I placed my first foreign DVD order, Mei Ah's all-region PTU and Tartan's region 2 Infernal Affairs. I got e-mails saying the'd be shipped separately and I wouldn't be charged for shipping. They arrived something like 4 or 5 days later (I wasn't in a rush so I didn't keep track of the exact amount of time). Both the Tartan and Mei Ah packages included nice slipcases. I'm very happy with my purchase and I'd order from CDWow again.

i also would like to order from this site, but i'm having one problem...i can't view the items in my cart. i've added eight dvds, the popup comes on the screen letting me know i've selected a non R1 dvd, i click 'continue', and there's no icon to view my cart or to checkout. i'm using safari on a Mac OS 10.3. any help would be appreciated.

I still have yet to order from them, but I've heard lots of good things.

There's another thread regarding the changes yesasia made for their Canadian shipping, making alot of Canadian customers seek alternatives. Funny thing is literally seconds before reading this thread, I just made first order with cd-wow (Danny the Dog SE). I'll be sure to post my experiences here.

Be sure to check the dvdtalk $2 coupon too.

Cheers,
Jason

yes theyre a good company. seems theyre a bit like yesasia who ship from within your home country (thats why they ask for it) as they actually have many bases to post stuff out from, so in the UK things usually arrive in exactly 2 days... theres also the 'cheapest price finder' here : http://www.consol.be/cdwow/ - stick the product code / number in and find slightly better prices ('seven swords' for $15, which is about £3 cheaper than if you simply go to cd-wow.com and stick the title in the search engine) which is even more useful than any of the coupons put in forums a lot of the time...

Hey Josh. I'm right next door to you in Marlboro. Cheers!!

I've used CDWow a couple of times without any problem. I'm an avid importer, so they are in the mix with a great many other vendor sites. What distinguishes them from some others .. is that, when they do have the availability, they also can have decent pricing. Considering (as Logboy mentioned) they ship stateside, you usually don't get too knocked around after the initial DVD sale price ..with shipping charges .. as some sites do.

Welcome to the boards!

Question for you who have used CDWOW.

I placed an order last night for the three Infernal Affairs DVD's, and thismorning I received a full refund for my payment with no explanation.

Is this typically how they handle out of stock situations? A little off-putting.

Thanks for any replies.

yes, its typical - there must be some reason for it, but they do it all the time.

Hmmm. That's a shame. Well one less vendor to deal with.

Thanks for the info!

you'd have nobody left if you kept doing that... nobody's perfect

Hasn't happened to me and I order from them a lot. First I've heard of it actually.

Well perfect is a bit subjective when to comes to vendors isn't it?

They say first impressions are everything....

I've never had a vendor cancel an order like that with no explanation. I shouldn't have to chase them down to find out why. It should be noted in the email or on my account.

Just poor customer service.

We'll, that's your experience.

To me, they are better than the average. Their response to my email is always fast. I got many good deals by using their service. It's my top choice to order non-R1 DVDs.

Hey I know they have a fan club around here. I can appreciate that a lot of you have good experiences.

I just wanted to note that, as stated by another, they are not perfect. The bad shoudl be noted with the good.

I guess my question is, does anyone think the practice of cancelling an order with no explanation is acceptable? And honestly, if it was your first try with the vendor, what would you think of them?

I've purchased from the a few times with satisfactory results except for my last order around January of this year. I ordered "One Missed Call (DTS-ES)" what I received was a DVD-5 of "One Missed Call" with no DTS track, only a DD5.1 track. I wrote to their [email protected] address, quoting their confirmation email for the original order and explained the situation. I got no response, and having more important things to do, I let it slide. But I won't be ordering from them again either.

yeah-be glad they instantly refund obviously they are out of stock and dont forsee any more of an item coming in soon.-some wait 2 weeks or more-or dont bother to refund at all*. I give these guys 8 out of 10 stars (sometime their inventory is a little sparse)
Once I had a defective DVD, emailed them about it, and *before I even got around to mailing it back to them*- a NEW one showed up at my doorstep-5-6 days later!
And they gave me full credit for postage back to them.
Heres the clincher- I mailed it back to them with simply my name and return address on the package-assuming they were a small operation and it would all go well;

Well, it turned out that they really needed to have the order number included-a month went by and no word-and no charge for the "lost" disc on my credit card;
Then one day an email stating they found it and they issued my $4 postage credit-which I was able to use on the "secret" page-even though it has been noted that orders can be cancelled that way if you try to do that.
So all I can say is that Ive had good luck with them-they apparantly are a big outfit
with internet stores for much of the EU-ie: CDwow France etc. as well as an Asian operation.

I, being frugal, bought the UK 2 disc TITANIC from them at a great price-I was so swept up in the Titanic hysteria, and reading about how cool the 4 disc box was, that I wrote them, and they said I could return it (as long as it was in good condition,) for full credit (minus postage) towards the deluxe version-I came to my senses and passed it up, however.
And then theres the "secret" page-listed above-I got the German DONNIE DARKO SE TIN for a whopping.........FIFTEEN DOLLARS!-if you look around, youll see it going for much more than that. And those pricey new MOODY BLUES SACDs-$18, most places $25-35.
They are prompt, friendly and give you the benefit of the doubt.
Proof that capitalism can work to the benefit of BOTH sides.

after watching the DVDSOON* debacle, I am at this point in time quiet happy with them. THOSE SOBs have the nerve to still send me email about their 'wonderful' sales-even though I lost $15 to them, in their so-called "reorganization"

As for mistakes-they are human.
I know I sound like a raving lunatic PR man for them, and should knock on wood-but so far-so good.

For the Mac guy-your basket contents show up in the upper right hand corner.

This usually happens if you use a coupon-link AND a voucher at the same time.

I agree that this is not an out of stock problem.
You have misused a discount coupon with a discount link.

I use CD-WOW all the time and can tell you they are totally reliable (if you don't try to rip them off)

No coupons were involved. No line was involved. I went directly to their domain by typing the address.

Remember this was my first time with them. I don't even know where to get coupons for them.

I'm starting to think it had something to do with their billing address form.
It's really vague for US customers. There are like 4 address lines, then a "County / State" line, then a post code line. I put my City and State on the "County/ State". Not sure if that was an issue. They definitely need to do something about that interface. Maybe something like having a custom form based on what country you pick.

Either way, it still doesn't excuse the no explanation issue.

Now for those who are skimming, let me say this:

I am not bashing CDWOW. For those who love them, maybe it seems that way. I am just relating my personal experience.

Thankfully, I was able to get the DVD's I wanted from a US seller for the same price. So I guess it's moot now.

Sincere thanks to everyone for their feedback.