The Part II thread was definitely getting too long. The original thread can be found <a href=http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=76222>here</a>.


DDDHouse has a Weekly Cheap Sale section on their site at http://www.dddhouse.com. This week's DVD specials are all running for $30HK (about $3.88US) except where noted:

(new list as of 08/14/01)
God of Gamblers II
In The Lap of God
Winners and Sinners
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Iceman Cometh


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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Where is DDDHouse?
A. DDDHouse is based out of Hong Kong. Same with Hivizone, DVDShelf, 3D Express, Itchee, Coolashop, and HKMovie.

Q. Is this a fly-by-night operation, or is it legit?
A. DDDHouse has been around almost 1 year. However, I've ordered at least 7 times from them, well over 175 DVDs and CDs so they are definitely legitimate. Hivizone has probably been around the longest, of all the HK-based Internet retailers, they've been around at least 3 years.

Q. What are DDDHouse's shipping charges to North America?
A.
First Timer (all rates in HK Dollars):
1 $30
2 $50
3 $70
4 $90
5 $105
6 $120
7 $135
8 $150
9 $160
10 $170
and $10HK more for each additional one up to 100 pieces. Don't try to order more than 100 DVDs, the shipping rate goes haywire.

Repeat Customer (their definition says a person who has ordered more than 15 DVD/VCDs on a previous occasion, but I'm not sure how strict this definition is, you may be able to use it the first time..)(all rates in HK Dollars):
1 $30
2 $50
3 $60
4 $70
5 $80
6 $90
7 $100
8 $110
9 $118
10 $126
and $8HK more for each additional one up to 100 pieces. Don't try to order more than 100 DVDs, the shipping rate goes haywire.

Q. How long to reach the U.S.?
A. The key question is when is the order shipped, not when it is placed. Long wait times usually are due to an item(s) not in inventory at the time that the order is placed. Once it is shipped it takes around 5-7 days to reach North America by Hong Kong Registered Mail, which is what DDDHouse generally uses. Speedpost is available upon request and costs somewhat more, but will reach the U.S. in around 2 days, maybe 3. Usually DDDHouse will notify when an order is shipped, though not always. Also, there is also the customs factor - depending on how large the order is, the package may get stuck in customs.

Q. The shopping cart doesn't hold my items when I am about to order. Why?
A. This error is reproducable if you use http://dddhouse.com instead of http://www.dddhouse.com which is quite interesting. Make sure you include the http://www. in your URL. Definitely a problem with Netscape 4.7 and IE 5.5. Thanks to no_creativity for this find.

Q. What is their return policy?
A. From their site:

Defected :
If goods are damaged or found defected during mailing, customers must notify us by e-mail or bring along the goods to our office for exchange of the same within 14 days. For oversea customers can send back the goods by regular air mail for exchange the same items.

Refund Service :
Refund is only subjected to the shortage of stock which cannot be delivered on time or the postal delay the date is based on the post office chop, however, any unfore seen circumstance like postal strike is not valid. The refund will be only returned to the credit card account of customers.

I've had to return a DVD to DDDHouse. The procedure was quite simple. I put the disc only into a regular non-padded envelope and sent it back. Cost was 80 cents from California to Hong Kong by first class mail. Got there in a week, then got the replacement disc back (in a padded envelope) a week later after that.

Q. How is their customer service?
A. Absolutely the best of all the HK retailers, and possibly of any DVD retailer I've ever dealt with. All my questions via email get answered within 24 hours at the most. Many people including myself have gotten phone calls from Johnny for order clarifications and 'did you know' type of stuff.

Q. Are HK DVDs playable in the U.S.?
A. Yes, virtually all Hong Kong movie DVDs are region-free. There used to be one or two that weren't (Swordsmen comes to mind) but this has been fixed now. Same with Japanese movies from HK retailers such as DDDHouse. However, U.S. movies for the most part are Region 3, so unless you have a region-free player, you won't be able to play these DVDs. But if you had a region-free player, you wouldn't be asking this question, would you?

Q. Do all these movies have subtitles?
A. Most do, and 80% of the DVDs have removable subtitles as well. <a href=http://www.asiandvdguide.com>The Asian DVD Guide</a> is the best reference.

Q. Where can I get movie reviews of HK movies?
A. The first place to start is at <a href=http://www.hkmdb.com>The Hong Kong Movie Database</a>. Other good sites include:

<a href=http://www.brns.com>Hong Kong Cinema-View from the Brooklyn Bridge</a>
<a href=http://www.kowloonside.com>Another Hong Kong Movie Page</a>
<a href=http://www.dianying.com/en/>Chinese Movie Database</a>
<a href=http://www.imdb.com>Internet Movie Database</a>

Only Fools Fall in Love is quite a fun movie. Lau Ching-Wan is in a different type of role, he's a mogul turned embicile turned mogul. Yuen Wah does some great acrobatics in this movie.

It's a Mad Mad Mad World is Lunar New Year light fare, big box office when it came out 12 years ago.

I just completed my first order with DDDhouse, can you believe it took me this long? I have been using HIVIZONE, PokerIndustries, and going to NYC Chinatown to get my HK DVD fix. My first order was:

(1) Justice My Foot - Stephen Chow
(2) Royal Tramps (Megastar) - Stephen Chow
(3) Royal Tramps 2 (Megastar) - Stephen Chow
(4) A Chinese Odyssey 1 - Stephen Chow
(5) A Chinese Odyssey 2 - Stephen Chow
(6) Forbidden City Cop - Stephen Chow
(7) Three Swordsmen - Brigette Lin and Andy Lau

Notice a trend. After getting From Beijing With Love, I needed to get other Stephen Chow movies. Hope to add more in the future.

HKDVD

crap...

it will not hold items in my cart after I select shipping...it just dumps them

I'm on a LAN at work behind a proxy server, but I've never had any problems before :confused:

I'm gonna try again from home, but it's still frustrating.

Same thing happened to me when I tried to do it once upon a time when I placed my first order. For some reason, netscape gave me the same problem you are having. But when I used explorer instead, I was able to put as many things in my cart at once as I wanted. So that's what I suggest. If you're already using explorer, then sorry, I don't know what to tell you.

Yeah I love this guy too! He is just do funny!

Thanks for doing that Yellowhammer! :thumbsup:

ridiculous....I'm using IE 5.0 - broken
change to Navigator 4.7 - working fine :confused:

oh well, got my order in and that's what's important :D

Thanks Yellow!

oh yeah...here's a cool currency converter so you know what you're paying :)

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

[Edited by Crizzar on 03-18-01 at 06:03 PM]

Hi, I'm looking to make an order from dddhouse and I have a a couple things I'm wondering.
1. Do you have to make a minimum order of 15 titles on your first order like it says on their site?
2. If a title I want is out of stock, what should I do?
wait till it comes back in stock on their site? order it and hope for the best or what? how long does it ussually take for a title to come back into stock?
Thanks.

James.

Just curious where you saw this? I was getting ready to place an order soon and haven't seen it anywhere.

I saw this when you click on buy and choose shipping options. When you choose North America it says something like order must be over 15 units for 1st order. So, I am wondering if this is true.

James

Hmmm, I never got that far. I guess I'd like to know the answer to that as well. Yellow Hammer or someone, any idea?

TIA!

Relax, you can place orders for less than 15 items. If your order is over 15 (or ever has been) you get cut a break on the shipping.

Hi, thanks for anwsering the 1st part of my question.
Still wondering about the second part.
If a title I want is out of stock, what should I do?
wait till it comes back in stock on their site? order it and hope for the best or what? how long does it ussually take for a title to come back into stock?
Thanks Again.

James.

I can't help you with the second question. I've never ordered one of their out of stock items. I didn't even know you could order an item if it was out of stock.

Just to be safe, you might want to limit your orders to in-stock items.

I suggest you email to Johnny asking him if he knows the out-of-stock item would be available again for ordering.

I wanted to order "Duel to The Death" but it was out of stock. I email and ask him for "Duel to The Death" availability and he replied "the title will be available early next week" and it came back in-stock and I had to wait only a week before placing my first order.

probably a good thing if you weren't able to order duel of death, wasn't particularly a good movie

Hi, 1 more question.
What is customs like when ordering from dddhouse?
I am in Canada.
Do the packages get stopped at the border?
if so, how much do you ussually have to pay for customs?
Thanks in advance.

James.

question
 

do any of the jet li movies ever go on sale?

I'm not Canadian, but I can tell you they do at the US. They probably do in Canada, since most countries with a customs agency inspect packages and people entering the country.

I've never had to pay anything at all to customs here in the US for any DVD/VCD import. Check your Canadian laws first, though.

Re: question
 

Sure, but they're pretty cheap to begin with.

Re: Re: question
 

Really? I've never noticed any sales other than the Weakly Cheap Sale. Are there other sales? If so, where do you look for them? I thought the movies on their start pages were just new releases. Do they mix in old titles on sale?

For the dude asking about ordering from Canada. I am in Canada and I find my orders from Hong Kong arrive farily quickly (usually faster than from the US). Usually around 2 - 21/2 weeks for delivery (unless its bakordered). I find customs like a gamble. I got his maybe once out of every four or five orders. And usually those orders very pretty big. I haven't gotten hit when I limit my orders to 4-5 dvds.

Re: Re: Re: question
 

You need to explore the page more and look at the prices in the individual sections. The Cheap Weekly Sale is like a discount bin, prices do fluctuate elsewhere on the site.

But, when you look at the Jet Li' DVD's, and see that most of them cost $8 to $13 US, I call that a good deal, whether it's "On Sale" or not. Only his OUATIC titles are in the $26 range.

Canada:

Incoming international packages declared as "merchandise" get taxed/dutied (not to mention a BS CanPost handling fee) if the value is over CDN $20. Packages declared as "gifts" get taxed/dutied if value is over CDN$60. Anything not declared as gift is considered merchandise.

DDDhouse is very responsive to any special requests you might have.

Now put 2 & 2 together. ;)