Internet Fraud by Movie Mars - Thieves and Liars

Do not deal with Moviemars.com! They are Internet fraudsters who may steal your money and fail to ship the products you order.

http://www.MovieMars.com

Movie Mars (aka Moviemarz, Bookmarz) apparently is a Chinese company with places of business in North Carolina and West Palm Beach, Florida. They use Amazon.com Marketplace, eBay, and Overstock.com to sell merchandize that they don't have in stock, in violation of the terms and conditions of those commerce sites.

Contact details:

Douglas
doug@moviemars.com
270-B Unionville-Indian Trail Road
Indian Trail, NC 28079

Whois details:

Movie Mars, Inc.
Daniel Yen
3038 Ashford Glen Dr
Weddington, NC 28104
704-701-5115

[Daniel Yen wrote on the Class of 2004 alumni page of the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University: "I take care of our son Ethan (16 months) during the day and run the company [Moviemars] at night."]

On March 5, 2005, I ordered a new 3-CD opera set, from Movie Mars through the Amazon.com Marketplace, where they have listed more than 30,000 products for sale. More than two weeks later, they shipped me a different CD than what I ordered, a cheap, single CD of different music by different artists. I received it on March 22, 2005. That same day, I emailed them requesting the CD set that I ordered and a check for the cost of returning the cheap CD they sent me, if they wanted it back. They responded promptly and promised to reimburse me if I sent back the wrong CD first. (That was a lie.) I did so, returning the wrong CD along with a cover letter on March 23, 2005. (That was a mistake. If this happens to you, hold onto the wrong merchandize and write to your credit card company to cancel the Moviemars charge. Only return the wrong merchandize if Moviemars pays for your postage in advance -- which the swindling thieves almost certainly won't.)

Having heard nothing from Moviemars, I followed up with two emails, to which they failed to respond. Then on April 15, 2005, I put up a pro-forma Moviemars Sucks page, sent them the URL, and advised them that if they failed to fulfill their agreement with me within one week I would fill in the details and submit the URL to the major search engines and Internet directories. This provoked a response, in which they asked if I had returned the wrong CD that they sent me! I responded that I had done so and had paid extra for Delivery Confirmation, so that they couldn't deny having received it.

However, Moviemars.com still failed to send me the correct CD or to reimburse my return postage. Accordingly, on May 2, 2005, I added details to this page and sent them the URL. They obviously care so little about their miserable reputation that they did not even bother to respond to my email, much less send me the merchandize I ordered and refund my return postage. I subsequently asked Amazon.com to refund my money on grounds of Amazon Marketplace merchant fraud. As a consequence, I received a credit for the amount paid for the merchandize but not a refund of my return postage.

While most Amazon.com Marketplace merchants are honest, there are quite a few bad apples. Unfortunately, Amazon.com has thus far failed to act aggressively to get rid of the fraudsters even though they risk sanctions and injury to their reputation by hosting crooks and taking a commission on fraudulent transactions.

Updates

October 8, 2005: Movie Mars continues to defraud Amazon.com Marketplace buyers. An Amazon customer who attempted to purchase merchandize from them posted the following feedback today:
1 out of 5. "Don't risk this seller! Didn't even mail item until 25 days after I paid, then sent by 'media mail' which can take weeks to arrive. Will not respond to emails, except with auto-generated form letter which says that they don't read mail sent through Amazon-provided address. The supposed tracking they provide is on their own website--giving no 3rd party verification of shipment."

October 12, 2005: I received an email from "Rebekah, Customer Service - Refunds, Moviemars", email address rebekah@moviemars.com, offering to reimburse my return postage and requesting that I remove this webpage. I replied that I would indeed like to receive my refund, but that I would not take down this page unless Movie Mars reimbursed me for the value of the time I spent writing the Movemars Sucks page. That they were unwilling to do, so this page will stay up forever, or until Moviemars goes titsup.com. I did, finally, receive a check for my return postage more than six months after I requested it. Thus, if you are defrauded by Moviemars, you may at least receive reimbursement of the amount they owe you if you write and post a Moviemars Sucks page and wait six months.

November 27, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by jerzygurl about moviemars.com: "Wish I could give them a zero rating! Item ordered back in Sept. still haven't rcv'd it. Got the run around at the beginning, it's been 2 months and now won't respond to my emails. Filed a claim with Amazon. Shameless way to do business. ."

November 28, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by Susan R. about moviemars.com: "NEVER deal with moviemars.com. They failed to notify me that the item hadn't shipped (it was a gift), for weeks continued to promise it, and in the end refused either to send to book or to give a refund. Amazon should be ashamed to be associated with them."

November 29, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by James about moviemars.com: "Sent a DVD case with no DVD in it. Still have not received replacement or refund on almost two months!"

December 4, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by Crystal C. about moviemars.com: "For 2 months I tried to get a replacement because my item had CDs that were damaged beyond use. I played email tag with this seller and they finally stopped replying to me so, I got a refund through Amazon. Everything about this seller was horrible, from the shipping and customer service (exceedingly poor communication and never got the help I needed!) to the item itself. Buyer beware!!!"

December 7, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by gshepelev about moviemars.com: "Order placed 4 months (!!!) ago, never got anything, even refund !!! Basically they stole my money!"

December 9, 2005 - Amazon.com feedback by Peter L. about moviemars.com: "CD arrived damaged and returned for replacement. MovieMars delayed replacing CD & after 2 months, told me to contact Amazon.com for a refund. Terrible customer service. DO NOT BUY from MovieMars!"

January 28, 2006 - On average during the month of January, there have been more than 30 visitors per day to this webpage. On an annual basis, that's more than 10,000 visitors per year.

Links

Don't Do Business with Bookmarz/Moviemars - website by another defrauded customer

Wake Up Movie Mars - by yet another defrauded customer

The Customer Service of MovieMars Inc is Dreadful - February 6, 2006 posting by another customer defrauded by MovieMars on the Moment After Moment Blog

Thread on the OTWA forums about problems with Moviemars.com on eBay

"Bad seller [Moviemars] asked for it". Thread on eBay Forums.

eBay feedback for moviemars.com, member name bookmarz

eBay feedback for moviemars.com, member name moviemarz

moviemars-com page on Amazon.com

Keywords:

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