[MarcoBiscotti]

They're the only online retailer I've ever dealt with, but since the merging of both companies (DVDPlanet and DigitalEyes), I've been consistently having trouble with orders and account realted info and it's very frustrating!

Apparently, when you place an order and pay via Paypal, the order doesn not get processed or even sent to DigitalEyes!

Although they accept Paypal as a measn of payment, they have no way of acknowledging receipt of payment as Paypal does not alert them of purchases.

So whenever you put an order through and send money this way, the order never gets sent and the money just sits in their account.

Well I placed an order for 4 movies last Monday and I still have not recieved a single email notification or acknowledgement of this!

I'm getting really aggravated.


I called Tuesday and although I'd experienced this once before... I was told to call back Wednesday because it sometimes can take up to 48 hours to process. I knew this wasn;t the case, but said fine and hung up.

I called back Wed. and said that I'd still not recieved an email receipt apart from Paypal's and no indication that the order had processed, nor had my account info been updated. They apaologized and promised to do so. In fact, I was given confirmation while on the phone that they had gone and processed my order.

This was after having to read back my Paypal transaction ID number to notify them of the purchase and alert them to my order altogether!

Anyways, I was promised it would ship out and Id be recieving an email notification shortly.

The next day... still nothing!

I called back, extremely frustrated and asked to speak with a manager that moment a voice answerted on the other end.

I explained that this was now my fourth time calling and relayed the situation.

They had no way of verifying anything in their system. But I was told they had a stack of orders like mine, that had been set aside to be processed and shipped. I had the service rep on the phone flip through them for me to confirm. Indeed, he said mine was in there and would be shipped out shortly.

I asked why I had not recieved any emails or why my account information hadn;t been updated and was simply told that no emails are sent and my account won't be updated when paying through Paypal. But the order is processing.

So let me get this straight... I paid for something over a week ago, and I'm not even going to get a receipt for the thing?!?

What kind of business practice is that??

Well at least I was confident (sort of) that my order was being sent.

But what about a simple email to acknowledge shipment at least???

I've not even recieved this yet, and Monday will be the two week mark already!

Also, despite my somewhat better judgement based on these events (and the fact that this has yet to be suitably resolved as far as Im concerned), I went ahead to place another purchase this evening, again through Paypal.

I was planning to order the new Patton S.E. but stopped myself when I realized after adding it to my shopping vart and going through check out -- that my frequent buyer points were never upgraded due to my account not being updated... because apparently this doesn;t happen when paying through Paypal!

So now I have to call back AGAIN on Monday morning to inquire about this... and the status of my order placed an entire TWO WEEKS AGO!

I feel really bad writing anything negative about this retailer on these forums as they;ve been nothing but reliable, gracious and accomodating to me in the past and I've placed many exclusive o9rders with them int he past couple of years. I think they're probably the best around as far as online DVD sales is concerned and they're shipments are always speedy and safely packaged. But this is just ridiculous!

I hope it's not an indication of the type of service that we can expect with this new company merger deal!

I'm really aggravated by all of this... at the very least, send me a damn email to update me on the status of my order and let me know it's being dealt with. I can't say that I put much faith in some voice over the telephone who initially wasn't even aware that I'd placed the order before alerting him and reading back the Paypal ID number!

Has anyone else experienced troubles like this recently?

[David Williams]

My $.02:

I can understand customer loyalty up to a point, but if a company did what you have just described to me, they'd only get one bite at the apple. I certainly wouldn't place another order with them or, at the very least, with that payment method. I'd take my business elsewhere if I were in your shoes. That level of incompetency in customer service shouldn't be tolerated/rewarded on a repeated basis.

[Paul.S]

Bumping an older thread to post word of a negative experience with this company.

I sold half a dozen DVDs to DVDPlanet in mid-January (after using their "QuoteMachine" to learn the dollar amounts they were offering for my used discs and be assigned a quote number). I used USPS Delivery Confirmation and was thereby able to confirm their receipt of my shipment on January 21 (oddly enough, this was the MLK Holiday when I thought there was no mail delivery).

The first issue I experienced is poor e-mail address organization. Despite the fact that the DigitalEyes.net domain is apparently not "live" any more, I both received e-mail with that domain as the origin and that referred to DigitalEyes.net addresses in the body of the mail (including from Mark Harrill, who it's my understanding is, if not the [former] owner, is a management principal of the company). However, mail I sent to DigitalEyes.net addresses was bounced back.

The second issue I experienced was inconsistent responses regarding the forms via which customers selling used product to DVDPlanet can receive credit. I was told in e-mail from customer service that PayPal used to be offered but is no longer available (but the company accepts PayPal payments for new product orders) but that I could be sent a paper check via snail mail. On that same day, I received an e-mail response from Mr. Harrill via a different address saying that store credit is the only option. I e-mailed customer service, copying Mr. Harrill, for clarification of this discrepancy; never received a response.

The third issue I experienced was a problematic separation between customer service representatives, who are trained to handle orders of new product, and QuoteMachine staff, who deal with used product customers are selling to DVDPlanet. In three separate phone calls over the course of about a week, I learned/was told that customer service can not pull up my Quote number on their system (only new product Order numbers), and that the people who handle QuoteMachine are separate and don't take calls from customers. I was told that one or more of those people recently left the company. The QuoteMachine staffers who were still with the company were not available at that time (this was the case on two separate occasions, the second of which I had escalated the call to a supervisor). I was told that the process of assigning credit can take "a couple of weeks" (fourth issue). I thought/think that's unreasonable and, given that over a week had transpired since they'd received my shipment, I asked the supervisor to leave a message for a QuoteMachine staff member to call me back by close of business the following day with the specific status of my credit/quote.

Fifth issue: I didn't receive a call back.

On the eve of it being two weeks since they had received my discs, I e-mailed Mr. Harrill (at what appears to be a personal address from which I'd received a reply from him in response to my credit inquiry; it is neither a DigitalEyes nor DVDPlanet domain address), requesting that: 1) someone physically find my discs and assure me that they would be processed and credit assigned in the next two business days; 2) my credit be issued in the form of a paper check mailed to me (as I did not think it appropriate for me to reward the company with more business after they inconvenienced me); or 3) my discs be returned to me via a trackable/traceable means at DVDPlanet's expense.

Harrill acknowledged having personnel issues. He said they had received a lot of used discs "since year end" (perhaps because a lot of people are selling SD DVDs as part of their upgrading to BD in the wake of WHV's shift to BD exclusivity?). He said he would take QuoteMachine offline until they are resolved. (This was in e-mail on Friday, February 1. As of this typing, QuoteMachine appears to still be live.)

At first his responses were as perfunctory as the supervisor I spoke with on the phone: he apologized for the situation but did not offer any date by which it would be resolved. Sixth issue: He declined my request for issuing credit via paper check, saying that is "impossible" and it is "something that [he] unfortunately do[es] not control."

Given that, I reiterated my request--absent some assurance that the matter would be resolved by a certain date--that my discs simply be returned to me. (By now I was thinking of LasersEdge.com having gone out of business just last month. Is something untoward going on here? Are they having financial difficulties--is that the reason for the staff departures? Are they hoping people don't pursue their credit after sending in discs, so the company can then reap 100% profit from selling them? If they shutter, will my discs sit in some end-of-Raiders-style warehouse in Itasca, Illinois?)

After a couple of prompt responses, I didn't receive a reply from Mr. Harrill to my last e-mail. A few hours later however, from yet another DigitalEyes domain e-mail, I received word of my order having been processed and credit assigned.

I've placed an order using my store credit and will not use this company again. I'd recommend other HTFers think thrice before selling product to them. Although I like that the dollar amounts they offer are higher than Wherehouse.com, in my experience the process required way too much tedium to get a relatively small sum of money due to the company's, at best, disorganization.

[MarcoBiscotti]

Seeing as this thread has been bumped back on the forum, I just want to say that the issues experienced two years ago were swiftly resolved and I've since placed MANY orders through the company and have experienced nothing but the utmost service and quality at unmatched prices! DVDPlanet/DigitalEyes remains the exclusive e-tailer that I've dealt with for the past two years and I've accumulated a great collection of discs at unbeatable prices (literally!) so in case anyone revisits this thread and is hesitant to order based on my initial posting... I think DVD Planet is great and the best choice around!

[Paul.S]

Are you selling any discs to DVDPlanet, or are you only placing orders for new discs, Marco? Sounds like the latter.

Also, on a general note: Since my February 3 post, I have become an Amazon Seller--I am selling used discs for which I can get better values online than via Wherehouse or Amoeba (HD DVDs, BDs, MoFi Ultradiscs) via Amazon Marketplace. It has been terrific, with discs sometimes selling within hours of my listing them for sale. The whole process is administered by Amazon with the same expectation of excellent customer service as Amazon fulfills its own orders. It must be said that, in all my years as an Amazon.com customer--and now after several months as an Amazon Marketplace Seller--I have never experienced the kinds of piss poor customer service and disorganization with that site as I detail in my post #3 above.

[MarcoBiscotti]

I've never bothered selling used discs to DVDPlanet because you get better value trading on forums or even listing on eBay I find. But I have read reports on the CriterionForum about past issues that have since been resolved. Others seem to have had smooth experiences with DVDPlanet's used DVD program of recent from what I've seen at that forum.

[Paul.S]

I guess you've sussed out DVDPlanet's trade values, but then chosen to sell elsewhere, otherwise how would you know what values they offer if you've never sold to them?

Interesting, the differencess in experiences. I get few bites when I've posted discs here (and I'm nearly always more interested in selling than trading), and Amazon Marketplace--in three short months--has smoked years of ebay experience: no chasing people for your money (Amazon mediates the transaction and has your back as a seller if someone flakes); faster sales; and, in my experience, a larger universe of buyers.

Apparently YMMV.