Hi, my name is Hock Tiong. Like many people who posted on this
forum thread, I too, fell victim to this particular magic shop's
scam.
A few weeks ago, my son bought a couple of DVDs from this
shop.
Suspicious of the quality and authenticity of the DVDs, he
approached friends as well as other magic shops to further
investigate.
His suspicions were confirmed days later after comparing a
similar DVD title purchased by one of his friends from another
magic shop.
My son came to me and we proceeded down to magic hall to demand
an explanation.
The salesman denied everything that we threw at him and we had
to leave the shop empty-handed, angered and frustrated.
That was when I decided to take matters into my own hands.
The following attachments were email dialogues between me and
magic hall.
As you can see from their first reply, they didn't question me
anything and quickly arranged to have the situation resolved as
soon as I mentioned about the law.
The 2nd reply was an excuse that I personally think is
nonsensical. I myself run a business that deals in the import
export trade. Having knowledge of the contents of what we deal with
is the lifeline of our business. If magic hall claims they don't
open up their packages, isn't it the same as a drug dealer telling
the police they didn't know they were carrying drugs?
Read their reply very carefully- "...so that I can trace back on
that transaction and get the ORIGINAL pieces for you."
Confessions from the horse's mouth.
This reply really says it all. Reason why they kept pushing for
the titles is because they needed to re-order from their suppliers,
which most probably will take a few days to arrive.
That means all the DVDs and maybe a lot more other products,
everything in their shop are pirated.
In the end, I managed to get back a total of S$1350 in refund
and the 17 original DVDs will be arriving at my house via
delivery from them in a few days time.
Dear Hock Tiong, you and Stardust.Love really made my day.
For months, many people from this thread have been doing all
they could, providing information about magic hall and trying to
prevent people from being cheated by them.
Of course, I personally had my means and ways to gather
information about them without me physically being there.
But somehow or rather, there had been skeptics or maybe even
supporters of theirs who had penetrated this thread and attempted
to discredit our claims.
The moment I saw the posts made by you guys, I knew this was it.
So much effort in creating awareness has finally paid up.
Nothing speaks as clear as the evidence you have provided.
As much as I'm hoping the authorities will clamp them down,
I too, will try my luck in getting some of my money back before
they close down. Because I believe they will.