Help please!

Gemmell

Not anything to do with Ebay, but I didn't really know which forum to post it in.

Well, a fair few months back, in August, I splashed out $440, + $25 the fee to send a bank transfer to purchase 80 dvd wholesale credits, from https://www.dvdhitshop.com
At the time, I thought the company were legit and I was planning to sell them on for profit. Over a month after the order, I had received nothing, even after numerous e-mails sent to them. Later, I found out that the dvds being sold by this site were bootlegs. Therefore, it is likely that the dvds are in customs, as they are illegal fakes. After months of e-mailing them, but with no reply, they spontaneously refunded all 80 dvd credits into my dvdhitshop account, still without e-mailing me. This was about a month back. They still won't respond to my e-mails and I NEED a refund. I'm only 16 and this really is a huge sum of money to me. I admit that I have been extremely naive, and I've learnt the hardway.
Would anybody be able to advise me on what I should do to attempt to get my money back? Also, I thought i'd mention, the company are based abroad.

Any response would be appreciated.

cheers.

soolin

Not anything to do with Ebay, but I didn't really know which forum to post it in.

Well, a fair few months back, in August, I splashed out $440, + $25 the fee to send a bank transfer to purchase 80 dvd wholesale credits, from https://www.dvdhitshop.com
At the time, I thought the company were legit and I was planning to sell them on for profit. Over a month after the order, I had received nothing, even after numerous e-mails sent to them. Later, I found out that the dvds being sold by this site were bootlegs. Therefore, it is likely that the dvds are in customs, as they are illegal fakes. After months of e-mailing them, but with no reply, they spontaneously refunded all 80 dvd credits into my dvdhitshop account, still without e-mailing me. This was about a month back. They still won't respond to my e-mails and I NEED a refund. I'm only 16 and this really is a huge sum of money to me. I admit that I have been extremely naive, and I've learnt the hardway.
Would anybody be able to advise me on what I should do to attempt to get my money back? Also, I thought i'd mention, the company are based abroad.

Any response would be appreciated.

cheers.

I'm not sure I can offer any real advice here as it does look like you have no protection at all as you paid by bank transfer. I note from the company site that they actually state on their home page that they are selling DVDs in a DVD-9 format without boxes or sleeves but I don't know whether that classes them as bootleg or not although I rather suspect that they would be unsellable in the UK. Certainly on ebay they would have been hard to place as anything without a box and insert looks suspicious.

It is also likely that if they were despatched that they are with customs anyway, either because of their possible 'copy' status or awaiting duty and VAT charges to be calculated.

I'm not sure if you can make any claim against the company as it was clear what you were buying and import duties and VAT would be your responsibility if that is the reason for the delay.

You could try writing to the company by real mail as opposed to email asking for your money back and giving them a time limit to respond. Other than that maybe give trading standards a call to see if they can suggest anything but I would suspect that as you are dealing with a foreign company who have made it clear what they are selling that you will not be able to do very much.

Maybe someone else on this group will be able to offer a better solution for you.

Soo

Gemmell

Well, I made the order in August, so they will have been in cutoms for 4 months, if that is the case.

I've sent e-mails saying if they don't respond within 7 days, i'll inform the trading standards. But they still fail to reply.

VH

Call the company direct to see what is going on. At least you will then be able to establish whether the DVDs have actually been dispatched. Mention that you have sent umpteen emails and politely demand a refund.

If the DVDs are in Customs, and are fakes, then you have no chance of getting them back. If they are legit then there will be a processing delay while they sort out Customs Duty. However I would have thought that 4 months is a very long time to wait. You will have to pay this duty if you get them as this is just a fact of life when buying from abroad.

The fact that this company have credited your account suggests that they have not been dispatched. But ring them anyway to confirm this.

Unfortunately you will have little protection from Trading Standards as I wouldn't have thought they protect you from International Sellers.

Gemmell

There's no phone number on the site. :'(

No hope. :'(

soolin

Check out the following link to posts on this newsgroups about the company in question. If you read all the posts there is a phone number if you want to give them a try,

http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Warnings;action=display;num=1058175891

It doesn't look good though for getting your money back. I did a google search and it seems other people have been reporting problems with this company for at least 18 months. I did have all the links for you but for some reason my post got lost when I clicked 'post' and I lost my entire message!

Unfortunately I think you've seen the last of your money.

Soo

David_Brent

Try...

Contact: ozekfamily@hotmail.com

And if they don't reply do a look up for the phone number for the following address:

Gokhan Ozek
Suite 1701, Chau Street Kowloon,
Hong Kong, 1701
HK

They do seem like a poor company especially when it comes to customer relations, but they have given back full refunds to people,which is only a good thing, so don't lose heart. Keep trying!

Good Luck!

robin7667

Try...

Contact: ozekfamily@hotmail.com

And if they don't reply do a look up for the phone number for the following address:

Gokhan Ozek
Suite 1701, Chau Street Kowloon,
Hong Kong, 1701
HK

Seeing that there are loads of MSE's going that direction we could always go knocking on the door

Gemmell

Thanks a lot for your help everyone!!

I'll try what's been suggested.

I've just sent an e-mail to the hotmail address that somebody gave. Out of interest, where did you find it?

MarkyMarkD

Are you sure that you have bought what you think you have bought?

The way I would read the phrase "wholesale credits" I would think that you have bought the right to sell on a number of DVDs to other people - NOT the DVDs themselves.

In other words, you would have bought the ability to market those DVDs and to have them supplied direct to the customer by the supplier.

So, have you actually been waiting for something which was never going to arrive?

They are clearly a ****py supplier - their website is ABYSMALLY slow even on broadband, so they aren't paying enough for their bandwidth. This doesn't inspire much confidence.

David_Brent

Thanks a lot for your help everyone!!

I'll try what's been suggested.

I've just sent an e-mail to the hotmail address that somebody gave. Out of interest, where did you find it?

I got that email address from a simple whois on the web sites owners.

Keep us informed on what happens!