I ordered a computer game from Amazon Marketplace as a present for a friend.

The seller, games4u-uk-net, sent me a bootleg copy. The cover was printed in low quality, like from a home printer, and with no logos or branding, and there was a badly-spelled note on the back saying that the game was free software (it's not) and you're paying for the disc and the emulator.

I looked at their feedback page. They had mostly very good feedback, but the few negative ones were a bit suspicious-looking: they didn't sound like honest mistakes, like sending the wrong product. They were from people who'd ordered consoles described as new, and received them in unbranded plain white boxes. All the negative comments were followed up by indignant, not very polite, not very grammatical replies from the seller asking why the buyer had left negative feedback rather than contacting them.

So I decided to be nice and contact them, asked for a citation for the claim that the game was free software, because I hadn't been able to find one, and tried to explain the difference between free software and abandonware, and said if I had wanted abandonware I wouldn't have paid £10 on Amazon for a legitimate version of the game. I said they were misrepresenting what they were selling, and if they're going to sell discs and emulators they ought to make it very clear that's what they're selling.

They replied, reiterated the claim that the game was free software and that they were only charging for the disc and emulator, and claimed outright that the original producers of the game were an outfit called Classic Gaming Presents (who, as far as I can tell, are an abandonware download site: they have the moral high ground over games4u because they a) have a link inviting the real owners of the game to request they take it down, and b) don't misrepresent what they're offering). They also said they would refund me only if I didn't leave negative feedback.

I was particularly appalled by that last bit, and went into righteous-indignation mode, and reported them to Amazon and to the Federation Against Copyright Theft, and told them so[1], and told them I would certainly leave negative feedback now, and did so (including the bit where they tried to buy my silence).

Amazon replied to my complaint with long complicated instructions of what I should do to claim a refund. I didn't get around to doing anything for a couple of days, and then they sent my money back anyway, without me having done any of the stuff in the email, which surprised me.

Interestingly, games4u now seem to have dropped their price by £2, and have also added a comment to the product page, saying "This is NOT the Whit Label vresion. what we sell is the modified software which enables the game to be run on XP and/or VISTA, the game is distributed for free with the software." [sic]

I've written this for the benefit of two groups of people:
* Those who, like me a few weeks ago, naively think that Amazon Marketplace is something more official and vetted than it really is. Be warned. Treat it like you would eBay. Research the sellers.
* Those who cynically accept that receiving bootlegs is an inevitable part of buying stuff online, and who just shrug and play the CD/DVD/game anyway, or stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Stop it. You're enabling them. Complain, get your money back, get them to start being a bit more honest.

[1] The downside of this is They Know Where I Live. I should have used my work address for the original order.

Tags: bootleg, games