Need some ebay advice

[Cyclone42]

I purchased a DVD of an older movie as a gift for a relative. I naturally expected an original movie, but what I got was an obviously bootlegged copy, and a bad one at that. The DVD itself was a DVD-R obviously printed with an inkjet printer, as was the DVD cover. The DVD itself also refuses to play in some DVD players, and has problems with DVD players that will play it.

I sent a message to the person I purchased the movie from, who replied by first insisting that it was not a "bootleg", then admitting that it was by saying "We transfer it from our personal 16mm print of this movie." As far as I know copyright law, if you own a copy of a movie in, say, 16mm, you can transfer a copy of that movie to, say, DVD for your own use, but it would be illegal to sell that copy.

I filed negative feedback against this individual, naturally, but then he or she filed negative feedback against me. I had never filed negative feedback against someone on ebay before, so I discovered that this is a common blackmail trick to get you to withdraw the negative feedback. I am refusing to withdraw the negative feedback I filed, but to do so I am having to sacrifice my own ebay rating a bit. I have actually gotten a couple of messages from other people on ebay thanking me for doing this, but nonetheless this is something that I really shouldn't have to do.

I sent a message to ebay notifying them about this, but so far all I got back was an automated reply. I am keeping the bootleg copy of the movie, to keep my options open. I really don't know what to do at this point. I'd like to file copyright violation charges against this person, but I wouldn't know how to do that.

Any advice would be appreciated. I have a feeling that this person has formed a whole ebay business around copying movies from older formats like 16mm and selling the cheap copies. I'd like to see that shut down.

 

[Angie]

I don't know that they'll do anything, but try filing a claim with the Internet Crime Complaint Center:

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

 

[herbicide]

Ebay will get back to you if you filed a complaint about the seller. It may take a day or two. They do not take these scams lightly.

 

[Bobber]

You could also contact the Federal Trade Commission.

 

[Scott34]

As for your purchase you may just have to deal with the lost of money you gave for the movie. But Ebay will definitely get back to you. They will more than likely suspend the person from using ebay or they may even total ban him.

My brothers in-laws had a scam put on them. They purchased a digital camera and the people used the box of the camera but put rocks in the box to make it feel like they got something. They did report these people to ebay and they actually got banned from using ebay again.

 

[crash_zone]

I think they are changing things so that buyers won't receive feedback, and only sellers will (part of the uproar)

 

[bferin]

Here's a good website. Definitely turn them in

U.S. Copyright Office - Stopping Copyright Infringement

Go about halfway down the page, you'll get to some information on how to file.

• Complainants may contact their local FBI field office, and the complaint will be properly referred.
• A complaint may be filed online at the Internet Crime Complaint CenterInternet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and, again, it will be properly routed.
• Suspected criminal activity of any nature may be reported online at https://tips.fbi.gov and will be routed accordingly.

 

[brianhos]

I like the buyer feedback. I rarely sell anything, but when I do it is usually something big. I know people rarely bid on big thing from a person with no feedback.

 

[Scott34]

I perosnally would never make a big puchase without the buyer having good feedback. Just to big of risk to take on getting burned.

 

[ajk4st8]

I got hosed on some internet DVD..... they wouldnt pay me back but Wells Fargo took care of it for me.

 

[cytech]

I would also make sure that you dispute the charge with your CC company or paypal.
I don't see for any reason that you can't atleast get your money back.

 

[jumbopackage]

I always pay via paypal and a credit card and if paypal doesn't take care of me, my credit card company does.

Just file a complaint with e-bay and they'll get on it eventually.

 

[Aldude505]

If you did pay by paypal you are insured...up to like $2000 or something like that...if you dispute a claim on eBay they will almost always send you to Paypal just because they are very good at dispute claims. If you escalate it to a Paypal dispute the seller has 30 days to rectify his/her mistake otherwise Paypal will give you your money back and go after them. As for the illegal bootlegged copy, im not saying I don't do it, but I certainly don't sell them on eBay. Thats really gutsy for them to do, and if they are that stupid they diserve to get caught. Good job on standing up for what you know is right by the way!!!

 

[cyadict]

I got burnt by a guy selling a Dyson vacuum. I paid for the vacuum using Paypal..but never got the vacuum. The guy had a perfect feedback rating too. It took a while..somthing like 2 months..but I finally got my money back from Paypal. I still email the guy just to be a pain in the butt!!

 

[akclone]

Would you post a link to the item?

 

[4VR4CY]

I bought an item that never got sent to me. I disputed it through Paypal b/c the person was already shut down on eBay. Paypal took care of me pretty quickly.

 

[Arkansas Cyclone]

I got burnt by a guy selling a Dyson vacuum. I paid for the vacuum using Paypal..but never got the vacuum. The guy had a perfect feedback rating too. It took a while..somthing like 2 months..but I finally got my money back from Paypal. I still email the guy just to be a pain in the butt!!

yeah, apparently I'm about to get burned on a transaction. Auction ended January 28th and I haven't seen anything yet. I've sent 3 responses with no replies so I'm guessing I'm about to hand out my first negative feedback (and probably get the same in return).

Odd thing is that I don't think he ever completed the paypal transaction (according to paypal). This one has been a real odd one to say the least.

 

[c'mon tank]

I bought golf irons on Ebay. They were the new R7 "tour preferred" model. They were only $450 so I could not pass them up. I got the box the next week and they were not the "tour preferred" model. They looked almost the same. I notified the seller and it took three more weeks before the right clubs came. I just wonder how many times this scam has worked for this guy???

 

[Cydar]

We do a lot of selling on ebay. Whenever we do not receive payment we use the dispute console to open a item dispute on the auction. That way we can recover our final value fees for an unpaid item.

As a buyer you can use the dispute console if you are having problems with a purchase. You can find the link on the ebay site map. You will have to sign into your account before you can start the item dispute.

Here's the link to the site map. The link for the dispute console is at the bottom of the site map page:

SITE MAP LINK

If you are buying stuff on ebay you should definitely have a paypal account. They normally back the buyer if anything should go wrong. I've heard about too many people pay with a check or money order and not receive their items.

 

[jumbopackage]

I bought golf irons on Ebay. They were the new R7 "tour preferred" model. They were only $450 so I could not pass them up. I got the box the next week and they were not the "tour preferred" model. They looked almost the same. I notified the seller and it took three more weeks before the right clubs came. I just wonder how many times this scam has worked for this guy???

I NEVER buy new clubs from random sellers on E-bay. I'd say something like 90% of them are probably fake. There are only a few places (rockbottomgolf for instance) that are legit. Pretty much everyone else is selling knockoffs from China. Some of them look pretty realistic, and it's really hard to sort out the fake ones from the real ones.

If you're buying taylormade stuff, just wait a year or two when they introduce the latest and greatest models and the price of their "last year stuff" (which is sometimes current year stuff) comes wayyy down. It's one of the reasons I won't buy their clubs new anymore, they just don't hold value.

If you are going to buy new clubs, make sure you get the serial #s from them, and verify them with the manufacturer before bidding on them.