I'd also suggest that he close the credit card he used and place a fraud alert on it once he gets the refund. If he gets the refund. Surprised he doesn't have to issue a chargeback.

And where exactly should I get my Judging Amy fix?

I ordered a DVD series off one of those sites once because they offered series that I couldn't find anywhere else. I had a suspicion it was probably pirated because the prices were pretty low. Lo and behold it was. I was actually pretty happy with the quality though. They probably just took all the HD torrents they could find and burned them to DVD.

Went back recently to see if they were still around, their site has since been shut down. Oh well.

This is the kind of piracy I can't get behind at all.

This is the kind of piracy that ACTUALLY hurts the entertainment industry.

No matter if the consumer knows that he/she is buying pirated material or not, by paying for the entertainment, you show that you are willing to fork over some cash for it.

The reason this hurts the industry is that the money won't ever see their hands. In this case, it is a lost sale.

TL;DR:
Piracy = free = good (comparatively)
Piracy = paid money = bad

Wow, their only contact info is orders@dvdglobe.tv. Looks like an upstanding reputable business to... a 4 year old, maybe.

No address, no phone number? No sale for me.

My Dad gave my Mom the complete Carol Burnett Show on DVD. They all say "TV Land" in the lower right hand corner.

He's pretty computer savvy, but he doesn't buy much on-line.

A semi-aside not here:
I searched far and wide for a movie i wanted to see. It was never released in theatres in Canada but was in the US so i never got to watch it there either. No Canadian online stores had it and American ones wouldn't ship to Canada. Long story short only way i could actually see this movie was to download via bittorrent.

Moral of the story, if you can't find it anywhere else you might just have to find a pirated copy.

I have to mention there is a quiet little underground of DVD sellers who basically pick up a few bucks here and there of selling burns of stuff that just isn't out on DVD. I can't remember what I was looking for, but I remember searching high and low for it before I finally found a copy that someone must have had on VHS that they recorded over to DVD. It's no less a copyright infringement, but they are filling a need that industry doesn't. I just wish I could remember what led me down that road in the first place, because I'd hate to admit to losing my memory.

They claim to have a "100% Quality Guarantee" which states, "We guarantee all our merchandise is of the highest quality. Rest assured that when doing business with DVDGlobe you will always receive exactly what you paid for!" However, given the fact they don't seem to have any address or phone number listed, they have a private domain registration and all the contact info they have is an e-mail address so it raises some red flags. It is probably going to take things like court orders to get any idea who these people are.

Making sure you know who you are dealing with is always a good idea and yet another reason to deal locally.

Bought a set long time ago on ebay... Thundercats on DVD lol Got a bunch of avi files burnt on a couple dvds. was mad as hell but didnt pay too much and saved me the trouble of finding them online lol

Heh, how ironical that this is the kind of piracy the MPAA should be focusing on, and yet we hear the most about them going after end users...

@Kicken: Please to tell what kind of piracy you can get behind.

I like how the "Live Online Chat" just takes you to the Contact Us form page.

@Roclawzi: the problem with filling that need that the industry doesn't is that it simply isn't someone else's to give. Just because it isn't available doesn't mean someone other than the property owner should be able to profit from it whether "the people" feel they have a right to the Happy Days episode with Mork from Ork or not.

I'm not saying I'm above it but there's no real way to justify it other than saying I personally just wanted it so bad I'd steal for it.

I want to say that if it's "not available elsewhere" and it's a U.S. based show that was on network television, it's probably not released and whatever you think you're buying is going to be pirated. I don't know how the OP thought he was getting around the pesky problem of a studio not putting Judging Amy on DVD at all by ordering off a sketchy website that claimed it was on DVD. A quick look at Amazon would reveal that it isn't being offered on DVD right now, and it isn't because Amazon hates Judging Amy. It's not offered because official Judging Amy DVD sets don't exist.

I sympathize for the guy (sort of) because my husband did it a few years ago when a movie I loved wasn't on DVD, and the copy he ordered ended up being a German translation. But he was duped into getting something that wasn't available anywhere.

I'm really surprised that the company actually answered him...they either don't care that they might get reported to the MPAA or they think people who buy off their website don't know how to report them to the MPAA. Or the MPAA wouldn't do anything about it, or couldn't.

Am I the only person who just won't order from a website that looks like that? Meaning not professionally designed...that raises a red flag for me immediately.

They can't contact the MPAA!

For God's sake man...she WATCHED it! BLATANTLY! With INTENT!

They're obviously in the wrong now, and the MPAA will consider it well within their rights to pursue the family for the full damages, the production costs of the entire television series, plus everything they and everyone they know own. Plus court costs.

I don't know how Consumerist can get away with giving such shoddy legal advice.

Website is hosted in Ukraine.

@Jackasimov: i believe the free distrubution of priracy.

of course nothing's free.

@Lin. Jose: because professionally designed sites are more reputable?

@Skankingmike: That site looks anything but reputable.

The biggest problem with them, though, is not that they're selling pirated DVDs. It's that they're a front for stealing and selling credit card numbers.

Two years ago, I purchased a complete "WKRP" series set from one of them (knowing full well that it was a pirated set, but since the show is not available elsewhere...). I put it on a credit card that I rarely use, just because I was leery of the site and wanted to make sure I could spot any subsequent irregularities.

A couple of months later, my credit card company called me to alert me to potential fraud on that card. The card number--which had not been used for over three years prior to the WKRP purchase and not at all since--was being used to charge a SHIPPING FEE of nearly $200 to send merchandise from the UK to the US. I told the credit card company that I did not authorize the transaction, and they would not allow it to be processed. I then cancelled the card.

Just a fair warning: these DVD sellers have a mission statement that goes beyond just pirating hard-to-find TV shows.

@Kicken: In many cases, it's not a lost sale, though, because what's being offered by the pirates isn't available for purchase.

Like I said in a comment below, though, the bigger problem with these guys is that their primary goal is the stealing and reselling of credit card info, not selling DVDs.

@Skankingmike: Even if a website was designed professionally, and looked very reputable, I really do not trust websites I have never heard of. And when so and so says, "I ordered from it, and it was fine" I take stock of exactly which friend I'm talking to (who says friends have to be the smartest people or the best decision makers?) and what the website looks like.

I had never heard of deepdiscount.com until a few years back and I had heard from a lot of people who have purchased DVDs from them with great success, and they are a legit company. I would have never purchased anything from them before I talked to people who have purchased from them, especially because I don't think deepdiscount.com has the most professional looking site.

I never order DVDs from anywhere other than Amazon or an online counterpart of the B&M store, like BN.com or BestBuy.com.*

* I have never ordered from BestBuy.com, it was merely for example's sake, please don't stone me (unless the shrink ray has hit that too, then it'll be like being pelted with an M&M).

They are not going to release Judging Amy on DVD, so if his wife wanted it that bad it was either this route or torrenting anyway. Not much of a choice.

@matthewgerber: She did watch it, but what was she going to do otherwise? I mean, some people just do not react with pitchforks and torches when they find out they've received pirated content. Maybe the wife was just happy she got Judging Amy on DVD, even though it was pirated.

And it seems that the OP legitimately thought he was buying real DVDs that were not pirated, so I'm not sure that it's still his fault. I mean, it seems obvious for us at consumerist, but other people probably don't have the same alarms the rest of us have when it comes to BS detection.

@Foibles and Weebles: Meant to say, he wasn't duped into getting something that wasn't available anywhere...the German translation was released officially, but there was no U.S. version.

@kylo4iskyle4: Btw, reading the description, how did he think this was legit?

-Judging Amy DVD is a box set as shown above, all 100% in chronological order from the pilot to the finale.

-Judging Amy DVD collection also includes custom artwork and episode guides so you can find your favorite episode at anytime

-Judging Amy DVD collection are formatted region free so they will play on any DVD player, DVD-ROM X-Box or PS2 Worldwide.

-All DVDs are presented in full screen. Exactly the same as it was shown in American television.

Sorry.

Belatedly:

USE SOME COMMON SENSE. You go on a site called dvdglobe.tv which a lot of people have never heard of and a site that looks like it was made in freewebs. Then you go thru the ordering process, somehow think that 25 dollar shipping is reasonable.

I just googled Judging Amy and apparently it's not released on DVD but you just saw the sponsored link which said Judging Amy on DVD and jumped on that?
Do a chargeback

Phil got what he paid for:

"All DVDs are presented in full screen. Exactly the same as it was shown in American television."

Not what was expected.

@kylo4iskyle4: This is pretty much the same description I found when I googled Judging Amy DVD sets to see whether they actually existed and I found
[www.tvaddicts.tv]

@Lin. Jose: I didn't say it did. I said just because a site looks professional does not equate reputation.

I think monoprice.com isn't that professional looking but i order from them whenever i need cables.

That's my point.

Dang system.

Imagine a nice sarcasm tag looking thingy above.

@kylo4iskyle4: There's a third choice here: Suck it up and face the fact you're never going to watch Judging Amy on DVD unless the studio allows it, and go on with your life.

If I were the wife, I'd be all kinds of pissed that my husband risked our personal information and our credit card information on a website out of the Ukraine (as stated by a post above) just to get me something that isn't actually available.

"# Commercials : None" "# DVD Format : Format-Free DVD-R (Plays in both PAL and NTSC DVD players)"

If the first wasn't a big hint the second should have given it away to even a two-year-old. No sympathy for the guy. He's stupid.

A family member of mine ordered the twilight zone series for me from one of these. Thought they were getting a good deal but got ripped off 100 dollars. I think they did get refunded from their CC company though.
The quality was good on some episodes and others looked like they were meant to be viewed on an ipod or something.

@Jackasimov:
The kind of piracy I can get behind is the kind that shows the industry that even subtle nuances will make us not buy your product, if that subtle nuance is going to screw us. A popular example right now is Spore, with its restrictive DRM which is wholly unadvertised. And of course, it has to be entirely free.

The reason I support this and not the kind mentioned in this article is that by not paying for a product, no one benefits. If you buy the product illegally, then you show that you are willing to pay cash for the product. As well, it is commonly said that large companies will only see the numbers put in front of them. And while the lack of numbers (sales) can be something to take note of, I believe that the lack of sales combined with high numbers of pirated copies speak louder.

@Skankingmike:
That entirely depends on your definition of free. If you consider paying for internet, it isn't free. But if you consider that you would pay for internet either way, I would say that is free. Others would disagree. But that isn't the point.

@ophmarketing:
I would rather pirate for free something than buy a pirated copy. If you can find it (Music, Movies, and Games in particular) online to buy via illegal methods, I bet you can find it online to download via free illegal methods.

My father, and I'm not defending him, has for years purchased pirated high end software from bogus websites. He has never had a problem with stolen credit cards and has always been happy with what he received.

I'm just curious as to why the woman who bought 3 Playstations for a huge inflated price instead of a PS3 gets labelled stupid and this guy doesn't?

Anyone who reads The Consumerist should be well aware of how easy it is to find anything you want for sale by using Google; that doesn't make it legitimate.

When I typed dvdglobe into my google search bar, the second search suggestion was "dvdglobe scam." The third search result for "dvdglobe" is a Yahoo Answers inquiry that reveals dvdglobe used to be called dvdworld and is a scam business that sells shoddy dvds or fails to fulfill orders. The nine DVDs on the front page appear to be the only one offered which is highly suspicious.

This website is utterly sketchy, and anyone who knows their way around the net but was silly enough to send this "business" their credit card information clearly deserves what they get...

@aguacarbonica: The conversation started out being more about the piracy because while this guy was indeed very stupid for ordering from one of those websites, he's getting a refund (apparently) which is not the same as the woman who ordered three PS3s.

But this guy is a bonehead (I recommend the wunder boner to debone fish and people with poor decision-making skills), but there's no telling some people. And there's no indication he reads the consumerist, only that he is inclined to send his story in to the website.

@Lin. Jose:
I would say adequate information about the company is a better basis than the way the website is presented.

Although I suppose that also requires a bit of work on the consumer's side, but it IS for your protection after all.

@johnarlington: Doesn't make it right. I get you're not defending him, but just because the pirates are not ripping your credit card information doesn't mean they're good businessmen.

@Foibles and Weebles: And I think the important thing here is to let readers know where to report websites like this--to the MPAA.

As for Phil, lesson learned I imagine. It's quite possible Phil doesn't shop online much and doesn't have the extremely overdeveloped bullshit sensors re. websites that a lot of veteran online shoppers have.

You overpaid! You can buy entire seasons of a show for less than $10 at the local bootleg place. You just need to know where to go. Of course, I would only use them for out of print stuff.......

My goodwill sells pirated cds and dvds. Not many but I run across a label written with marker when browsing at least once everytime I'm there.

@Foibles and Weebles:

If he even knows about The Consumerist, then he knows how to use Google search. Few people just happen upon this website without knowing the basics of traversing the web. He should have researched this website.

It has nothing to do with knowing online ropes. Some people just don't have common sense. This is the same person who would go buy a DVD in Chinatown in NY, and be upset when he got home and it was clearly captured by a camcorder in a movie theater.

Also, just because he was offered a refund doesn't mean he'll get one; I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, he now has to worry about identity theft. That lady with the PS1s may have wasted her money royally, but at least she doesn't have to worry about that!

I am very glad that the Consumerist just posted that story about the anti-Phishing tutorial. People like Phil should take note of the bit about knowing what you're clicking on. It's a life skill that applies to consumerism anywhere.

Re the OP comment that the discs shipped from China. Living in China right now let me tell you these kinds of discs are everywhere. You can buy just about any popular movie or TV show you want on the street for $1 US. What do you get for that price? For TV programs, like the OP, recorded off the TV. For movies, you get a shaky-cam in the theater recording, complete with coughs, cell phone conversations et al. The Chinese don't seem to mind, these things sell like crazy. Of course the average income here is so low these discs are about all the common person can afford.

@darkjedi26: haha, my thoughts exactly. I was going to ask them a few pointed questions.