TvDVDplanet.com / Direct Media review: Buyer beware, it's a scam! 46

I bought December Bride tv series from the fifties from time life. the set that was advertised on their site said custom artwork on the dvd. excellent quality. all 156 epidodes in chronological order. this set was bootleg crap.not all episodes maybe fifty. cheap quality very fuzzy.there were two or three of the same shows.I seen this series advertised on dvd planet .

so why are you guys complaining?
you guys are getting shows that aren't released yet on dvd for a low price. you can't expect great quality or even to get working dvds--you need to be glad that you got anything. that's what happens when you are in the bootleg market. sorry

I ordered the complete series of "Picket Fences" and actually received it in a timely manner but the quality sucks. The episodes are recorded from both FX and CBS and are not in chronological order. The picture quality is fuzzy and jumpy in a few episodes and the commercials are poorly edited out. One episode would not play at all. There is no menu, I have to forward through each section to find the episode I want. Just after I ordered this, the official season 1 of PF was released. The episode that wouldn't play was from season 1, so I ordered the official version from amazon and now have all the episodes, even though quite a few are of questionable quality. I loved the show so much so I suppose it was worth it but my family thinks I'm nuts.

I was going to buy First Wave until I found out that no one owns the rights to put the show on DVD. It is the same with these shows. These shows are being sold illegally. My dad did some research. He found out that the websites are under some guy named Yuri in Russia who has his main shipping base for the DVDs in Florida.

Just went to their site and looked at it--sorry that you all were seduced by prices that are too low to be legal, but you may have bigger problems. I put in some dummy info in order to get to the payment screen, and that page is NOT a secure page (URL should start with https). A word to the wise: if the price looks too low to be legal, you're probably helping to support a group of pirates and also helping to drive up the prices of the legal products. Plus, keep in mind that if these people are willing to break the law by pirating and selling copies of legitimate shows, what are the chances that they're also willing to misuse credit card numbers? Happy viewing!

I can offer some help in getting your money back from them if you have not already been able to do so.

I was also ripped by these crooks, and know exactly what you are going through with them.

Please email me back if you would like some help in getting your money and if you are still looking for your DVD set, I can also forward you to a very good seller that does deliver what you order from them and in good time. You can email me at ericsynder@hotmail.com for more details.

I also fell for this scam. I had been searching for The Chris Isaac Show on DVD. We loved that show but could not locate it, so, when we had the opportunity to speak to Chris afer a concert, we asked him when the set would be released. The arist, himself, told us that there were problems with Viacom and we should just download it if we could. When I stumbled over this site, I fell for their scam. I ordered but never received a confirmation #. After 2 weeks of trying to contact these crooks,--calls, e-mails,on-line help,ect, I called my credit card company and as soon as they saw the $175 charge,they were kind enough to credit my account. I fully intent to follow thru with any complaints I can that might prevent others from these crooks. I have shopped online for 10 years and this is my first experience with this kind of operator.

Thanks to everyone for writing in. I found this site before buying anything from these people so I thank you for taking the time to write and warn us.

I've just gotten off the phone with my bank. I, too, placed an order with tvdvdplanet. org on October 26th. I received an e-mail stating that my order was to be shipped out and it included a tracking number... which only shows the package going as far as Canada. USPS has only been able to tell me that "origin post has accepted shipment," which doesn't really mean anything, as far as I'm concerned. I'm upset because I ignored my gut feeling that this was a scam. In any case, my bank has been awesome and is helping me to get my money back from this company.

However, I would STRONGLY ADVISE anyone reading this to avoid TvDVDplanet.org. They are scam artists! Save yourself the frustration and take your money elsewhere!

I, too, have been scammed. I cannot believe that I fell for it! I did pay by credit card, and am working with the credit card company to refund the money. My invoice said I would be billed $110 but $117 is what came through. I should have realized at that point something was amiss, but since it was a DVD set that my son REALLY wanted, I thought I would chance it. Twice they said I would get an email, but never did. I never did receive any DVDs either. Thank you to all who took time to write in--it was a HUGE help to me!

I am filing complaints with Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Advocates Group and I urge everyone who reads this does the same. You can e-mail me and I will send you the addresses of those two government agencies. The biggest secret, I believe, is their physical location. Can anyone tell me this.

A friend of mine got "Dynasty" on DVD from tvdvdplanet, it's actually the same site that goes by the different names listed here. Well, I asked him what the DVD's were like and he told me they looked good, until he watched them. Well, I was angered too! Episodes were recorded from different TV channels including SOAPnet, FX, the list is endless. Becasue he could not get a reply from them. I did one for him him three different times and whoever is responding has VERY bad English and has gone by different names including: Bunny(!), Chazzy(!) and Clover(!). The person responding didn't seem to know too much English, or Engrish as she/he put it. I'm guessing they are Asian. DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS 'COMPANY'. It is most likely just one person selling these fakes.

i was just about to try ordering off the internet for the first time, i don't trust shopping or banking online, and i was right not to. thanks to all of you and your feedback on these thieves. i'm sorry that you all had to go through this garbage. my thoughts are with you and many best wishes on getting your refunds. i will report these ### as well. who the hell do they think they are doing this type of crap to innocent people who never done anything bad to them. i got one word--- KARMA! what goes around comes around, they will get theirs, vengence shall be ours!

7 Months ago I ordered Blakes 7 DVD Seasons 1-4. Got them in about 2 weeks. Yes they was bootlegs in a very cheap carrying case. But I kind of knew that they would be because they was 1/4 the price of the hard to find Blakes 7 DVD set that you could find anywhere else this side of the Big Pond.

All played well and the PQ was as good as you would except on a 29 year old BBC TV show, so I'm very happy. But after reading the Complaints here I will not order War Of The Worlds DVD Seasons 1-2 and Babylon 5 DVD Seasons 1-5 like I was getting ready to.

Look like this company has gone really... BAD! Thanks for the heads-up you guys just saved me $240.00.

Jones

Just to let you know if you do look up the ip address it does not come up as Russian... it is an address from florida... thanks to all for comments though saved me from wasting my money.

I ordered the 41 DVDS in 7 Cases of the Mission Impossible in October 2006, it took 2 months to get my order, the day I received the DVDS they came in a really shorty envelope that was ripped and torn, I opened up the package, and 4 of the cases were cracked, I emailed them the next day and they promised me a prepaid envelope to mail them back in, and they promised me they would send me a new set of DVDS once they received my damaged ones, I paid $249.00 for the set plus almost $25.00 shipping and handling, for the past 9 months I emailed, and called for the promised returned envelope so I could send back the damaged ones, also they were not professional copies but copies taken off regular tv with commercials. They finally sent me an email last month that they were crediting my credit card account the $249.00 minus the shipping and handling, unfortunately that was a lie. I'm totally disgusted with this company, what goes around comes around, I hope they get what they deserve if they ever get caught.

I also was taken all of the scarecrow and Mrs King were taped off of TV. All of the various cable channels with some crazy commercials. I received 86 out of the 88 episodes.The [protected] line is useless! The chat is a joke! Like all you folks I CALLED but no reply.

I wish I can buy a honest DVD set for my wife that has all of the episodes "Scarecrow and Mrs.King"

I purchased complete set of "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" last November 2006. At least two of the disks are defective. The shows were copied off of the "N"network. The "N" logo was on each episode, quality of the recording was fair to poor. I paid $111.98 for the set. Like the others, I called, but no one answered or service was disconnected. Like some of the others, Amazon referred me to this company. Guess we are all stuck with poor discs or in some cases none at all. Wish we all could get our money back. Motto: Buyer Beware! Deal only with reputable companies.

This is an offshore scam company and there is probably nothing you can do to get your money back or get product replacement. My girlfriend ordered the complete Twin Peaks series (seasons 1 and 2) as a Christmas gift. Upon receiving, we recognized it was obviously bootleg, but since she had saved 80 bucks we were ok with that as long as the DVD's worked and the quality was at least decent enough to watch. The first 3 DVD's worked correctly (the pilot episode and episodes 1-4 from the 1st season). After that, DVDs 5-11 we were unable to play on any DVD player. I was told I would be shipped a replacement on May 30, but I highly doubt that will happen.

By the by, these guys have been making posts in message boards all over currently under the name of luvlyn, topics called TV Show Reviews with just descriptions and links to their sites. If you see such things report it to the forum heads. They have a link that calls it self TV Shows on DVD but it just links back to their site.

These are bootleggers, plain and simple. To find out if a show is on DVD go to www.tvshowsondvd.com you will learn if it is or is not. In the case of Get Smart mentioned above, Time Life has released the series in its entirety available exclusively through their site and they have done the best possible job with presenting it on DVD.

My heart sank when I began to read all these complaints... I ordered something from them last week... I am petrified at what, if anything at all, I receive. I am already disappointed and have yet to receive a thing... does anyone have a good experience? : (

I wanted to purchase a show (Big Wolf On Campus) for my grandson for about 3 years to no avail. And a couple of months ago I went on the internet to try again, and I was extremely surprised that (Tvaddicts) etc., had it and none of the other websites or stores did. My daughter wanted to buy it but I had a bad feeling about it. I called the number because I wanted to talk to someone personally, and it said the telephone was temporarily disconnected and to try later...TALK ABOUT A RED FLAG GOING UP. Needless to say I never bought from them. I usually buy DVD's from Amazon.com and other reliable places. If I can't find what I need from the companies I already deal with...I will gladly do without. I would surely tell my friends and family, if I were you, to be aware of these scam companies. And I also believe that AOL should look into this situation.

Tvaddicts.com, tvdvdplanet, or whatever they want to call themselves! It is just a disgrace that the authorities have allowed these pieces of dirt to continually take unsuspecting buyers money. Yes I fell for it as well. Buying Get Smart, Batman and Welcome Back Kotter. Luckily for me I actually got a refund from my credit card company who are trying to contact our good friends at tvaddicts.com as I write this. Good luck to them I say. I hope they have more luck than we all did. This whole set up is a major fraud. The amount of people and money involved in this scam must be astronomical. I feel sorry for all the people that got caught up in this. I wish you all well and hope you all get at least some of your money back. Its about time the authorities took this sort of think seriously. It is CRIME!

I also have been ripped off by DVDAvenue.com (A.K.A. TVAddicts.com). I ordered the complete Silverhawks series for about $39.00, plus shipping and handling. I waited a whole month for my order, and when they finally arrived, the contents inside the package were damaged beyond repair. The DVD case was broken, along with the DVD's. After I brought it through their attention (by the way, the phone number they have on their websites is completely useless, I used their live operator online), they told me that they would send me a replacement. I waited over two months, and no replacement. They stated that they were waiting for there next shipment to arrive; NOTHING! I finally asked them for my money back, but I doubt I'll get that right away, or at all. These people are the biggest thieves on the internet that I know of. and they should not get away with this crap. If anyone knows how we could shut this website down, along with the other aliases, please let every victim know; WE WANT OUR F----NG MONEY BACK!

I was also a victim. I ordered Matlock. They charged $299 and sent the box. But, 4 boxes were broken. entire first season was missing and two other DVDs from some other seasons were missing. It was definitely recorded from TV as the quality was poor. Beware, never buy from them. Now, their website is off and customer service number does not work.

I also ordered My Two Dads and Marcus Welby from TVDVDPlanet and DVD Avenue...I did finally get the dvd's but only after about 6 weeks...I had called before ordering to see if they were in stock and was told yes...With My Two Dads, the dvd's were okay but you could see they were copies of shows taped from the tv...With Marcus Welby, it was sold as a complete set but lacked about 40 episodes...I finally reached someone and told them this and they tried to say it had all seven dvd's and was complete and I told them no...They said they would send me another set and if it was not complete they would refund my money...Needless to say, I have not received the second set...It too was taped from TV.

Boy are we suckers! I ordered Two Guys a Girl and Pizza for my daughter, six out of the eight DVDs were unreadable, they were copied from the WE cable channel, after many, many emails and phone calls, they INSIST my refund was sent through to my bank. NOT! Next time, I'll do a bit more research on the company before sending my daughters hard earned money to them!

look up tvaddicts.tv @whois and do an IP search:

IP Address: 81.29.241.123 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: RU(RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Data as of: 14-Jun-2005

Good luck getting your money back!

I totally agree with this. I have been fortunate in buying dvd's and the one time i decide to use a website that i have never heard of i have been ripped off.

Most of my favorite shows were on there and i decided to treat myself. They arrived quite quickly and i started to watch them. I'd have to say half of them just don't work or freeze. I've sent many an email and trying calling with no effect.

Does anyone know who we can actually contact properly about these people rather than writing a "blog" about it?

I have tried googling and that website about piracy but it asks which state and i am in the UK.

I'm contacting my bank and hoping they will be able to help so fingers crossed!

Thanks to the quick acting Canadian mounties im sure we will all get our money back. Just another reason never to visit Canada, and whats up with the whole "a" thing anyway?

Well, the truth is. I ordered the series PERFECT STRANGERS. I paid over 100 dollars for this product. I received an email stating that the item had been shipped, and when I tried to track the shipping of the product it was some CCSHIPPINCC like tracking number which is observed. When it arrived around 2 weeks later, it had all the boxes, however, one of the boxes was cracked. When I watched the first episode, it was missing 3 of the 5 plus countless discs that were defective. When I tried to reach this company concerning this product, I received no resolution concerning the problems. Some episodes just didn't work, some just weren't there, and some discs had different shows on it. I feel quite ripped off.

My situation is different, I ordered the "wonder woman" complete dvd set for my sister and it arrived on time. But the problem is that the site tvaddicts.com said the set was brand new and sealed. Well it arrived unsealed all 8 dvds were scratched and the plastic case it came in was cracked. I just received it today and only viewed one dvd so far and it appears to be working and is fairly clear, but if I knew that they were worn and used I would have never purchased them. So for me the site is definitely falsely advertising their items which is unfair and should be stopped!Now I know why their items are fairly cheap because it's used and costs them basically pennies to make these poor quality dvds!

Same as all the other complaints of tvaddicts.com/dvdavenue/whatever else they have aliases under. I suggest reporting piracy:

www.mpaa.org/ReportPiracy.asp

I plan on reporting this company to them and hope to see some results. Unfortunately if I had known they were pirating videos I would have never purchased these dvds (Scrubs).

Check out empiricalfilm.com if it still exists. Sounds like the same company I had problems with in June 2005 or just another variation of it. Took me a while to realize they had no intention of sending my Get Smart dvds and they also took my money as a cash advance which I had a very hard time getting my credit card company to refund. They never answered their phone or emails either.

These places are all rip off sites.

I totally agree with everybody who has wrote in on matter, and they are all right about what tvdvdplanet tv series website has been doing. First of all I would like to say that I am in a state of shock that these companies would sell buyers these great old shows and then give you next to nothing. I to sadly fell into the same trap. I recently bought The Jeffersons: The complete series on DVD. And they did answer every e-mail I sent them, but unfortunately I have yet to receive the package. Other Websites are almost the same and the DVD shows are exactly the same, and they need to stop ripping me and other people off. It's wrong.

I ordered the Will and Grace dvd's complete season. I finally got them about a month later. These DVD's are recorded from the tv, clearly can see the NBC logo at the bottom right of the screen. Some of the episodes, their lips don't move with the sound. That's a lot of fun to watch. Ok if your eyes are closed. The other dvd's have never arrived. I have lost nearly $500.00 to this company. Looking for DVD's on Amazon linked me to this site.

I too have fallen into the same trap and did my research after the fact. My order involved the TV show "The Naked Truth" with Tea Leoni. After receiving my order we popped disc one into the DVD player to discover that most of the episodes didn't play, not to mention that they were recorded off the WE (Womens Entertainment) Network. While looking at the remaining discs within the series, I noticed scratches on many of the discs along with fingerprints smeared on the labels. Of course emails and phoning got me no where.

After doing additional research, this is what I've found. As people have reported previously they operate under multiple sites - DVDAvenue.tv, DVDCraze.tv, TVDVDMania.tv, TVDVDPlanet.com, TVAddicts.tv, TVonDisc.com, www.raredvds.tv.

Tvdvdplanet also trades on Ebay under these names: greyhare68 , *FLASHASH* , shoot.john , huntyoudown. They are being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Better Business Bureau in the US can't do much about it because they are not US based. So you basically have to take your licks because you won't be getting your money back.

There is one way to get back at them, and I’m up for it! If you are interested in taking some money back out of there pockets, do this. Using you Google Search bar, search for any of the following shows; THE WONDER YEARS DVD, TWIN PEAKS DVD, THE NANNY DVD, Mad About You DVD, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE DVD, THUNDERCATS DVD, Emergency DVD SET. You will receive multiple hits, search out “dvdavenue”, “TVaddicts.tv”, etc. and open up there site. Every time you open their site using any of the above TV Shows, Google charges them an advertising fee. Start clicking and pass the word along!

I called the company and spoke to the representative prior to placing my order. the rep assured me the product was A#1. i received the product in about 10 days and was shocked at what was sent to me. it was a copy from television, sometimes showing the television station. the viewing quality is horrible. i was told i would receive a refund and they ended the call without any details. every time i call now i get a message. i guess my # is flagged. i am going to write my credit card company. this company has confirmed my fears about the internet as i will never buy anything else through this medium.

My husband also ordered from tvdvdplanet. to say the the least, it is ditto for all of the complaints. These people should be put out of business. It is scary that they have his charge card number now. They also have a web site called : www.tvaddicts.tv same exact phone number which never has anyone to talk to. They never returns emails. As a matter of fact the email address they gave on the "printable order" was not even valid. They sure are quick to charge your card though.

I also looked up the company Direct Media in Canada directory, there are about 9 companies with same address but no company named Direct Media. I was told by Dvd Avenue (which tvdvdplanet uses this name on their automated answering services) a video rental business with a real store front according to them, that this company was definitely a fraud and that IF you recvd. anything from them it would be very poorly recorded.