What's new

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

David_B_K

Advanced Member
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2006
Messages
2,590
Location
Houston, TX
Real Name
David
Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

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.

Maybe getting away from "single product focus" has been their undoing. Now that they offer all kinds of media (in an apparent attempt to be more like Amazon) they have probably bitten off more than they can chew.
 

Scott Merryfield

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 16, 1998
Messages
18,865
Location
Mich. & S. Carolina
Real Name
Scott Merryfield
Originally Posted by 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

It is very interesting to read all the different shipping experiences that people here have with the different online companies. While Adam is seeing 8-12 days shipping from Amazon, I consistently get 2-4 days shipping with their free option. Some people are getting DDD orders in a week, while it can take a month for me (if the product does actually ship).


One nice bonus I have been getting from Amazon is that they will ship bundled items separately so I do not have to wait weeks for one title bundled with another later release, even though I have bundled them together for the free shipping option. I'm not sure if anyone else is getting this nice service, but it has been a pleasant surprise with a few of my orders.
 

Adam_S

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2001
Messages
6,316
Real Name
Adam_S
it's perhaps worth noting, that amazon still ships slower than it used to but that the real reason for the delay is that pre-orders made with free shipping no longer ship the monday before release, rather they ship the friday after. likewise, in stock orders are not filled until about two-three days after the order is placed if free shipping is selected.
 

Marvin

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 9, 1999
Messages
1,504
Real Name
Marvin
Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield




It is very interesting to read all the different shipping experiences that people here have with the different online companies. While Adam is seeing 8-12 days shipping from Amazon, I consistently get 2-4 days shipping with their free option. Some people are getting DDD orders in a week, while it can take a month for me (if the product does actually ship).


One nice bonus I have been getting from Amazon is that they will ship bundled items separately so I do not have to wait weeks for one title bundled with another later release, even though I have bundled them together for the free shipping option. I'm not sure if anyone else is getting this nice service, but it has been a pleasant surprise with a few of my orders.

I still get the same fast shipping (for free) with Amazon as I always have.


Amazon also sometimes ships me items from the same order separately but that's not always what I want. There have been times when I was planning on waiting until just before the release date of the later item to see if I wanted to cancel an order, but once they ship one item from the order, you can't cancel the unshipped item(s) if you used it to get free shipping.

(Though they will allow it if the shipped portion is >$25.)
 

Scott Merryfield

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 16, 1998
Messages
18,865
Location
Mich. & S. Carolina
Real Name
Scott Merryfield
Originally Posted by Adam_S

it's perhaps worth noting, that amazon still ships slower than it used to but that the real reason for the delay is that pre-orders made with free shipping no longer ship the monday before release, rather they ship the friday after. likewise, in stock orders are not filled until about two-three days after the order is placed if free shipping is selected.


That has not been my experience. Amazon has been shipping my pre-orders on release date (Tuesday), and I usually receive them on Thursday or Friday. For free shipping, I think this is excellent service.
 

Parker Clack

Schizophrenic Man
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
12,228
Location
Kansas City, MO
Real Name
Parker
I am sorry to hear this about DDD. They have always been a big favorite of this community but it looks like they are having some major issues. Personally, I have been

buying only from Amazon for about the past 2 years. I have a Prime account and couldn't be happier. Yes, it costs about $80 a year but it is well worth it to get

anything I order from them (if it ships from them) in 2 days no matter what. I have yet to order something and select the 2 day shipping option to not have it show

up in 2 days. For me that is worth it. I might every once in a while pay a dollar or two more but again it is worth it.


I stopped ordering from DDD a long time ago and haven't seen anything in the past year that has enticed me into thinking they would be a great place

to order from.


Hopefully, all of your pre-orders and BOGOs arrive sooner than later.
 

JoHud

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Messages
3,215
Real Name
Joe Hudak
Finally got my Buy 1 Get 1 Free titles. Saved a lot of money, but it took 3 months to get shipped. Hmm...
 

Michael Reuben

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 12, 1998
Messages
21,763
Real Name
Michael Reuben
Originally Posted by JoHud

Saved a lot of money, but it took 3 months to get shipped.

I got the last of my BOGOs on Friday, also after three months. Looks like they're finally cleaning up the backlog.
 

smithb

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 27, 2008
Messages
1,536
Real Name
Brad Smith
During this current sale at DD, I purchased 32 items (mostly TV seasons and a few individual films and film sets). So far I have received 21 within 4 to 7 business days with 11 still to come that are still in the 4 to 7 day window. All were recieved without issue. I matched each against Amazon, BN, BB, and Borders and DD had the best price by a decent margin (42% or greater off MSRP). I still view Amazon as my favorite due to price and customer service, so if the price is anywhere close, or I'm concerned about risk of damage on delivery I will stick with Amazon. However, DD is second on my list and I have no issue dealing with them in th future.
 

ManW_TheUncool

His Own Fool
Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2001
Messages
11,906
Location
The BK
Real Name
ManW
I haven't received all my BOGO titles just yet, but they recently shipped out most of my remaining orders (w/ 2 more titles left to go).


Still don't understand why their site indicated that various titles were already back "in stock" for a multiple weeks before they actually shipped some of them out. When I questioned them on multiple occasions, they could only tell me the site's wrong even though it's been "wrong" for multiple weeks for various titles -- and they don't seem to be able to (or don't want to) fix the "wrong" status. For one order, they actually eventually offered to send the order to be fulfilled by some "auxiliary warehouse" and pointed out that once they do that, I would not be able to cancel those items anymore. Not sure why they couldn't just do that sooner (or whether the site is "wrong" because of how it synchs w/ the "auxiliary warehouse").


They did seem much better for my last order in mid-October, which was not a BOGO order, but a 20%-off-sale one, so seems like the BOGO aspect really tripped them up big time...


_Man_
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,721
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top