Note: Please take this for what it is worth because I am not disclosing names.

A good friend of mine is a sales rep for a studio. He said he called express.com on Friday (2/23) to push a new release. The following is an exact quote from the express.com purchasing agent (female):

"We are not buying anymore product. It is over and my resumes have been sent out."

This would explain why they are so drastically out of stock of product. What scares me is they are taking orders for out of stock product.

Take this for face value considering I am not mentioning names. The only reason I posted it was to warn the dvd talk community.

Hmm... I wasn't planning on ordering from them anytime soon since they are always out of stock of the things I want.

Any corroboration?

I didn't order from them anymore because I had a sort-of bad experience with them (which didn't end up being their fault. The FedEx girl delivered my DVDs to the wrong apartment, didn't get the required signature and couldn't remember which apartment it was she delivered the package to. But Express.com could've handled it better. I had to call them five or six times to get the refund properly credited).

At any rate, it seems pretty shady to keep taking orders they have no intention of filling. Even if they aren't charging credit cards for the merchandise, they're still wasting people's time.

Damn, I had Do the Right Thing: Criterion on preorder with them along with Spinal Tap SE and they both haven't shipped out. According to their CSR's, DTRT: CC hasn't even come into their warehouse yet. The DVD came out last week!

I have not ordered from Express since last spring....

the worst thing that company did was merge with a failing gamecave. maybe they had to do this, i don't know the whole story so i can't say......i think i'm correct in stating that the members that resell wish that they can expect a company to be there so as to make a couple bucks at worst. http://www.express.com was reliable before the merge. what is the status of http://www.cdnow.com cos i haven't heard they are having money problems. http://www.buy.com has refused to cancel a special order that a customer ordered. have any of you had problems recently with buy.com. http://www.closeoutvideo.com has a 10 off 50.00 for new guests. i wish brad good luck and wish all my providers well cos a need every one of them....

You are so right about the Gamecave deal....Gamecave was going to fail anyway which is why they merged together with Express!!! Express was a very good company prior to this merger.....they lost my business shortly after the merger!!! I had spent $100+ there monthly without the use of coupons etc......I think they lost too many regular customers!!! :(

I find the originator's claims more than suspect. It seems he is either a competitor of express or wishes to see them done harm. "I'm sending out my resumes." What a crock. No one would be putting this information out like that. Unless you have more specific info, keep said unsubstantiated rumors to yourself.

Well, I am a purchaser and I have a couple of good relationships with some of our suppliers - if I was through, I would definetly tell them that. I have talked to the same people for the past 5-6 years....so it is not completely off base.

I will be the first to admit that this is a rumor. But I stated two times for everyone to take this for what it is worth. I could really care less about the "I'm sending out my resumes." statement. What I am worried about is the fact that express.com has stopped ordering product and they are still taking orders for out of stock items. I really do hope this is just a rumor or misunderstanding because express.com has always been one of my top dvd retailers. But if it is true and I feel my sources are valid, I am going to warn people. I guess we will all find out this week weather or not all this is true.

So at the end of the day, has anyone got any solid info?

just look at the site to find your answer...they haven't gotten a new release in weeks, the front page is spotlighting such "hot" titles as "wall street" & "americanbeauty" -- they obviously are just trying to sell off the stock they have...they are OVER.

FATALITY

(Sorry, too much MK...)

I just received this as a response to my asking
them whether they will be getting any new orders
out.

"Dear EXPRESS.COM Customer,

Thank you for contacting us. We are experiencing delays from the vendor in delivering products to us on time. We realize that this delay seriously affects our customers who are accustomed to our prompt processing and shipping of their orders. This is as upsetting to us as much as it is to you.

The delay in product is a temporary situation, and we expect to have product delivered to us very soon. We are working very hard to provide our customers with the service that they have come to expect from us.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this delay may have caused you, and thank you for your patience with us.


Sincerely,

Max Kovins
http://www.express.com"

Lets hope they get their act together, cuz I really do
like them

Neitzl

the only reason a vendor would delay is cuz express ain't paying the bills...as simple as that...it's nice to be optimistic, but if they're not paying the bills now, they're unlikely to find the money next week...

I placed 4 seperate Video game orders and none were ever filled. I finally cancelled them and gave up.

Well... Wether you like Express or not (I use to order but I stopped a while ago after orders going from pre-order to backorder) this type of Express-bashing is unacceptable. I believer that majortom has been told that particular story but I think that his source is full of s**t.

I'll express-bash all I want to, you want to know why? Because I am a dissatisfied customer.

hmmmmm....

cOULD THIS POSSIBLY EXPLAIN WHY 3 major releases I ordered are still out of stock & not in yet after 3 weeks?????

It's looing like a pretty good explaination.

Granted, their service has gone downhill, but they were ok in the early days.

Glad I stopped buying from them almost a year ago, just did not need the headaches anymore.

<b>Kahuna</b> :cool:

what is unacceptable? They are getting no new stock, and their shelves are simply emptying...unless there's a big happy surprise waiting, i'd think this thread is valuable in letting people not to order or preorder from an establishment that is not filling orders or even getting stock in....

I have a $50 credit at express that I used to order 2 dvd's. One of them wasn't in stock, so they wouldn't ship the other one. But now the other one is out of stock and the first one is and they STILL won't ship my order. I hate these morons. Somebody want to give a suggestion for a DVD to get for around $50 that's in stock? I've looked on dvdpricesearch and the prices aren't that good.

That's true if the source is correct. What if I start a thread like 'I've been told by a friend who used to work for Amazon that they will go out of business next month?'.

IMO - even if you're an unsatisfied customer (like me, don't forget that!) - these type of threads are only valid if they're based on a checkable source (for example, a posting on a financial site).

But.....
 

Mark -

When this thread first showed up I emailed "Express.Com" a link to the thread.

- No Reply - from Express.Com

A few days later I emailed them about a pre-order that all the other online stores had in stock asking them when they thought that they might be receiving the product and the reply that I got in "short" told me to go the web site and cancel my current order and order else where..

Why would a company be telling customers to order else where?

--David

the difference between this and the "amazon" scenario presented is that the amazon scenario indeed doesn't hold water--you go to the site, they have items in stock! The point is, I read in another thread someone preordering "THe Rock CC" from Express, and you know what? He's never going to get it...EXPRESS'S SITE IS THE EVIDENCE, not any "financial statement"....It's like seeing a body riddled with bullet holes, blood pouring over the ground, and then saying "let's wait for the ME to figure out if this guy is dead or not" -- there is a certain logic to it, but if the victim owed me 50 bucks (or 3 preordered DVDs) I wouldn't hold my breath! :)

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.