I'm pretty new to this board and to DDDhouse.com. I placed my first order (7 discs) after reading the HKnewbie thread. I was not asked to send in a scan of my cc and the dvds arrived about 8 days later. I placed my second order of 9 discs last saturday and haven't heard anything so hopefully they'll arrive soon. As a new customer I have no complaints, all the movies worked and were what I ordered.

I am sure that most people who have had good experiences with DDDHouse will no doubt have nothing but praise for them and that is fair enough.

However, from what has been posted in this thread by those who have had negative experiences (including myself), it seems that DDDHouse tend to provide rather poor service when it comes to things going other than smoothly - I would say from my own experience that they tend to go a little ferrel. I have had my problems with DVDShelf, but they have always been sorted out relatively quickly and, in the end, painlessly.

Maybe it was unfortunate that this my very first order with DDDHouse went missing en route, as I had had no opportunity to establish any customer-vendor rapport with them (that usually takles a few orders), but they are the only online vendor that I have had major problems with - and I have used many in the US, UK, HK, Japan, France, Germany etc.

regards, Tim...

as far as I can see the main issues seem to be with shipments, which as mentioned before is not his domain. As a small business owner, I too would have a hard time dealing with people whining about missing shipments and the like. Other so-called customer service issues such as billing, defective disc returns, etc. I don't see any complaints.

DDDHouse is probably the big dog on the HK block for HK movies even though it is primarily a one-person shop. It has done so by offering a combination of excellent pricing both on merchandise and shipping, a simplistic low-bandwidth interface, and responsive customer service. As the big dog it is not unusual at all to see some complaints. In the past, when Hivizone was the big dog, similar complaints were heard.

If you were to open up a thread on DVDShelf or Coolashop discussion, you would see similar complaints, probably more so because of billing and pricing issues as well.

Yellow Hammer,

I would take issue over the use of whining over missing shipments. Nothing could be further from the truth.

My problem was with the way in which DDDHouse dealt with the issue of the missing shipment and the very suspect follow-up on the same issue 4 months later. I understand that shipments go astray (that happens regardless of who you deal with) and I do not blame the vendor for that... but when they come back threatening to charge my credit card over an issue that was supposedly resolved almost two and a half months after the original order shipped, then I start to question their customer service.

I understand that DDDHouse will want to question the validity of claims for missing shipments, but I had waited while they went through all of the correct avenues of investigation regarding my order resulting in the eventual refund to my credit card. Why the sudden about-face four months later?

If they are, as you say, the big kid on the block, then they should be showing a little more professionalism than they afforded me.

I would agree that you would definitely get complaints in a DVDShelf topic as you can never please all of the people all of the time. However, in shipping related matters they have it right as far as I am concerned (but then I always wait until I have an order of either 5 or 10 titles I want). At DVDShelf it is cheaper to use the UPS courier service than regular air mail (why that is, I have no idea) and I have never had a single order from them go astray because of that fact. My only bone of contention with them has been their tendency to delete out of stock items from your order without notice - an area they seemed to have cleaned up lately.

regards, Tim...

I've had dozens of shipments from DDDHouse and have never had a package lost - one package came from HK to Arizona in less than 36 hours or something like that. I've had a few defective discs (manufacturer problem) and he replaced them every time I asked him. I don't treat DDDHouse like Amazon and I don't expect to be treated like Amazon treats their customers. Sure, Amazon will come through on things like missing shipment claims - but when it comes to other matters, they are lacking. DDDHouse has excellent prices, great customer service (that's my experience) and they offer a personal touch that most sites can't do. Missing shipments aren't really his fault since he seems to package things well and ship them out properly... the postal system is more flawed than DDDHouse's system. Stories like this aren't the norm, but they exist so I'd say buyer beware I guess (as with everything).

Trigger

Please read my post carefully... you will notice that I did not blame DDDHouse for the missing items - quote myself: "I understand that shipments go astray (that happens regardless of who you deal with) and I do not blame the vendor for that... ").

My problem was with the way in which the whole episode was subsequently handled.

regards, Tim...

Well, first of all, I haven't gotten on anybody's case if they have a legitimate problem with their order with dddhouse. I believe all vendors have their problems, and you'll get one complaint or another about every vendor out there.

The person I was addressing in the first place seem offended that they were asked to supply a piece of information that other users before him was asked to do (for large initial orders apparently), and which said operation was mentioned in this thread and others. It's like being warned of something, but getting all suprised and offended when it actually happens.

If said person had supplied the info, placed an order, and then had problems: yes, certainly there is a cause for concern.

I'm sorry that you're having problems with dddhouse and I hope it works out, but please don't assume that just because I support them with my dollars that I have utter and blind faith in them. Sorry, but NO vendor gets my utter trust and faith

What is the heck difference is it to

type in your credit card number and address:

XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXX exp XX/XXXX

or

scanning the card and blocking out the middle numbers?

The vendor gets your CC number anyhow. It's not like your soul is being captured and being used for dark purposes on the other side of the globe...

There are two ways the vendor can protect themselves.

#1) scan of your card (with some number blocked out)
#2) some cards have an additional 3-digits on the back that proves the card is in your possession and not hacked or stolen from a garbage can.

Greydt,

First of all, my bad - I didn't complete reading this particular thread before placing the order and did not know of this - as you put it "well documented procedure". Should I have known, I wouldn't have bothered in the first place. Again, they have a right to have whatever absurd and idiotic procedures they like (yes, I do believe it is absurd and idiotic) but I didn't get offended by that policy (amased, yes but not offended). I got offended after they abruptly canceled my order while I was trying to find a solution (offering to order smaller number of DVDs to make them feel comfortable).

In the end, I probably should thank DDDhouse for rejecting my business because I saved money on every single DVD from the order I place with DVDshelf instead. I'm sorry but DDDhouse does not seem to be the top guy on the block. Not to me, at least. Do they have the best prices? Best website? Largest inventory? Good customer service? From other members' opinions I can conclude that the owner is pretty moody, to say the least. What gives him the right to behave the way he does?

Perhaps, I'm overreacting, however, let me assure you that I don't mean to offend anyone who is happy with DDDhouse. I'm merely telling about my experience and my dissapointment, that's all.

you may have saved on the DVD prices but unless you actually went to the store and picked up the DVDs I can almost bet dollars for doughnuts that the shipping costs for DVDShelf exceeded your savings. You can argue on DVDShelf's behalf for being able to get fast shipping or you could even say that the perhaps small difference in price was worth it, but to say that you saved money by going to DVDShelf is generally not true.

I don't remember if I read any of the posts... I was just sharing my "various customer experiences"... I must have at least skimmed over some of the posts since I felt compelled to write something positive about DDDHouse and maybe I touched on something you brought up. I don't know - this just seems like a DDDHouse bashing thread and as far as I know, these situations that people here are sharing aren't the norm. I see DDDHouse vs. Amazon or wherever as the difference between some mom & pop video store versus Blockbuster. I'd rather go to the mom & pop and go by their rules... some people would rather shop at the corporate owned store and that's fine too. I've ordered hundreds of DVDs from DDDHouse in dozens of orders and have no major complaint. I like being able to place an order and then get emails from the guy running the site and being able to send him emails requesting to add or remove a title and there's no hassle. That's just me - that's my opinion and none of these negative impressions of DDDHouse that people are giving are going to influence my shopping at all.

One thing I can say is that all these negative comments may not cause me to stop recommending DDDHouse, but they'll cause me to let the people I suggest it to know that DDDHouse doesn't have a perfect track record of happiness. Then again - nobody does... and no matter how much you try, there's just no pleasing some people. (of course, in some of these cases it would seem like he didn't even try - that's something I highly doubt, but I'm not interested in getting into a debate about it.) Know what? Every time I go to Olive Garden, I get deathly ill - food poisoning is my guess. Some people love Olive Garden. It just depends on who you are. All these issues are circumstantial though and the bottom line is that DDDHouse is typically run very well and they offer super low prices and great service. I will always recommend them until I experience otherwise.

Yellow Hammer visited Johnny awhile back and got to see how his operation was run... he'd be the best person to listen to regarding this stuff.

DDDHouse is just one online vendor I use. But all of my orders from them have been sent registered mail. Is that not the case with everyone in the US? Or are we talking about the mega orders? Mine are usually only in the 6-12 (I don't have time to watch them anyway).

Initially, I was put off from using them when I read about the fax a credit card thing. When I finally placed my first order it wasn't big enough to warrant them asking for it. But if I was using a vendor for the first time, I wouldn't place a huge order anyway until I knew I could trust them. It's a matter of building mutual trust as I see it.

We're all better off having options.
That's my .02

Yellow Hammer, are you calling me a liar? Or better (worse) yet, are you calling me an idiot?

LOL. It's time to stop being offended, I guess. Remember in my post I said that I ONLY related MY OWN experience? Now, my experience was ordering 20 DVDs and not 1 or 2. Of course, only masochist would order just one DVD from DVDshelf since it costs whopping $HK145 to deliver. It's an order of 20 or more, when their shipping charges start to get into focus. It's a lot to order, I agree, however, since I'm just starting to build my collection, I have no problem ordering them in bulk (small bulk, that is).

Let's see: DDDhouse charged me $220 (HK dollars from now on) for airmail on 15 DVDs, and they would charge me $260 on 19. DVDshelf charged me $271 for UPS delivery on 19 DVDs and they would charge me $285 on 20 (I went for 20 but 1 item was out of stock so they ajusted the shipping). Anyway, so far I 'overpaid' $11 for shipping.

However, here is some price comparising for you.

Audition: DVDshelf: $33; DDDhouse: $40
Battle Royale: DVDshelf: $33; DDDhouse: $40
Inner Senses: DVDshelf: $49; DDDhouse: $60
Avalon: DVDshelf: $78; DDDhouse: $85
Vidocq: DVDshelf: $48; DDDhouse: $60

This is $44 difference for only 5 DVDs, and I ordered 19 of them. So don't rush to bet "dollars for doughnuts" just yet. I can bet my last pair of shoes, that you would lose this bet if I were to accept it.

As to me arguing on behalf of DVDshelf, well, I do have better things to do. BTW, here are some things I didn't like about my order with them.

1. They removed an OOS item from my order and never told me about it. Furthemore, they could not add another DVD to my order when I tried to replace it.
2. Their search engine is tricky. It may fail to find an item even if they do carry it. You have to be creative and remove part of the title in order for the engine to find it.
3. I have stuttering problems playing 3 DVDs from my order in my standalone player, and another DVD will not play at all. They all will play in the DVD-rom, though. However, it must be the problem with my player or a manufacturer's fault. I don't think DVDshelf has anything to do with it.

Here are the things I did like:

1. Good prices.
2. Generally efficient and easy to navigate website.
3. Shipping by UPS.
4. Ability to track the order on the website.
5. They ajusted the shipping price for the OOS DVD at first request.
6. Fast and courteous E-mail responses.

To summarize, if you have great relationships with DDDhouse and tend to place small orders with them, then DVDshelf is not for you.
If you, however, tend to place larger orders, then at least do your math and see for yourself.

If you manage to maximize your shipping with DVDShelf, it can be cheaper. I've placed a couple of orders with DDDHouse that have 50 DVDs or more and he gave me prices like 40hkd was 30hkd, 78hkd was 60hkd and so on. DVDShelf can't compete with those prices even with free shipping. DVDShelf is good though and sometimes they have good deals. Plus, they sometimes have a hard-to-find item. So far I've only placed orders of 5 DVDs with them to maximize their lowest shipping option. My beef with DVDShelf is that if they are out of stock on something and it's not reflected on the site, they won't inform you about it, they'll just ship your order incomplete. For me, that was bad because the one thing I wanted was out of stock and the other items that ended up coming were just items I only kinda wanted and were basically just filler to maximize my shipping charge. So far, I've done price comparisons on half my orders from HK between DDDHouse, DVDShelf, HiViZone Sensasian and Yesasia... DDDHouse always comes out the cheapest for me. I mean - 45hkd isn't alot of money, but whatever.

Ok, since this has developed (seemingly) into a price comparison session, I will wade in with my last two DVDShelf orders:

===================
Order 1.
The Eye $74 (DDDHouse $85)
Spirited Away $132 (DDDHouse $156)
Calmi Cuori Appassionati $49 (DDDHouse $60)
Senrigan $54 (DDDHouse - not listed on their site)

Total with Shipping (courier - trackable) $417 (DDDHouse, registered - not trackable $371)

Result... DVDShelf cheaper considering DDDHouse don't carry the Japanese film Senrigan

Order 2.
Happiness of the Katikuris $62 (DDDHouse $80)
Dark Water $64 (DDDHouse $70)
Brotherhood of the Wolf $95 (DDDHouse $115)
Samsara $50 (DDDHouse $70)
Man Who Wasn't There $60 (DDDHouse $70)

Total with Shipping (courier - trackable) $466 (DDDHouse, registered - not trackable $510)
===================

As you can see (and these are not particularly special orders), even orders of just 4 or 5 DVDs are not necessarily going to be cheaper from DDDHouse. DVDShelf may charge higher shipping rates, but the discounts more than compensate for that - particularly when you consider you end up paying less for your delivered order and have the added security of being able to track the order.

So please, before you try to turn this thread into a DVDShelf vs DDDHouse is cheaper thing, check the facts and remember that most regular punters don't order 40 or 50 DVDs at a time, so the additional discounts offered on those kinds of orders are hardly worth discussing.

regards, Tim...

Not to highjack the thread, but DDD isn't listing Senrigan as it doesn't have subtitles. Shame on lazy etailers for not verifying their information. At least DDD is good in this respect...I had emailed Johnny about it and very soon after he sought to verify this information with the publisher. Now how many etailers will do that?

Personally, I prefer to pay a few extra dollars and buy locally...better service, and best of all no floaters

Hardtack - your calculations don't fly either...

I placed 5 random DVDs in my cart at both DDD and DVDShelf and DVDShelf came out to 10HKD more. I use the bottom shipping option for DDDHouse because I'm a returning customer. Most of my DDDHouse orders are for more than 15 DVDs usually anyway. Look - you don't have to order from DDDHouse ever. That's fine. I can tell you that I've saved at least a hundred US Dollars in 2 orders using DDDHouse instead of DVDShelf. DVDShelf indeed has cheaper prices on most stuff though, I'll give you that. If you can maximize the shipping with DVDShelf, it comes out roughly the same. Whichever you prefer. Like I said - I prefer ordering from DDD cuz I'm fickle and I'll add or remove DVDs at the last minute before he ships and he doesn't gripe about it at all (regardless of whether or not he thinks I'm annoying)... DVDShelf has screwed me a few times by listing items as in stock so I order them only to have them not come and my once maximized shipping is no longer maximized and it ends up costing me the price of a DVD in shipping costs over what I would've had to pay at DDDHouse. I like both shops alot - they're my 2 favorite HK dealers... I just think you're trying a little too hard to prove to everyone how DDDHouse sucks.

Just to show you I wasn't cheating...

DDDHouse:

The Chinese Feast - DVD $25.00
Fake Emperor - DVD $25.00
The Anarchists - DVD $70.00
Indian Summer - DVD $68.00
Crossroads (dts) - DVD $60.00

SHIPPING: $ 80.00

TOTAL: HK$ 328.00

DVDShelf:

Crossroads [DVD] HK$ 48 X 1
Indian Summer [DVD] HK$ 55 X 1
Anarchists, The [DVD] HK$ 54 X 1
Fake Emperor [DVD] HK$ 18 X 1
Chinese Feast, The [DVD] HK$ 18 X 1

Shipping for 1-5 DVDs = HK$ 145 (cheapest)

Total = HK$ 338

Difference in US Dollars:
DVDShelf = $43.33
DDDHaus = $42.05
Difference = $Big Whoop

DVDShelf is clearly much cheaper on the DVDs, but prohibitively expensive on the shipping. My guess is that you were unfair to DDDHouse by picking their expensive shipping option for new customers ordering fewer than 15 (my first order with them was for 6 DVDs and I got the cheap shipping price). Imagine the difference if you were just ordering one or two or even three DVDs. Overall the differences are like pocket change anyway since 10HKD is only a little more than a buck - and what can you do with a buck these days besides get all your calls up to 20 minutes?

Well, I've pretty much used DDDHouse exclusively but with all the DVDShelf postings I thought I'd try DVDshelf because I wanted a couple things that DDDHouse didn't have: City War and Nang Nak.
I placed my order Saturday night. As of Mon. a.m. City War, Magnificent Warriors, and Longest Nite are a keeping status of 1.
Chinese Odyssey 2002, From the Queen to the Chief Executive, Nang Nak and The Eye are a keeping status of 0.
I'm curious to see, when I receive package:
-How long from order to opening package
-Final cost
-How many actually shipped
Joel

Tuesday.
Received e-mail saying that everything has shipped UPS except Nang Nak (one of the two discs that drew me to DVDShelf).

Yeah, I agree that inability to control what they ship is a huge turn off. Joelgee, just a suggestion: do not wait until they ship. Check your order online regularly and request shipping ajustment for the dvds they stroke out. Worked for me, though YMMV, of course.

Has anybody actually tried to ask DVDshelf to check availability before ordering?

Trigger,

For your information, I was not being unfair to DDDHouse at all. I was taking the default shipping that was displayed in my Shopping Cart when selecting the USA, Australia etc shipping option... it came to $105 for the 5 DVDs. I am in Australia and the shipping charge for 5 DVDs at DVDShelf (courier option) is $135. Had I known about and taken your cheaper $80 shipping for 5 DVDs, then it still would have been $485 (DDDHouse) vs $466 (DVDShelf). As you say on the face of it Difference = $Big Whoop, but over a number of orders and with the added security of tracking on the order, to me that difference becomes important.

This thread was starting to discuss costs and I decided to offer a comparison on my last two orders... no trickery involved at all.

You accuse me of trying a little hard to prove that DDDHouse sucks. That's fine, but by the same token I would contend that you are being a little too precious where DDDHouse is concerned.

Had you stopped to think that maybe those of us who have had negative experiences with DDDHouse might be just a little down on them because of the way they chose to deal with us? It strikes me that DDDHouse are fine while things are going smoothly and I am sure that their customer service is as good as you all say, but it seems that as soon as things go awry (in my experience at least) their demeanour becomes less than friendly.

I read all of these comments about DDDHouse being a one man operation, or DDDHouse being the big kid on the block, but to me that all counts for nought - if I am dealing with a business, I want that business to treat me with respect... it is called professionalism. If they hadn't come at me 4 months after a refund was made (cleared only after HK Post and Australia Post investigations were supposedly made) and attempted to re-apply the charge to my credit card, you would not have heard a peep from me in this thread... however they did and, as they say, the rest is history

regards, Tim...

So are you saying that DDDHouse was established to service only International clients? Why on earth wouldn't they carry it if it doesn't have English subs but does have Chinese subs?

My wife happens to be from Japan so we have no need for English subtitles, although from a personal point of view it would be nice, but is not important.

regards, Tim...