www.dvdavenue.tv totally screwed me

Now for the record, I like to think of myself as an intelligent person. Granted, my constant hovering around a “C” average academically might not always illustrate that. But what I lack in an overly exceptional school performance, I feel I make up for in the realm of common sense and reason.

Yet every so often I do something stupid. Something really really stupid, so stupid in fact, that I can’t help but question by own steadfast belief in my intelligence. I am currently suffering from the ramifications of such a stupid action and I would like to tell you my tale so that perhaps you can avoid making a similar mistake.



It all started a few months back. It was just another ordinary day; I was browsing around the Internet, looking at various things here and there. Suddenly I stumbled upon a website called www.dvdavenue.tv. The site caught my attention immediately, as it had a huge catalog of TV Show DVDs. Entire seasons of many shows, including some that I knew for a fact had no official release here in the US.

Among their impressive library I discovered none other then the 1960s Batman TV Series, in it’s entirety. Now my love of the 1960s Batman has been well documented in my “1960s Batman DVD Debacle” post. So naturally the prospect of owning the full series on DVD excited me. However I held off buying the DVDs right away and decided to show the site to my Mom, so that she could get the DVDs as a birthday present for me.

As far as shopping sites go, dvdavenue.tv seemed very legit. It had all the classic trademarks of a good online buying site: a satisfaction guarantee, a help section, security protection during checkout, and even a toll free number. With such a professional set-up, I had no fears what-so-ever as I placed the set in my shopping cart and prepared to buy.

However as I was checking out, something struck me as odd. The shipping price of the set came to $20. Considering the size of the DVDs that seemed like a bit much. However the high shipping didn’t bother me enough to cancel my plans on buying the set, for a show that great, I figured it was well worth every penny.

So the order was placed on January 1. A few days later I received an e-mail informing me the item was on back-order. Kind of a bummer, but no big deal really, I guess I can wait. Finally on January 17 I received an e-mail saying the order had shipped. In the e-mail was a tracking number so that I could track the progress of the package. I tried using the tracking number, but got an error.

As of the writing of this post I still can’t get that tracking number to work properly, which is a real shame considering the package has still yet to arrive. The ludicrous amount of time that this package is taking to get to my house, led me to do a little research.

Much to my dismay and horror I found a hand full of sites exposing dvdavenue.tv for what it really is: a rip off. Yup that’s right, dozens of people related stories of their problems in dealing with dvdavenue.tv. For some people orders never arrived, while others did receive their packages only to discover that the discs didn’t work or were poorly made.

I now have found myself in the middle of a scam and all I can really say is that I feel like a jackass. The absolute worst part about this situation is that I used my Mom’s credit card to make the purchase. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a jerk I fell like for putting my mom’s credit card at risk.

However amidst this truly unfortunate event their lies a message that I can hopefully convey to you my dear reader. That message is quite simply to always be careful when shopping online. Take the time to check the background of a site you plan on buying from. Don’t make the same mistake I made and only do a surface check. Do a real thorough check, considering your money is at stake, it’s better to be safe then sorry.

Whether or not my DVDs will ever arrive and what condition they'll be in is impossible to say now. Really I don’t even care anymore, my major concern is that I can just walk away from this situation with only a bad feeling and no long-term monetary damage to my mom’s credit card account.

I completely blame myself for what happened. While it is true that dvdavenue.tv should be ashamed for running such a shady business, the ultimate fact remains that I fell for it. However while I don’t fault dvdavenue.tv for my personal decision to deal with them, I do fault them for what they are doing.

What it is they're doing is messing with people’s emotions. TV shows are so very important to so many people. People often have strong emotional attachments to particular series' and to see a site like dvdavenue.tv exploit that for a quick buck is just shameful.

Screw you dvdavenue.tv, screw you for messing with peoples' love of television.