Is this vindictive?

Oct 11, 2007 | Filed in Technology | 5 Comments

I bought a set of 9 used DVD’s on eBay for the bargain price of $64.00. They arrived today and they are ALL pirated copies! They probably cost like 50 cents to make.

I wrote the seller a scathing e-mail telling him that he had 24 hours to send me a full refund via Paypal, otherwise I was having him shut down on eBay, and also having his account suspended on Paypal. They have very strict policies on pirated DVD’s and if they caught wind of this, he would be in deep shit.

The more I think about it, the more it makes me angry that this guy thought he could rip me off. I’m thinking about reporting him anyway, even if he does provide the refund. Is that vindictive? It feels kind of cruel, but what he’s doing just seems shitty and I don’t want it to happen to other honest, paying customers.

The odd thing about it is that he’s never had one negative comment left on his profile. I wonder how he’s kept so many people happy? Well the joyride ends here.

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the advice. One friend actually advised me to report him to the FBI. I guess that would be valid. DVD’s do have an FBI warning at the beginning, and this is a classic case of bootlegging.

I decided the FBI idea was a bit extreme, even though it would be fair. So I reviewed eBay’s guidelines and found out he’d violated three of them. I took the proper procedure and reported each violation, so now it’s in eBay’s hands.

Even though he had it coming, I still hated being the one to do it. I don’t know how strict eBay is or what they will do about it, but that’s their problem now.

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I'm a happily married gay man, self employed as a website designer, writing about my life and the world as I see it.
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