Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire BOOTLEG ebay WTF.

[lovecraft]

I haven't read all that and I won't. I have no idea if Minty has quoted everything verbatim or has edited/modified stuff. Based on the bullshit he wrote about us

I don't know Minty, but whatever you can tell, if I refer to my own experience with you (that was long ago through eBay), it was just disastrous and I didn't like it, definitely At the time, your service and communication were awful, the same about your endless arrogant messages, extremely rude and agressive. So I doubt you have changed by the work of the Holy Spirit Not the first time it smells shit in a transaction in which you are involved, is this a coincidence ?

[jepjepjep]

You guys are all talking about his behaviour like he's the one who really did something wrong, but the fact remains: he's the one who was ripped off 5 years ago.

I agree. Ultimately Lee/VGI should've gave him a resolution right away instead of stringing him along for so long. After all, this is a retail shop with a warranty/guarantee right? It arrived non-working so he should have gotten a replacement console or a refund. It looks like Lee was looking for an excuse to not honor the guarantee.

Having said that, Minty sure didn't help himself. Once he started with insults and the threats the prospects of a refund went bye-bye. Also, I'm sure all of the electronics talk, modding his own pcengine, fixing/modding the cables, and breaking the power supply all sent a Big red flag to Lee.

The fact remains that Lee kept the console and the money, so any bad publicity for Videogameimports coming out of this is completely deserved imo. Part of retail is dealing with rude customers, but even rude customers don't deserve to be ripped off (at least legally ).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Having said that, Minty sure didn't help himself. Once he started with insults and the threats the prospects of a refund went bye-bye. Also, I'm sure all of the electronics talk, modding his own pcengine, fixing/modding the cables, and breaking the power supply all sent a Big red flag to Lee.

That and the "I'm gonna rip off an auction" thing raised some other red flags. I think Minty himself did more to damage his credibility and immediately raise suspicions about the issue more than there would have been if he'd not acted so badly. I mean, when a customer acts like that, I think it's normal to be a little reluctant to immediately pin all the blame on the company until we actually know what's going on.

[CStarFlare]

Dude, that is absurd. The guy was robbed. There's good reason to end communication with a customer if you think they're unreasonable - and checking the date stamps on the correspondence, I don't think he was - but there's no reason to keep payment and product with no reimbursement. That kind of resolution can be done silently. And in business, should be.

The way I'm reading this, VGI was negotiating a refund and Minty told him to go fuck himself. VGI is far from a sterling seller, but if your main beef is with where things landed, it landed where Minty put it. He stamped his feet and refused their offer, then told them to never contact him again. At that point, they could have sent his shit back (and prolong the dispute), given him the offered refund (and prolong the dispute), refund the whole amount, or walk away. I'd have thrown his money at him to be done with it, but when I sell it's typically to clear out space rather than run a business.

This sob story about how VGI still has his money ;_; is absurd - Minty's not even trying to get it back, he's more interested in spewing bile than he is about having an sort of conclusion to this episode. And the thing that gets me is, VGI is still offering to do something:

Minty, if you want to resolve this Duo fiasco in any way, contact me directly. I don't care whether you trust me or not. It's up to you. This was 7 years ago but the fact that I'm willing to speak to you after everything you said should be enough for you to make contact if you even care about this. You said I've incriminated myself but one fact remains indisputable: we don't have to offer you a refund without receiving the goods back.

and Minty still refuses to do anything but stamp his feet. And lest we forget - both parties were holding some of the items purchased purchased. Minty has no place insisting on a full refund while keeping part of the set.

This reasoning that VGI is responsible for the CD drive damage because it's their fault it was sent in the first place is bunk. This is a business transaction - both parties have a responsibility to act in good faith and not make problems wor se. And I think that's why a few of us have so little sympathy for Minty's situation: aside from the fact that a refund for a large portion of his purchase was offered to him and tossed aside, our first look into this whole dispute was Minty acting in bad faith with the auctions, and we see snippets of that attitude throughout the emails as well.

Also:

Also, I'm sure all of the electronics talk, modding his own pcengine, fixing/modding the cables, and breaking the power supply all sent a Big red flag to Lee.

Crossed my mind as well, but it felt a little accusatory and I was coming down pretty hard against Minty as it was. Glad one of his supporters caught that.

[Skykid]

The way I'm reading this, VGI was negotiating a refund and Minty told him to go fuck himself.

How did you manage to glean that? They got the console back, waited a disproportionately long time before informing him the CD Drive wasn't spinning and if he wanted a refund it would be deducted from the cost. This upset him as the customer because it's basically 'ok, no DUO for you, but we're keeping £50 of your money. And your manual that we never sent'.

Remarkably favourable negotiation. I'm sure you'd be over the moon if it worked out the same way for you.

VGI is far from a sterling seller, but if your main beef is with where things landed, it landed where Minty put it. He stamped his feet and refused their offer, then told them to never contact him again.

Nonsense. You're just misreading this with undue prejudice. He asked for the working console he paid for or his money back, and asked for several fucking months.

This sob story about how VGI still has his money ;_; is absurd - Minty's not even trying to get it back, he's more interested in spewing bile than he is about having an sort of conclusion to this episode. And the thing that gets me is, VGI is still offering to do something:

This really is nonsense. Lee has a business. I can pull up my PayPal records from 10 years ago. If Lee really wants to make himself look good, he'd just issue the refund without the appeal. Perhaps Minty does just want to drag him through the mud - well ok. As the party out of pocket it's his call.

Minty, if you want to resolve this Duo fiasco in any way, contact me directly. I don't care whether you trust me or not. It's up to you. This was 7 years ago but the fact that I'm willing to speak to you after everything you said should be enough for you to make contact if you even care about this. You said I've incriminated myself but one fact remains indisputable: we don't have to offer you a refund without receiving the goods back.

^ I don't understand this. Saur was the last person with the goods.

Minty, send Lee your PayPal details and save him the time searching for them. Let us know if you get any of your money back in the thread. Simple stuff.

and Minty still refuses to do anything but stamp his feet. And lest we forget - both parties were holding some of the items purchased purchased. Minty has no place insisting on a full refund while keeping part of the set.

Are you talking about the empty box he paid extra for? He already told Lee to bill him for it and the second PSU and take it out of the refund. You didn't read those emails did you?

For that reason I won't look at any more of your post. There's a lot of unusual and incorrect insight here, probably due to folk not reading all the available material here and in the grievance thread. I don't understand the ill will toward the out of pocket party at all.

I wouldn't invite you lot for jury service!

[Immryr]

i swear skykid is the only rational person here.

[CStarFlare]

I'll step back and admit that I'm a little prejudiced against Minty at this point - as I said, my introduction to this whole business were Minty's posts on the forum, which I thought to be very poor behavior. I'm not sure why I got involved in this, it involves a vendor that services a country I don't live in. My irritation with Minty got the better of me.

Looking at the last few emails again, Minty does ask what Lee is intending to refund after initially refusing his offer of a refund minus the cost of the PSU and replacement drive. (I had initially read it as another solid rejection, but it's more open to partial restitution than that) Lee plays hurt at Minty's aggressive language and won't reply until Minty cleans it up (I've never worked for a company that would engage with a customer who is being actively abusive, but I'm not sure Minty is quite to that point in his email.), at which point Minty pulls out "One more word form you and I take you to court." They were starting a discussion about what would be refunded, and unfortunately they both had a hand in killing it.

When Minty came back 10 months later, he went back to refusing Lee's offer of a refund less the drive. As a seller, the prospect of sending a buyer a refund he hasn't accepted would scare the hell out of me and I'd rather wait until we could reach a consensus (or at least confirmation that he understands the amount he is going to get, happy or not). But an agreement was probably not ever going to be reached, and in any case the emails we have don't show Lee making any attempt to acknowledge the issue again. At some point he should've thrown up his hands and paid out something; as Skykid maintained it's not fair for a seller to pocket the whole amount because it was partially disputed, even if the buyer's made the process difficult.

[Skykid]

CStar: Your emotional reactions to Minty's post style and content aren't unfounded, just perhaps unrelated to this issue. Even my initial response to him was similar to yours, if you go back and check.

But there's a very simple way of assessing the right or wrongs of this case. Let's imagine this really were a court of law. You're prosecuting, Minty and VGI are both defendants.

Your job is to prove an act of criminality.

Minty's harsh language after months of frustration? Posting style? Demeanour?

Is there evidence he broke or tampered with the CD Drive? Is there evidence of his packaging? Evidence his packaging is responsible for a broken CD drive? Is there even evidence OF a broken CD drive all??

VGI's case: Is there evidence of faulty console on delivery. Yes (images). Were these faults corroborated by two parties on return. Yes. Is there evidence a paid-for manual was undelivered? Yes, all via email response.

Was a refund provided? No. Was a console provided? No.

Now identify which parts qualify as criminality under UK/US law, completely ignoring appraisals of 'character'.

[CStarFlare]

Do we need to start throwing the word criminality around? Seems like more of a tort. Even if this were a clear cut case of fraud I have a hard time buying that this would end in criminal charges. I'm not sure if the UK has an equivalent to small claims court but I imagine that's where this would belong, and that VGI would lose by default simply because they just walked away without compensating Minty in any way.

As for the question of the CD drive, I'm not sure what level of evidence would be expected or UK's laws governing when responsibility for items in transit shifts from sender to receiver. Whether or not Minty or his packaging is at fault might not be the important issue at hand - when legal responsibility for the goods being transported was transferred might be the more important (unless you're going to accuse VGI/Saur of lying about the drive's condition or breaking it after receipt and shifting the blame, both of which are heavy accusations that wouldn't really be supported by evidence).

[Skykid]

As for the question of the CD drive, I'm not sure what level of evidence would be expected or UK's laws governing when responsibility for items in transit shifts from sender to receiver. Whether or not Minty or his packaging is at fault might not be the important issue at hand - when legal responsibility for the goods being transported was transferred might be the more important (unless you're going to accuse VGI/Saur of lying about the drive's condition or breaking it after receipt and shifting the blame, both of which are heavy accusations that wouldn't really be supported by evidence).

All accusations not supported by evidence are perfunctory. This includes Minty's packaging and Lee's claim of a broken drive.

Did you skim read my previous post?

The above is a court scenario. I'm asking you to outline the only area that is matter of fact wrong. The word 'criminality' is only used in this fictional context, although theft and non-delivery of paid for goods is a crime that can be addressed by small claims in this instance, or full blown court if more severe.

Cstar, dude, please read the posts a little more thoroughly. I'm only asking you to weed out the black and white facts and stop diving into hearsay, conjecture, character and semantics. They're not important.

[CStarFlare]

I promise I'm not skimming.

All accusations not supported by evidence are perfunctory. This includes Minty's packaging and Lee's claim of a broken drive.

Again, I'm not sure what level of evidence of the broken drive would be needed in such a court. I'm genuinely asking - I'm not familiar enough with courts (of any nation) to know what the burden is proof is for a dispute over fifty pounds, or if the court would even bother trying to determine if the claim was supported in light of the other facts of the case.

I'm not really not qualified to play or interested in playing internet real-court juror, and I'm not sure this hypothetical courtroom argument is in any way necessary. I've already conceded that regardless of Minty's conduct during or after the events, VGI is in the wrong.

[jepjepjep]

I just checked out the videogameimports website and this is from the Terms & Conditions:

If your product is faulty, we will replace it. New hardware comes with a 1 year guarantee. 2nd hand hardware and all games come with a 90 day guarantee.

I assume that the terms & conditions haven't changed fundamentally since 7 years ago.

Minty has said that he can't open the console, so the fact that the CD-drive failed shouldn't matter at all since he hasn't tampered with it or caused any physical damage. In fact it should be included in the 90 day guarantee. If there was obvious shipping damage when it arrived at the repair guy, he would have noticed from the packaging and said something about it when he received it. You'll notice that the repair guy didn't mention any physical damage to the package or console, only that the cd-drive didn't work and alludes to an internal component failure possibly during shipping. (As an aside, there's no way a shipping company will pay out damages unless there's obvious physical damage to the package upon delivery; they had zero chance of a successful claim).

Let's keep in mind this isn't an as-is ebay special, but rather a high priced console from a retail shop. VGI refused to honor their warranty, and that's when Minty started to get rude. I'm having a hard time seeing any grey area about this one. It seems the only fair thing would be a full refund minus cost of the power supply/box that Minty kept.

[VideoGameImports]

Just to go over some of this one more time:

We would have offered a refund minus the cost of the CD-ROM repair and I guess the broken PSU or whatever it was he broke. Minty refused this. We could hardly issue a refund of any amount without agreeing it first.

Secondly, this is a retro collector item. Minty has the box. The box probably makes up around 30% of the value of the package. You can all debate that all you want but it's a fact that I can prove based on sale prices of boxed vs. unboxed Duos. Nobody seems to have considered that point. Even if we took the CD-ROM drive on the chin (which we weren't prepared to do), we didn't need to refund anything without receiving all the goods back. Call that what you will, but that's how it is. If he really wanted to position himself with the moral high ground, he would have returned everything to us. Minty makes it look like we haven't refunded him for 7 years as if this has been an ongoing argument. It hasn't. I haven't been in contact with him for years. The first I time I heard from him in years was when I saw the name on the Sapphire winning bid on ebay. When he didn't pay I was pretty sure it was him, but I left it at that. The ball was in his court basically and he made no contact, either by phone or by email so it's not like we've been discussing this on a weekly basis for 7 years. It's not like that at all so his bizarre insistence that we pay some sort of 'late penalty' might as well be directed at the nearest brick wall because it's not happening. We're as likely to get compensation from Minty for him sabotaging our auction as he is of getting any sort of late penalty fee. He's clearly been emboldened by his posts. The only contact I've had with Minty since this was 'fresh' was through this message board, in the last couple of weeks. The ball was in his court, he knows what I want him to do...

... as I've also said, if Minty wants to speak to me about this, then he needs to contact me directly. I truly hate this guy but I'm not a monster and of course I can understand that he's pissed off with the fact he didn't get a properly working Duo at the beginning. I will look at everything and possibly reconsider or decide on a course of action. I've said I want all the emails, sent directly to me, not some message board pasting. If I think emails are missing or edited or anything like that then I might dig out the old computer where I have them stored and look through them to see if anything missing is of importance. There are other things I'd like to say about my dealing with Minty and things which Saur said to me but I can't, and because of that, I don't want to go back and forth on a message board.

[Skykid]

We could hardly issue a refund of any amount without agreeing it first.

You couldn't agree because you wanted him to cover the cost of a CD Drive repair that you have no proof was his responsibility. You didn't even prove to him it was broken, just expected him to take you at your word.

Like I said, under these tenuous circumstances a business needs to bite the bullet.

Secondly, this is a retro collector item. Minty has the box. The box probably makes up around 30% of the value of the package. You can all debate that all you want but it's a fact that I can prove based on sale prices of boxed vs. unboxed Duos. Nobody seems to have considered that point.

What the fuck am I reading!

You charged him for the box individually! £15, and £5 for a manual you didn't send. Why would any customer return the whole box for a repair when he's expecting the console back in working order?

Furthermore, he asked you to refund him minus the cost of this and the additional PSU he bought for Saur to test with.

This comment is ridiculous: you put a price and a value on the box. You can easily refund minus the sold for amount.

Even if we took the CD-ROM drive on the chin (which we weren't prepared to do)

But you should have. Unless you can prove it's the customer's fault, as a business you have no choice. This is why it all went to shit.

we didn't need to refund anything without receiving all the goods back. Call that what you will, but that's how it is.

Fine, if that's really how it is, that's stupid. You never mentioned that at any point before you ended communication with him and you could have easily refunded minus the box and the CD Drive repair if you wanted to be real stubborn about it. The manual you kept anyway.

Regardless, and again, you kept everything: money and console and manual. That's immoral and there's no other way of looking at it. I'm sorry, but the guy left with sweet fuck all has got a right to be pissed right off.

I don't think you've come off as badly as you could have in this thread thanks to my posting colleagues being unusually and bizarrely favourable, and I'd urge you not to dig the hole any deeper.

.. as I've also said, if Minty wants to speak to me about this, then he needs to contact me directly. I truly hate this guy but I'm not a monster and of course I can understand that he's pissed off with the fact he didn't get a properly working Duo at the beginning. I will look at everything and possibly reconsider or decide on a course of action. I've said I want all the emails, sent directly to me, not some message board pasting. If I think emails are missing or edited or anything like that then I might dig out the old computer where I have them stored and look through them to see if anything missing is of importance. There are other things I'd like to say about my dealing with Minty and things which Saur said to me but I can't, and because of that, I don't want to go back and forth on a message board.

There's actually a way VGI could turn this entire debacle around to their advantage. It's an opportunity I wouldn't pass up, but it's your call. I mentioned it earlier, won't bother again, but it's staring you right in the face. If it was me I'd jump all over it. Best PR stunt you could ever hope for.

[MintyTheCat]

Minty makes it look like we haven't refunded him for 7 years as if this has been an ongoing argument. It hasn't. I haven't been in contact with him for years.

Lee, the last E-Mails were as below:

###############
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 12:31:15 +0100
Delivered-To: MINTY-EMAIL
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
From: MINTY-EMAIL
To: Lee - VGI <lee@videogameimports.com>
--0016e64c2cc4449b6d0485aeee1d
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Lee,

You owe me for the machine I bought from you.

Kindly respond or I raise this at a higher level your choice.

Minty.
from: Lee Mallabar <lee@videogameimports.com>
to: MINTY-EMAIL
date: 3 May 2010 23:47
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

As per my previous emails.

from: MINTY-EMAIL
to: Lee Mallabar <lee@videogameimports.com>
date: 4 May 2010 00:05
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

Any your response is?

You have the items and I was never reimbursed.
###############

I had asked you a number of times before 2010 and I was not in the UK until some years later.

Prior to that it was I think 2009,2008 and 2007, I can bring those E-Mails if you need me to.

It's not like that at all so his bizarre insistence that we pay some sort of 'late penalty' might as well be directed at the nearest brick wall because it's not happening.

If I was a bank and I kept your money for any duration I would invest it and at the very least I'd get interest from that money. does that make it any clearer to you?

Plus, let's face it: without us having a public Forum such as Shmups I would have been ignored forever by you - 94 E-Mails and no cigar.

I look at the statistics on a couple of search engines. If you type in "Lee videogameimports scumbag" tell me what you get.

This Thread alone is at 2855 views over a duration of 21 days: average 135.95 views a day. Are you sure this is the type of advert that you want to have for VGI and indeed yourself, Lee?

Also, let's look at the numbers:

If one person a week sees your rep (and many of your customers are Shmuppers) and that person would have spent GBP 30 on a single order you would be losing 30*52 = GBP 1560 alone.

I am feeling sorry for you now: please let me post you a couple of books about Economics for your own good, please!

[system11]

What a mess.

Lee should have asked him to just return the whole lot right back and refunded it, minus the PSU of course. I sell PCBs sometimes, and occasionally they die in transit. That's just life with old electronics. Even if I can repair it I ask people to just send it back and reimburse them, or if it's not worth it to me to pay for the return postage vs chances of repair+resale I reimburse them and tell them to keep it.

It's bullshit to force a customer to return things for a possible repair when they arrived DOA, whether it's in the T&C or not (actually legally people can DEMAND a refund under distance selling rules if sold in the UK).

[CStarFlare]

There's actually a way VGI could turn this entire debacle around to their advantage. It's an opportunity I wouldn't pass up, but it's your call. I mentioned it earlier, won't bother again, but it's staring you right in the face. If it was me I'd jump all over it. Best PR stunt you could ever hope for.

This is far and away VGI's best option. I don't know that "favorable PR stunt" is the right term for it because the situation doesn't lend itself to being good PR, but it would end an ugly dispute that he should desperately want to be out of. It's probably in his best interests to do so as graciously as possible.

Lee, regardless of whether or not you feel it is appropriate to demand certain concessions, at some point the potential damage to your business' reputation and your own satisfaction with your work should make holding out a losing proposition. You've spent a week arguing an old, unpleasant transaction you'd rather not revisit to a crowd that has turned generally unsympathetic; the stress of that would make me lose sleep. If you came here purely to defend your decision then maybe that doesn't matter; if any part of you came here to defend your reputation then that's going to be a horrible failure if you're not willing to bend.

[VideoGameImports]

You know, it's been 7 years without any contact. If I charged him sparely for the box, then I stand corrected. Apologies.

If Minty wants to get in touch, he's welcome to, as I've said all along.

[MintyTheCat]

You know, it's been 7 years without any contact. If I charged him sparely for the box, then I stand corrected. Apologies.

If Minty wants to get in touch, he's welcome to, as I've said all along.

Wrong

The last E-Mails for 2008 to 2010 are below:

####################################################################


Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:58:57 +0000
From: "Minty Minty" <Minty_EMail>
To: "Lee - VGI" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

Lee,

Following on, you seem to have forgotten about monies owed.

Please get back to me with a breakdown on the costs/etc.

I intend to report you to the office of fair trading if you try and blame me
for the faulty CD drive, given that the whole machine was knackered.
Plus, there's the 3 month warranty to consider, regardless of your
accusation that I 'substituted a broken drive'. Not a good comment to make.

I'm back in the UK now.

Minty.
####################################################################

From: Lee - VGI <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:35:52 +0000
To: Minty Minty <Minty_EMail>

Where is the machine?
####################################################################

Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:47:15 +0000
From: "Minty Minty" <Minty_EMail>
To: "Lee - VGI" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

You have or it or your mate has it, I certainly don't.

I do have the box here, hardly worth posting up an empty box.

Also, you still have the manual, never sent it to me.
###################################################################

there is not response from Lee after this last reply from me.

###################################################################
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 12:31:15 +0100
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
From: MINTY-EMAIL
To: Lee - VGI <lee@videogameimports.com>

Lee,

You owe me for the machine I bought from you.

Kindly respond or I raise this at a higher level your choice.

Minty.
from: Lee Mallabar <lee@videogameimports.com>
to: MINTY-EMAIL
date: 3 May 2010 23:47
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

As per my previous emails.

from: MINTY-EMAIL
to: Lee Mallabar <lee@videogameimports.com>
date: 4 May 2010 00:05
subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

Any your response is?

You have the items and I was never reimbursed.
####################################################################


there is not response from Lee after this last reply from me.

I have contacted and stated that I wish to conduct our communications over PM on this Forum - that's 'contact' or not?

[Skykid]

What a mess.(actually legally people can DEMAND a refund under distance selling rules if sold in the UK).

:smacks forehead:

Forgot about that one! Only for non made-to-order goods of course. This one would have qualified.

[MintyTheCat]

I have asked Lee to respond:

#########################################

Hello Lee,

I shall make every effort to keep my correspondence with you civil, objective and pragmatic. I would ask that you do the same.

I shall invite you make an offer to cover money owed to me, postage on the return to Saur taking into account seven years' worth of inflation to ensure that money owed matches that of today's market value.

You may also consider offering me an amount as an apology for having held onto my money for these last few years.

You may also wish to consider making a penalty payment to me that I can pay to the Shmups-Forum but I shall leave that entirely at your discretion.

If this matter can be resolved amicably then it serves us all for the better good.

Yours,
Minty.
#########################################

We will have to see how honest he wishes to be in finding a resolution.

Cheers,

Minty.

[MintyTheCat]

Hello all,

following the advice of the Forum I contacted Lee at Videogame Imports and asked once again for my money back.

What I found was that Lee simply ignores the request for the money back. Now keep in mind that I do not have the machine that I ordered and I have not had any money reimbursed at this stage.

Lee also threatened that I would get nothing if I went to a public Forum. Does this sound like an honest Seller to any of you guys?

I have nothing to lose at this stage so here are the E-Mails:

From: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
To: MintyEmail
Subject: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2014 00:07:04 +0000

MintyName,

MintyWrote:

taking into account seven years' worth of inflation to ensure that money owed matches that of today's market value.

MintyWrote:

You may also wish to consider making a penalty payment to me that I can pay to the Shmups-Forum but I shall leave that entirely at your discretion.


You’re wasting your time mate. You’e got about as much chance of that as I have of getting a penalty payment from you for messing us around over the Sapphire purchase. No doubt you’ll argue the point but you were acting like a dick. I won’t be dragged into any more arguments over who did what and who said what but you were being a dick. I understand that you were pissed off about the RGB job not working properly but if you weren’t being a dick, maybe we would have swallowed the CD-ROM repair cost. A nice customer gets nice service. You weren’t being nice so we didn’t want to do any more than we had to.

Now, if I do anything at all, taking into account 7 years of inflation won’t be part of it. It’s not like you continuously dealt with us over the last 7 years. We only came into contact again when you ‘bought’ an ebay item. I’m sorry that you got a Duo with a faulty RGB conversion originally. Occasionally that sort of thing happened and it was pretty much as frustrating for us as it was for the customer but you’re just coming at all this from the wrong angle. You left it for 7 years. If you cared, you could have contacted me long ago. We no longer use the courier which we used when sending to you. All I have from Saur is a line to say that the Duo had been tampered with by the buyer and that the CD-ROM drive no longer worked.

If I do anything at all, it will be at my discretion. If you lose this high horse and holier-than-thou attitude then we may be able to move on. If not… then we can’t move on. 7 years and no direct contact from you, remember. You need to take some responsibility for both the way you acted and the fact that this has been unresolved (according to you) for 7 years. If you want to come back and rant and rave or go on the message board and slag me off, so be it. But if you do, I’ll simply not reply and you won’t get anything.

####################################################################################################

From: MintyEmail
To: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Aw: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 12:46:07 +0100

Hello Lee,

many thanks for your response.

this is all well and good but I cannot determine what you are proposing to actually do by means of a solution.

Could you give me some idea as to what you are proposing to do in order to resolve this situation?

Regards,

MintyName.

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From: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
To: MintyEmail
Subject: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 12:47:08 +0000

Hi MintyName,

What I’d be willing to do, early next year (getting MintyNametmas well out of the way - so I’ll say February) is send you another grey Duo console. It won’t have an RGB conversion… I think the problems we had with you were the final nail on the head for us doing RGB jobs, so we just gave up on them! Life has been much more simple ever since. However, it will have a working CD-ROM drive.

You’re in Germany now, right? If so, I’ll include the postage to Germany. You can keep it as it is, sell it, or get somebody else to do an RGB conversion on it. I think there are newer RGB conversions now which are different (and hopefully less prone to damage in transit, although I’d always recommend packing any Duo model really well for shipping) so you could always get that done at some point should you want to keep it and actually use it. If you already have a Duo, you could even keep the extra one for potential spare parts: they’re well-known for having problems and there’s less and less working ones out there with each passing year. Quite a few people have started hoarding 2nd consoles just in case.

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From: MintyEmail
To: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Aw: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 16:20:43 +0100

Hello Lee,

I actually do not need a PCE Duo. I have an original PCE White CD unit that I got in Japan.

I think it would be a little easier for you to follow the money reimbursal route personally.

Regards,

MintyName.

####################################################################################################
From: MintyEmail
To: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Aw: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2014 12

Hello Lee,

things have gone quiet again. Can you reply to the last email please?

Regards,

MintyName.

####################################################################################################
From: MintyEmail
To: "Lee @ VideoGameImports" <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Aw: Re: Duo Issue
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:03:06 +0100

Hello Lee,

I have tried my best with you, I have waited and I have simply had my E-Mails once again ignored.

I shall have to now escalate things.
####################################################################################################

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Minty.

[VideoGameImports]

It's the middle of December you idiot. We're kind of busy right now. As per my last email with you, I'm going to wait until I get a reply from Trading Standards before doing anything else. I'll basically follow their advice on this. In the meantime, please send over a scan of your original invoice for us just in case Trading Standards ask to se it. We don't have it anymore.

[MintyTheCat]

It's the middle of December you idiot. We're kind of busy right now. As per my last email with you, I'm going to wait until I get a reply from Trading Standards before doing anything else. I'll basically follow their advice on this. In the meantime, please send over a scan of your original invoice for us just in case Trading Standards ask to se it. We don't have it anymore.

I am now an idiot - good start, Lee. I am fully aware of the time of year, Lee. I hope you are busy.

Your last email did not say that you were going to wait, Lee.

You may well be asked to provide that invoice on your side. I have it and I also have the bank transaction.

You keep waiting for it but it will catch up with you one way or another. You steal from someone and some of us will get you for it, you piece of shit.

[VideoGameImports]

Well, you've threatened to take us to court so I may as well see what Trading Standards say about this. You come at me wanting a full retune plus inflation and a donation, blah blah but then I look back and found that I did offer you a refund but you refused to take it. I thought I was being completely reasonable 7 years later by offering you the thing you say you don't have, a Duo.

If you want anything at all, send over a scan of the invoice. Officially we have no record of you now.

[MintyTheCat]

Well, you've threatened to take us to court so I may as well see what Trading Standards say about this. You come at me wanting a full retune plus inflation and a donation, blah blah but then I look back and found that I did offer you a refund but you refused to take it. I thought I was being completely reasonable 7 years later by offering you the thing you say you don't have, a Duo.

If you want anything at all, send over a scan of the invoice. Officially we have no record of you now.

You did not offer me anything, Lee. If this occurred please produce the E-Mail that supports your statement if you have at any time offered me a refund. I can produce the E-Mail whereby I ask you for a refund and I did that several times but each request was ignored by you.

Regardless of the action of the Court of the Trading Standards this will not drop until you reimburse me.

[n0rtygames]

You did not offer me anything, Lee. If this occurred please produce the E-Mail that supports your statement if you have at any time offered me a refund. I can produce the E-Mail whereby I ask you for a refund and I did that several times but each request was ignored by you.

Point #1 - as you asked, here is the first email where a refund is offered (pretty close to full, minus damages which he suggests you take up with the courier)

Delivered-To: Minty_EMail
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<41be5f160707111050w14344a8eq4ed1c79ba8bf1d87@mail.gmail.com>
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Message-Id: <4BCC4CB5-9467-4CC2-A3A0-98F133DB9903@videogameimports.com>
From: Lee - VGI <lee@videogameimports.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:53:31 +0100
To: "Minty Minty" <Minty_EMail>
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2)


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1) You yourself said it was working fine. No feeling it might be on
it's last legs.

2) I'm not saying I do hold you responsible, but since it was working
when you had it and it's not working now, it's pretty clear that
we're not responsible for the CD drive problem. You said that you
work in electronics and you've made it clear from your mocking of
Saur that you're not exactly clueless about this sort of stuff. The
PC Engine CD was the first console CD-ROM system and it's about 15
years old. You saw the way we packaged the machine when we sent it
to you, so I shouldn't have had to spell this out to somebody like you.

Which questions haven't I answered? As far as I'm aware, I've been
completely honest about a rare and difficult situation. As I told
you today, Saur said that the conversion all seemed fine, and
everything was wired up as it should be. I've already said that if
the main board has developed a fault, we'll get that replaced and RGB
converted, but it's clear that the CD-Drive failure has nothing to do
with us, and I can't pay for that. I can see your side of the story
but there's just no way we can accept blame for the CD drive. If the
drive wasn't working when it arrived with you, then we'd have to
shoulder the blame and either bear the cost ourselves, or try to make
a claim with the courier, but I've got the emails from you stating
that the drive was fine and you loaded a CD game up with no mention
of a problem. When we test stuff out, the first thing we look for in
a Duo is drive failure, and we tested that Duo 3 times. First when
it came in from Japan, Saur tested it and then I tested it when it
came back from Saur.

If you want a refund, I'll give you one minus the price of the PSU
and the price of a replacement drive.

Point #2 - Extremely fucking important

Regardless of the action of the Court of the Trading Standards this will not drop until you reimburse me.

You have now made a threat to ignore the action taken by the court, if a court decides that you are in the wrong and will continue to hound Lee for your money. Even if his actions are determined to be within the bounds of the law. What you have actually done just there is threatened to pursue a path of harassment in the face of a potential legal decision telling you that you're wrong. I strongly suggest that you drop this as you are building a very strong case against yourself and only boosting Lee's position.

There are no people to cheer you on to win some moral victory anymore. This is not about "being a good guy" - you have taken this to the point of threatening legal action and both parties are alledgedly seeking legal aid. It is actually unwise for EITHER of you to continue to talk about this on a public forum and to keep your communications with each other strictly professional, void of any personal information and honestly - just stop talking to each other unless absolutely necessary.

But you must surely realise (and if you don't - then everyone else will) that you actually just said if a court rules against you, you will continue to hound Lee. That's harrassment. That makes you a stalker in the making and if you continue, you're building more of a case against yourself for something much worse than £200.

If you think Lee is a corrupt and evil individual - don't give him the ammo you muppet.

[Bar81]

Well, you've threatened to take us to court so I may as well see what Trading Standards say about this. You come at me wanting a full retune plus inflation and a donation, blah blah but then I look back and found that I did offer you a refund but you refused to take it. I thought I was being completely reasonable 7 years later by offering you the thing you say you don't have, a Duo.

If you want anything at all, send over a scan of the invoice. Officially we have no record of you now.

I don't even know why you're even considering continuing to deal with this guy; he's obviously not all there. There are some people where there's no upside to being reasonable - this is one of those people.

[mnneurope]

Minty, all this cuz hes Brit? sad... WWII ended long time ago, U lost the f war, get OVER IT!

[Xyga]

^ lolwut ?

Anyway; Inb4 Godwin / lock