Advice needed: e-bay auction not as advertised

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, I recently found a movie that I wanted on e-bay. The buy it now price was reasonable, so I bought it now. Shipping: $5, a bit high, but no big deal. I like the movie a lot, and my tape recently got eaten. I paid immediately VIA Pay Pal, and the DVD arrived within a week. All in all, a smooth transaction, right?

Except…
It’s a copy.

I had my first clue when I looked at the box graphics. The background was blue, where with the DVD’s I’ve seen, it’s black (as it was pictured in the e-Bay ad), blue covers are VCDs (remember them?). I didn’t want a VCD, but looking down, there’s a DVD logo, so, OK, maybe it’s different packaging…

Wait a minute. The graphics are a copy. Does he think I can’t tell the difference between something printed on a home computer and the real thing? I open the box, and the disc has a paper label, stuck on slightly off center. I wanted to do my best Vreenak from In The Pale Moonlight;“It’s a faaaake!” Previewing it on my DVD player, it’s a good fake, the quality is high, but still, a copy. The issues I have are this:

#1. I did not bid on a copy. I thought I was buying an actual Electric Dreams DVD. They exist, but they are somewhat on the rare side.

#2. I am now in the posession of a pirated movie. This dosen’t bother me a huge amount, perhaps not as much as it should, but it’s still against the law.
So, I am soliciting for advice from Dopers. What should I do? Demand my $$ back?( which I plan to do in any event) Contact e-Bay? Contact the Commerce Dept? ( The seller is in Canada) Alert MGM that this guy is selling pirated copies of their movies? The seller has 19 feedbacks, all positive, so it is a bit of a suprise that he’s selling pirated movies, you’d think someone would have noticed by now.

2

Sure, do all of them. Ebay will certainly want to know that someone is using their system to break copyright.

3

These guys are great.

http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

4

Go read the auction again. It’s probably spelled out somewhere in there that he was selling a VCD.

5

A: No, it didn’t, it clearly said DVD

B: I didn’t get a VCD, I got a pirated DVD.

6

I have gotten copies before too. It does tick you off when you receive it thinking that you are buying the real deal only to find out it’s not. And one that hubby got wasn’t even a decent copy, yet they continue to sell. Here is a thread to check out. This thread is full of advice. Hope it helps.

7

Mention it in the feedback, at the very least.

8

There are a number of steps to take that can be valuable; the thread mentioned lists many of them. (Report it to eBay, contact the rights owner if available (although I don’t see MGM listed, they may wish to know about someone selling pirated copies of their stuff), etc.) I would also request a refund, but it may be worthwhile simply to point out that you received a copy and due to the illegality of such, you would like a refund; in other words, be sickeningly sweet about it, as much as the other guy may not deserve it. (I’ve heard of too many cases where eBay participants get angry at each other and it invariably ends without satisfaction on either side; this part is very much only my opinion though.)

However, you mention that the guy has 19 positive feedbacks. Yes, he does, but in this case, look at his profile and feedback a bit more closely.

  1. His location says Toronto, underneath it says United States, but in the right hand box, it says Canada. While he could still be legitimate, it’s a red flag that would be suspicious in combination with other factors. Why is it not consistent?

  2. Six private auctions on May 8, all to sellers with 1 or 2 feedback? Strange. Red flag.

  3. The guy has sold more than 20 copies of the same DVD in the past few weeks. Red flag.

  4. One feedback comment on the seller’s profile stating that the end of movie would not play, although positive, set off a red flag. It may be a positive, but it’s sure a weak one.

  5. The auction clearly shows a stock picture of the item. Again, many legitimate sellers use stock pictures, but in combination with other factors, this could be a red flag.

  6. 0 region DVD? Another red flag that wouldn’t be enough to turn me away in and of itself, but might be suspicious in combination with other factors.

Sorry for the slight tangent, but frankly, his feedback may be all positive, but there’s certainly something rotten going on there. Other people may have noticed and simply not left feedback in order to avoid a retaliatory neg, or maybe none of the authorities have been able to do anything yet, or whatever – nobody really knows.

I hope everything does go well for you though! Good luck!

9

My husband bought a CD of ‘The Frantics’ on Ebay. He even sent a question to the seller to make sure it was genuine, and not a ripped copy. He asked what was printed on the disc. He was specific.

Of course, the seller lied. And when the disc arrived, it was obviously a ripped copy (made from an LP, complete with pops and hisses). When he complained, he got no reply. Then the seller set his feedback ‘private’.

End result: we were out a LOT of money, and left with a pirated, not even good quality, copy.

Ebay was absolutely no help to us at all.

Caveat Emptor and pull out all the stops.

10

Are you a Lenny von Dohlen fan or a Virginia Madsen fan?

11

I’d contact the American authorities, but if the package was mailed from Canada, I’d also notify the Canadian agency in charge of anti-piracy enforcement. (Probably the RCMP in the area where the package was postmarked.) I’d also let eBay know.

Robin

12

The same thing happened to me; I bought a DVD that was sold as ‘genuine original boxed shrinkwrapped copy’ or some such - when it turned up, the ‘shrinkwrap’ was a resealable sandwich bag. Oddly enough, the inlay seemed to be genuine, or at least a very good copy on glossy paper etc (It may be that the empty case was stolen from a shop display) - the DVD inside was very obviously a home-recorded one and the movie itself was terrible quality with very poor sound, resolution and loads of artifacts/dropped frames.

The seller didn’t respond to my emails (not surprisingly) and PayPal wouldn’t reverse the charge (they said that because I had received something in return for my money, I hadn’t been defrauded) Ebay would have refunded me about 5% of the price (which I couldn’t be bothered claiming).

In the end, I wrote it down to experience; now, what I always do is:
-Only buy media products from sellers with copious relevant feedback.
-Always leave feedback to the effect “this DVD is the genuine article” - to assist other potential buyers.

13

Virginia Madsen, of course. RRRROWL!

14

You’ve got to be kidding. A resealable sandwich bag? Boy if that don’t take the cake, I don’t know what does.

15

My friend gave away all of the copies of one of his films as screeners. Since he’s not talking to the distributor (his partner is handling those dealings), he occasionally buys tapes back so he has copies on-hand. He got one from half.ebay, and it’s a bootleg. How’s that? Buying a bootleg of your own film! I’ve forwarded Monkeypants’s link to him.

16

Not that it would have been any better if the seller had put it through a heatshink tunnel - when all is said and done, the guy sent me a pirate copy when he had sold me the real thing; I’d have been just as miffed if it had been a high-quality pirate copy.

17

[mini-hijack]
ooo, how timely! thanks for the site – i’ve been wondering whom to inform about a scammer e-mail i just got at work yesterday. (WARNING! somebody purporting to be “U.S. Bank” (wtf?) seems to be trying for identify theft with legal-sounding mumbo jumbo).
[/mini-hijack]

18

If it came to you via the USPS don’t forget you can ding him for mail fraud, too.

19

What is the deal with private auctions? I am new to e-bay and have bidded in about 10 autions (all auction were for the same playstation title). I have obviously yet to bag myself a copy of this game and each time by a margin of 50p or so.
So the last auction went “private” right at the end then there was a notice saying the buyer could not contact the seller.
I got an email saying I had been given a 2nd chance to bid, but I found this out too late.
The seller has since restarted another auction on the same item (same pic background) and it is a private auction.
I am currently leading the bidding again.
So why did it go private? Did this guy feel he was not getting enough money for the item and bid on it himself to see what the top level offer was so he could re-auction and push the price to that level?
Private auctions feel dodgy to me, is there ever a legit reason for them?
The seller has 100% positive with 128 comments.