Okay, if you've been reading, you know that I've spent too much money on eBay in the past two or three months, and you know I've had some problems with plants being shipping too late in the season, or just being shipped bad plants, or whatever.
Okay, I'm having another problem and would like to hear opinions from others. I bid on Star Trek Voyager seasons 1 and 7. Not seasons 1 thru 7, but just the first one and the last one. I thought that was an odd combination to have in an auction, but I bid on it anyway. I stopped bidding at seventeen dollars, and someone else won.
I guess the someone else didn't really want it, and I got a second chance offer. So I bought two seasons of Voyager for seventeen dollars plus three dollars shipping. And it arrived two or three days later, sooner than I expected.
The package was smaller than I expected. I've seen Voyager seasons before, and they are in plastic things that take up space. These were in cardboard boxes that had the same artwork.
So that was odd. Either I got really nice looking bootlegs, or there's some sort of new "green" packaging that I wasn't aware of.
I asked the seller about it. Seller didn't know.
I did stuff like Google--Star Trek Voyager cardboard box. I found a lot of unhappy people talking about bootleg copies of Voyager. Not bootleg copies in general, bootleg copies of Voyager in particular, mostly on Amazon. Like, most, if not all, Voyager for sale on Amazon turn out to be fake.
I thought at first I had somehow lucked out and either got a really good fake, or maybe the real disks in a fake box? The first disk was just fine.
Only the second disk, not so much.
Third, fourth, and fifth disks also have problems.
But, I have this used divx player, and I can still watch most of them.
So now I have to decide what to do about feedback on eBay.
Now, I don't really think that this particular seller is a crook. I don't think that seller has boxes and boxes of fake dvds to sell. I haven't seen anything else like this in the past month or so, and I didn't find anything like that listed now. Also, seller would refund my money (shipping was not discussed).
I don't really think that I'll take the refund. Someone, probably me or the seller, is going to get stuck with this copy. I don't think that either of us deserves to be out money, much less any more money for return postage. I at least have the divx player so that I can watch most of the disks.
Still, I think that I should report the bootleg dvds, at least in feedback. I think, just in case I'm wrong and seller has more bootleg Voyager to sell later, I should warn buyers. I don't want to leave negative feedback for someone who a.) probably didn't do this on purpose, and b.) would offer a refund. But I'm also thinking that no one reads the positive feedback, except the seller. Buyers just look at the number of positive feedback and then go read the negative and maybe the neutral.
I'm thinking of leaving neutral feedback, saying it is bootleg, but then giving seller high marks and a nice comment about the shipping.
What do you think I should do?
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8 comments:
I think that is a good compromise to the situation with the Voyager DVDs.
It gives people a heads up without slamming the seller.
I have limited experience with buying things on line. I do with Amazon.com because they are secure and careful with my info. I have had three different bad experiences with PayPal, who supposedly guarantees that you get your money back if items are not delivered, but got no satisfaction when things paid for never showed up. They did not sanction the seller in anyway, and had a "meh" attitude about taking my money and not backing their promise to refund if items were not delivered.
Grumble. Needless to say, we do not use PayPal anymore.
That's awful. We don't buy anything online without Paypal. And I can't imagine giving up online spending either. I do so like being able to buy something without having to worry if it's safe to send a seller my credit card info.
I deleted this and fixed it due to an error. Here it is:
f the seller has offered a refund of the "keep the discs and the money" type, and is apologetic and does not seem to know that these were bootlegs, I'd actually leave a positive feedback.
As an eBay seller, I think that if the seller does everything they can to set things right AND did not knowingly deceive, it should be possible to get a positive feedback.
And yes in situations where the buyer seemed to be unhappy, I just refunded the payment and told the buyer to keep the item.
Regardless of neutral or positive feedback, I'd still find a way to mention that it was a bootleg.
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I've had no bad experiences with PayPal in using it for many years, but I have heard of many others who do, so I consider myself lucky.
Also.... just about any DVD of any TV show like this (including big mainsream productions like any "Star Trek") should have "Detailed item info" in the listing, along with the UPC code and all.
Did these Voyager's have this? With, perhaps, a UPC code in the listing that was not actually on the product? If so, the seller was being deceptive.
Out of fairness to PayPal, I should mention that all of the purchases involved were made with my approval by my son and the sellers were other kids. I have never had a problem with buying from dealers or adults.
I don't see any mention of detailed info of UPC codes on the listing. There was a photo front and back view of the items I received.
OK, so the seller did not misrepresent them as "Standard" DVD sets by including the default item descriptions that eBay suggests. And they used photos..... that keeps me leaning toward suggesting a positive feedback.
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