I recently purchased a copy of Doom II off of eBay for the GBA and to make a long story short it was a bootleg. It was painfully obvious from the get-go; the game opened with intro from "Mode 7" or something, one of those groups that cracks and hacks games for emulators and stuff. The game froze on several occasions as well.

I looked at the game more closely and I really started to notice how shabby the casing looked. It had the Game Boy Advanced logo on it but there was a hole deep down in the area where the cart plugs into the Gameboy Advance. That's not right I said to myself. Anyway, I opened the cart and bam... hard evidence of what I suspected. The circuit board lacked any kind of stamping indicating it was produced by Nintendo. Also the battery was a completely different type than what is normally used. I even ran this buy the guy at the local game store (that isn't a soulless EB or Gamestop) and he verified what I suspected.

I contacted the seller and they are willing to refund my money if I send their "game" back (and I will with delivery conformation) but they denied it was a boot; saying they bought it from a retailer. Well, sorry to say I don't believe that and if I did that retailer screwed you.

Anyway, my question is:

Should I leave neutral feedback considering I do get a refund?

or

Should I go ahead and blast their 100% feedback out of the water knowing what I know even if I do get a refund?

Should I be merciless or merciful?

Be intolerant of dishonest sellers and bootlegs. His "defense" it wasn't a bootleg is convenient but sloppy -- any trusted seller must know what they're selling. How's about you give us his eBay name so we can inspect for ourselves.

You're entitled to a refund and whether he gives it to you or not, its your duty to warn others best you can. Have you read others' feedback? Perhaps you could detect a trend here. Furthermore, not giving negative feedback will enable this jerk to continue scamming people. Sadly, you can't rely on eBay to do the right thing and enforce its policy on bootlegging scumbags.

Bingo. And sellers can't leave negatives for buyers, so you don't have to be afraid of retaliation. If he won't give a refund I'd neutral or negative him.

this isn't the poll on public flatulence i was expecting...

Harvest or Rescue?  (Sorry, still got BioShock on the mind.)

I had a similar case happen to me with Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival.  Bought the game off eBay, and it wasn't until many weeks later did I realize it was a bootleg. (I thought the in-game slowdown really was an inherent flaw of the design, until I later bought a legit copy - and it played so much better.)  That was the only time I ever got screwed by a GBA bootleg.

I ended up giving the seller a positive; he did offer me a refund in the end, and I wasn't even asked to send the faux cart back.  In your case, though, I might be inclined to at least give out a neutral, but with a legitimate explanation as to why.  Something like "Cart was unknowingly sold as a bootleg, and was issued a refund" will acknowledge that the seller did right, and at the same time, put up a red flag on their claims that the game wasn't a boot.

Besides, neutrals don't affect the percentage rating, does it?  And having just one certainly won't affect the 100%.

Give him the negative. Thats nice that he wants to do good on his part to refund your money for the bootleg he obviously knew about but his misrepresented himself and wasted your time.

Negative-

I'm willing to believe that he bought it from a store -- bootleg GBA carts are close enough that you can't know if you don't know what to look for.

I bought a boot Metroid ZM off eBay and when my save system got all cocked up, I actually sent it to Nintendo, who 'graciously' gave me a real cart....of course they didn't refund my $10 I sent them. They also wanted to know the eBay seller I bought it from...

Exactly. You can't be certain the seller didn't know it was a bootleg. So I would leave a neutral, assuming you get refunded.

cheers,

-avatar!

I honestly think I'm going to have to leave a negative in this case; the seller does not seem interested in why this is a false product even though I explained it. I have very little doubt the minute he gets it back it will be reposted thus it more about warning others than me getting my refund.

OK, it's not even about the money anymore. I sent this thing back with Delivery Conformation which says it delivered at 11:54 AM on November 3, 2008 and the seller still refuses to admit he got it back. I believe the post office over this guy. Hell, the response I got was hardly geared to what I said.

Leave a negative explaining he fraudulently sold you an illegal bootleg, and when it was confirmed by USPS as returned, the seller refused a refund.  File a fraud report with eBay (who will probably pretend the incident never happened), and if you paid with Paypal, file a fraud report with them as well.  Paypal is more obligated to do something about fraud.