing 1/2 hour of using. After alot of correspondence with him and escalating my complaint to a claim, I fortunately received a full refund without having to post the item back to Hong Kong for maintenance. Easier to purchase one with a warranty from a normal shop - preferrably on sale.
chris said,
June 30, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
Can anyone tell me who to put music on this thing?
Josh AKA Kayos said,
July 24, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
I have just purchased the 4 gig player from digitallaserplayer in Hong Kong (suprise suprise) for 32$ USD. If indeed there is an error, I will follow the guide to fix it. If that doesn’t work I will try to uncover a memory hack. If there is a memory hack I will try to get a refund. I am strongly hoping there isn’t a hack and I can fix any error if there is one. I will post what happens next once I get it.
@Chris: Try windows explorer, my computer, removable disk drive G or F. Drag media into this drive, this is your mp3/mp4 player drive.
Josh AKA Kayos said,
July 24, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
@HM2K: How much you want for that 1 gb you selling? I need to get someone a gift.
Josh AKA Kayos said,
July 24, 2007 @ 3:59 pm
Sorry for triple post, but is there anywhere I can get a review on this mp4 player like how the quality of it is, how it works, how the movie playing is, how the firmware is, the menu system, is there a click wheel, how easy is it to select songs. All that crap.
hm2k said,
July 25, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
My mp3 player was sold.
Josh AKA Kayos said,
July 27, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Alright, do you know anything about Digitallaserplayer?
His feedback loooks good
Ali said,
August 8, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
well i guess ime lucky coz i got one just same as in pic on here and mine is great 4 gig no probs i loved it up to geting a 30 gig er………..
Jacob said,
August 8, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
Dude, you’re awesome. I’ve run across an answer, finally. It’s throughly researched, well thought out, very well written, and, most importantly, it is informative. Thank you for all the time you have put into this post. I hope that it brings many people the relief that they, like myself, are craving.
-Jacob
Bennett Hojka said,
August 10, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
These things suck balls. There horrible. they only last like a 1 hour and a half. The video quailty is horrible on the screen. I will sell my 4 gb mp4 player to anyone who wants it. 20$ bought it for 40$.
Argyle said,
August 15, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
A friend of mine just bought one of these. The box was marked 6 Gigabytes. The actual memory inside of it (and I’m totally not kidding): 108 Megabytes. 1.5 albums worth of mp3 on there and the thing says its full. Amazing. Windows shows the same capacity.
chyanne barrasin said,
August 28, 2007 @ 6:12 am
hi, i bought 2 off digiseller88 on ebay last week, i filled it up (4gb) worth played about 3 hours and went flat, so i charged it up went to play again and suprise suprise disk error!. well i came across this site and im glad i did, my chip is actually 2gb which aint bad but still not happy with the ebay description 4GB yeah right. So i gave hime 2 options either refund half the price on both mp3 players or i go to paypal. will update soon
stephen lowe said,
August 28, 2007 @ 10:15 am
DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO PUT VIDEO CLIPS ONTO THESE THINGS
MY DAUGHTERS NAGGING ME
EMAIL
thanks
Andy said,
September 14, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
I bought one of these - no problems at all although converting video was a bit of a trial at first. Didn’t realise there was an issue with memory size until I checked after reading your post having nowhere near 4 gb to put on. (Windows said there was 4gb available) I have 1.9 gb which is still alot for me. Adding tracks was easy, playback was ok although would have liked a playlist function. However the playing interface is slow and unresponsive, the eq limited and the random repeat isn’t.
I paid £35 for this - my advice is go to Tesco on the high street and pay £35 for their 4gb basic player. At least you have a guarantee and it will do what it says on the tin! OR spend a decent amount of money and buy a Sony - sound quality blew me away!
Still better than an Ipod though - hate the things!
Andy said,
September 14, 2007 @ 3:45 pm
PS. Thanks for the informative post. It was extremely well thought out and presented! Anybody have a volume fix for one of these things?
louise said,
September 19, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Hi all, i bought 2 MP4 players and one of them doesnt work at all! they are supposed to be 4 gig each, the one which kinda works is only 1 gb. The disc i got with them is in japanese, totally usless to me. I have put loads of songs on one and they are all corrupt! I cant delete them off, can someone please help? Mines were bought on ebay from a ugoogle, i have tried and tried again to get some sort of compensation back to no avail. Ebay should take responsibility for this, but a whole year later, these guys are still ripping people off! cheers, louise xx
ITman said,
October 5, 2007 @ 5:43 am
MY player : MP4/wma/rec , s1 mp3 player
Productor : Wilson & Co.
Version : CM60009v1-6k , ACT_V3.5.35
Features :MP3,AMV,Voice recorder & FM radio
,TEXT ,GAMES
INITIAL MEMORY : 4GB
PROBLEM : CANNOT LOAD MORE THAN 60-70 SONGS , IT
SEEMS ,IT CREATE LINKS TO ALREADY LOADED
FILES , AND FORMAT ERROR
MEMORY AFTER
1st FORMAT USING
WINDOWS XP : 1GB
PROBLEM :FORMAT ERROR , LESS MEMORY.
MEMORY AFTER
2nd FORMAT after
Adjusting Partition : 108 MB
PROBLEM : LESS MEMORY FOR MY VIDEO
, AUDIO , TEXT ETC FILES.
CURRENT STATUS : IT PLAYS WELL BUT LESS MEMORY
MY QUERY : CAN I ATTACH ADDITIONAL PEN DRIVE TO USB
CABLE FOR PLAYING MP3 ,AMV FILES IN PEN
DRIVE ON MY MP4 PLAYER .
HOW IT CAN BE DONE : I FEEL A SUITABLE FIRMWARE UPGRADE IS
REQUIRED WHICH CAN ACCESS FILES
IN THE PEN ADDITIONAL PEN DRIVES.
WHAT Wilson & Co. has to say about this Please reply in all related posts.
Liam said,
October 10, 2007 @ 8:17 am
Mate, whatever you do, do not upgrade firmware.
This makes your m3 player corrupt and unusable.
being a device and computer installation/security technician, i have had many of these mp3/4 players come in.
They are chinese knock offs that don’t last 30 minutes likes said above.
When you upgrade the firmware, this formats the mp3/4 player and deletes the operating system, thus making it unusable.
Even finding a new firmware online to update it will not work.
Waste of money, try to get a refund while you still can.
It’s a Chi-Pod
Rick said,
November 11, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
I hav a 4Gb …one…its name is IMODe…i cant find it anywhere in the internet…i cant load a lot of songs..if i load ….the songs keep repeating…and it doesnt even play….Erorr…!!! comes in de S1 Mp3..player…
Tell me wat i shud do..
jan said,
November 16, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
“Mate, whatever you do, do not upgrade firmware.
This makes your m3 player corrupt and unusable.”
so wish id seen this page earlier. i tried the opgrade firmwarwe idea and it now just says disc corrupted
total waste of money
Ashley said,
November 22, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
There is a guide on eBay called The Hacked Memory Scam Guide. It has all the information you need in one place. It costs 75 cents and the seller is putting all the proceeds back into new listings on eBay to get the word out about the scam. The guide on eBay is here:
http://search.ebay.con/_W0QQsassZhackedmemoryscam
There is also a web site:
http://www.hackedmemoryscam.org
Ashley said,
November 22, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Sorry, I mistyped the link. Its suppose to be:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZhackedmemoryscam
dawn garratt said,
November 24, 2007 @ 9:52 am
I bought one from ebay through direct-drywall-uk and it took weeks for it to come and I am not completly happy with it. IAlso havent left any feedback as I can’t be bothered with the seller, but it doesn’t do everything that the seller said it could
Capo said,
December 4, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
I have spent numerous hours playing with this device. I have successfully stored 100+ songs on this device simply by copying the mp3 files from my directory of limewire songs onto to USB device - pretty simple. Note: Move the songs into lower Drive letter: /RECORD/MUSIC directory. I originally dropped the onto the main directory - and they work, but they are not expected to go there.
The directory layout and included instruction book is what you would expect - pretty useless. Thedevice came with a video on it, but it was a Chinese or japanese song so I deleted it. I have been trying for 2 days now trying to find a way to drop any kind of video file into all sorts or directories - even onc that I created called DATA that was suggested in an earlier posting. Nothing works. I have put .wav files, .pm4 files and .mpg files all over the place - but when you enter the Movies section, it always says “Empty Disk”. Frustrating.
If anyone can supply the exact video format and which directory to drop them into - that would be veryhelpful.
FFigjam789 said,
December 12, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
I have also been scammed by newit99 (colourful_days has EXACT listings) 4gb capacity with an actual capacity of 961mb, the players are absolute crap. Have reported to eBay (they don’t give a rat’s), dispute opened with paypal, reported to everyone I can think of, including the ACCC.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Cheers!
FFigjam789 said,
December 14, 2007 @ 4:41 am
Time for an update, I just got a full refund via paypal - case closed! It can be done, the seller didn’t send the funds for return postage, so it looks like I get to keep the piece of junk.
P.S. The feedback stays!
Wendy D said,
December 23, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
Ive just bought a 1 gig one of these and tried to get it work on either of my two xp machines.. they don’t recogise the device so ignore it.. and the setup file on the mini disc takes me a black dos screen where i know i don’t have the skill to go.. does anyone have a driver or idea on how to get it work.. bought these as xmas pressy for the kids!! ta
Samantha Logan said,
January 18, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
I purchased what I thoughts was an APPLE IPOD NANA 4GB but instead I received a MP4 player. Do not buy from newhorizons028
jman said,
January 22, 2008 @ 2:34 am
4 Gig versus 1 - not a bad deal, considering that the player I bought was advertized (and actually showed) 60 gig.
What can I say - hands down - great scam
Well, you know the rest of the story.
Thanks to my bank I started agitating early and got my money back finally.
jamie said,
March 20, 2008 @ 5:00 am
i just purchased a music no limit mp4 player from ebay i have no idea how to put music on it as the program is all in japanese or chinese any help would be great
Paul Beriault said,
March 30, 2008 @ 1:57 am
thank you very much for this info. At least i have a 1 GB mp3 player now. God Bless. Paul
TammyJo said,
April 6, 2008 @ 8:06 am
AMV is the video format. After I reformatted my 4gig player to get to the true size of 1 gig it’s been working great. I paid $35 US so still a decent price. I sort of knew what I was getting myself into as I bought it on Santee Alley in downtown LA.
It plays videos of .amv file types. You can find MP3 Player Utilities 4.0.3 on multiple sites and it’s got a conversion program for your existing video files, however I’m still looking for one that will convert my digital camera’s .mov type to .amv if there are any recommendations. The player utility program is also what you can use to reformat the drive and it’s hacked memory and get it to the correct size reading. Otherwise you’ll see things like duplicated files or files with funky characters.
Also, mine did not have the games loaded on it and I’m wondering if anyone has had success hacking their games and could possibly share them.
Thanks!
hendrix said,
April 29, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
i bought last week a oem 4gb mp4 player samsung flash memory worked once then nothing eggtimer refuses to go away cant do anything with it i got it on ebay any suggestions how to retrieve it. it too was made in china but bought it in good faith from an english site
Dixie said,
May 1, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
My mum brought me a MP$ player for Christmas, and it’s already broke. the sound’s gone funny and crackly, and I cant upload videos. every now and again it comes up disc error and i have to delete everything. i did it a few days ago, and thats when the problem started. Ive only had it for four months….what do i do now???
ive got a number to call, and hopefully should get a new one because it’s garunteed for a year, but what if i dont? can someone tell me what to do then?? im only 15 so i dont have any good ideas like you guys!!!
Denis Long said,
May 26, 2008 @ 10:21 am
There are now doing the same thing with pen drives. I bought a 16GB pen drive which turned out to be 6GB. Fairly enough I was refunded all my money and given an appology.
H.Ogston said,
July 4, 2008 @ 11:33 am
just bought music no limit mp4 I wish I had seen all these comments before. Disc doesn’t load what a pile of junk. If this was sold legitamatly in this country trading standards would be down on them in a flash.
H.Ogston said,
July 4, 2008 @ 11:37 am
just bought music no limit mp4, no idea how to load music onto it. Any help please
Big Kuntry said,
July 30, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
I just got this digital MP4 music no limit 4GB model and i didnt use the CD at all to put music on it. I just hooked the USB up and my computer installed the drivers automatically then i made a file with all the songs i wanted on there and then cut & pasted the file onto it. worked just fine. my problem is i can not get it to turn on unless it is hooked up to the computer or the outlet. Someone PLEASE HELP. it does me no good if it wont turn on away from an electricity source!
Big Kuntry said,
July 30, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Oh yeah i forgot to mention that i have vista. My problem is power lol. it wont charge for me! PLEASE HELP!
EJ said,
August 30, 2008 @ 6:45 pm
I too have some random MP4 player ( which by the way does not support mp4 files..) Its from “MUSIC NO LIMIT” . My problem are the headphones..where can I order some that have a smaller insertion plug (Regular buds are too big) As I read the box I see they described the headphones as ” Unique” may I suggest “Unusable”. Please can somebody point me in the right direction. This would save me a few steps, while I try to scout the over 100 electronic retailers in Manhattan, NYC, not including CANAL St..hmmmm. Help is appreciated.
Thanks,
EJ