eBay seller pieceofmindbooks / Amazon seller pieceofmindmedia / NorAm International

[quoth09]

Steer clear of this seller by all means.

http://www.amazon.com/shops/pieceofmindbooks

http://www.amazon.com/shops/pieceofmindmedia

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=pieceofmindbooks

All their negative feedback on eBay:
http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=pieceofmindbooks&Dirn=Received+by&Many=ON
-notice all the game used, resealed comments.



I bought a copy of Wartech: Senko no Ronde for X-Box 360 off of Amazon, thinking it was coming directly from Amazon, as since the last time I ordered, they moved the place where it states who actually has the item, and who it is fulfilled by. Not a big deal, but spotted it after I checked out; I prefer to steer clear of situations where it is sold by another company regardless of being fulfilled by Amazon, due to previous issues in the past when buying from sellers directly on there. Free shipping or not, the hassle of such problems I have pained in the past are not worth the trouble.

Either way, game was sold by pieceofmindmedia and fulfilled by Amazon.

I get this in Saturday, and noticed something funny right off the bat: No security seal on the right side, however it had a sticker on the bottom similar to that of video DVDs, which read SECURITY DEVICE ENCLOSED. Also, the outer wrap was slightly loose, but was sealed like a standard Y-seal. Been collecting/buying a long time, so I know how to tell the difference between normal shrink wrap reseal and Y-seal, and I have seen loose shrink wrap on a retail game/movie before, so didn't think anything of the wrap part.

So I tried looking around on the net, to see if maybe other copies might be like this, as this isn't considered a top selling A+ title, and pulled up nothing. I went ahead and opened it being wary.

Noticed as soon as I opened the case, disc has wear around the center ring on BOTH sides, and disc has some minor scratches.

Game is used, and blatantly being sold as new. Not a fan of Gamestop, but even they don't do this kind of crap.

I immediately left negative feedback for the seller which I will not be changing, and I have already called up Amazon, as well as receiving a return label. They assured me I will be receiving a full refund as well.

I'm pissed because this is complete crap, taking advantage of people that may not otherwise know, and not only that, this makes Amazon look bad. I have had very few problems out of Amazon in the past, and I prefer to keep it this way. I told the representative that they should definitely look into this seller's feedback, as well as selling habits, as I have found other issues with them since I started looking around, including eBay.

The feedback I left them, which will be moved on to the later pages rather quickly I'm sure, due to how much they sell, is quoted here:
1 out of 5: "Item listed as NEW, arrived RESEALED with no security seal, and with wear on the disc, plus scratches. Do a search for this company they do this a lot. I am NOT changing or removing this feedback Amazon, so don't even ask. People need to know what his company is doing, and it's blatant fraud."
Date: September 7, 2009 Rated by Buyer: quoth09


They also have a lifetime rating/365 day rating of 96% on Amazon, and 97% for the last 30-90 days - not a good sign for a good seller on Amazon. Had I known this prior to ordering, I would have changed to a different seller, or removed the item from my basket.

Seems that Kemco is now the seller listed and fulfilled by Amazon, though NorAm International is listed as another seller on the list, for 11.89 + $3.99 shipping, listed as New, though a lot of other sellers have the same price or around that.

If anyone else has such problems with them, please chime in and report them to where you purchased the item from. These bastards need to be out of business. Also, I love the fact that NorAm has this listed on their profile:
NorAm is a woman owned enterprise founded in 2006, with 25 employees committed to meeting our customer's needs.
Is it really that important to list that it's owned by a woman? Not to sound sexist here at all, but I could honestly care if the company I'm buying a game from was started by someone with a penis, a vagina, or is an alien. After this experience, all it makes me think is 2 words: lying bitch.

BTW- Anyone that cares to call them (not Amazon), their phone # is: 978-567-0741

[nodtveidt]

Just about any time a female owns a business, they're quick to let you know it. It's a throwback to the 90s that simply refuses to die. It matters not what the gender of the owner is...a fraudulent seller is a fraudulent seller, and a good businessperson is a good businessperson. My wife owns several companies now, and never once do we say that it's "woman owned".

[ParanoiaDragon]

Everything I've ever gotten from them has been totaly accurate, & in immaculate condition, with exception to Chrono Triger for DS, which was labled as new, but had a 5 hour save file on it, however, it was also in immaculate condition, so, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they got it from somewhere that sold it as new, so they too sold it as new not knowing it had been resealed. 

[quoth09]

Exactly Rover, exactly.

I got this email from them earlier today, because I posted this over at Cheapassgamer.com as well, and they read it. I will let anyone that reads it take what they will from it. However, they should be contacting everyone else and refunding them, if they are unhappy, rather than just writing me based on the fact that I actually did something and said something regarding my transaction. As far as I'm concerned, this is a prime example why I am wary to deal with such sellers.

-----

Hello there.  This is Mike, one of the partners at NorAm.

First, you seem like a thoughtful person from reading your detailed post on CAG, and you deserve and apology for our misclassification of your video game.  This was a simple human error on our part.

We purchase huge overstock inventory from retailers and wholesalers of games, and it is usually a mix of mostly used with some new.  We do also buy large lots of New Games as well, but less frequently.  At one point in June we thought it was a good idea to wrap all our used games for better protection and a better customer experience.  Unfortunately, that can lead to confusion by scanners receiving into Fulfillment by Amazon.  We don’t think it happened often at all (very rarely have we gotten complaints, especially considering we sell 4000+ items per day), but we stopped in late August wrapping any used games to prevent this from every happening again. 

Naturally, you will get a full refund through FBA and we hope you aren’t tainted by your experience with our company.  For a large seller who does sell mostly used products, our feedback ratings are great.  Most negatives are order cancellations and stock-outs, which happens when you gets lots of onesy/twosy random inventory like we do.  Even on Ebay, which you referenced in your CAG post, we found just 26 negatives referencing getting used sold as new out of 72,000 feedbacks going all the way back to May (using the toolhaus.org tool).  We got those comments so infrequently we didn’t even consider it an issue (without toolhaus, which we just found out about, we could never even find our negatives).  Our rating on Ebay is 99.2%, the highest of any of the large Media sellers who sell mostly used.

We’re not asking you to modify your post on CAG or remove your feedback, just felt you again deserved a response.  As many orders as we do a day (almost 5000 total), every customer and every comment matters.   Feel free to reach out anytime.

Sincerely,

Michael

[jperryss]

I will say it looks like they handled it decently (ie did not blast you for giving them negative feedback or making you an offer if you agreed to remove it).

Maybe they did the same for the others who complained? Nah, they would've been sure to mention that to you if they did.