I cancelled my Blu-ray order with DEEP DISCOUNT -- this company has gone down the tubes. (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

I had five (mostly pre-) orders for Blu-rays, initiated at the beginning of the month. One of these (in-stock at the time), IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, supposedly shipped 10/08, and I have not yet received it. Another, SEVEN SAMURAI, was released this past Tuesday, but I found was only in "processing" when I checked my order. I called Deep Discount and spoke with a very sympathetic young lady who indicated other complaints had occurred regarding pre-orders and shipping. She said that pre-orders were taken in the order in which they received, and when copies ran out, they would order more for the remaining pre-orders. I said, "But the whole point of a pre-order is to know how many copies to order initially so that all of us who pre-order will get theirs first!" She agreed.


I cancelled all titles that hadn't yet been shipped. Deep Discount loses about $200.00 by pissing me off. A few years back, this company actually did have deep discounts; now they offer the better price only occasionally. The "free shipping" (and I understand it is media rate, but that used to be much faster, and pre-ordered titles used to go out a few days in advance of street so that we might receive them near to that date) is now so slow that a carrier pigeon could have gotten SHADOW OF THE MOON to me quicker.


Well, I'm done with this company. Another dot-com bites the dust, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Robert Crawford]

So much for them, but what about Paramount, did they take care of you in regard to Gladiator?

 

[Brent M]

The last experience I had with DDD was for the Battlestar Galactica Blu-Ray boxed set and it turned me off from them for good. The whole experience turned out to be an absolute nightmare and I vowed I would never buy from them again. Besides, now their prices aren't even really competitive with Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and sometimes even Best Buy so it's just not worth the trouble.

 

[TravisR]

I don't have a problem waiting for something to come in-stock when I'm saving money but for alot of stuff that I want, Deep Discount's sale prices are either the same or more expensive than Amazon. When they're equal, I just stick with Amazon because it's extremely rare that I have to wait more than two or three days for something to come from them.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I'm still waiting for a title from their B1G1 sale. I've learned that even if DD is cheaper than Amazon, by the time I actually get what I ordered it has been on sale at least twice at Amazon.

 

[Roco]

samething here, I ordered two disc's on aug 30rd on a buy one get one free. contacted them on sept 30. was told they were on back order and the should be shipped with in 21 days. they must be using a calander from mars. this sucks

 

[Mark-P]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich

I'm still waiting for a title from their B1G1 sale.

Me too. They shipped me the full-priced one (and charged me for it) but the FREE one is still on back-order after nearly 2 months. They can't cancel the order or I will be screwed having paid full-price for the first one. The blu-ray I'm waiting for by the way is "North By Northwest." I only shop deep discount when they have real bargains like B1G1 free.

 

[Charles Smith]

They have you waiting two months for North by Northwest??? Man, that is EVERYWHERE right now. Unbelievable.

 

[MarkA]

I just called today because I am waiting since 9/7 for 5 out of my 10 Blu-rays (with 4 of them free) and was told they are on backorder still and the warehouse has the dates for when they will be in but doesn't tell the phone people. I told her I didn't want to cancel and lose my 4 free discs. I also told her that people on Home Theatre Forum were not very happy and she said they were aware and would also forward my comments. I have ordered from them for years, but once I get this order I will NEVER buy from them again.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have also recently sworn off buying any more discs from DDD. I had two very poor experiences with them over the summer, and have decided they are just not worth the hassle and extremely long wait times. The site has always been rather slow in shipping products, but lately they have been getting even worse.


While some offer the excuse that DDD's shipping takes longer because it's free shipping via media mail, I never experience these types of delays when selecting free shipping from Amazon. My order always arrives within 2-3 days from when I get a shipping notice. With DDD, not only can it take a month or more to receive a shipping notice, but then there is another 2-4 week wait before the order actually arrives. There is no way that media mail should take that long.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I'm in the same boat as everyone from the last BOGO sale in early September. You'd think I would have received POLTERGEIST before Halloween... Also got JACOB'S LADDER for a steal price right after it was released-- and just got the apology email from them yesterday. If it turns up within the 21 days they promise, I will eat my hat. How sad.

 

[Mark_TB]

Well, at least I'm not the only one. I'm still waiting on two titles from the BOGO sale, plus two regularly-priced pre-orders that released at the beginning of September. I usually defend DDD and their longer-than-some delivery times, but this is unheard of for me. I'll keep my orders in place because I like the prices and I have plenty of other material to watch in the meantime, but I will definitely be thinking twice before ordering from them again. I wonder if they truly understand the damage they are doing to their reputation.


- Mark


ADDENDUM: This is purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if perhaps they are having credit and/or cash flow problems. I'm having difficulty understanding how they can be having so much trouble filling preorders, as well as sale titles.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, this order fulfillment issue w/ DD seems to be getting out of hand lately.


I recently emailed them asking them when I can expect shipment for a few titles from 2 different orders that the website now says are back in stock (after waiting over 6 weeks from the Labor Day BOGO sale), but the CSR just gave me 2 (identical) canned email responses thinking that I was talking about a recent order where the in-stock status may not have been up-to-date when I ordered. I just emailed them back to correct their misunderstanding and ask for ETA for those in-stock titles again. Let's see what they say this time.


Meanwhile, I'm also still waiting for a few other still-out-of-stock titles from that sale and the more recent BOGO sale. They did ship out my latest order (of Layer Cake BD + Inside Man BD) from the current 20%-off sale quickly enough though the shipment probably won't arrive for another week.


_Man_

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm done with them as well, for all the reasons people cited. Frankly I wasn't ordering anything from them until the B1G1 and they never filled my order, so that's that.

 

[Fritz Nilsen]

Originally Posted by Mark_TB

ADDENDUM: This is purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if perhaps they are having credit and/or cash flow problems. I'm having difficulty understanding how they can be having so much trouble filling preorders, as well as sale titles.

Wow. This reminds me of the days before Canadian e-tailer DVDSoon went belly-up. Remember them? They were having serious money problems, and would fulfill older orders with cash from new orders. (They charged your card when the order came in, so they essentially took your money to pay their debts.) In the final months they had unbelievable sales, and people spent hundreds or more, only to wait months (or forever) for orders to be fulfilled. Sound familliar? Of course, then DVDSoon filed for banktrupcy and all customers were left hanging. Some speculated that these "sales" were just ploys to pull in dollars before they pulled the plug. I had some outstanding orders myself at the time, but I paid with Visa so I was covered.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

No idea if they're actually having $$$ problem right now, but their order fulfillment process has long been a mystery even before the latest issues. In some ways, it's actually a wonder they've been able to last this long w/ the kind of process they had.


Anyway, they don't (and shouldn't) charge you before they ship, so they're not doing what DVDSoon did. Still, I guess it would not be surprising if they are indeed in financial trouble (like many other businesses). OTOH, aren't they still a sibling business of DVD Planet? Is DVD Planet also having trouble fulfilling orders? I have no idea...


_Man_

 

[Robin9]

Just to provide a bit of balance and without wishing to contradict other posters, I have to say that I have experienced no problems with Deep Discount. I recently ordered The Deep Blu-ray disc from them after another thread said the BRD was OOP, and I received it without any major delay.


Maybe I was just lucky. But then again, maybe other people have just been unlucky.

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Robin9

Just to provide a bit of balance and without wishing to contradict other posters, I have to say that I have experienced no problems with Deep Discount. I recently ordered The Deep Blu-ray disc from them after another thread said the BRD was OOP, and I received it without any major delay.


Maybe I was just lucky. But then again, maybe other people have just been unlucky.

The Deep was OOP, but has been re-issued.


And you were lucky with Deep Discount.

I stopped ordering from them a year or two back. It always took MONTHS for me to get all of my order. Like someone else said, it would end up on sale at Amazon (usually for less) 2 or 3 times before you would get your DD order in.

Even when it is in stock it can take a month to get an order.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong

No idea if they're actually having $$$ problem right now, but their order fulfillment process has long been a mystery even before the latest issues. In some ways, it's actually a wonder they've been able to last this long w/ the kind of process they had.


Anyway, they don't (and shouldn't) charge you before they ship, so they're not doing what DVDSoon did. Still, I guess it would not be surprising if they are indeed in financial trouble (like many other businesses). OTOH, aren't they still a sibling business of DVD Planet? Is DVD Planet also having trouble fulfilling orders? I have no idea...


_Man_

Considering it takes 3-4 weeks from the time you receive a shipping notice and the product actually arrives on your doorstep, I think they very well may be charging us before they really ship the item. As I said above, there is no way that media mail takes that long to ship. I receive my media mail shipments from Amazon in a few days.


Anyway, I ended up canceling my last two orders from them, and am finished doing business with the company unless they can turn things around. I am not one of those people who needs to get titles on the actual release date, but waiting months and months for catalog titles that I can get elsewhere in a matter of days is ridiculous.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield

As I said above, there is no way that media mail takes that long to ship. I receive my media mail shipments from Amazon in a few days.

I think the difference is that Amazon is shipping from many warehouses and DDD is only shipping from Illinois. Someone with USPS experience can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding of media mail is that if it fits on to the truck, they ship it. If it doesn't fit, it sits there until it does fit. I live within 50 to 75 miles of at least 2 Amazon warehouses so once it ships from one of those warehouses, it most likely goes right to my local post office so I get it quickly. With DDD, they ship from Illinois (which is probably at least 600 miles from me) so it probably makes multiple stops along the way and at each of them, it could just sit there for days because it's media mail.