Anyone heard of boxed tv series.com? (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan_Clarke]

http://boxedtvseries.com/

These prices are amazing. Too amazing. I found this banner on a well reputed site but I still can't believe it.

Anyone know anything about these guys?

 

[Tim H]

Read the FAQs. Doesn't sound legit to me.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

Thanks, Tim. After digging through the FAQ it looks like they're selling the Asian bootlegs you find on ebay. However, you notice they use the American packaging on all their pics? Sneaky.

 

[MichaelZema]

saturday was my birthday.

and my mom bought me six feet under, seasons 1-4 on this website, which had pictures of the american box art. it's a nightmare. i did not open them and am currently trying to find a shipping address to send it back. apparently they came from overseas, but they have a warehouse in NY (though i dont know the address).

to make things worse, the website is now down with this:

"Due to the question of the legitimacy of some of the sets that our shippers have in stock, we have quit taking orders and will not be taking any new orders unless we can 100% verify the legitimacy of each and every set our drop shippers send.

We appreciate your patience, but it is a very important issue to us."

i feel terrible because i know my mom meant well and doesnt know any better, but this website is terrible. anyone have an suggestions? we called the credit card company and cancelled the payment, but they can't do anything until the dvds are sent back, which we have 14 days to do. i have to sit here and wait for an e-mail since they dont have a freaKin phone number. 200 bucks down the drain if nothing is possible..

 

[MichaelZema]

btw, anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

My ass. They were selling boots, they damned well knew it, and they got caught. That FAQ was a joke. ("We don't waste money on fancy packaging" - like distributors pay for packaging or box art ads a significant amount to the cost of a DVD set. I guess they couldn't say, "We're crooks selling bootlegs" though in so many words, though.)

I suspect they advertised enough that someone from the MPAA got wind of it and slapped them with a cease and desist order among other things.

Warehouse in New York? Stupid. That puts at least part of the operation within U.S. jurisdiction, which means they don't have the same ability to dodge American law that most of these outfits do. You might try filing a complaint with the New York Attorney General's office, since I seriously doubt you're going to hear from the "customer service" dept. at Boxed TV sets.

Regards,

Joe

 

[David Rain]

Box set buyer beware.

 

[John*D]

Gotta love the amazing powers of BOOTLEGGERS!

tvshowsondvd.com had an article a while ago about DVD piracy with some tips on how to avoid these pirated DVDs and contact information for the MPAA to report bootleggers.

Here's the article:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=3608

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Thank you Google Ads. They match up advertising with websites based on keywords, so a webmaster may just have a vacant banner marked "Google Ads" and Google with rotate a series of ads that their database indicates overlaps with the site. This site was advertised via their ridiculously cheap price on all five seasons of Babylon 5 at a B5 discussion forum where I'm a moderator - and let me tell you, the guy who runs the place was not happy when he got an inkling of what these guys were all about.

Michael:

By all means contact the credit card company again, and get an e-mail address for an individual customer service agent, or the C.S. department and some kind of reference number. Then e-mail the company again and cc: the credit card folks - and request that they "reply to all" when sending any response. This will establish your good-faith attempt to contact the merchant and return the DVDs and should buy you some time with the cc company. (Who should themselves be trying to contact the merchant to mediate the dispute.) Disputing the charge was a smart move because while these guys may duck you they can't duck the credit card company if they want to get paid - which they surely do. So Visa or Mastercard or whoever is going to have to have some way of reaching them - an address, a working phone number, something. You can ask them for it. And you can pass it on the the MPAA at the address in the article above if you'd like.

Regards,

Joe

 

[MichaelZema]

thanks everyone for your replies.

i am having my mom call the credit card company tommorrow. they already stated they will contact the merchant, especially since we told them about the text on the website. the only problem at the moment is not knowing where to return the dvds. the dvds must be returned for the credit card company to take action. the credit card company said our charge was from NY, but the packaging slip says Hong Kong. I am in the process of finding the NY address with no luck.

anyway, thank you all for your help. i will keep you up to date on what eventually happens with this.

added the credit card did give us a telephone number for the NY office, but, of course, there is no answer and refers us to the web page.

-Michael

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Those Google ads are highly suspect in my experience, as they invariably lead to bootleg sites or other questionable places, especially when dealing with DVDs. For site owners, screening these ads is a full time job in itself. Unfortunately many people fall prey to them, as they show up on legitimate websites. I don't know how many times I've seen ads for pirating software, along with bootleg sources on a number of major DVD websites.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Ship them to that address by the cheapest, slowest method that will give you a reliable delivery receipt. Copy the credit card company and ask them to add the return shipping cost to the amount in dispute with the vendor. Emphasize that you are not talking about damaged or defective merchandise but out-and-out fraud here. And, again, contact the New York State Attorney General's office and find out what other steps you should take. BTW, have you opened the package and examined the contents? You should, and you should photograph the discs as this may provide evidence for the future. (There is no reason why you can't open the boxes and still return the goods. How else would you return incorrect product shipments or damaged or defective goods?) Hell, give the local FBI office a call and ask them what they think you should do.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Juan Books]

you know, if they make available stuff legitimate studios refuse to release, what's the harm?

 

[Ruz-El]

The harm is that they are stealing another persons property for personal gain. It might be easier to justify this on a p2p sharing site, but theft is theft.

It's no different from me paying a mugger $10 for the rolex you had stolen from you.

 

[Juan Books]

Actually, it is very different. How are the owners of the show losing anything if they are not selling it to begin with? At worse, the bootlegger is just reaping the profits that studios don't want.

 

[Scott Kimball]

The issue isn't what anyone has lost. There is nothing in copyright law that says an entity must lose something of value in order to be infringed upon.

There is always the future or potential value of a future release. Bootlegs dilute the market, and impact possible future earnings - not to mention "diluting the brand."

This thread is leading into dangerous territory.

-Scott

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

No they are not, and if you can't understand why, perhaps you don't belong here.

There are a multitude of reasons why a studio may not release a certain product, "not wanting" profits isn't one of them. P2P is no excuse either, it is still outright theft.

 

[Ruz-El]

Agreed, Theft is theft. the only arguments I can sort of understand with P2P is, a guy records a concert, put's up MP3's for people to download for free. The guy's recording don't stem from the musicians property, ie master tapes. I still don't agree with it (with the exception of hippy bands like the Grateful Dead who openly supported the practice), and it is still theft of intellectual property, but it's not a tangibal product that exists outside of the 3rd parties recording. Again, I don't support it, and I don't download them, I'd rather buy properly prepared material by the studios/artists themselves, than hear/see sub par versions for free.

No real excuse for supporting any bootleg. I don't care how much your fandom for something makes you justify it, you don't have a right to illegally own something, and that includes the "Star Wars Christmas special" and "Song Of The south"

 

[Jon Martin]

When it comes to TV on DVD, I don't think that is entirely true here. If someone buys a multigenerational VHS to VHS to VHS to VHS to DVD to DVD copy of something, and it is released on an official DVD, the same people that bought and traded those copies would surely buy an official release.

If you go on Ebay or on some of the TV related websites (I'm not talking about the P2P download sites), people openly trade or sell copies of obscure TV series that aren't on DVD and probably never will be. I'm sure if you talk with any of those people, they would still buy official releases, but just use that to watch the series.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Just because it isn't a master tape does not mean the band doesn't own the rights to it. If the person did not pay for the right to record the performance, or pay the royalties for distribution, they are infringing, free distribution or not.