OliverB

I've been a loyal customer for the past many, many years, ordering almost exclusively through DVDPlanet since the Digital Eyes days and spending thousands of dollars a year through this E-tailer, even holding past accounts with previous email addresses practically since the launch of the site. As of today, I will NEVER place another order with them again!

Last month I spent about $300 on catalog titles and box sets with two separate orders. About a week later, I received an email indicating that one of the two orders was declined as my credit card showed insufficient funds. It turns out that I had simply exceeded my usual purchase costs which raised a red flag with Visa (I had purchased airfare and a new refrigerator both on the same day) and so they placed a block on my card pending my contacting them. No problem, all straightened out.

So I again refer to this email from DVDPlanet stating that order #xxxxxxx in the amount of approx. $200 was canceled and they apologize. Fine, knowing the cause of this I simply went back to their website and replaced the entire order...

Not even 4 hours later, I receive yet another automated email indicating that my order has shipped out and would be received shortly... odd that it would process so quickly. I look at the order number again, and sure enough it's the same number as the canceled order.

I immediately call up DVDPlanet and speak with a service agent who explains that it wasn't the entire order that was canceled, just a single DVD for all of $12. Why then would they send me an email stating that order #xxxxxxx was cancelled?!? Why would they not simply contact me directly as any thorough customer service procedure should apply, to inform me of the issue at hand. That said, I was ASSURED beyond doubt that they had just contacted their warehouse and the order would NOT ship out, nor would I be charged.

Fine, a bit frustrating but these things happen I guess. Time to move on...

A week passes and I receive one of my orders. Half of the contents of the package are completely destroyed due to poor packaging and getting tossed around in transit. Two of my John Ford box sets look as though they've been put through a compressor. They were gifts for a family member's birthday, so I'm not too thrilled. I call up DVDPlanet and explain the situation and am told I need to return the items but if I'm to expect any reimbursement on return shipping costs, they need to be sent standard postage. So that's two weeks before I get a refund processed and so much for this person's birthday gift. Not too happy... but fine.

A couple of days pass and I receive a pickup notice from Canada Post informing me of a package being held at one of their outlets. eBay I figure, okay. I leave work 15 mins. earlier than usual and head down to stand in line at the post office during weekday rush hour. Finally get to the counter -- $30 in customs fees, arrgh! I pay the costs and head home expecting to open up this parcel and find a pair of vintage trousers from an eBay seller... wrong!

Sure enough, the order which I didn't intend to place int eh first place and which I was ASSURED would not process or ship out was staring me right int he face! I'd just left work early and spent forty minutes at the post office and was really pissed off!

I called up DVD Planet and got a manager on the phone. Explained that I'd been a customer for the past eight years and how ordering online was supposed to be a convenience; How the service I've received with this entire order was abysmal - relaying my frustration over the whole mess. He was very kind and apologised profusely saying that they would EXCHANGE the damaged goods as soon as they were received, and if I wanted to simply fax over receipts of the shipping charges and customs charges, I would not have to wait to be reimbursed for the second shipment, they would issue a refund right away.

He was a gentleman and dealt with me very professionally, acknowledging their screw-up and insisting on correcting the situation, even offering the incentive of some sort of coupon or discount code. Okay, so service was a little less than competant but at least things are being resolved.

Well I've since faxed over the receipts at LEAST 3/4 times and have yet to receive any reimbursement on those customs or return shipping charges. I was refunded for the damaged goods (to my Visa card) rather than have them exchanged which is what I had requested and expected initially, and even than the initial shipping cost (0.75/disc x 10 = 7.50) was not applied.

For the order that was sent out twice unwittingly, I'd received NOTHING!

So for the past two weeks I'd been calling up every few days (probably 3 times total) to speak with customer service for status updates on the refund. I was initially told that it would be refunded to my credit card. Now this is where things get complicated...

I had paid for the second order via PayPal, the first through my credit card directly. Both orders were for the exact same goods. I was TOLD and it was communicated to me CLEARLY over the telephone that I would be credited via my card. Why does this matter, you might be wondering?

Because I am having a major issue with PayPal which is above and beyond all of this and is really neither here, nor there inr egards to DVDPlanet. I'd sold an item on eBay recently, the seller had confirmed receipt of this item. Weeks later, I received a chargeback and PayPal withdrew money from my account ($200) to reimburse the seller. There was no dispute regarding the item itself (some rare hardcover books) - this person simply claimed that it was never received and PayPal without conducting any sort of investigation decided to withdraw money from my acount to pay back the buyer, leaving me with a negative balance and thus my acount closed. Again, neither here nor there. I was aware of this and had been dealing with PayPal and in fact, sent off a registered letter from an attorney just last week.

All this to say, I was OBVIOUSLY not accepting any payments through a defunct PayPal account!

I'm no idiot... if this was the route that DVDPlanet were to take, I would have said, forget it and issue me an exchange or store credit! Why would I have money returned to a place where it can never be retrieved or would not reach me??

That's not the problem though... the issue is the same as has been since the order was first placed last month and that is the lack of competance, communication, follow through and service with the many agents that I've dealt with at the company! Each time I've called up I've gotten different feedbakc and responses to the situationa nd actions reflecting none of this!!!

While I was told that the payment would be refunded to my CREDIT CARD (fair enough, I acknowledge that the service rep might have just assumed that it was the initial means of payment without thoroughly looking into the matter, but none the less, am I to blame??) it was instead returned to a non-existant PayPal acount!

I was fuming mad as I've called up at least twice int he past two weeks in regards tot his supposed refund and was told to check my statements in the next few days as it can sometimes take a couple of days to post and there can be a lag between the time it processes and appears. Obiosuly this was NOT in referance to PayPal. So nobody had communicated to me any useful information and as a result I've lost nearly $200 on this stupid order WHICH I WAS ASSURED AND PROMISED WOULD NOT BE CHARGED OR SHIPPED TO BEGIN WITH!!! I did not intend nor authorize the processing of this order, in fact, just the opposite! Yet despite this DVDPlanet sent it out anyways. I've not yet received any refund for the customs or return shipping costs, though I'm told this will happen by the end of the day... we'll see!

And in speaking with Christinna, a supervisor who refused to inform me of how or when I could reach the company manager about this issue, I was treated with complete lack of courtesy and I felt as if I were nothing more than an order number in their system with curtly conveyed responses straight out of a handbook. They refused to do anything about the PayPal issue, offering only to give me PayPal's telephone number... big thanks, that'll do a lot!

They are entirely responsible as far as I'm concerned, for an order that was never intended to be placed and brought upon by their own bloody incompetance in sending out impersonal automated email messages with complete misinformation. And despite communicating a means of refund which I'll admit, might not have been recognized by the service agent as the original method of payment, it is still THEIR sole obligation and responsibility to offer their customers accurate information and facts. There was not a single conversation held with any one person for each time that I've called, in which this was the case. For each representative that I'd spoken with, I'd received different responses and a company which seemed entirely disconnected with their actions from any of the information relayed over the telephone or discussions I'd engaged!


Yet Christinna, a manager who spoke with me this morning, refused to ackowledge this, nor offer even a single apology throughout the conversation for the service I've received or the way my multiple orders have been mismanaged, and despite being told they would exchange the damaged items and refund the second order to my credit card, they did neither and screwed things up worse than could possibly be conceived for the simplicity of placing an order for DVD online.

I've expressed to her that I would never be returning to their webnsite againa nd they just lost a loyal customer of 8 years. No response, sympathy or anything offered. I guess we're just disposable income for this retailer. One would assume that for the sum US $180, after the amount of times the company had screwed up this order (by even PLACING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE after stating they would not) you would think any honorable retailer would simply eat the cost and offer me the equivalent in store credit. Nope!

I guess the customer is not always right... even when the company charges and ships out the same order twice after promising they wouldn't, issuing refunds in place of exchanges, poorly packaging items to arrive in damaged condition, promising reimbursements on customs and return costs which have yet to be honored, and then above all refunding money via a route that was not as communicated for if it would have been, I would have demanded otherwise!

DVDPlanet as far as I'm concerned, is not the same company it once was and at least in my most recent dealings, suffers from terrible management with no thought towards customers like myself who have supported it's enterprise since the earliest days. It's a shame that it comes to bitter posts like such on a messagebard, but I feel I must express my outrage towards the way I've been treated. I will NEVER buy from DVDPlanet again. I'm placing pre-orders for the latest Sony/Columbia sets through Amazon.com this afternoon.

PS - if anyone from DVDPlanet in management or service happens to read this and would like to contact me, they can do so at [email protected]

Signed,
An angry and displeased customer.

OmahaStar

K, and you want us to do what about it? The situation started wrong on your end, with your issues with Visa, and went downhill from there. You ordered the same merchandise twice, and now you're here complaining. What, exactly, are we supposed to be able to do for you?

Groucho

I just used that wall of text as part of the foundation in the house I'm building.

Cardsfan111

I must admit I did read about half of the OP, then noticed I had another 10 minutes ahead of me and gave up.

I can't think of a time when I've been a regular customer of someplace that long, only to write off a retailer because of a single bad experience.

Groucho

My dad went to the same donut shop and bought two dozen donuts once a week for years. One day, he went in and tried to split his purchase between cash and check for some reason. They wouldn't do it, and he never went back.

DirkUSA

Sorry, but your post is way too long. I understand your frustration but, way, way too much to read. Please post a warning in the thread title next time, "Not save for work, will take all day"

RonG617

No compassion for the new guy.

Gizmo

Unless its a dating story by DarkestPhoenix...I won't read that much.

dvd-4-life

If you don't like DVD Planet then order thru Amazon using free shipping and that way they will hold your order for a month.

islandclaws

Hmmmm... needs more bold. Now my brain hurts.

kefrank

I'm not going to bother reading all of that text. I will say that I've had multiple bad experiences with dvdplanet and don't plan on ordering from them again. I don't really need to with other online retailers like Amazon offering solid deals and much better service.

ElementZ

He isn't new.

Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 32

JoeySeven

Thanks for the reminder.Off to search for DarkestPhoenix post to see if he got any pudding.

also I felt OliverB rage just reading the first part of his book..:-)
I'm sure you know,but alot of these online stores higher any Joeblow off the street.

OliverB

Prior to all of these issues, I had placed a PRE-ORDER for the Columbia Noir set, and with that, Tex Avery's Droopy Collection, Criterion's Friends of Eddie Coyle and the recently OOP Third Man. All three were showing as in-stock. After my telephone complaints and lengthy arguments with management, I demanded that these orders be cancelled. They were not cancelled. One of the items shipped (Droopy) and so, I bit my tongue and decided that this would be my very last dealings with DVD Planet. Sure enough, all 3 items that were displayed as in-stock at the time of purchasing (Eddie Coyle, Third Man, Columbia Noir) were suddenly backordered and the company could not predict when they would be back in stock (a week? a month?). Moreover, I received an email stating that the Third Man CC was cancelled and could not be shipped out. Nothing more, despite having ALREADY PAID FOR IT! I actually had to write back asking about my money, and made sure to specify that I want to be refunded for the additional shipping costs as well. I just received an email actually asking me for my transaction ID because they are showing that it was refunded. How incompetent can a company get?? I've already paid, and now I have to send them my payment ID for them to confirm. And to top it off, these brainless clods respond saying they "show" that a refund was issued?? How?? When??? Where?? I wish I knew how to contact the actual business owner of this company, since management refuses to divulge the information to me as I'm appalled by this service and lack of customer care. In the past 8 weeks I must have placed four orders and NOT A SINGLE ONE processed correctly! I've dealt with a gazillion issues from items that were not supposed to ship out that did regardless, to refunds that were never issued, to charges that went through unauthroized. I'm a full fledged Amazon convert now and it's a dream to be able to deal with a reputed company that knows what they're doing and offers the kind of customer support that one would expect when purchasing online. I only wish I could somehow transfer the many thousands of dollars I've spent over the years into their account instead!

OliverB

It did not start wrong on MY end!

I received an email stating that an entire order of numerous box sets was cancelled when it was NOT!

I replaced that order on the basis of said email. I then received confirmation that the initial order had shipped.

I called to inquire and was told the entire order was not cancelled, just a single disc budget DVD. I had spent hundreds of dollars on this order. It was a $12 DVD that was cancelled, yet the email cited the order number and specifically details the entire ORDER as having been cancelled.

I made it very clear that I am not authorizing the RE-order and want it cancelled immediately. I was put on hold while the warehouse was contacted and informed not to process or ship. I was assured that such would be the case. I was told it was cancelled.

I was charged anyways and the order shipped, sure enough! Not expecting it to arrive after I was assured it would not, I went out of my way to retrieve an expensive parcel from the post office int he middle of my busy day, paid customs on their error, etc.

I than had to ship the order back, at my expense. I was told by one manager I would be compensated with store credit/coupons and for the inconvenience was apologized to sincerely. It was appreciated and I took a chance again with another order. The contents of which arrived completely destroyed due to an utter lack of thought and care in packaging. Expensive box sets tossed into a large cardboard box with no padding or material to protect against damage in transit. Again, returned at my expense.

Management never made good on any of their promises. I'm still awaiting refunds. On top of which, I was told despite having paid by PayPal that the charges would be reunded to my c.c. I made sure to specify this over the phone (it will be debited to my credit card? yes, sir, in a few days it should post) and it was not. The PayPal accoutn which I'd intiially used for purchase has been closed. I would not have requested a refund to a non-existant account. I would have at the very least asked for store credit. I lost over $200 as a result of their incompetence.

Again, not my fault.

They've consecutively screwed up four or five orders now and were extremely unhelpful and unsympathetic with me over the telephone. Mock the length of my post or whatever if you will, but shop with DVD Planet at your own risk these days. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars there over the years, and would not trust them again.

Ironically, the recorded message that is blasted in your ear while you are put on hold for fifteen minutes when attempting to contact customer service talkes about the convenience of ordering online... "save time, save money, save blablabla..." yeah right!

Save a headache and shop Amazon or Buy.com

OmahaStar

Yeah, it did. If you had used the correct credit card, or, ya know, paid your bill, none of this would have ever happened. You are an incompetent nincompoop, and you're blaming DVD Planet for your own ineptitude.

DVD Planet did not fuck up. You did. Visa put a block on your purchases because of you, not because of DVD Planet. You're blaming someone else, when the person who is solely to blame is YOU.

You will get no sympathy here. It's your own damned fault. And in case you missed it, because I know I'm being really subtle here - YOU FUCKED UP, NOT THEM. GROW UP AND STOP BLAMING OTHERS FOR YOUR MISTAKES.

OliverB

Hey idiot, it was an order exceeding US $250... the charge declined was $12. And no fault of my own. The company sent me an emailing falsely stating that the entire order was cancelled when it clearly wasn't (as it processed and shipped despite this and w/o authorization). This is not even the prime issue nor my contention with the company, but I'm not sure why I should bother wasting time convincing a stranger on the internet. Judging by your response, you're obviously a typical teenage messageboard dolt and I have no further patience to exert towards you or DVDPlanet. They cannot handle the simple process of accepting orders online w/o bungling every aspect of the task. Their service sucks and their customer service is entirely lacking. To all else who might have read my experiences and considered purchases, do so with caution at your own risk.

PS - I realize now why I've only accumulated a handful of posts in the nearly 5 years that I've been registered...

DirkUSA

I don't think the name calling is necessary. I hope you won't have trouble with amazon, people who complain too much and/or have too many returns end up getting their account canceled and put on a blacklist by amazon. There is plenty of info about that all over the net.

TimeandTide

I'm pretty sure that if the retailer screwed you out of almost $200 you'd write them off.

And at people complaining about the length of the post.

Oh, and...

People actually say that?

Cardsfan111

I didn't realize they screwed him out of any money. After not making through the long OP, I just figured the thread title summarized it for me.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

We thank you for that.

benedict

I'll admit that I'm slightly confused as to some of the chronology here; particularly where you (re)placed a DVDPlanet order using Paypal "last month" but within a very short space of time then seemed to be in dispute with Paypal about an unconnected chargeback leading to you having a negative Paypal balance and so not wanting any refunded monies to be paid into that account.

Regardless of the above, I cannot recall ever hearing of a refund being made to a credit card other than the one from which payment was originally charged. Had it been suggested to me that this was in prospect, I would have queried it immediately. There is no merit in being technically correct in interpreting what DVDPlanet told you if the result of their contrary actions is that you are out of pocket. Better to doublecheck at the time.

Moving on, if you get to the point of telling an organisation that you'll never be buying from them again, I think you've pretty much lost all of your bargaining power. Better to act as if you want to keep the relationship going and to dump them only after matters have been resolved. Or even stay with them, if they prove that they can rectify mistakes. This said, it is somewhat surprising, given the sequence of events described, that there was any hesitation in cancelling those three outstanding back orders using the process explained in the DVDPlanet FAQ.

And, while not wanting to get in the way of a good story, surely when you picked up that package from Canada Post it was clear from the labelling - and maybe even the feel of it - that the package did not originate from an eBay seller and did not contain vintage jeans....?

From what you have described, you appear to have experienced a run of exceedingly bad luck. However, maybe options remain open to you to resolve the situation without suffering any financial loss e.g. can you initiate any kind of disputes process with your credit card company regarding the extra postage costs you incurred in respect of the returned damaged goods? Even without a management address, can you put things in writing, asking why X, Y & Z happened and set out where/why you think they owe you goods or monies?

OmahaStar

Because your attention whore "Look at me!" threads don't work the way you want, so you go off and pout for awhile before coming back and posting another "Look at me!" thread?

BackStJoe

Well I placed my first order with them in a long time...updated my credit card info, and they cancelled my order too.

No explanation, and my emails asking for clarification keep bouncing back.

Sometimes you try and do the right thing and go with the little guy, but I think I'll be supporting the big guys who don't pull this crap a bit more.

naitram

I'm not reading that essay the OP posted, but if it had anything to do with DVDP claiming your credit card was declined when it shouldn't have been, it's happened to me too. Usually during one of their sales. The place has a shitty website and questionable billing practices, I've all but stopped using them.

Who cares really, their prices are horrible.