I have placed 5-6 orders, totaling about 80 DVDs. I have never not received my order, and when I have had a floater, or even the STO subtitle ordeal, Johnny told me to just end back the DVDs and not the cases to save on shipping, and he sent me back brand new DVDs. That is good CS IMO.

Just my $.02...

It would seem to be a worthwhile investment for all etailers both to work out a robust disputes policy and also to explain to all customers, in advance, precisely what they can expect for their money.

If it is primarily a low-cost, no-frills outlet service that relies on the relevant postal authority to do what it has been paid for (i.e. to deliver the goods and keep records of that delivery), then information to this effect should be included on the website and on order-confirmatory emails.

At the same time, it should be made as simple as possible for the rare/occasional aggrieved customer to take up any argument over (non) deliveries with whomsoever is claiming that what was paid for was supplied. If the customer takes the risk of low prices against the chance of delivery difficulties, that is no reason why they should have to jump though hoops in order to take the matter up with their respective postal services.

As others have noted, where customer service and security is more important than price the option remains to deal only with the pricier outlets who can afford to absorb the occasional disputed package - or which have made the necessary insurance arrangements.

Concerning the vagaries of postal services, international readers might be interested in this thread: USPS delivery confirmation - completely worthless?!?

I'll put my 2 cents into the pot here.

I had one or two bad experiences in the course of dealing with DDDHouse. The problem stemmed from defective discs and a misleading statement on their site. Similar to the Blade problem, where they just post what the distributor initially tells them.. then not correcting the problem until much much much later.

Communications were a problem and it got to a silly disagreement that I was the only one who encountered these problems with these discs (different occassions and even linked forum posts from other people mentioning the problem).

They eventually made it good. I was out maybe $10 in postage (3 posts to HK), which is negligible considering the great deals I got.

The frustration of reconciling problems with an overseas e-tailers is something I dread and thus have never ordered from DDDHouse since (although I did tag along on an order another forum member did recently).

I still recommend DDDHouse as well as hivizone to anyone who asks. The positives greatly outweigh the negatives and most people don't give a rat's ass about my opinion anyways

I did learn a valuable lesson about pre-orders (further backed up buy the Blade incident). Wait for an independent review!

When you're a retailer, especially a popular place like DDDHouse, there are bound to always be a complaint or two at some point. It sounds like most of the cases involve non-delivery or misinformation of movie details. DDDHouse is not in the delivery business and they're not a content provider - they can't possibly be expected to watch every movie and provide accurate descriptions.

I will never go to P&W Supermarket because one grocer made a bad racial comment to me or to Best Buy because their return policy sucks, but that doesn't make them bad places to buy stuff from. Just not for me.

I think the world of DDDHouse and they've been wonderful to me. How many etailers or retailers can you name that actually call you to tell you that certain DVDs are out of stock, did you receive your order, etc.

I ordered some stuff from DDDHouse last Weds. Today I received an e-mail from Johnny regarding my order.
The header looked normal but the body of the e-mail looked like this:Does anybody know what's going on?
Thanks.
Joel

never had such problem when I order from them. maybe u should email them and check.

Yeah, suggest you ask the person by whom the email ostensibly was sent.

Asking here first really doesn't seem like too productive a strategy.

Actually, the first thing I did was send an e-mail to Johnny at DDDhouse informing him that I was having trouble with his e-mail. Only then did I think of turning to a forum that exists ostensibly to provide help, support, and information for film affician, aficcia, afficcian, film fans.

Since many people who read this particular forum do business with DDDHouse, I thought it would be a very productive strategy to find out if anybody else was having the same problem while I was waiting to hear back from DDDHouse.

I'm sorry that in your estimation asking for information from others who may have been in my situation seems unproductive, but then again you weren't having the problem.

I haven't seen any emails coming from him with that problem... I've never had that problem before. What email program are you using? Have you downloaded chinese text support for it? Perhaps you should try to view your email through a web browser - most online services allow you to view it this way. You could forward the email to me if you want and I could look at it and see if it looks the same on my computer. I could also email Johnny on your behalf to ask your question for you and give you his answer when he replies. You could also try getting a hotmail account or a yahoo account and get him to email you there instead to see if that fixes the problem. The email might be getting garbled between service providers. Hard to say. I don't think Benedict was trying to be rude by suggesting your approach to a solution was misguided - he probably misunderstood your thought process. I think you came to the right place (as a back-up anyway) and it was in good form of you to resurrect this old thread rather than start a new one.

Plus, I got a bit of a laugh from your porky pig impression.

<small></small>Sorry: I was commenting purely on what your post said and - given your use of "today" - it all seemed to have happened very recently i.e. with insufficient time for any resultant emailed correspondence to have been received and answered.

It remains my personal opinion that, in your shoes, I would have allowed the etailer some time to provide an explanation. Armed with a reply - good, bad or indifferent - I might then have aired the matter publicly to gain a broader perspective.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

This morning DDDHouse sent the e-mail again. It was just fine. It was signed by Sze. I don't know why the first one was funky. Yellow Hammer in the Asian DVD Guide forum suggested that the problem might have been on DDDHouse's end.
I've already replied to DDDHouse, notified them that I got the correctly formatted message, and thanked them for their prompt response.
Joel

I just placed an order with dddhouse yesterday for around 16 dvds, and I got an e-mail from Johnnie today asking me for a scan of my credit card with the middle 8 numbers covered. Has anyone been through this before, is it safe? Should I do it?

never has such problem before. I think u should start with ordering with a few pieces first. maybe u order 16 dvds, that is why he asked u for it.

Up to you, zerotl. Apparently CC fraud is not a negligible problem for them - and yes, dddhouse is known to sometimes ask for a scan of your card (some other HK-based etailers have a similar policy). Never had any problems with them, and I would not worry about safety, they are trustworthy. Plus you black out a significant portion of the card...

He asked for a scan of my card on the first order (also about 15 titles). Since I had read here that this could happen, I sent it, blacked out the middle 8 numbers, and the expiration date. That was about a year ago, and I haven't had any problems with that card.
My two orders with them have gone smoothly, delivered via insured mail, signature confirmation.

At risk of further infuriating DDDhouse supporters I got to say that I had very lousy first experience with them. I understand that my experience might not be typical but...

I had never ordered any Asian DVDs at all, but since I started following this forum I have gotten curious. So since everyone seemed to be raving about this retailer I decided to give it a try. I placed an order for 15 DVDs and received the following request from them:
--------------------
Due to your first large order buy from our website,
we need to identify your credit card,
hope you understand that internet shopping has
so many fraud order now, we need to protect both party,
please submit your credit card front side
copy and email to us with jpg or tif format,
for secure reason via internet sending email...
--------------------
OK, it's their right to be concerned with their safety, but I'm concerned with mine, too. And I am yet to experience a request as ridiculous as this one (I place overseas orders fairly often). But again, it's their right. So I fired them another E-mail asking (politely) to break my order into smaller parts since they felt so uncomfortable with my "huge" order. This was their response:
----------------------------
Hi,
This order has been cancelled due to you refused to submit your
credit card copy for identification purposes, we havn't charged your
credit card.
---------------------------
Needless to say it was first and last attempt on my part to do business with these people. Security concerns is one thing but arrogance is not something I tolerate from people I give my buisness to. And what the hell for! I went to DVDshelf instead, and not only placed my 20 DVDs order without any problems, but also EVERY SINGLE ITEM I'D ORDERED WAS CHEAPER than on DDDhouse site. I haven't received my order yet, so can't actually vouch for them, but my status says it has been shipped by UPS, and, at least, I can track them online. Well, to each their own, I guess.

When I first started ordering DVDs, I ordered from DDDHouse. I never had a problem with them. Only a few disc were ever scratched and it was replaced with no problem. One incident I placed and order and when I went to check back a few days later I noticed a few of the titles I got dropped in price. I e-mailed him and he credited me for those disc. I thought that was very nice of him.

Not that I have a problem with them, but I order from DVDShelf now. The price is better and it seems more organized and faster.

sandman - We all had to submit a picture of our credit cards when placing our first order with dddhouse: it was even mentioned a few times in this thread (not to mention, this forum), so it's not like it's something new or directed only at certain individuals.

In addition, when you encountered a security procedure, you tried to request a way to circumvent it. Doesn't THAT raise any red flags if you were a vendor?

I'm not "infuriated" but you make it sound like you're special and that a practice which we ALL had been through doesn't apply to you. You speak of arrogance, but aren't you being the arrogant one thinking that you're exempt from a well documented procedure?

Replying to the first post in this topic:

I had a somewhat similar experience with Johnny at dddhouse, and I could not believe how much disrespect he showed me. He made the strangest, harshest accusations and it was quite a surprise to me since I had no problems with them in the past. So ever since then (about a year ago) I've pretty much stuck with hivizone.

wow, way to resurrect a thread, I think I just brought up all sorts of bad memories for some people, well I decided to scan and send the card with the 8 digits blacked out, we'll see how it goes. Tnx for all the quick response, I got to go and get my HK_DVD fix. Tonight's Showing "The eye"

FYI- No, I was never asked to submit a pic of my card.

neither was i!

Okay, I stand corrected .

However, I placed an order for 15 DVDs with my first order.

I certainly did not have to submit a pic of my card either.

However, if greydt thinks that trying to circumvent what he considers to be DDDHouse's normal practise might raise some red flags, then how would he/she feel about this:

- DDDHouse send my order 12th December 2001; it never arrives so after waiting a resonable period for the order to arrive (21 days) I email DDDHouse to let them know

- I wait 2 months for HK and Australia Post checks to be completed before any refund can occur - this eventually takes place 22nd February this year

- On 12th June, 4 months after that refund went ahead, DDDHouse send an email claiming to have received evidence from Australia Post that I did in fact receive my order and that they will reapply the charge to my credit card

- I protest informing them that they will need to provide me with concrete evidence of this otherwise what they are doing is tantamount to theft; that is, I want to see the signature of the person who signed for the parcel

- DDDHouse then back-off and say that they will fax me the evidence; I have heard nothing from them since (and it was a simple matter of them faxing Australia Post for such evidence - I checked the procedure out with AP first and informed DDDHouse of the simple procedure they would have to follow)

Now to me, that rings major alarm bells... particularly given the fact that they only refunded my card after they had supposedly clarrified with HK Post and Australia post that the parcel had indeed gone missing and not been delivered - it is hardly likely that startling new evidence would have come to light in the intervening 4 months.

This is the reason why I will never do any business with DDDHouse again and why I will continue to deal with DVDShelf who have for the most part been very effeicient in their dealings with me - and I have made many orders with them.

regards, Tim...

Wow, thanks for the info. Guess I should stick with dvdshelf and hivizone from now on.