Quoted from snyper2099:Only a matter of time before someone gets ripped off with bootleg junk or some else's mod to which they don't own the rights and it's all Robin's fault because he's not policing the shops.
I'm sure there is some fine print stating the site owners are not responsible for such things but customers don't know or care. They will just blame whoever will listen, and it's not going to be the bootleggers!
Quoted from Jgaltr56:I'm guessing a bad vendor selling bootleg or poor quality product through Pinside will be called out and crucified rather quickly.
Our intensions with Pinside Shops are indeed the exact opposite. By having all shops in one place they're much easier to monitor, both for us, for IP-holders and the community as a whole. For a shop to be able to operate on Pinside it has to agree to our shop policies. Additionally, shops need to be verified (which means we do have their contact details) and have a shop policy in place (or choose to accept the default).
We will be policing shops. If we receive reports that a shop is not delivering goods or otherwise not living up to the agreements made we will contact the shop to sort things out and ultimately, if things don't improve, we might (temporarily) close it. Also, we will be adding the possibility for customers to leave a review about their shopping experience and the purchased items, so shops that are offering bad quality can be called upon this and easily avoided.
So the power of the Pinside community should make your shopping experience a better and more trustworthy one compared with ordering from some unknown website or from an unknown user advertising stuff in a forum thread.