DVDSoon.com warning

It sounds like they refunded the entire amount of your purchase to your credit card and gave you a store credit. Is that what they did? If so, how have you lost anything?

M.

As I recall, you can also convert those credits back to your credit card.

Sounds like a lawyer but it looks like DVDSoon more than made it right.

No fraud that I can see.

The title of this thread really should be changed.

so tino, is it still a fraud.

You haven't answered the questions asked above, either here or in the linked thread. Since it is not apparent from the facts as you've provided them that any fraud was committed, I am changing the thread title.

M.

tino, doesnt every canadian etailer charge at time of purchase?
i thought they all did.

anyway why didnt you just call them. it took me 3 seconds to find their contact info right on dvdsoon.com.

With DVDSoon, you must PROACTIVELY ask for a CC refund-(and this fact isnt very obvious at all-at least when I had to) they will not do it automatically-and they wait 3 weeks to refund your money.

And that, after waiting a month for an item to come in (RED DWARF)

Since they charge you the minute you order something-you are, in effect, FLOATING THEM A LOAN-and in appreciation for this loan-they make you wait, and wait, and wait, with no interest-and in fact-if you finally cancel-they can make a killing on the Dollars dropping value-(and the interest THEY make when your $$$ is in their bank acct) So, if you bought an item for
$50 USD, waited a month and finally got sick of the wait and cancelled-you may well wait for 3 more weeks and get something like $47 USD refunded.
Do the math-5,000 disgruntled foreign orders getting cancelled in anger per year-

I will not deal with them again.

And all the information you've provided has been left for others to read and draw their own conclusions.

M.

The CC refund option is now gone. I've sent them an email to try to clarify the situation, but honestly it doesn't look good. I have five outstanding orders with dvdsoon and it looks I'll have to seek a CC chargeback.

I missed seeing this before I started a thread asking if anyone was recieving ANYTHING from DVDSOON. Up until Mid July, they were decent with getting product out, I haven't recieved anything from them since mid July. I haven never been able to talk to anyone on their phone, despite holding for over 30mins, and I only got one response from my email inquiry (after sending it 7 times, one a day for a week!) where they said that the suppliers were slow in getting product due to the summer time, whihc is a horse shit excuse, as all the titles I orders are readilly available in B&M stores.

In the past, DVDSOON's prices fluctuated regularly, giving you a chance to get stuff at a really good price, since mid July, their prices haven't changed. Call me paranoid, but I'm wondering if they are PURPOSELY holding my orders so I don't get the cheap prices I have pre-ordered?

I was previously a pretty content DVDSoon customer. Even signed up for the iFidelity points early this year and got some good deals on Criterions, etc. There was the occasional slow delivery, but they usually followed through and overall had good prices with a decent selection. I've spent a good deal of money with them this year.

But something must've changed recently...I had 10 Criterions on order from the end of May spread over 2 orders. One of the 10 shipped to me, but the others have been sitting there "On Order". Last night I received notice that both my orders were cancelled due to their inability to fill the order. No warning or request if I still wanted them - just cancelled. They suggest that I can put in new orders for them if I still want the discs. But the prices have risen dramatically, so why would I want the higher price?

If the discs are that difficult to get, why are they still listed as being available on their site? 2 of the ones I ordered were released in the last 9 months, so they shouldn't be that difficult to get I would think. I've emaled them about my complaint, but may try calling later this week.

On top of that, I have a few other orders sitting in pending state. One of them is for the Film Noir 2 box set and also Point Blank. Both were pre-ordered at end of June for their early July release. No movement whatsoever...I fully expect that they will automatically be cancelled in the next month.

My friend had the exact same thing happen to him last week and he is getting nowhere via email. There have been several instances where he's been told that his previous emails were not received and could he resend them...

If they are having trouble getting discs from the States, then mention that up front on the site and allow more time for the orders to be fulfilled. Explain to your customers that they can simply wait or they can cancel.

My cynical guess is that they (new management perhaps?) do not want to honour the lower prices and are letting these orders "expire". If the customer still wants them they would have to re-order at a higher price. I know it's not fair to make such a guess in a public forum, but this used to be a quality site (which I believe won the Canadian Home Entertainment industry's "Best Canadian Web DVD Retailer" award back in April). They've had issues - inconsistent notification process; charging at time of order (which they just announced a few days ago they will stop doing); etc. - but I had successfully made a number of purchases at good prices. Perhaps the low prices have caught up with them?

So yeah, Russell, you're not alone...Very disappointing.

Bob,

Guess what? 2 of the pre-orders I'm waiting for are Film Noir 2 and Point Blank! Now, I could maybe understand difficulty in getting these as they are under the radar, and Warner has been know to be short of the boxsets, but "Constantine"? They had this as the feature item of the week for pete sakes!

Link to the Supplier Feedback section at DVD Swaps forums. There are many threads about DVD Soon here, unfortunately the site isn't that well moderated as much of the information could have been consolidated into one or two threads but it's worth reading nonetheless.

Quick version for those in a hurry: DVD Soon has serious problems obtaining stock and fulfilling orders.

I personally have placed over a hundred orders with them in the past year, and have sometimes had to wait long for orders to be fulfilled, but the current situation is just terrible and unprecedented. The idea with DVD Soon is that they minimize costs by not keeping large stock, therefore you wait but get your stuff at a good price.

In the past month or two:
- Almost no orders have shipped according to many customers in the forum I link to above -- and I can personally attest to this.
- Free shipping is no longer.
- The company has adopted a policy of cancelling all orders not fulfilled within 60 days, forcing you to place new orders at a price that is worse than the one you thought you were going to pay.
- Should you get fed up and request your money back, you can't. They no longer have the option of obtaining a refund on your credit card, you have to accept store credit. That is of no use since almost no orders are shipping out.
- People have reported serious problems with their website, such as store credit disappearing and/or the amount of store credit changing to your disadvantage.
- Some customers still receive replies to their emails, but instead of addressing the customers' problems directly, DVD Soon makes excuses and their replies are vague. The credit card refund option was promised to be returned some time ago, but I'm still waiting.

I am not going to place any more orders with this company until the situation is under control. I realize it's just rumours, but there is a lot of talk on the Internet about DVD Soon folding, and it is certainly starting to look pretty bad at this time.

Might as well add my gripes.

Something changed at DVDSoon last year, something drastic. IMO they skirt the edges of the law, doing exactly what they know they can get away with *in Canada*. Our consumer protection laws are not like in the U.S., very minimal and toothless...see below.

No, DVDSoon is the only e-tailer I've ever encountered who charges at time of order, not at time of shipping. I'm sure others do it, but none I've seen. For anything, not just discs I mean. And does not automatically credit your CC for refunds. Basically, they get to operate on no capital.

I have had discs on order for up to 4 months before they were shipped. Recently I've had pre-orders ship 2 months after release date, lots of them. The problem did not start in July, I just got some pre-orders from late April in July. And they were common discs I regularly saw in the stores.

Re those very recent e-mails about orders being cancelled after not being filled after 60 days. I wonder if this happened after, in Canada, we decided to enact some of those consumer protection laws like in the U.S. The one I'm specifically thinking of is if an order can't be shipped after 30 days (??, I forget the period, but around that), any $$ must be refunded. It seems more than a coincidence.

These things are just a bit annoying. But the worst DVDSoon practice is they take absolutely no responsibility for their own errors, and in fact make you check a box when submitting your order that says you understand that. READ THAT STUFF!! Does not inspire confidence.

Do you know if you receive a defective disc, or miss a disc, you have to sign an affidavit etc. Bit of a procedure, odd, but it seems to work. [Company owned by lawyers now? I wouldn't be surprised based on what I've said above, they're sure on top of it...]

Anyway, I've always got my discs except one (the new 60-day cancellation thing). Even when their customer service has said they won't accept back discs that THEY listed erroneously (they actually told me it's my fault, and didn't correct their web listings for months), they always have!

So, the company runs on some definitely non-typical procedures and attitudes, but other than being SLOW, they get the job done. I'll still use them, I'm never desperate to get a disc. Sometimes they're so slow the price has dropped already, so you can cancel the order...

As usual, I could go on and on and...

Craig, good point.

I think I'm going to cancel the upcoming preorders from Aug on, as the pricing isn't significantly different from other sites, and wait out the july orders. I've never waited this long, and I have taken advantage of the price flucuations you talk of. The problem is, no one has had naything shipped to them from mid july on, no one is getting any type of reassurance from DVDSoon themselfs, and IMO, their website isn't updated like it previously was. Those price changes haven't happened since they stopped shipping order in mid july, as far as I can tell.

I'm going to cancel the upcoming pre-orders I had and try to get my money back either through them or my credit card, and hopefully get the items from July. I have a phone call and 2 other emails into them, if I don't get a response by the end of the week, I'll probably cancel the rest and fight the bastards for my money back. I'm torn between my cheapness and not wanting to miss the insane deals I got in July, and feeling completly screwed over and wanting to take my money elsewhere!

all this sounds exactly like when dvdwave. com went belly up.

^^ I started thinking that way too, after my April pre-orders were getting into July. But no, they came through. Now, my last pre-order was for a collection of 6 released in early June, which came more than a month later (I remember, because I was getting pissed off because the local store price was similar and tired of waiting for no benefit). I haven't ordered anything since, because of the relatively horrible pricing...seems to me their prices are pretty lousy for the last month or so. Many prices are much lower in local stores.

Have you noticed when they temporarily restore "free shipping", the prices of everything has been bumped up 2-3 bucks? Kinda screws those who joined their fidelity thing, when the main benefit of fidelity membership is the free shipping you'd have got anyway, but now you're paying extra for it in the disc prices.

It's kinda annoying the way they change policies from week to week it seems. You never know what's up there. Prices are all over the place, sometimes during the same day. I've noticed when something gets popular they jack the price up. I bet they are or were making $$ hand over fist. Assuming too many people aren't scared off. Their policies are relatively beneficial to people in Europe, bet they have some decent business there...Canadian prices are relatively good in comparison.

Even when their stock level says "in stock" (the only time they mention stock), I have waited more than a month for something. So their stock levels are still bogus IMO.

That disc I waited 4 months for was $40, they jacked the price up to $70, but I hung in there...they probably thought I'd cancel! Nowadays they'd just auto-blow me off after 60 days, after having my capital for that long to do their real business...nice scheme. I notice they're still "selling" that disc they cancelled after 60 days because it was "unavailable"...at a higher price.

I can't believe it's 2 months since I last ordered from them, usually I do at least an order a week...maybe I'm more annoyed than I thought...

I cancelled my preorders anbd re-did them on amazon.ca, and guess what? The price worked out to $5 less than my fedility card 15% off!

When you sign in, they now tell about a policy change where you well no longer be charged until the products ship, and they are waiting for the order to be complete before shipping, so they are basically now apeing all the other sites. Unfortunately, if I cancel my June pre-orders for july, I miss out on sick savings (Twilight Zone def 3 for $62, now at $85). I'm hoping that what happened with Craigf happens here, I eventually get my stuff. Since January I have been using the site pretty much exclusivly for my DVD purchases, this is the only time I had to wait for over 1 week for a pre-order.

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I just got the same thing. sounds great, if they actually shipped the things!!

I was thinking, if they aren't going to collect money until the order is complete and shipped (a policy they state is due to customer demand, because they are concerned about their customers ), how are they going to make any money when they don't actually ship dvd's? Do you think this is so that they can limit the potential refund requests before they go tits up?

I really hope someone returns my call tomorrow, to try to get some kind of firm answer from them about when items are shipping, or when they can refund my money.

I used to do buisiness with them all the time, they were great. They would ship some titles up to two weeks in advance (when they got them early), their prices were good and they even had an on-line option that let you enter a link to an on-line competitors price for the same item and they would match it immediately. The only drawback is that when you place an order with them, your credit card is charged right away instead of on the moment of shipping, but this can also be a good thing as your purchase is already paid for and you don't have to worry about it later. However, since May 2004 their service has gone waaaaaaaay down hill!

Since last year, DVDSoon has adopted a new members plan/club called "I Fidelity members". To become a member you pay an "annual" fee of $50 to $60 (all prices in this post are in CAN dollars.) just to be a member. Once you are a member you get certain priviledged... Like free "standard" shipping and a small discount (15% off titles) on your orders and another discount on the complete order (the second discount depends on how long you have been a member. One year = 5% off, two years = 6% off all the way to a maximum of 10% off).

Now the "real deal" is that members earn "I points" as they spend. Basically, for every 1$ spent you receive 1 "I point", so if you place an order that totals 50$ then you get 50 "I points".

"I points" can be exachanged for reward items or DVD/CD/UMD titles of your choice once you have enough points. The minimum point requirement for a DVD title used to be 2000 points but I guess that they didn't think they were making enough money because they raised it to 3000 and again now to 5000 point, but that's not for new releases! They require more "I points"... 5000 points is only for older mostly bare bones DVD's. So basically, if I want to use my "I points" to purchase an $8.00 DVD I must first have spent $5000.00 with them...

To get a "Star Trek" DVD box set valued at about $125.00 I must first spend $16 000.00 (16 000 "I points").

WHAT A REWARD!!!

I have several orders/pre-orders with them that are currenlty "in limbo" with them. Shipping seems to have totaly stopped sometime in mid July as my last items received from them were on July 11th & 13th 2005...

I have now begun proceedures with my credit card company to issue a "refund" on my card for "items paid for but not received".

I have also contacted "Protection Consomateur".

I stopped pre-ordering most things several months ago when I started noticing the price was often a few bucks cheaper on or after release day. Not sure how it is now. Way back it used to be common in DVD retailing to give you a good price break when pre-ordering. Now the attitude seems to be that the pre-ordering people are really anxious to get the product, so we'll charge them more! This happens at many places, so it's not a DVDSoon thing.

Generally speaking, I have found the DVDSoon customer service people to be pretty decent. However, their ordering system was so rigid that there's often not much they can do, you just have to go through the (long) procedure and eventually things get corrected.

I do not like that new "ship all together policy" though. This saves them money on shipping, but means you'll definitely have to wait even longer to get *anything*, based on how all my multiple-disc orders have gone (usually ship out one at a time).

I would not be surprised if those new consumer protection laws are the true driving factor for this change, and also the change to "charge when ship". Again, I find it unlikely this is a coincidence.

As for not shipping much in the last few weeks: I wonder if they only have 1 or 2 shipping people and one or both are on vacation? I know lots of small companies completely shut down for 2-3 weeks in the summer here.

OTOH, not having "free capital" to purchase discs from distributors could really slow down their operating model.

It is a real shame that they're not bound to honor iFidelity memberships under the terms that you registered. Notice how when you joined they said they could change anything at any time? And they have. Doubt you could do something like this in the U.S. Seems not worth it now, could change again for the better though. Not that they'd be motivated, they have the membership fees. But you'll know for next year.

Edit: I guess the obvious thing to get around the potential "ship all together" delays is to only have one disc per order. If you're an iFidelity member there's no reason not to do this anyway. Most places ship all together; amazon.ca splits orders if something gets delayed or *if you ask/beg nicely* for no additional charge.

There's a similar post at AVS were I'm trying to find out if ANYTHING has shipped from DVDSoon since my last shipment:

Last Shipped Items:
"A Very Long Engagement" - Shipped on July 11th, 2005
"Steamboy" - Shipped on July 18th, 2005

On Order:
"Only the Lonely" - Ordered on July 4th, 2005. Item moved from "On Order" to "In Transit" and then back to "On Order" and hasn't changed since.


Has anyone else had anything shipped from DVDSoon in August even? If not, I would say DVDSoon is dead... although still accepting orders

SebastienLX, you've seen their offices? shit man, kick on their door for me and tell them to get their ass in gear!


Well, I'll still hold hope theat I well get me July orders. they already lost all my buisness for Aug, and probably sept and oct, as I have pre-ordered through amazon.ca.

Yeah, they are rather close from where I live (30 miles drive) and I was around a few months back and thought I'd drive by. I haven't seen the insides, but if what I've seen from the outside is any indication, it is very tiny.

It's good to hear stuff is shipping...I tuned in just now to request somebody let us know when they get something!