Pounded Like A Dawg... Marketplace Misadventures and Libelous Attitudes

Oh, how I love this girl...

During what seemed to be a normal emptying of the car trunk after Jen's trip to Costco the other night, I noticed the back of an object that was the usual size and shape of a DVD package. Unable to determine what it was from its rather non-descript backing sheet, Jen sheepishly (actually, mock sheepishly) admitted that she found it at a good price, so she couldn't resist, and then added "it's a late Christmas present". Turning it over, my eyes almost popped out for good when I saw it was the Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection box set. Careful observers of the Pylon will recall that this very set was on my Christmas wish list -- and SO WHAT if it was a little late? All the better I say... extends the season out and all that rot, y'know... seven swell flicks from one of the greatest practitioners of film comedy ever, with four films that rank very high on my "Greatest Comedies" list, include the sublime The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels, one of my favorite films period.

But then it reminded me yet again that one of Jen's main presents was yet to arrive in the mail. A particular gift of enlarged price tag that was purchased through the Amazon.com Marketplace from a company purportedly called "www-musicdogpound-com". The only reason I purchased this from this supposedly fast and "98%" approval-rated seller was because the price of the gift would come down about $25, and the gift was already over $150 to start. I had ordered from the Marketplace about a dozen times up to the point of this purchase -- which was made on Dec. 9th, so we are now coming up on a month without any result -- and had been happy with prompt and excellent service until this one. Of course, I had not ordered from "The Music Dogpound", so the weeping had not begun yet...

Here's the deal. You see a high approval rating, you check out a few reviews and then you make the purchase based on whether you feel that you can trust these jokers or not. Of course, these good reviews might also be plants, but Amazon seems to have a decent claims system in place, and I will pursue that route in a few days. First, I waited until the Amazon-given date of 12/30 to prepare making my displeasure known, giving them an extra days following the holidays -- and then I spoke up. I sent a polite email to the cruel masters of this phony baloney business, stating only that I was wondering what the delay was and asked if they would inform me when I could expect it to arrive. Two days later? No reply at all.

Going on to Amazon reveals an immense amount of dissent over The Music Dogpound (and their sister pound for movie purchases). Of the first 150 entries for their account, all dated from 1/2 to 1/3, less than ten positive or neutral reviews could be counted. The rest were stories so friggin' similar to mine, it was uncanny. At least it's nice to know one is not alone in their misery -- which is basically the way of all things, it seems. Searching for this company on the internet leads one to eBay, where they also pose as a legitimate seller of movies and music, and where they have a fairly high rating, as well. But try to find an address or phone number? Good friggin' luck... because you can't find these criminals except for on generally respectable marketplace sites.

Clicking on their name at eBay sends you to information such as "No longer a registered user" and "This store has closed." If they have shut down operations for good, then they were probably taking the money and splitting. And now Amazon is going to get stuck with shelling out massive claims, and then Amazon will have to go after the Pound in court. So, why do it? Though, perhaps, Mr. Dogpound ending up getting tossed into his own puppy furnace -- should I feel bad if someone has croaked even if they owe me either an expensive gift or a bunch of dough in refunds? Nah... serves the creep right...

By the way, if you type their address into Google as "www.musicdogpound.com", you get a line of b.s. that reads "At Movie Dogpound we sell brand new CDs, DVDs and Games at wholesale prices. Never used or bootleg items. 30 day money back." If you pull up that link, however, it comes up as A COMPLETELY BLANK PAGE -- when the hell does that happen on the internet? (Click on banner to see...) When do you get absolutely nothing?

Oh, yes... when you order from The Music Dogpound.

You get jackshit...