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

[David_B_K]

This thread reminded me that I have two BOGO orders with DDD. One was from 9-3-10 and the other from 10-3-10. All items are on backorder. Frankly, I had forgotten the orders. I am going to cancel them right now. Thanks for the reminder.


---EDIT---


I actually had to call them to cancel the orders. When I tried to cancel online, I received the message: "Unable to make changes to this order at this time". So, I called them. All four of the items from the two BOGO sales were still on B/O; and they did cancel them for me.


R.I.P. Deep Discount.

 

[Charles Smith]

Meanwhile, the ad emails from them are incessant.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

FWIW, a subsequent response I got back from DD CSR indicated that part of the recent problem is due to the nature of the BOGO sale. They are not shipping the "free" title until they can ship the "paid" one that pairs w/ the "free" one -- and there's the potential you end up in a cycle because of that.


However, I pointed out to them that I have 2 pairs of BOGO titles that are currently listed as in-stock (at least for the past few days I've checked), and the last response was that the website is wrong.


I think the other part of the problem is their inventory/shipment tracking plain sucks. It's been that way forever now although it was less problematic in the past, but has been compounded by the BOGO sales. FWIW, Amazon's inventory/shipment tracking (for free shipping service) actually ain't that great either, but I guess the fact they ship from many warehouses (vs just one for DD) helps make up for that.


As for how long shipment actually takes, I don't really find DD's free shipping (from time of shipping notice) to the NYC area all that much slower than Amazon most of the time. Amazon's free shipping rarely ever gets to me in less than a week, and they could just as easily take a week or more to actually ship something out that they indicate as in-stock (or for preorders that should be in stock by release day). However, Amazon's website works much better than DD's -- and since they use many different warehouses, they are much faster at "restocking".


RE: the ad emails, oddly, I haven't gotten any from them in a very long time -- maybe it has something to do w/ their website software change though I thought it stopped long before that -- but I do regularly get emails from DVD Planet...


_Man_

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

Meanwhile, the ad emails from them are incessant.

Yep they are. I even went in and deleted that information off my account after my last ordeal with them and emails keep coming.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I haven't gotten any ad emails from DD or DVD Planet in a very long time. I haven't noticed them in my spam filter, either.


I got a boardgame in the last 25% off sale, but it's been quite some time since I've ordered any DVDs from them. I used to spend HUNDREDS of dollars there. Oh well. . .

 

[Roco]

would you like fries with that hat mark? i also use amazon and i usually receive my order in 3 days. depending where it is shipped from, and yes their tracking is not always dependable.

 

[JoHud]

The only reason I continue to do business with DDD is because my bank account is not charged until it ships. They had a Kino DVD sale I couldn't pass up and, as of today, I have about 90% of the order, so I'm not too disappointed. The Buster Keaton Blurays I got from the B1G1 Free sale being on back-order doesn't bother me because I might actually get them by the time the third one (Sherlock Jr/Three Ages) is released. An absurd wait time, but I at least have that 21 days deadline to back me up if I have to ask about the order again.


However, Deep Discount is still very good with pre-orders. My Olive Films DVDs get here on the release day (shipped ahead of time) and the October wave has already been shipped. So they still are dependable in some ways.


I have a very large backlog of unwatched DVDs, so their timeliness does not bother me as much as it would some others. I agree that I almost always buy from Amazon or other retailers if there is a better or equal deal, and only buy from DDD if it is a real deal

 

[Richard Gallagher]

It took forever for DDD to fulfill my order for several Sony MOD titles, but two Blu-rays which I ordered last Saturday arrived today! Go figure.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Richard Gallagher

It took forever for DDD to fulfill my order for several Sony MOD titles, but two Blu-rays which I ordered last Saturday arrived today! Go figure.

Yeah, my BD order of Inside Man and Layer Cake (from their 20% off sale) arrived today just shy of a week from when I ordered them.


BTW, the $15/$20 DVD/BD guys near my work decided to run a clearance sale today, so I ended up picking up The Last Station BD for $10 even though that's one of the Labor Day BOGO BDs I've been waiting for from DD -- that one's actually listed as "in stock" on their site, but I haven't been able to get them to ship it out as I mentioned earlier. I'm going to tell them to just cancel that plus one of the equally priced BDs instead (for a paired BOGO cancellation) -- hopefully, they'll at least honor that cancellation request since they seem unwilling to ship it out. Would save me a few bucks and any additional wait time although I'm actually in no real rush to rewatch it (after renting it previously).


_Man_

 

[Dick]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

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

You are right to ask me this, and I am ashamed to admit that, although I did thank the very helpful representative from Paramount (he does not give his name in the message header) in reply to his offer to help, I did not hold up my end of the bargain and post a public thanks on HTF, which I will do now. The replacement arrived within a week of his/her correspondence, and I am delighted with the quality.

 

[TonyD]

I think i'm out of the deepdiscount.com business.


I have a disc that shipped on the 8th that hasn't arrived yet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Dick




You are right to ask me this, and I am ashamed to admit that, although I did thank the very helpful representative from Paramount (he does not give his name in the message header) in reply to his offer to help, I did not hold up my end of the bargain and post a public thanks on HTF, which I will do now. The replacement arrived within a week of his/her correspondence, and I am delighted with the quality.

I just wanted to make sure that your situation has been resolved to your satisfaction as I know the owners try to help out here by contacting the studio.







Crawdaddy

 

[TonyD]

I have been getting plenty of something from Deepdiscount lately, it isn't movies. I'm getting junk emails from them almost daily now letting me know of various sales and now a member club system.

No thanks.

 

[WadeM]

I started using DVD Pacific. Their prices are cheaper, although their selection isn't always perfect. Like everyone else, I've had bad luck with Deep Discount lately. I guess the economic times got to them. Too bad, really.

 

[Sam Favate]

If true, it's too bad. DD provided some great service, and they lasted a whole lot longer than a lot of companies did that came about at the beginning of the DVD era. However, I last ordered from them in early September, and had no problem at all with my order, which arrived in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Dave H]

Agreed, DD used to have incredible service back around 2000 or 2001 if my memory serves me. They always had the best prices too. I bought EVERY DVD from them up until the HD formats arrived. Their prices were just too high. I think I ordered something from them maybe a couple of years ago and had no problems, but it's too bad they couldn't maintain their past.


I find Amazon the best to order from these days in terms of price and service. However, Best Buy often has similar prices on some movies such as my recent purchase of the 2 disc Apocalypse Now and Funny Farm/Spies Like Us, so I'll just pick it up from them in those cases.

 

[Adam_S]

still waiting on my two titles from the bogo sale. I'll never order from them again.


regarding media mail, both deep discount and amazon have gotten much slower with shipments since the recession hit (even UPS essentially doubled their shipping time by doing their incredibly annoying combo with the Post office). I've also noticed that Barnes and Noble, since implementing free express shipping for members has pretty much tripled their shipping time.


I blame this on a correspondence of factors:


the economy means fewer people working on all facets of delivery, iirc the post office has a hiring freeze and retires thousands of workers a month, meaning their personnel are constantly going down. Many of the companies probably have leaner warehouse staffs and the delivery companies probably have fewer delivery drivers, why else would UPS combine with the postal service unless they're physically incapable of delivery all the small packages asked of them? Additionally, the number of people buying things online increases every year. even three years ago, millions fewer people bought things online, and they definitely did not buy big ticket items online the way they do now. On top of this, the economy is probably accelerating the rate of increase in online purchasers as people look for the best possible bargain on every purchase. In addition to all this, you have the cash flow issues that stymie so many small businesses around the country, BN and Amazon are less likely to be affected by this than an online only company like DDD.


So I think it's the recession, since 2007-8 I've seen:

Amazon free shipping go from 2-4 days to 8-12 days

BN express shipping go from next day to 4 days

UPS go from 2-3 days to 6-12 days

Media Mail go from 4-12 days to 14-24 days

Postal service price increases and slower delivery for the same service level

 

[Paul Penna]

FWIW, my last order with DDD was on Sept 9 during their 1/2 price silent sale, Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-Ray for $14.68. It was listed as out-of-stock at the time, but it was shipped on Set. 16 and I got it with a week here on the west coast. I was happy. As far as I'm concerned, they remain an option for me in my price-checking. Incidentally, I've had good luck so far with a couple orders with an outfit called blowitoutahere.com.


FWIW again, I haven't noticed any significant or consistent slowing-down of shipments from Amazon, which always come to me via USPS exclusively.


Here's an interesting story: on Oct 19 I placed an order for both DVDs and books with amazon.uk, specifying standard shipping. For their own convenience, they split the order into two shipments (no extra charge to me): 3 DVDs in 1, 1 DVD & 1 book in another. Both were shipped the same day, Oct. 19. I received one parcel two days (!!!) later here in California, on Oct. 21. It bore a Royal Mail (British Post Office) postage indicia and was delivered to me by the USPS. That must have been a fluke (I speculate that it got accidentally mixed in with their super-speedy shipments on their end), as the second parcel just arrived today, Oct. 26.

 

[David_B_K]

Originally Posted by Paul Penna

FWIW, my last order with DDD was on Sept 9 during their 1/2 price silent sale, Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-Ray for $14.68. It was listed as out-of-stock at the time, but it was shipped on Set. 16 and I got it with a week here on the west coast. I was happy.

Steamboat Bill, Jr was part of my September order. Still showed as backordered last week when I canceled it.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I received all my orders from the Kino BOGO in August sometime in the last month (including Pandora and Steamboat Bill Jr). I haven't gotten any shipping notices about the Sony BOGO titlles I ordered earlier in the month, but I'm in absolutely no hurry whatsoever for them anyway. I ordered them because the price was just too good to resist, but if I'd had a burning desire to watch them, I wouldn't have waited for an unforeseen BOGO sale to do so.

I've also received one of the two Sony MOD titles I ordered late last month, and the other is struggling it way here via the usual asphyxiated media mail pipeline.


About the only area DD has disappointed me is it's shift from cardboard mailers to bubble wrap and thin plastic trays. I definitely hesitate when ordering a fragile boxset from them and am only likely to do so if it's in an order will several other in stock items to hopefully facilitate the use of a box for shipping.

The other big disappointment has been with their Fall sale this year. I've been expecting it for a long time now, but it's still a shame to see something this fondly anticipated for all intents and purposes go away. for about the last six years or seven years I've gotten in the habit of making buy lists for the first half and second half of the years and trying to push most of my purchases off until I could order them in these sales and go nuts. Not anymore. I ordered a whopping 3 titles in the Fall sale, only 1 of which was discounted. They did arrive fairly quick though.


For all the great deals I've gotten from them in the past, I'm inclined to be sympathetic to their plight and cut them a little slack for a little while longer. They started off with a bang with exactly the right mission imperative- low overhead, single product focus, big discounts. It's kind of sad for me to see them become less and less relevant as the seasons go by.