Yeah, the fact he screwed you over entitles you to report him. The fact he's bribing you to keep quiet is something else. Make sure you get the money back, then report him.

And in future, buy off totalgaming.net, with the token system it works out to something like £18. I think play.com do it for £15 as well.

Choice 3 is assuming he'll actually give you the money back ....

Lets Say you do give the CD's back, You just gave him the evidence you had, and why would he give the money back? (i wouldn't)

Bite the Bullet and notify someone...i'm sure you can work something out with them....

Scam me Once, shame on you. Scam me twice, shame on...shame on.....well you can't scam me twice.

There is a safe method in solving this for you. As other said giving back the copy you have is the last thing you should do, as long as you hold the evidence you can do something, if you don't, the card will be against you.


For me, tell them to send you a retail Seal Box without you sending the Defective disk back. First, if this one is a copy then there is no reason they need it back, second, you paid for the game so you have the right to get a legitimate copy.

When exactly did it ask for the serial number during play? It should only ask during installation, and even then, it's optional.

Of course if it was when you were trying to download the patch from galciv2.com, or trying to install it via Stardock Central, then yeah, it will complain about not having a valid serial.

I'm curious what the URL is of the auction. Did he say in it that it was a new, mint in box version of the game?

-HM

Keep the disc. Get your money back. Report him to EBay. Simple as that.

You hold the evidence. You'll get your money back, and he'll be taken care of.

My 2 cents:

Tell them to send your money back first. (That's what you had to do to get the disks, right?) Once you have the disks and the cash, then the choice is up to you.

(If they can't prove the disks are real or any good, then why would they need them back?)

In reality, if you say that you want the cash back first, they likely will not pay. If they do, then they are either hoping you are gullible, or are just desperately hoping to ge ttheir disks back without getting reported. Either way, you will know what the real answer is without giving up any leverage.

Edit: One additional thought: Stardock's non-protection scheme may have actually provided more protection than the standard copy-protection scheme here. This may be a shop that churns out cracked games and copied movies. If they are used to the standard copy-protection schemes, then they think that they can just send out Stardock game copies and they will be home free. Little do they know that the real value in a Stardock game is the ability to log in and get updates - which cannot be done without the serial number...

(The possibility does exist that they are actually legitimate middle-men that themselves thought they had bought real disks from a vendor. If this is true, then you may get your money back. This may also explain why they have so many positive feedback items in their profile - they are generally good unless they get taken, themselves.)

Ok let's answer a few of the questions raised..

I have bought games before from Eastern countries (Hardly 3rd world but i get your point) never before have they been fake.

Since posting this topic and e-mailing the person they have unregistered themselves from e-bay so it is really not looking good for me. Because of this i think it is fair to assume the worst and so i feel i can now post a link to the item. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8269301739&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 I don't think i am going to get my money back since i refused to say that i would keep quiet. Looks like i will have to wait a bit longer before joining the metaverse. To say i am gutted is an understatement. I don't get many new games as they are so expensive now, and to have this happen really puts me down Well we live and learn.

Thanks for your help now i will wait until Saturday for a reply and then i will try to get these people reported and hopefully something will be done to prevent them form doing it again. Here's hoping i get my money back.

Once they delisted themselves they showed their true colors. If it were me, I'd start complaining to Ebay and Paypal now.

Unfortunately there was no explanation from them of what they were selling nor a picture (taken by them) of the product they were selling. Someone else's pictures of the game and the same with description. These two things together would probably make me steer clear.

-HM

*looks around*

Hrm... where's Brad?

I used paypal.. After reading their policy i think i should be ok in getting my money back. As for my age...old enough to know better

Hey, my brother almost got ripped off while selling his laptop on eBay. Not once but twice. I couldn't believe he was about to ship out his laptop for the second 'buyer'.

It happens, it just REALLY sucks when you can't afford the scam and especially when you are young enough that you have to save for weeks for this.

Chin up, GalCiv2 is worth the wait. And let us know if you have any troubles getting your money back.

I once bought a small country on e-bay. Or was that someone else?