Stop the senseless bootlegging of already-released-in-superior-editions DVDs!

[Doc Daneeka]

Well, more DVD woes... kinda. My sister's birthday and she just received MAGIC, a film we both greatly enjoy, me even more so. She squealed for joy un-tissue-papering her gift, though my first reaction was a mixture of confusion and disappointment. I confirmed for myself shortly after that I had not received the Dark Sky release of the film, but rather some small-label piece of crap release. No extras, inferior design, washed out audio and video, not sure about the cuts.

The disk came from "Cheezy Flicks", probably some hole-in-the-wall company operating out of Oregon. http://www.cheezyflicks.com/cascades/ I am ticked, not only because Magic is my favorite film of the moment, not only because these people rereleased it in a vastly inferior edition and grouped it among the "cheeziest films ever made", but because they managed to get their s**tty bootleg sold on Amazon under the same product, indistinguishable from the Dark Sky release. I would say this is grounds for shipping the thing back, unfortunately my mommy is not the same sort of DVD coin-a-sewer as I am, and my sister certainly doesn't mind. It is her birthday anyhow, maybe I'll just ask for a copy of my own for my birthday.

For now, stop the gratuitous production of the lesser product! You're growed-ups, don't let this continue!

[CheezeFlixz]

NOTICE: CheezyFlicks.com is in no way associated with CheezeFlixz (Me) or vice versa. Never heard of them, but they'd better stop using my name.

Sorry to hear about that, I hate getting cheap ripoff copies of movies. I've just about stopped buying movies from anyplace other than known quality dealers. I rarely even buy HTF or OOP's of eBay anymore unless they guarantee it to be original and have the feedback to back it up. Once burned twice shy.

[Andrew]

I use Amazon.com a lot for things in print, and have run into a few listings that surprised me.  I believe that Cheezy Flicks was one of them, for "Inseminoid" aka "Horror Planet" and I actually went back and bought another DVD, because the lower quality version was not up to snuff.

[Trevor]

NOTICE: CheezyFlicks.com is in no way associated with CheezeFlixz (Me) or vice versa. Never heard of them, but they'd better stop using my name.

 

[Jack]

Yeah, sure Cheeze, we're supposed to believe it's just a coincidence 

Amazon does list the studio that released the DVD, but that doesn't do you much good unless you know beforehand that there are several different releases and one is superior to another.  If you do a search, you'll probably come up with several seemingly identical results, and that usually makes me say "hmmm...".  The worst part is Amazon lumps all the user reviews together, so if one release is lousy quality, those reviews appear on all the releases, not just the one it applies to.  On the other hand, I bought a stereo receiver and it came in either black or silver, identical stereo, different colors, but Amazon was good enough to segregate the reviews so people wouldn't think the comments on the sound quality of the black one applied to the silver one as well.

[Doc Daneeka]

Yeah, sure Cheeze, we're supposed to believe it's just a coincidence 

Amazon does list the studio that released the DVD, but that doesn't do you much good unless you know beforehand that there are several different releases and one is superior to another.  If you do a search, you'll probably come up with several seemingly identical results, and that usually makes me say "hmmm...".  The worst part is Amazon lumps all the user reviews together, so if one release is lousy quality, those reviews appear on all the releases, not just the one it applies to.  On the other hand, I bought a stereo receiver and it came in either black or silver, identical stereo, different colors, but Amazon was good enough to segregate the reviews so people wouldn't think the comments on the sound quality of the black one applied to the silver one as well.

This one was different. There is no Cheezy Flicks release available on Amazon, what mommy bought was listed (used, I think) under the Dark Sky product.

[Kester Pelagius]

This one was different. There is no Cheezy Flicks release available on Amazon, what mommy bought was listed (used, I think) under the Dark Sky product.
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Sounds like an instance of blatant bait and switch.

How long has it been since you purchased the item?  Did you try to contact the seller or Amazon regarding this when you discovered the 'error'?

[Jack]

Yeah, I'd definitely contact the seller about a refund.  I got a CD from one of the vendors the other day, it was the wrong one, so I emailed them and they're sending a postage paid envelope to send it back in.  Then they'll issue a refund.  Another time I ordered a DVD and it was defective, I emailed the vendor and they said just keep the DVD, they'd issue a refund.  Yet another time I ordered something from a vendor and never got it, and they ignored my emails.  So I contacted Amazon and they gave me a refund within 24 hours. 

Overall I think those guys have pretty good service - no need to keep something you're not happy with 

When you order one for yourself, you could always contact the vendor first just to confirm that it's the EXACT release you want.  I think sometimes they're not terribly careful about how they list it and, I guess I can understand if somebody's selling thousands of DVD's and they overlook the fact that there are two different releases of the same movie.

[Doc Daneeka]

I am afraid my mommy does not care as much as I do :P . Needless to say I informed her as soon as I saw this was a bum disk, she basically said it was the same movie.