AkMedic

As with Dvd Express, it now seems DDD and DvdPlanet are crapping out. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a decent site with similar pricing, other than Ebay, Amazon etc.

mookiemeister

Why do you say DDD and DVDPlanet are 'crapping out'? I ordered from them frequently in the past, and have no problem with either one except occasional glitches that they fix pretty quickly.

Another place to check out is half.com. Sometimes they have good prices.

dvde

The reason these companies aren't doing well boils down to one thing, the profit margin. The profit margin is nothing. What's ironic is that these company's did it to themselves by giving to much off the retail price in order to capture a good market share. Now that 25-30% off retail is the standard, nobody can change what percent off they give or they will loose their customer base.

AkMedic

I have had nothing but problems with both places within the last two months. DDD is just slow, but DVDplanet is even worse. They have charged me and then not sent items, have not sent out pre orders, have not returned emails (can't call right now, I'm 100 miles from no where and will be for another month) and even though they had some form of an upgrade, they seem to still be in complete disorder. Which actually stinks, because I liked DVDPlanet.

lesterlong

I've had no problems at all with DDD.

AkMedic

I've just foudn their shipping is slow. In reality I probably will still order from them, allthough the other thread in the hedding is making me a bit leary.

DrS

DDD may be overwhelmed with lots of business, and not "crapping out" so much as trying to keep up. I've got lots of orders in with them, and they are churning through them. I'm willing to wait a bit, so I haven't really noticed any slowdown either.

For that matter, I just got three disks today from DVD Planet that I ordered 7/31. Not too bad.

d

AkMedic

I recieved an email from DvdPlanet this morning. They changed my customer number (which must mean anyone with an old account would be the ones having problems, as this "changeover" they did must still be the problem they are having) and stated that I should now recieve my allready ordered dvd within a week. I am still trying to find out if my pre orders with them are valid, so more to come.

AkMedic

Update;

DVDPlanet has now corrected my account and have stated I should have no further problems recieving my dvd orders. I did request about 3 of my preorders to be cancled, and I will elt you know if they honor that. I found that for some of the dvd's I had pre ordered with DVDPlanet, they are significantly cheaper at www.towerrecords.com. However that being said, it does vary and some are cheaper at DvdPlanet. All told, I have Farscape preordered for 8/12/03 from DvdPlanet and I am waiting to see how that order goes, as well as if I recieve my back ordered dvd. That will pretty much determine for me anyhow if I use DvdPlanet again or not.

As far as DDD goes, I will more than likely begin to order from them again and see if my results are better.

Emulator

Have you tried BestPrices yet?

AkMedic

Best prices looked ok, about what I've found elsewhere, but thanks for the link.

DVDPlanet emailed me back today. As everyone suspected, it looks like they have some form of a seperate wharehouse, as I was told to cancel my orders they would have to send the request to the wharehouse. Still, they said when this happens they would let me know, and so once again well see how it goes.

I'll also post again when my pre ordered Farscape ships from them on the 12th. For my sake anyhow I now would like to watermark them and see how long it taks to arrive and also how accurate the order is.

That being said they seem to be trying to fix all of this.

AkMedic

Ok, so they were able to cancel 1 of the 3 pre orders I had. Fair enough.

As stated before, I will see how my next shippment from them goes. I really dislike they way they now have their wharehosue set up, and it may push me to another retailer.

dvde

DVD Planet no longer fulfills their own orders. They actually have the same company that owns DeepDiscountDVD fill their orders from their wharehouse.

AkMedic

That's kind of what I've gathered to...endlessly disapointing.

RonG617

Deep Discount and Digital Eyes are owned by the same company now. So I guess that explains why the paperwork looked so similar from all 3 companies.

dvde

Digital Eyes sold out? I'm kind of shocked about that, because they aren't all that big and I couldn't see a huge company take them over. Maybe Digital Eyes just gets their dvd shipments filled by them. Anybody know more about this?

DrS

See my post on "A Clue, A Clue..." for some more details on DDD, DVD Planet, and Digital Eyes all operating out of Itasca, IL. I don't know much more than that, but wish I did...

d

devilpants

Itasca, IL = Area 51?

RonG617

I know for a fact that Digital Eyes sold to the same company that owns DDD. I sold Digital Eyes a bunch of DVD's while they were moving their operation to Ill. I had a lot of problems with them at the time, so a lot of phone calls. That is when I learned from one of the guys working over there about the sale and the move. I do think they kept many people from the original operation and work semi-independantly from DDD. The gentleman from Digital Eyes who posts on the boards every now and then did say they were not merging, just sharing warehousing and such.

basaro

DDD has been slow lately. I didn't get my Basketball Diaries pre-order until the Monday after it came out, 6 days later. I could've picked it up 3 days before release at Target for cheaper (9.44) too.
Pre-order, YUK!

dvde

What I understand is that they only had a few people working for them. So did they sell to DDD or are they just using them for fulfillment/sharing the warehouse? Your post contradicted itself.

woemcats

People sure are impatient with their free shipping.

RonG617

DDD amd Digital Eyes are owned by the same parent company, but as of now, they still keep seperate operations and web sites, though they are warehousing out of the location. The people at Digital Eyes have insisted that they will not completely merge operations. Just think of it like Viacom, they are the parent company of many networks that are all semi-independent, but still answer to one top boss.

DrS

I'd love to know how they arrange the shelves in the warehouse. Do they have separate areas for each store, or do they have to fish from the same shelf, and if the latter, how do they keep track of who gets what first and what is in stock, etc. Surely a detailed question, but I'd love to know since the pricing and shipping (and disc specialties, etc) for all the Itasca IL stores is different.

AkMedic

My guess was that they have said inventory and that all three stores draw from one large inventory. I can't see how they would do it another way, but you might be right. Either way I'm currently looking for another place to order from (so far Towerrecords.com has done me right).