Bootleg DVD purchased on Ebay. What to do now?
 

Ok, before anybody rips on me for not looking at the guys feedback he has a 906 rating and sells pirated DVD's. WTF!?!

Auction is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3378838532

So now I have a bootleg of Underworld which I could have probably made myself. What do I do to get this guy?

Email him first and ask for my money back?
Email Ebay?
Try to reverse the charges on Paypal and have them suspend my account?
Take the $11.99 charge like a real man and do nothing?

Suggestions?

You can email eBay but I doubt they would take any series action.

The auction page doesn't mention anything that implies it's a bootleg; no region 0 stuff, no dvd-9 logo on the cover. About the only thing that was suspicious was the $9.99 price (too good to be true).

Good luck.

Call the MPAA.

818-995-6600.

Lateralus: email him and ask for your money back. i've done this before when i bought a bootleg dvd on ebay and the seller refunded my money, although it does depend on the seller. good luck though. try to talk to the seller first before taking action.

Kat

And make sure he/she refunds you on ALL shipping.

and still call the MPAA number.

1-800-nocopys or email them at [email protected]

People like this deserve to be shutdown.

Got these guidelines off of an ebay community board:

(1)File a chargeback through Paypal (if used). When filing the chargeback, make sure you quote the Paypal User Agreement that the seller is in violation of:
Your Information and your activities (including your payments and receipt of payments) through our Service shall not: (a) be false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items; ... (e) infringe on any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other property rights or rights of publicity or privacy;


(2)If Paypal denies your chargeback, you can then file a chargeback through your credit card company. It is important to file through Paypal first if you used Paypal. Failure to do so can cause you to loose your Paypal account.


(3)Make sure you file an online fraud report with eBay after 30 days through the following link: http://crs.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayisapi.dll?crsstartpage


(4)File a mail fraud report through the United Postal Service: http://www.framed.usps.com/postalins...dComplaint.htm


(5)File a fraud report with the National Fraud Information Center: http://63.222.159.194/repoform.htm


(6)File a fraud report with the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center: http://www.ifccfbi.gov/cf1.asp


(7)See if the Copyright holder is a member of eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO): http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html. If they are a member follow the instructions for reporting in the appropriate "About Me" page.


(8)Notify the Motion Picture Association of America at [email protected]. Or call 1-800-NO-COPYS


(9)Finally, leave appropriate feedback for the seller.

I would at least do 1-3 of what Tony posted. However, before you do that, contact the seller and confront him. Tell him you know it's a bootleg/copy and that you'd like your money refunded. I bought a DVD once, and when it arrived it was a DVD-R copy. I wrote to the seller and quoted him the section of the eBay guidelines that prohibit selling material on CD-R/DVD-R discs and demanded a refund or else I would file fraud complaints with eBay. He replied promptly, refunded all my money (including shipping), and said I could keep the disc. No fuss, no muss.

What's weird is that the seller has feed back that says "even though it was a copy..." right on the first page.

I think it is an unacceptable practice. Especially since he paraded it as a genuine copy.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tanman
I think it is an unacceptable practice. Especially since he paraded it as a genuine copy.

---

Which is why I would nail him to the wall. I'm weird, I could understand if it was something that hasn't been released on DVD [like a Star Wars boot -- not that it's alright], but to pawn something off or be vague about a boot is, in my book, wrong. If you know what you're getting into, that's not a problem. But this was misrepresented.

And, the number I posted is a direct number for the MPAA that I was given when I had trouble..

Thanks for the replies! His user rating really pisses me off! Look at all the stupid people giving him good feedback even though they got a crappy pirated disk! As a matter of fact even since I posted this thread he has gotten 13 more positive reviews. Ugh, I'm annoyed big time at this.

Honestly, with the price points, the quanitity available, and the feedback (some of which is negative specifically stating that the DVDs were pirated), this was a rather obvious bootleg DVD.

Some of the larger volume sellers of HTF boots do many things in their auction (short of stating it openly) to show that thier item is pirated, so their is a mutual unspoken understanding.

This auction reads like one of those.

There is a good chance that the others that bought similar DVDs for the low prices he has coupled with the low shipping, may have known what they were really getting and expected it.

Everything the previous poster stated is correct, regarding getting your money back.

The best thing to do is to contact the seller, and ask to send the item back for a full refund. 90% of the time, they will comply.

Good luck!

I would be very careful about doing this, as it usually will result in your account frozen. If you do do this, make sure your account is empty and you don't plan on using it again.

Obvious? I really don't think so.

1. Price + Quantity. No where does he state that this is a 'new, sealed' DVD. I assumed this was former rental stock. Blockbusters, etc. around the country will have hundreds of these available for $10 in a matter of a week or two. Is it so unusual to have 19 for $10 each in an auction?

2. Feedback. He's been selling for over a year, has a 932 feedback rating with 98.6% positives. 13 negatives against over 900 positives doesn't raise any warning flags for me.

This auction didn't have any of the usual warning signs as far as I'm concerned. Sellers like this make me sick... and it's a main reason that many people are afraid to buy over e-mail. Lateralus should do everything in his power to not only get his money back, but to make sure that eBay and everyone else is aware of what is being sold.

You know what's really sad though, if Lateralus left this seller negative feedback:

1. You have an 80 or so letter limit.

2. The "seller" can leave him negative feeback messing up Lateralus' feedback when the seller was in the wrong and eBay will do NOTHING to correct it.

Or if you really want to get his goat, keep an eye on his future auctions. Dont bid (obviously), but send an email to anyone bidding on them, and tell them about his bootlegs, suggest they retract their bid if he cant provide proof the item is legit. Might not stop him, but seriously make a mess on his end, having alot of bidders asking direct questions about his merchandise.
Will take a bit of your time, but hey if your steamed, have at it.

fitzcain -- Oddly enough, that behavior is more likely to get Lateralus kicked off eBay rather than the bootleg seller. eBay's rules prohibit you from trying to interfere in another seller's auctions like that.

If the seller (or the people who were e-mailed) contact eBay with proof, Lateralus would be suspended immediately.

I think that could be avoided if I use another email address other than my Ebay one.

And like what was said before I would like to leave him negative feedback but I don't want my perfect feedback to be ruined by this jerkwad.

Also about the auction being an "obvious" bootleg, I have over 100 successful eBay auctions and I have never been bitten before. I purchased this item on Jan 19th and there were no negative feedbacks that said he sold bootlegs just a couple "misunderstandings" And with a 900+ feedback I know not every auction could be perfect, besides I buy most of my DVD's off of eBay for $9.99 or under and this did not seem any different to me.

Edit -- And look at all these idiots that purchased the same DVD I did and they are giving him positive feedback. :mad:

Man, that is so wrong what this seller is trying to pull. Especially seeing as his auction makes it look like a R1 DVD, not a boot. Let us know how it turns out.

Rouge is right also, you'll get screwed in the feedback trade off it goes down like that (unless he has already posted Positive f/b for you?)

Ok, granted, that is a risk, but as stated, using a different email, like a new acct would probably suffice. And it isnt really interfering really (guess on how you look at it, I suppose), you are just giving them all the information to make an informed decision. If they decide to withdraw their bid, they did it, not you.
And if this guy is selling bootlegs, I dont think he is going to want to defend himself and act the injured party, he is going to want the problem to go away. This was meant as a last ditch effort, really, after you have gone through all other channels.

What others have suggested about starting with him, asking firmly for a FULL refund, threatening bootleg laws, etc. He most likely will comply. Then if that dont work onto to paypal, federal authorities (probably work better than my first suggestion), etc. are all sound ideas, and should be explored fully first.

I meant this more if this guy gets away with it, and no one seems to care, and you are left holding a bootleg.

Yeah, this does seem really shaddy. Just looking at his feedback rating you see.

"fast shipping, sealed, but dvd appeared to be a copy...plays perfect "
"Not What I expected Product WIse, But it works!!"
"Even though it was a copy, it arrived quick and plays fine w/ all spec feat's B"
"MOVIES ARE COPIES BUT WORK FINE. QUICK SHIPPING. WORTH THE $$$ THANKS "
"fairly satisfied with item. dvd was a burned copy. fast shipping!!! "

And what's wrong is that all of those people left positive feedback for him. Definately need to nail this guy.

If you want to really screw him over, instead of just getting an account to send warnings, use the account to win every single one of his auctions. This results in him getting charged eBay fees that add up to a lot. No other people will end up with bootlegs either. Then you can give negative feedback to every single one of the auctions you won. That will drop his ratings down a bit.

(puts pinky to lip)

Be careful. If he suspects this, and reports it to eBay, eBay can easily trace the IP address of the offenders, and if they are indeed the same (and traceable back to his original ID), suspension is immediate. Also, the negatives would be removed (and would be coming from a Zero feedback buyer anyway, holding little validity).

Once the IP address is blacklisted, no eBay ID will be able to be created from that computer again.

It would have to be done from several alternate computers to be pulled off (but the feedback would still be from (0) FB IDs).

If i were you, i would work on getting your money back, and go through ebay's fraud center (if that does anything)....do what you can, i.e. filing complaints through the links i posted previously. Trying to file a ton of negatives would be risky to your ebay account, since ebay does almost nothing to stop bootlegs on their site, but would suspend you in a second. Afterwards, if whether you get your money back or not, give him a negative, and hope that other buyers will check his feedback and think twice. Until ebay starts acting against bootleggers, and until the people who are ok with buying copies stop buying, this will continue, regardless of how many negatives the guy gets. Good luck with your refund!!