I think there are two different issues here:
1. Express.com sucks
2. Express.com out-of-business soon

I totally agree with point 1 (see my own experiences): I think they have low stock too boost profitability a bit but my point is that point 2 is based on - I believe - non-verified rumors and it would be a shame if such a rumor is the last push to BECOME out-of-business. Whether you like a store or not:
- think about all the employees
- competition is always good.

That's my 0.02

Express has been having troble for awhile now. I guess they had payment problems with DVD companies, Synapse even refused to sell movies to Express, unless it was paid COD. Definitely a sign of trouble.

Oh well I cancelled my preordered and got 2 instock movies. Order status says ready for shipment. Hope there are no more problems. Also the CSR was being such a b*tch. She didn't see a problem in not having an item in stock 2 weeks after release date even though i had a preorder set up for it months ago with them. She tried to give me an excuse saying that they were doing something with their computer system, so that's why their stock hadn't come in. What a bunch of bull!

More evidence that Express.com's time has come. Straight from the digi-bits website:
Well... those of you who have been having trouble with disc orders from Express.com probably had guessed that the online DVD retailer was having serious financial troubles. Certainly, there have been rumors and reports of financial trouble for months. Now there's some evidence that backs it up... the retailer's DVD.com news site is no more. A couple of weeks ago, most of the staff of DVD.com was laid off, and this week, if you visit DVD.com, the link takes you directly to the Express site. I'm not going to make editorial comments on this, but there you go.

Express.com has been removed from a certain site that offers rebates. It was there a couple of days ago and now its gone.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. They‘ve always been poor as far as I’m concerned, going back to when they cheated me out of loads of price matches after Reel went belly-up. I have always been treated with contempt by their CSRs whenever I had a problem and don’t even get me started on their obscene shipping charges. I’m sorry but I don‘t feel sympathy for anyone there as I did not encounter one decent person in all my dealings with them.

Same here, trying to burn my $25 FREE MOVIE CENTRAL GC and order Rocky & Bulwinkle for the kids, never shipped two weeks after release date. Cancelled and ordered another and used FED EX delivery to burn the entire $25.

Good riddance to bad rubbish? C`mon Jonathan, that is far too extreme an attitude for a moderator to have. Do be a little more objective. They still haven`t announced their bankruptcy yet you and others are talking about how bad a company they are. The dvdnews.com part of their business is just a web news site. It is not their e-commerce section. I suggest everyone get a grip and wait and see what happens.

Fergy, I speak as I find, as everyone should in this forum. In all my dealings with stores on the net, never has one been more overpriced and offering such a poor level of service as Express. There have been too many screw ups and a general level of rudeness that I can be bothered to list them all here (cancelled coupon related orders, lost orders, refusal to honor legit price matches, accusatory CS), suffice it to say I have long regarded them as the poorest e-tailer and for a year now, they’ve been coasting on their rep from before their merge with GameCave - a disastrous error in hindsight (duh!, like all of us here didn’t know that to start off with). I have held this POV for some time now, so the latest news has not changed my attitude one bit - I sincerely think the DVD world will be a better place when they’re gone and we don’t have to put up with their evasiveness toward stock level, delivery charges, financial status and their frankly, insolent customer service.

Moderators are customers (and people!) too :)

Actually their shipping charges weren't so bad, oh except for the 2 disc set counts as 2 dvds rule. But shipping was only $2.50 + $1 per disc and I didn't buy many multiple sets from them.

Whether Express.com is open or not when you get no new release for 2 weeks your done.

What, a moderator can't have an opinion? That's just plain silly. If jonathan.e has had a problem, he is entitled, just as anyone else on this forum, to air his greivances.

I work in the video game business, and we used Game Cave for some of our business. Soon after the acquisition by Express, their business practices and customer service went in the crapper. Also, our rep up and quit one day. He cited that the company was having money problems, something that has been clearly discussed ad nauseum on this forum and elsewhere. I think it's safe to say that if they don't find a buyer or some sort of cash infusion, they are done.

In my opinion, it is inappropriate for a moderator on this or HTF to essentially make the effort to drive an online shop out of business with unsubstantiated rumors the author of this thread`s source of information and jonathan`s reception of bad service. I, for one, have received excellent service from Express. Nevertheless, while it might be said that an online company is having problems, to damn them to the rubbish heap is something that a moderator has no right to do, IMHO, because as a moderator you have a certain amount of clout with other members on this board.

Uh.... he hardly damned them to the rubbish heap. Lest you forget, this site is still called dvd talk which will invariably include the purchase of dvds and where to buy them from. It's not so hard to understand. I've had a bad experience with Express as well and we ought to be able to convey that message. I don't think the moderator has any clout on this board as to my purchasing habits. If you believe that, then maybe you ought to email Geoff and ask him again what a moderator does. If you feel differently, just say so, no need to rag on jonathan.e because his opinion is different than yours.

So has anybody gotten anything they've preordered from them lately? I used my last $25 gift cert from Freemoviescentral to order The Rock Criterion. Hope that doesn't turn out to be a mistake.

I wouldn't count on that. Though there are probably more printings of the rock than do the right thing right now.

You're being screwed on "Do the Right Thing" -- it's all over New York City as far as I can tell, Tower, HMV, Virgin, Laserland, etc., all have it in stock in plentiful supply....DVDplanet sent out my copy, got it last Wednesday...

I don't know why anyone thinks we're running express into the ground...it is absolutely nonparalleled for a multi-million dollar company not to get a single new release for now 3 weeks, not replenish old stock, etc....what is unforgivable is Express trying to take our dollars, still accept preorders, etc., when it is no longer a going concern as a dvd retailer....they are the ones trying to be slick, not us for pointing out that people should NOT preorder "The Rock" from them, as they will never get it, and end up having to pay a higher price when they have to reorder it after it's streeted...LOOK AT THE SITE. I'd say less than 25% of titles listed are in stock, and NOTHING is getting replenished...100 people posting on this board won't "run it out of business", the fact that it has no dvds to sell is what will run it out of business...

I have to say that I really used to like express, in the beginning, back when they were Dvdexpress. I first used them in early to mid 1998, and they were very reliable. Until I found out about Reel they were the only place I would deal with, although I have not shopped there in over a year. Their prices were not the best, but this was before the golden age of coupons. At the time anything was better than retail. I hate to see all these sites fail.

I used to use DVDexpress almost exclusively, then I found out about Reel.com, after they went out of business I switched back to Express.com but have never really been pleased with their service. Now I use Amazon.com exclusively. They are not the cheapest, but they are one of the only options left that ship internationally and have good service.

Geno

So do I... After DVDExpress changed to Express I took the Express route out of that place...

Well, I have some friends who are ex-employees of Express. They have laid off more than half of their staff (t least warehouse and customer service staff, I don't know about the corporate staff) so their building is half empty. Others have quit because they found better jobs, and some are currently looking for better jobs because most of the employees that I've talked to don't think that Express will last long either, although management has not told them anything in regards to their financial situation.

A little comment on the GameCave merge, from what I have heard, the reason for the merge was because Express (DVD Express at the time) was losing a great deal of money. Maximum Holdings gave Mike Dubelko (CEO of DVD Express) money to have the two companies merge. There have been embezzlement (sp?) accusations made against Max. Holdings now, but at the time, the merge was done to save DVD Express. Of course, this is just what I heard. If there are more official reports out there, them please politely correct me :p

I seem to recall a lot of people praising reel.com as the be all, end all, of dvd etailers awhile back. Any time someone pointed out a problem, you'd get some company rep disguised as a member here or someone hoping to curry favor with them make personal attacks on the one with the problem.

This comes to mind since express.com "used" to be the best etailer out there. The prices weren't the best and the shipping was a bit less generous than some of the now defunct companies (or companies that have since raised both) but they always took care of me and everyone I know in "real" life (as opposed to cyberspace, anonymous complainers).

There's no doubt that the company is all but gone. Nothing new in stock, csr's that remind one of reel's last year and a half, and all the other problems associated with a company about to fail. How many of us can honestly say, even former loyalists, that we use them as our main source of dvd's?

Also, if Jonathan wants to speak his mind and appear less objective-leave him be. It's just a website and he's just an unpaid guy having a good time. He's a lot more intelligent than a few of his associates here who feel the need to close threads for piss poor reasons.

So, who'll be the next to fail and help the B&M's out there finally smack etailers to realistic pricing models? ;)

Express.com IS done!
 

Just to end this thread, I read here that Express.com filed for Chapter 11 March 7th.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010309/l09319421_2.html

Revised: Okay, I haven't found any other confirmation, and their website is STILL up.


[Edited by Rascal on 03-09-01 at 12:04 PM]

Looks like VideoTropic is quoting a similar story from Reuters regarding Express filing for Chapter 11 protection. And Variety's http://www.videobusiness.com site has a similar story.

But, hey, it's only Chapter 11 reorganization, they could resurrect themselves!

I still remeber that the creator of dvdexpress.com (Mike or something) is a member of this forum and he posted few messages long time ago. At the begining of dvdexpress.com, he replies all non-oreder related emails from the customers. Until it became bigger since buying the name dvd.com, the nightmare began ...