Re-posted by mistake, just ignore this!

Hey guys...

So I'm going to assume many of you don't really remember from a while back when I posted about this SUPER annoying bootleg anime store at my mall. But that's alright! I forgive you!

You don't have to read I guess, but it's pretty entertaining, so you might just wanna take a few minutes to see what I've been through.

To sum it up from last time, There's an anime store at my mall which sells MANY obvious bootlegs. From nendoroids to Pokemon to Final Fantasy to everything else.

I'd asked them about their bootleg stuff on Facebook, only for them to reply twice that "we do not sell bootleg merchandise, as it would soil the name of our store and ___ mall". Yeah, I'm sure the "No pictures, no returns" sign on their display case has nothing to do with that.

I also asked them about the (obviously bootleg) Ciel nendoroids they were selling without their boxes or accessories in a display case with lots of other box-less nendos. They then told me: "the figures are displayed without boxes to save on space in the store, and both the accessories and box are provided for the customer once they purchase one."

I took a trip to the store a day or two later and "pretended" to buy said Ciel. It was hard to play the dumb unsuspecting customer when the Ciel was SO horribly made. After telling the woman I wanted to buy one, she took one from the display case and went to place it on the counter next to the register, then looked up at me for my money. No mention of a box or the oodles of accessories he was SUPPOSED to come with. Therefore, had I truthfully been an unsuspecting customer, I wouldn't have been completely ripped off. I told her I left my card at home and left ^^;

I reported the store to both the mall's customer service and the BBB. Both of which were extremely unhelpful. Then, I took the time to contact GSC themselves and let them know that their products were being counterfeited. GSC actually DID get back with me, and told me they would send the store a warning, but they couldn't promise the store would stop. I figured that was since they're overseas.

SO! This leads the story to just this last Monday, when after taking a near unwilling trip to the store with my cousin the previous day, led me to want to try again at taking down one of my most hated things in the world.

Monday, I took yet another trip to the mall (While applying for work at other stores) and decided to just ask them up front if they were aware they were selling counterfeit goods. Good idea or not, I didn't really care.

I took a little while to look around the store and scout out what I was going to pinpoint, the nendoroids being the easiest, as now they're apparently selling last years SNOW Miku, and the new exclusive Cherry Blossom Miku; along with one random Ciel they decided to actually sell in his box.

Once I'd seen everything, I turned to the lady at the counter (the same lady who I'd pretended to buy the Ciel nendo from) and asked her if the manager was there that day. She said she WAS the manager. Meaning she was the one who lied to me about giving me the rest of my deal.

I proceeded to ask her if she was aware she was selling counterfeit anime stuff, and all the was able to muster was, "oooooh?". She asked me why I wanted to know, which I then told her I was just wanting to enlighten them, since some stores would quickly remove the merchandise had they honestly not known it was fake. At first she didn't seem to know what counterfeit even WAS. Then as she spoke more, I was certain she knew she was aware she was selling fake crap.

She was a bit tough to understand since she had an accent, but what she told me were things like: "These are the same things they sell at conventions" (to which I told her pretty much all convention stuff is bootleg). "I never said everything in here was real" (>.>). "The items in here are being sold for less than regular price" (The nendoroids in their boxes were all around $40)

The icing on the cake was when she tells me: "oh yeah, the companies give their licenses to China companies to make same figure too". I honestly felt a sudden rush of the Jackie Chan meme face when I heard her say that. Lady, you mean to tell me companies like GSC give their nendoroid licenses to cheap China companies to make HORRIBLE knock-offs? Think for a moment please.
Either she thought "I" was stupid, or she really is that ignorant.

She also seemed to believe every anime fan should know whether something is fake or not. I told her not every one DOES know, and that people are not getting the quality they should be getting. (Her out of the box Tony Taka Miku was leaning so bad she was almost on her back)

On top of that, I believe once she realized I knew more about anime merch than she thought, she then told me from behind the counter "well I'M not an otaku, ok?" "we're all not otakus". She was pretty much calling me an otaku to my face, which in Japanese context, isn't the nicest. And this is the store MANAGER! How unprofessional!

I told her about the comments on Facebook saying that her store said they weren't selling bootlegs because it would soil their name. All she had to say was "well, I don't know who told you that". After that she repeated from before "I never said everything in here was real"

There was a good bit of stuff in between all that, but nothing I can recall well enough to relay here. But, now you know. I hate this store (And now the manager) with a passion, because she KNOWS she's selling cheap knock-offs and doesn't give a crap.

I understand I might be a bit crazy for all this trouble, but now it just seems so personal. I want to look out for my fellow anime fans is all.


To those of you who read this far, BRAVO! I love you!~

I would also like to mention that I will be selling my Black Butler lot on ebay within the next few days. It consists of:

Ciel Nendoroid - (It's LEGIT, I promise!)
Limited Edition DVD Box Set of Season 1
A Medium T-shirt of Ciel and Sebastian
A metal keychain of Ciel and Sebastian

Some other anime stuff too, but not worth mentioning ^^;

Thank you!


Also, to those who read that wall of sadness and anger, this is for you.