Seimfeld anyone? Ebay rip off or not?

[Monkeyfucker]

I posted about this a while ago. Quick refresher as a reminder.

I was looking up Seinfeld on ebay one day. Long story short, seen a box set £40 quid all in, original dvds. Was in a rush, stuck a bid on to come home and find I won the bid. I really didnt spend a lot of time looking at the advertisement but I did see the words original, and think what a smashing deal it was.

So the boxset arrived, and I received this



It was funny at the time, because It actually took me 24 hours to notice the spelling mistake. I realised before I received them they were copies, and thought, well it's my own fault eh. We all laughed and that was great.

Now they are brilliant copies with no extras. Its taken me a couple of months to wade through the discs, and I would say maybe 7 out of 28 dont work. This has got up my goat to the point where I lost the plot and emailed the seller (who doesnt speak english too well )

So to show the whole picture , here are the communicados.

My first message

These discs are FALSELY advertised. You advertise them as ORIGINALS. Incorrect. There is a mis spelling in the name - it is spelt Seinfeld, NOT SEIMFELD so it is OBVIOUS they are copies. Also, there is no extras included on the discs. These are clerarly poor copies, in a pathetic home made box with mispellings all over them. I am disgusted at your service and you have falsely advertised. I have a good mind to report you to ebay. Free gift? What was that, the spelling mistake? I am one UNSATISFIED customer. This is the worst £37.98 I have spent in my life and I feel utterly cheated. This was suposed to be a christmas present, and now I am left with nothing for this person. I cant give them pathetic tacky copies.I Await your response.

Response

hi
thanks for letting me know, i am sorry for such unhappy things happened between us,  ur problem has been taken into consideration seriously, i can promise u that i will give u a satisfied result, firstly my apologise, it is my inattention  on the spelling,for the package i am sorry , u know i do dispatch it in good condition, but item in transit is out of my control, right? i know as a present especially for xmas,  of couse we alll wish it is perfect, however the most importan is our wishes, right? please give my apologise to ur friends, could u kind enough to firtsly play it, actually it is worth to own such item at bargain price, right? in this case i would like to give u some compenstaion, will u accept this?
ur understading and cooperation is much appreciated.
merry xmas
regards

My reply

nothing , its christmas and i think fuck it

New year i get this from them

hi
i am sorry to bother u, firstly i apologise for not keep u informed all the time, are they okay?
wish u have a nice holiday
regards

Response - me starting to lose the plot

WHAT? Are what ok? Are you referring to the FAKE seinfeld discs? If so, read my original message I sent. You are FALSELY selling discs as originals when they are poor copies. Half the discs dont even work. And I would like to know what you are douing about this. If you do not act quickly, I will report you to ebay. This is false advertising under the trade Descriptions Act - ITEM IS NOT AS DESCRIBED
This has gone on long enough.

Their reply

hi
thanks for ur cooperation, i am sorry for all the trouble, of course my discs are not copy, they are aisa version , here i have  a suggestion, could u kind enough to try them on other devices such as pc/multi region player, if porblem still remians, please let me know, i will give u a satisfied result, ur understanding and cooperation is much appreciated have a nice day regards

My reply really fucking losing it now

Hello

The discs are copies. Seinfeld is universal. They do not spell it differently in another company. You sold me fake copies under the pretence of them being originals - im not completely stupid.
I have the same problems with the discs whether it is on dvd player or pc. BEsides, that shouldnt matter, you advertised the discs as DVDS not computer discs
Laura

Their last response

hi
thanks for ur cooperation  i am sorry for all the trouble,  u may have some msiunderstanding here, there is no good for me to offened u,right?
why i keep u infomred all the time, i really wish to solve ur porblem, and i apologise for my inattention, u know it was dispatched from the supplier, and that is midseason , thus there might be ,,,,,,,,,,,
here i would like to give u 10GBP as compensation,will u accept this. whther u accpet it or not please let me know, i will keep u informed till we get a satisfied result,
have  a nice day
regards

Now, i know thats a lot, but I think it is only fair to get the whole picture to be able to help me. Had the discs all worked perfectly and been beezer copies, i wouldnt have cared a shit and would have wrote it off. Now its wound me up that much - firstly the sellers denial at any fault, and secondly their excruciating inability to speak english in a way that makes complete sense. The more they have tried to fob me off (Seimfeld - they are Asian versions - fuck off idiot) and the more silly excuses they throw, the more annyoed i get.

The advertisement is misleading. It states "All our DVDs are brand new and sealed original genuine DVDs"  . They didnt show a picture of the boxset itself, just some generic picture of Seinfeld - again I was in a rush. But the point is it said original discs. And am I not right? Aren't we buying through ebay to protect ourselves as consumers? Isn't that the whole point? If they had been upfront and sold them as copies, then I would not have any right to be angry

Should I just shut my bake, take the tenner and watch my shoddy copies? Im so annoyed about it now, I cant see it objectively. And if someone can tell me what he fuck my misunderstanding is, then christ , let me know.

How the gibbons does one add a poll in here?

Trade Desctiptions Act  says
The Act makes it an offence to:
    *Apply a false or misleading description to goods (e.g. by writing it down, making a verbal statement or by turning back a car's odometer); or
    *Supply or offer to supply goods to which a false or misleading trade description is applied. A person exposing goods for supply (e.g. in a shop) or having them in his possession for supply (e.g. in a storeroom) is deemed to offer to supply them for the purposes of the Act.

[Beck]

A tenner? Sod that. You're protected by eBay with this sort of thing (I think...probably), so do a bit of threatening, use some capital letters and push him 'til you get at least yer £40 back.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

If something seem too good to be true, it probably is.

I'd cut my losses and download the episodes that don't work on the disk.

[jutl]

It seems it's a Chinese release:

http://www.ioffer.com/i/Seimfeld-season-1-9-32DVDs-33880886

...so it could be an unlicensed knock-off or it could be a legit knock-down edition released to compete with the knock-offs (something which big media is doing more and more in the territories where they cannot get law enforcement to close down pirates). The 'Seimfeld' misspelling isn't a clincher either way - it could be a mistake by pirates or a solution by the licensed manufacturers for some regionalisation issue. Perhaps 'Seinfeld' is difficult for Chinese speakers to say, or perhaps it means something obscene, like cum-funnel.

[bennett]

It seems it's a Chinese release:

http://www.ioffer.com/i/Seimfeld-season-1-9-32DVDs-33880886

...so it could be an unlicensed knock-off or it could be a legit knock-down edition released to compete with the knock-offs (something which big media is doing more and more in the territories where they cannot get law enforcement to close down pirates). The 'Seimfeld' misspelling isn't a clincher either way - it could be a mistake by pirates or a solution by the licensed manufacturers for some regionalisation issue. Perhaps 'Seinfeld' is difficult for Chinese speakers to say, or perhaps it means something obscene, like cum-funnel.

quite.  I visited provincial China a couple of years back and came back with a handful of official DVDs with hilarious spelling mistakes on them purely for the humour.  Things like 'Be Cod' instead of 'Be Cool' etc.  They were fully legitimate versions (I bought a couple of them from a WB store).  So you've probably a totally legitimate Asian version. 

[The Boston Crab]

Laura, I think I mentioned this a while ago but I've seen that exact box set in DVD shops in China. I really liked the caricatures on the cover, I almost got it myself but I already got a bunch of them as separate season sets. The sad truth is that they'll just be downloaded copies of the show burned to shit DVDs. When I go DVD shopping there, I fully expect that 25% just won't work when I get them home. It gets to the point where whenever I go shopping I take back a load and they 'get me another copy in twenty minutes' (which means calling their mate at home to burn what you need and bike over...no joke). I won't make it worse by telling you how much they are in the shops there but what I'd do is just download and burn the episodes you need and stick em in the box. If I haven't made it clear enough: don't ever buy DVDs online from China.

As for the mis-spellings, when I get back there and check out some of my other boxsets I'll tell you some absolutely hilarious examples of Chinglish I've seen. DVDs are the very best for it.

Edit: bennet, unless you paid 300 RMB for them, they're not genuine, doesn't matter where they're sold! Copyright law is enforced once a year in some publicity drive thing, the pigs let the shops know when they're coming, they put the stock away, close up for a day and pay them off. Next day, back to normal..

[bennett]

Edit: bennet, unless you paid 300 RMB for them, they're not genuine, doesn't matter where they're sold! Copyright law is enforced once a year in some publicity drive thing, the pigs let the shops know when they're coming, they put the stock away, close up for a day and pay them off. Next day, back to normal..

Fair enough - they all work fine and have full special features etc, so I figured they must be genuine, especially the ones i bought from WB.  Even the big shops sell knock offs?  That's mad.

And they weren't even close to 300RMB...

[The Boston Crab]

You can get DVD9s which are better quality and have all special features, were they about 12-20 RMB per disc? DVD5 is usually about 4-8 RMB.

I never even knew there was a distinction until I lived there...

[buntyman]

Thanks for the chuckle Monkeyfucker, you often get misspellings on these fake asian box sets but 'Seimfeld' is the most hilariously blatant one i've seen. I would certainly push for your money back if they're shit copies that don't work. These dodgy sellers don't stick around long, they often change their ebay names and vanish for ever more so i'd certainly recommend taking some action while you can. E-mail him once more to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that you want a full refund for his shit goods and if you don't get a satisfactory response, take action with ebay/paypal.
I've bought full sets of dodgy asian Oz and Curb Your Enthusiasm knock-offs and I must say, I was very pleased with them. The final season of Oz is a transfer from episodes taped off the tv but other than that, they're excellent copies of the original HBO dvds, special features intact and everything. It's a bit of a lottery though i'm sure, so I wouldn't recommend anyone forks out more that £20 for any of them.
Good luck

[The Boston Crab]

Something else I'm amazed about is that they even get them out the country. When I've tried to post DVDs home, you have to actually take everything to the Post Office and wrap it there so they see what you're sending, they wouldn't let me send pirate stuff. Ditto, clothes, they're pretty tight on this kind of thing, it's usually just within the country that they don't give a Chinese shite, to coin a phrase.

[bennett]

You can get DVD9s which are better quality and have all special features, were they about 12-20 RMB per disc? DVD5 is usually about 4-8 RMB.

I never even knew there was a distinction until I lived there...

yeah, that's right.  I figured they were the proper ones and the cheaper ones where the rip offs.  You live and learn.

I was in Suzhou for two weeks, staying with a friend who was teaching English as a foreign language.  Pure culture shock but great fun.

[The Boston Crab]

Well, it makes no difference, they're perfect quality. All the DVD9s I boutgh three years ago still work perfectly, some of the 5s are a bit hit-and-miss by now, might be my shonky Chinese DVd player though!

Suzhou's beautiful, isn't it? What a great place to go and visit a mate. I'm in Wuhan, a sprawling industrial monster with a very rural mentality. Amazing place to live because it's such a combination of 'backwards' hick thinking and ultra-modern materialistic city slicker poseurs but it can also be an absolute frustration nightmare at times.

[Mr. Analytical]

Yeah, I got a Chinese version of Deadwood ages ago and it also came in those weird plastic sleeves.  Ditto my GF's complete Python.  They still work and are comparable to the UK and US versions but look slightly dodgy (isn't there some issue also with China being, as a matter or law, somewhat "open minded" when it comes to western copyright?).  If the discs work then I'd say at £40 they were worth it.

If they don't work then you should get a full refund.

[Cack Hen]

I ordered a USB mouse from China, and it's ridiculous. The scroll wheel makes the page spasm out when you use it, sometimes when you move the mouse in a direction, the cursor will just shoot to the edge of the screen. And to make it all the more pointless, it seems to be packed with about four different LED lights that flash and flicker constantly.

It's got 'Sony' on it, but I suspect they had little to no involvement.

[The Boston Crab]

When I went to buy a Wii in China, the guy said he would get me one in from Japan but it'd be fairly expensive because he wasn't actually stocking them. I couldn't quite believe it because they were obviously flying off the shelves everywhere. He said he was waiting for the fake Wii before he got any authentic ones in for discerning customers. I didn't even understand the concept of a fake console and I still don't quite understand his logic. Either way, here it is, the Vii, complete with fake games! 'Happy Tennis' anyone?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/11/vii-games-free-craps-indeed/

[buntyman]

Brilliant! I love the fake games aspect especially - I would have thought they'd just be made to play the normal Wii games (or copies of them), but to remake the currently existing games is bewildering. I'm going to hold off to see what Special Barry-o Galactic is like before making the purchase.

[bennett]

Suzhou's beautiful, isn't it? What a great place to go and visit a mate. I'm in Wuhan, a sprawling industrial monster with a very rural mentality. Amazing place to live because it's such a combination of 'backwards' hick thinking and ultra-modern materialistic city slicker poseurs but it can also be an absolute frustration nightmare at times.

Yeah - I got home and wanted to dig out my entire garden and turn it into a massive fishpond with little bridges and pagodas everywhere.  The place was brilliant, but after a while I got a little bored of being a walking, talking attraction (i'm 6'4") - there must be 200 locals who got their picture taken with me!  I loved it though, canals everywhere, beautiful architecture.  It was great.

[alan nagsworth]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/11/vii-games-free-craps-indeed/

Fry Egg looks enthralling, I need to get me one of these.

[buntyman]

Alacrity Golf is probably the best ever name for a game. I'm sure it'll be a big seller and the name will eventually seem as normal as Pro Evolution Soccer.

[boxofslice]

Ha Ha Ha. Should have gone to Specsavers.

[Monkeyfucker]

Thanks for the input so far. Jutl ill check that link now. To clarify . The discs were from the uk, and are advertised as region 2. The seller is in the UK, so why the moses would I have known or assumed they were giving chinese/asian/whichever ripoffs? Also kind tagger, my eye sight is perfectly fine. I read the full advertisement, and if anyone wants, i can pm a link to show the advertisement itself. I checked their feedback and it was almost 100% at that time (but since my purchase on 26 oct, they have got quite a lot of negative feedback for this type of thing since.

This is the picture they had on the advertisement.


Details from ad

All our DVDs are brand new and sealed
original genuine DVDs
Item Specifics
Region: Region 2
Format: PAL
Language: English
Package: One big nice box set
Number of discs: Unknown

There was nothing at all to indicate they were sending me cheap chinglish. Now again I stress I realise as the real hustlers say "if it's too good to be true it probably is" , but the point is they shouldnt be able to get away with this. Imagine if someone who didn't have a clue bought them for their child or family or something and didnt realise they were cheap knock offs? It just annoys me - and the attitude of the seller too . What am I misunderstanding?

Bah etc. Its just so umfair.

[The Boston Crab]

To be honest, there's no point getting wound up about it now. You won't get your money back.

What you're 'misunderstanding' is that he couldn't actually care less.

He's superficially very polite to avoid confrontation so neither of you openly loses face, it's not to be polite. Without being racist, they're a very deceptive people and have no concept of doing a stranger a disservice. It's just expected in such a cut-throat economic environment. He won't be sitting at home thinking 'Oh well done me, I burned a foreigner', he'll be thinking 'another day at the office'.

I'd walk away from it now since you still got a bunch of great DVDs, most of which work.

[Clone Army]

Or imvade China, your call.

[Monkeyfucker]

i love the soup nazi  tag! he he!

[Mindbear]

Thanks for the input so far. Jutl ill check that link now. To clarify . The discs were from the uk, and are advertised as region 2. The seller is in the UK, so why the moses would I have known or assumed they were giving chinese/asian/whichever ripoffs? Also kind tagger, my eye sight is perfectly fine. I read the full advertisement, and if anyone wants, i can pm a link to show the advertisement itself. I checked their feedback and it was almost 100% at that time (but since my purchase on 26 oct, they have got quite a lot of negative feedback for this type of thing since.

This is the picture they had on the advertisement.


Details from ad
There was nothing at all to indicate they were sending me cheap chinglish. Now again I stress I realise as the real hustlers say "if it's too good to be true it probably is" , but the point is they shouldnt be able to get away with this. Imagine if someone who didn't have a clue bought them for their child or family or something and didnt realise they were cheap knock offs? It just annoys me - and the attitude of the seller too . What am I misunderstanding?

Bah etc. Its just so umfair.

Oooh! I can help with this! I had a similar experience, but with clothes. I bought what I thought was going to be a Chloe coat, for a too good to be true £80. When I got it it was a tent of misery, and certainly NOT Chloe. Now, this seller professed to be in France, and fortunately I kept the packaging, and yes, it'd come from China. I contacted the seller and got the same bizarre use of english, constantly saying 'it is good cloth', so I reported the seller to ebay and paypal and got a full refund and put the coat in a charity shop. It's fraudulent to say you're in the UK when you're actually in China, the reason they say that is because people avoid China/Hong Kong based goods on e bay because of how often they turn out to be fake. You can say that is was fraudulent, that you didn't receive the item advertised, and the item is defective. You'll get a full refund, they'll get struck off e bay.

[The Boston Crab]

Is the Anne Robinson tag because I'm a big racist?

I can't be. Literally, some of my best friends are thieving Chinese scumbags!

[Hank_Kingsley]

I think you got off quite well, all things comsidered.

You say they're in the UK? Y'all must be able to get an address and then get some heavies from this forum to swing by and bust open some assholes.

[Cack Hen]

Oooh! I can help with this! I had a similar experience, but with clothes. I bought what I thought was going to be a Chloe coat, for a too good to be true £80. When I got it it was a tent of misery, and certainly NOT Chloe. Now, this seller professed to be in France, and fortunately I kept the packaging, and yes, it'd come from China. I contacted the seller and got the same bizarre use of english, constantly saying 'it is good cloth', so I reported the seller to ebay and paypal and got a full refund and put the coat in a charity shop. It's fraudulent to say you're in the UK when you're actually in China, the reason they say that is because people avoid China/Hong Kong based goods on e bay because of how often they turn out to be fake. You can say that is was fraudulent, that you didn't receive the item advertised, and the item is defective. You'll get a full refund, they'll get struck off e bay.

It's worth pointing out, however, that while this is good advice when dealing with fraudsters, the same system screws over honest eBayer's constantly.

The basic rules of Pay Pal are:

1. If the seller receives no payment, no action is taken
2. If the buyer receives no product, PayPal take it upon themselves to refund them from your account. Usually, they'll take it from funds in your account, but if you have no funds, your account gets restricted, stopping you from receiving money to your account. And you can't add money to your account from a bank account. And they won't remove the restriction until you pay it. Absolute fucking cretins.

But as you can imagine, people abuse this all the time, eg receive their item but just report to PayPal that they haven't and they automatically get an easy refund. It's not just fraudsters either, a lot of people get panicky that their item is late, report it not delivered and their thick as pig shit system kicks in again.

Trust me, I've severely been on the receiving end of PayPal and their wrath. Calling PayPal customer services actually made me less angry, because it's just really funny, they quite literally have no idea what PayPal even does.

[Mindbear]

I've had money taken from my account from chancers, it's awful, people who are just arseholes abusing the system to get their money back. On top of that, you get bad feedback. Bastards!

[Hank_Kingsley]

Yes, paypal is the mother of all whores. That's why you've always got to make everything is nice and registered when you send it, otherwise you haven't got a pot to piss in.

Of course, i've heard of fraudelent sellers sending empty envelopes via registered mail and using the tracking code for that as their cover story when they don't send the listed items. It can be fuckery but you've got to box clever.