Problems with Deep Discount

Apart from a very occasionally and easily to understand error, I can honestly say I never had problems with DD. And the one time a shipment didn't arrive (overseas in my case!) they solved it elegantly.

Unfortunately, they're right to ask you to wait a few days more. Last week I had a package (not from DD, but Amazon) that took 6 weeks (!!!) to arrive at my door while parcels that were sent later arrived in good order well before it.
(And when it finally arrived, the paperwork showed it was sent indeed on the day reported to me.)


Cees

The only issue I have with Deep Discount is that shipping times are very long and unpredictable, but I expect it and deal with it. While my Amazon orders (using free shipping) almost always arrive within 3 days of receiving a shipping notice email, DDD orders can take over 3 weeks from the time I receive a shipping notice. I do not experience this delay with any other online vendor, regardless of the shipping method used.

Anyway, since I expect this delay to occur, I only order items that I have no real urgency to receive. It's rare that I have to have an item quickly anyway, so this is not a major issue for me.

For what it's worth-I live in the same area code as DD (approx 24 miles away from their warehouse) and it's taken me 30 days to get a single DVD delivered. I believe it's a problem with the main post office they use-the hub post office where stuff from suburbs around here ends up before it goes out to the appropriate post office for delivery. Packages don't go direct from one post office to another according to newspaper reports. The mail service in the Chicago area was the worst in the country for quite a while. The Postmaster General had to visit Chicago area post offices due to the many complaints sent to our elected representatives in D.C. Postmaster basically called the employees lazy (performing their jobs"with no sense of urgency" was his p.c. way of putting it) and they've improved some but not all that much (5 days for a letter to be delivered within my town is still not uncommon). DD would mail things in a timely fashion but I usually wouldn't get it for it three weeks. Another thing I've noticed is large packages (boxed sets, multiple single DVDs) would arrive much faster than single/small packages. My guess is they move the bulky stuff out (I imagine it would build up pretty quickly) and the small stuff sits until they get around to it. Twice DD sent replacements after 15 days and the original order showed up a few days after I received the second order. I'm pretty confident the problem is with the post office here. I've seen posts here and elsewhere from people who live nearby complaining about long delivery times. With tracking numbers I've tracked some packages and watched them bounce from one post office to another and back again before being delivered. I should add that I rarely have a problem with stuff shipped from NY, NJ, CA, Europe, etc.

Edited by Eric Vedowski - 7/22/2009 at 04:37 pm GMT

When they have a good price on a set I just accept the fact that the long delivery time is the price to pay to get that price I don't mind waiting. I just picked up the new Lucy Show set for $20 I can't get it anywhere for that price.

Has anyone made any recent purchases with Deepdiscount.com?  The last time I made a purchase with them was years ago, though with no problems. 

I was thinking of making some new purchases with them, as I can save $15-20 off various boxsets.  However, when I checked current online ratings and feedback for the store they were filled with horror stories.  Any recent experiences?

Didn't have much trouble w/ BD/DVD purchases other than the usual slowness, but definitely do not buy SACDs from them unless you feel lucky.

I (and some others like Mike Frezon) ordered an SACD (Thelonious Monk's Straight, No Chaser) during their last semi-annual sale (just before Black Friday), and they took forever to fill that part of the order w/ the *wrong* version of the album, ie. they sent me the regular CD version instead of SACD.  I still need to contact them about the wrong version they sent me, but for the relatively cheap price, I'm wondering if it's really worth the hassle to get it exchanged -- that is, if they even actually carry that SACD at all.

_Man_
 

Yup.  They completely have misinformation about SACDs up on their website.  I ordered three or four SACDs from DD before Christmas and got four CDs instead.  I had to send them all back as their customer servgice informed me they didn't have SACDs in stock after several days of getting in touch with the warehouse.  Too their credit, they took my phone number and called me back to give me the info...but it was a waste of my time and effort. 

Don't know how I found this thread.  Maybe my ears were burning... 

Thanks Man and Mike for the feedback!  I have decided to order from deepdiscount through their amazon.com storefront, figuring that will give me an additional layer of protection (via Amazon's A-to-z guarantee protection program).  I don't mind if the shipping is slow (within reason), only that I get what I payed for!

One thing I do not understand is the differing prices from deepdiscount between their own website, and the amazon storefront (many items I found were actually listed cheaper in the amazon storefront than on deepdiscount.com).  Odd, but I'll take the addition couple dollars off!   That being said, I have ordered about a quarter of what I intend to buy, to give them a test-run.  Thanks again!

Haha...  One wonders...  



Doesn't the Amazon storefront always charge $3 per title shipped (w// no shipping discounts for additional titles)?  I haven't checked their storefront, but that's how Amazon storefronts usually work.

DD offers free shipping w/ no minimums via their own site, if you don't mind the wait.  And faster, paid shipping is probably still cheaper than what Amazon storefront typically charges, if you order more than one title.

That diff in shipping *might* account for much of the diff in pricing of the individual titles.

_Man_

Quote: Ah, yeah, it seems that you are correct; the price differences seemed to be about equal to shipping costs.  I'll check into that a bit more carefully later today.  Assuming the order goes well I will likely order directly through their website for the rest of the boxsets I'm looking for.  Thanks again!

I have found the Amazon Marketplace prices are often still lower, sometimes by quite a bit.  Sometimes prices there are so absurdly low, even with the $3 shipping that they are still the best deal I find.  I have a mountain of SACDs I got for $6 or less.

Does anyone know why Deep Discount is charging tax for out-of-state buyers?

Are you sure you're (still) out-of-state?  DD (along w/ its parent company) was recently acquired by Infinity Resources, so maybe that could explain a change for you.  According to the DD site, they currently charge sales tax to California customers, which they might not have before.

 

http://www.deepdiscount.com/sales-tax-policy/

 

_Man_

i have used Deep discount and i find their site very problemmatic. I tried to cancel the order and went out and cancel, but, the order still showed as open. I tried contact them via email and never received a response. The DVD was shipped even though i did not want the dvd.

 

I used the company for WB on demand sets and i decided to cancel the order and again i had tons of problem with cancelation process. The set was set again even though i did not want the set. I have tons of emails to them, but never heard one response. The upsetting fact happen today when i was told two other dvd in my order basket are on back order. I subsequently sent an email saying that this order should be cancel and told them to check their logs.

 

I tried contacting them by phone but you are just put on hold. At this point i have given up on the company and will take the sets when or if the arrive. I will neve use this company again. I am going to go back to amazon, because it is better run and you are able to get customer service responses and problem resolutions quicker.

FWIW, I always use DD's on-site CSR page to initiate contact about issues, and they usually respond to that w/in 1-2 business days.  After that initial contact, they track each issue w/ a ticket number (at least for some "active" period), and if you respond to their emails containing that ticket #, they will follow up accordingly -- subsequent response times to emails can vary a bit more.

 

If you go to Help (usually at the bottom of each page) and then go to Contact Us (in the left panel), you should find the CSR page.  Here's a direct link for you to try:

 

http://www.deepdiscount.com/contactus/

 

Make sure you include the correct order # for concerns w/ an existing order.

 

Also, based on my experiences, you should expect their 1st email to be a simple confirmation of receiving your initial contact (that's sent out w/in a couple hours) -- strangely, that confirmation doesn't include any details about your message, so if you initiated multiple contacts, you can't really tell which one is getting confirmation from this.  Their 1st actual response (w/in 1-2 business days) will likely be a relatively canned one regardless of what you say in your message -- that's what I noticed.  You'll probably need to respond to that to get more specific attention/resolution to your concern.

 

Hope that helps...

 

_Man_

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I have given up on their customer support. I have just accepted the dvds will be sent and i will just  not used them again. If i can not trust their site, especially the cancellation process then i will not used them again. I will go back to amazon.com because they are mor responsive.

 

Regards,

Paul Young

 

Yeah, I agree that their site (and support) seems pretty awful, especially in the past year or two, and I certainly would not bother using them for regular shopping -- I generally only shop there for great deals where I don't mind waiting a month-plus for order fulfillment and won't feel as bad if things don't work out.

 

Of course, the recent holiday sales (at least for BDs) might also have gotten many of us more jaded about pricing too -- and their BD pricing is usually worse than Amazon anyway (due in part to all the pricematching that Amazon does)...

 

_Man_

I have the exact problems like Paul Young.  I used DD for many years with no problems but lately, with the site changes, many things go wrong.

 

What's worse is that customer service says they'll do something (i.e., cancel an order) since I can't seem to do it in My Account settings, and it doesn't happen (i.e., the order ships a month later)!  At least I'll be able to "RETURN TO SENDER" on the package but these simple customer service issues have just gone downhill fast.

 

I have asked them to delete my account and I'm not sure they'll do that.

Maybe I should have my head examined...but I just placed a small single title order with DD.

 

They have some LionsGate titles on sale...including the 3-disc blu of Apocalypse Now for $28.41.

 

I bit.

 

It took me several hours to actually place the order!    Various pages along the way kept timing out and logging off.

 

I figure either I won't get anything (although I finally got through to the "Order Placed" page)...or I'll get a couple dozen copies!

Mike,

 

If it makes you feel any better, I haven't had any real problems w/ 3 small orders (of 1 or 2 titles each) I placed since my last comment in this thread (after the holiday shopping season).  The site itself still seems pretty poor (as before), but those more recent orders arrived w/in reasonable time and w/out issues.  Of course, there also haven't been any major DD sales like the BOGO ones back before the holiday shopping season -- and I believe that was a major problem for DD due in part to how they were handling BOGO fulfillment...

 

_Man_

 

I'm here to say that I placed my order with DDD on 4-18. 

 

I got an e-mail from them on 4-19 saying that my order had been shipped and to expect delivery on 4-28 thru 5-3-11.

 

In today's mail (4-26-11) was my copy of the 3-disc Apocalypse Now blu-ray ($28.41). 

 

Hard to complain about that transaction...except for the extreme difficulty in placing the order on their website.