Is it a scam?
Hi, I too ordered a DVD from these folks. Before I ordered it,
I sent a message asking about whether it is in English. I did this
partly because I wanted an English version if available and partly
to see if there was anyone at the other end of the line, so to speak.
I got a brief reply from someone named Jamie. The reply seemed
reasonable (quite personal) so I ordered a couple DVDs. Here is
his reply:
> Greetings,
> The entire DVD is narrated in English. There is also about
> 5-10 min where French is spoken and English subtitles are shown.
> Our company is Seattle based and we are also in the process of
> establishing a smaller facility in the Chicago area. We are just
> beginning offering some programming to the public, this will be
> shipped from the Chicago area.
> Thank you for your interest!
> Jamie Reese
> Artzsche Sales
> NDC, Inc
Then, around June 5th, I too received an e-mail explaining about a
problem with mailing the DVDs and promising to mail them by June 11th.
Strangely, this e-mail is no longer in my mail log, although I usually
save every e-mail I receive. In the last two weeks I have sent four
messages to Artzsche and have received _no_ replies.
I notice that they have now offered a couple more interesting DVDs on
related subjects -- horological museums, etc. While I am concerned
about this possibly being some sort of scam, I am perplexed. They have
considerable content on their web site including some pretty fancy and
expensive video and a bunch of related articles for sale. Much has been
added in the last couple weeks.
I did call the telephone number on the site for these articles (T-shirts,
etc.) and spent about 15 minutes on the phone with a pleasant young
lady but she deals with everything except the DVDs. She would not give
me any contact information about Artzsche. Furthermore, this seemed
like a lot of trouble to go to to scam $20 from individuals in a very
small community of customers. Lastly, I think I paid by PayPal and my
PayPal account has no record of them charging me for the DVDs -- not
what I'd expect from a scammer.
I just sent a message to News Documentary Corp asking them to contact
me. I'll let you know what results. Perhaps someone who lives near
Seattle, Washington, or Oak Brook, Illinois, could do a little
detective work and find out what happening. Please let us know.
Regards,
Craig Smith
near Rochester, New York, USA
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