Back in November I pre-ordered an Ollee Watch, which was delivered in February. After playing with the watch, I decided I didn't want it, so I posted it up on eBay - never worn, so brand new.

A week or so later it sold and I posted it off to its new owner. A day or 2 later, the buyer messaged me saying the backlight wasn't working. This immediately raised my suspicions as the watch was brand new and I had packaged it up well.

Anyway, I gave them the benefit of the doubt after they had sent a video of the apparent problem, accepted the return, and paid for them to return the watch to me.

Getting the watch back

I took delivery of the watch yesterday, opened the package and all of the Olle packaging has been removed, as well as the original Casio module. It came back like this, with only half of a Casio box:

I tested the backlight; low and behold, it's working fine! So now I have a new Ollee watch, with no packaging, and no Casio module. So it's worth a lot less than it was previously.

Fucking brilliant.

I've asked eBay to step in and help resolve the situation, so we will see what happens. But there's a lot of buyer protection on eBay (and rightly so) but there's very little in the way of seller protection, even though I'm not a business. So I have a feeling they will find in favour of the buyer and I'll be out a few quid.

Double fucking brilliant.

I messaged the buyer once I'd received the watch back, politely asking WTF? and they replied with:

I'm sorry I thought the original packaging was all there, there definitely was a problem with the backlight and I think the original Casio thing is in the little compartment on the stand.

The module is 100% not there.

What I think happened

Now, the buyer may be legit. The backlight may not have been functioning properly while they had it. They may have binned all the Ollee packaging², and the Casio module, but I find it hard to believe.

The backlight works flawlessly. It's not like it works occasionally or anything like that. You tap the light button and it lights up every single time. It's in perfect working condition.

My guess is that they've done this to get the Ollee packaging, then they're going to scam some other poor bastard by selling them a standard F-91W (which costs around £15) dressed up as an Ollee watch for around £100.

Final thoughts

Anyway, we will see what happens as eBay get involved. If you're in the UK and interested in getting yourself a fully working, brand new, Ollee watch (albeit with no Ollee packaging) for cheap, get in touch.

Last week I wrote about how I thought I was being scammed by someone on eBay. In the post I said the following:

I've asked eBay to step in and help resolve the situation, so we will see what happens. But there's a lot of buyer protection on eBay (and rightly so) but there's very little in the way of seller protection, even though I'm not a business. So I have a feeling they will find in favour of the buyer and I'll be out a few quid.

Well, a few days after publishing that post, I received an automated email from eBay, saying:

I then logged into eBay to check the conversation I'd had with this user via the eBay messenger. At the bottom of the message thread, there was a notice that said:

So it seems that eBay, for whatever reason, deemed the user's account to be problematic enough to warrant a suspension/termination.

What now?

Honestly, I don't know. I haven't had the payment for the watch taken from my account, and eBay haven't requested that I refund the payment. So I assume that I get to keep Ollee watch¹, and the money the potential scammer originally paid.

We message back and forth on WhatsApp, and they haven't messaged me there - if I were in their position and a legit buyer, I'd be seething and would have definitely messaged on WhatsApp. So something tells me this isn't their first rodeo, and the potential loss is just collateral damage.

Does this mean that for once the scammers have lost? We'll see. At this point I think the issue is closed from an eBay perspective, so I'm planning to re-list the Ollee Watch for a much discounted price in the next few. If eBay subsequently request the money be returned to the scammy user, I'll just have to take the hit on that.

If you're based in the UK and interested in this watch, please get in touch using the reply button below.

Sanjay asked me in a comment on my AMA post:

I think the short answer to your question, Sanjay, is mostly yes. But I'd advise against it for some things*.

The easy things

Some of the items on your list are really easy to get without a subscription, for example:

• RSS feed reader - there are many feed readers you can install locally for free. Vivaldi has one built right into their browser, for example. Or you could self-host something like FreshRSS, or Miniflux.
• Notes app - my recommendation here would be Obsidian. I personally sync via WebDAV to my server at home. If you don't have the ability to do that, most operating systems have a note taking app pre-installed.
• Reminders - you can use the calendar app on your device, or on mobile, the built-in reminders/to-do apps.
• Document editing - LibreOffice is great, as is Only Office if you want something more modern looking.
• Operating system - Ubuntu for the win. It's what I use.
• Video editing - Kdenlive is available for all major operating systems, and works really well.

The not-so-easy things

Unfortunately, some things on your list are either going to cost you money, privacy, or time somewhere along the line.

Email with a custom domain

Domains cost money. I know some don't but they tend to be very spammy and have poor email delivery as a result. Also, any email service worth their salt will require you to pay. If not, they're probably sniffing your mail.

You could self-host your email at home, but there's then a cost associated with the hardware to host the mail server, or your time administering the system. Email is notoriously difficult for self-hosters too.

Website hosting (GitHub or Cloudflare)

As with most things that are free on the web, if it's free, you're probably the product. And that's true with both GitHub and Cloudflare, in my opinion.

You can host a site for free on either service, but you would either need to buy a domain, or be happy using one of their free sub-domains. There's also the technical debt required to create the static sites that these services support. So there's a time cost.

Again, you can host at home, but there's the same hardware or time costs that are associated with self-hosting email.

CDN & Databases

Like email hosting, any service worth their salt is going to charge. Some may have initial tiers that are free, but I doubt they will be very generous. I personally use Bunny for my CDN needs. They're reasonably priced and have a pay-as-you-go model, so no subscription involved. Obviously you can't host a CDN at home, as that would defeat the object of the whole thing.

For databases; same story as above. You can host at home, but there's a hardware/time cost associated, or you can pay for a reputable host to do it for you.

Music

I think this one is easy. Your options are threefold:

1. A self-hosted media library that will consist of:
   • Ripped music from a physical collection.
   • Buying digital music from services like Bandcamp where you actually own the music, but this can get expensive.
   • Pirated music 🏴‍☠️.
2. A free account on a streaming service like Spotify, but it will be riddled with ads.
3. A paid subscription to a streaming service.

Final thoughts

I think these decisions ultimately come down to personal preference, and a compromise in one of three things - cost, time, or privacy.

• A service can be free and private, but it will be time consuming to manage.
• It can be quick to get started (hosted) and private, but it won't be free.
• It can be quick to get started (hosted) and free, but it won't respect your privacy.

There's always a trade off with this stuff. It just boils down to what you're willing to trade off, personally.