Anime Ripped Off (A Warning & A Small Request)

[Accela]

A few weeks ago I placed an order for fifty five pounds ($110) worth of Anime DVD's from [url=http://www.discountanimedvd.com]this[/url] website to give as gifts for two of my friends birthdays. When my purchases arrived I discovered that two out of the eight DVD's just don't work, the episodes that do work vary in quality from superb to awful and to top it all off they all appear to have been translated from Japanese, to Chinese followed by a word for word re-translation to English. Some of the DVD's are better than others but when they start to say things like "we out because our to ethnic" it becomes rather difficult to know what the hell is going on and as such my gifts are now useless.

I've contacted the website in question but as yet I've heard no reply, after reading their terms and conditions I've come to accept that I'm not going to get a refund which means that not only do I have to say goodbye to my hard-earned money but I also have to buy replacement gifts for my friends. I've literally ordered countless things from the Internet in the past but this is the first time I've attempted to buy Anime because, quite simply, we don't get much of it here in the UK.

As I see it I'm now left with two options, which is where you folks come in.

[b]Option One:[/b] Buy everything again from another, more reputable website.

[b]Option Two:[/b] 'Obtain' fansubbed episodes of the shows I paid for, burn them to a CD, put the burned CD's into the purchased cases then give them to my friends.

I don't know if it's okay to post links to Torrents and suchlike here on the forum, but if you know any good ones please shoot me a PM.

Thanks.

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]Nnnnnn. That bites.

After visiting the site, I can honestly say that the first thing to really make me nervous was the following image. The letters in red speak volumes to me.

[center][IMG]http://www.discountanimedvd.com/images/feb_menu/tp1_logo3.gif[/IMG] [/center]

I also looked at the return policy thingummy and, aside from the "[U]within[/U] five business days" deal, it made sense. At least until I read this:

[quote name='discountanimedvd.com'](PLEASE, DO NOT RETURN ANY MERCHANDISE BEFORE YOU ARE CONFIRMED TO DO SO, WE WILL NOT PROCESS SUCH RETURNS AND IT WILL BE DISCARDED)[/quote]

Lousy. Just lousy. I officially do not like this site, nifty-looking though it may be.

As for advice:

[B]Option 1:[/B] The best as far as quality goes, since you can look for who's handling the subbing/dubbing, who's producing, who's distributing, etc., [I]aaaannnd[/I] most importantly what the site policies are, just in case. The worst, as far as personal expenditure goes.

[B]Option 2:[/B] If you go with this one, [U]make[/U] [U]sure[/U] you get good ones. Of course, once your friends open the cases and see the CDs you bought and burned, what exactly will they be thinking? (A Mexíco flea market comes to mind; I have strange stories involving Memorex.)

Personally, if this mishap had happened to me, I'd probably just go ahead and straight-up tell my buddies what happened, work out some kind of sustitute thingie that would end up making everybody feel better, and then start working on the replacement DVDs. (And this coming from a guy who doesn't have all that much cash, too.) I mean, I'd still want to get them the stuff and all, so I'd just want to make sure I had another £55 (or $110) while still getting my friends something.

(£ = alt (hold down) + 0163; at least on qwerty keyboards, I think; I also hope I got the right symbol :p )[/FONT]

[Accela]

The only reason I used the site in the first place was because it was, by a wide margin, the most professional looking site I found. I've already explained the story to my friends and they're okay with it but I'm still quite irritated about losing the money in the first place.

I've never brought Anime DVD's online before so I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be looking for to be truthful, I'd kinda assumed that buying a Region 0 disc with English subtitles would be okay in itself, y'know. I mean, these's don't look like dodgy discs at all, the boxes are all nice and professional looking and the DVD's themselves are decorated in the usual fashion. I guess it's just bad luck on my part.

[Dagger]

You can safely assume that any Region 0 is a bootleg.

It's not about which sites look most professional. Pay attention to the item's description and image (Chinese subs are an automatic no-no, for instance; tri-fold cases are usually very sketchy; just because something has an English dub doesn't mean it isn't a bootleg). Make sure you're getting a licensed series--subbed DVDs of unlicensed anime are invariably bootlegs as well.

If you're skeptical about a store, try comparing their listings with [url=http://www.rightstuf.com/][u]Right Stuf[/u][/url]. If anything looks fishy, bail.

~Dagger~

[dgs]

i would hate to see 110 dollars go down the drain, but you would be best off going back and re-perching the dvd,s. try overstock.com of look at the privet sellers at amazon.com. Ebay is another good place for buying dvd's. If you go to ebay be sure to look at there costumer rating, and also look at the shipping price. Best of luck to you.

D.G.S. :animeswea

PS. try to check out what other people know abought the sight before you buy.

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446]I would advise you to go with [i]Option 2: 'Obtain' fansubbed episodes of the shows I paid for, burn them to a CD, put the burned CD's into the ,purchased cases then give them to my friends.[/i] and then use the money you're supposed spend on [i]Option 1[/i] to spread (black) propaganda about the site.

But since we're not supposed to talk about torrents, fansubs or alternative ways of acquiring copies, forget what you just read and buy them licensed copies next time.[/COLOR]

[MillenniumChaos]

I don't know about you, but 8 DVDs for $110 seems a bit too good to be true, since most DVDs are usually around $20 apiece. That's usually the first warning sign-- if the DVDs are more inexpensive than most, it's possible they're bootlegs (unless you're buying from a reputable source that's having a big sale or something). Robert's Anime Corner Store has a rather good guide to identifying bootlegs [I][URL=http://www.animecornerstore.com/faq.html#1-5]here[/URL][/I]. You could always try [I][URL=http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=amb_link_19548965_3/203-7904697-9503162?ie=UTF8&node=3336941]Amazon.co.uk's anime section[/URL][/I]. Amazon is usually pretty good about having legit stuff.

Sorry to hear you got cheated out of so much money, though. I hope you can find a good solution.

[Jiazu]

[quote] I would advise you to go with Option 2: 'Obtain' fansubbed episodes of the shows I paid for, burn them to a CD, put the burned CD's into the ,purchased cases then give them to my friends. and then use the money you're supposed spend on Option 1 to spread (black) propaganda about the site.

But since we're not supposed to talk about torrents, fansubs or alternative ways of acquiring copies, forget what you just read and buy them licensed copies next time.[/quote]


i like the way you think, delta... 'cos even if we're not supposed to talk about them... most of these threads wouldn't be here if it weren't for such "alternative" methods anyway*...


[SIZE=1]the fine print
*Disregard the preceding statements. Only buy licensed anime/manga from reputable buyers, or your life and/or fortune will be forfeit to the US anime industry (the japanese one doesn't care since they've already got their money). You have been warned.[/SIZE]

hope everything works out for you..
ja.