Page 1 of Selling on E-Bay ???.....................BEWARE !!!

Just a cautionary note.......... I recently received a Region 1 copy OF "Sum of All Fears" from MOVIETYME.COM.

This was a pre-ordered title, and was received early. I duly watched the disc with my family, and , not being overly impressed, listed it for sale on E-Bay.

Without realising it, the official release date was a week hence......

End result = E-bay cancelled my auction, and I have just received an e-mail from a firm of Beverly Hills lawyers informing me that Paramount pictures intend to take a lawsuit out against me !!!!

BEWARE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell them to p*** off. Ebay is loaded with `proper` counterfeit goods perhaps they are trying to clamp down at last.

Wouldn`t it be good if they really did issue a lawsuit, forcing you to go to America, then after you are found innocent your could counter sue them asking for £10m in damages!

They would settle out of court for £2m if your lucky!

I suggest you write them a VERY polite letter back, explaining in every detail what happened. Also look on Movietyme to see if they have receipts/records of the transaction with dates.

If you ended up going to court (ha ha - very likely) you could show those to a judge and he`d laugh them all the way to a costs order.

What`s more likely is that they want to get the evidence off you to find out who the retailer was, and then go after them.

Let`s face it, it`s not your job to protect the retailer. Sadly however, if they DO take that sort of action, we can all probably kiss the possibility of pre-release deliveries goodbye forever 8-(

DanB
(Solicitor)

This item was edited on Thursday, 7th November 2002, 22:07

<<If you ended up going to court (ha ha - very likely) you could show those to a judge and he`d laugh them all the way to a costs order>>

Certainly if it was in the English courts, Dan. But the costs regime in the US is rather different - they don`t have the "costs follow the event" rule that we have here.

In fact, most litigation in the US has no costs provision at all, hence why no win, no fee litigation is so popular over there - you can bring a claim and still not have to pay anything even if you lose.

Mark
(Also solicitor! :) )

(P.S. Dan - you remember all that Kodak business you wrote the article on? I`ve got an interesting tale to tell you about that. I`ll mail you with it!)

Check out the lawyer - it might be some 12 year old kid trying to scam you.

bigwilko,

Wasting work time, I wrote an email you can reply to them. Feel free to edit and change at will...


To whom it may concern.

I was suprised to receive an email from lawyers acting for you regarding my listing of "The Sum Of All Fears" on ebay. Well, suprised is a bit of an understatement.

Firstly, I reject you petty claims. I am not impressed just because your lawyers are from Beverly Hills. Everyone knows real lawyers work in New York and the East Coast is just full of kids who grew up watching LA LAW and read John Grissham.

I actually bought the dvd from a U.K. website which sells Region 1 dvd`s. They couldn`t care less about release dates, and were kind enough to send it out early. The dvd is the real deal, you distributed it, I bought it.

Of course, if your cruel policy of dividing the world into "regions" and releasing films on different dates was abolished, there wouldn`t be a problem.

"One world, one region, one release date" - William Shakespeare (untitled book of urban poems 1699)

In view of you lawsuit, I have been left with no choice but to counter-suit.

The counts for this action are as follows:

1. I want £2m (read GB pounds, not US Dollars!) for losing my listing fee money on ebay. When you use ebay to sell, yes its only a few pence, but come the end of the month and 20 items are listed, their fees build up!

2. I demand £5m for the shame and humiliation this action has brought upon me. I lost almost 10 minutes sleep. This made me very cranky the following day as I did not sleep my total amount of hours needed. You have caused me to waste minutes of my life with worry, that will cost you £5m (again note GBP!!)

3. A further £10m for your deceit. I was lead to believe that this film was going to be good. I spend my hard earned cash on it. Using Ben Afflick as Harrison Ford`s replacement was a very shrewd move. However, he did not live up to the role and has ruined my image of Jack Ryan forever. This has causes me great upset every time I pass a book shop and see a Tom Clancy book.

In total I feel £17 million would make me forget all this trouble. I must warn you I have a very famous team of leading UK lawyers of my own. BE WARNED! Claims Direct are people you don NOT want to mess with.

I await your earliest reply...

Now THAT was funny.

"Claims Direct are people you don NOT want to mess with."

Pure class!!

Ste

Like someone said before, could very well be a prank. I`ve done that kind of thing to workmates before.

Try http://www.sharpmail.com/lanch.html (sic) as thats a very good site for that kind of thing. It encrypts the message for you, so the sender can`t tell where its come from.

This item was edited on Friday, 8th November 2002, 19:03