I have had this happen more than once with one of the top/busiest sellers on ADM, as well. I still buy the majority of my DVDs from there, but I purposely will avoid *cough*filthydvds*cough, despite their high rating. Each time it happened to me, I left poor feedback.

I have better luck with smaller sellers on that site - people like me just selling stuff they are done with.

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I would rate this as poor. The reason it is poor is that I do not simply pick random DVD's because of their price, I pick DVD's based on my interest in their content. In other words, though they are priced the same, DVD "X" may be worth $9.99 to me while DVD "Y" is not. Therefore, substituting "Y" for "X" is not giving me equal value.

2. If the seller simply refunds your money on your credit card, what rating do you feel is deserved?

I would rate this as fair, since I lost no money on the deal. However, if it happened repeatedly, I would include a note to that effect.

3. Should the non-delivery of the missing DVDs affect the feedback rating of the DVDs I received?

Certainly.

4. How should I best summarize this experience in 100 characters or less?

Calmly. For example:

Rated: "F": Seller did not ship items, will not respond to emails.

Rated "F": Some items were not shipped, seller refused to refund money for unshipped items.

Rated "F": seller substituted some of the DVD's without prior agreement.

Rated "F": seller stated some titles were unavailable and tried to get me to accept substitutes at the same price. As none of the substitutes were of interest, I declined. Seller would not refund money, insisting I choose other DVD's instead.

Rated "C": seller stated some titles were unavailable and tried to get me to accept substitutes at the same price. As none of the substitutes were of interest, I declined. Seller refunded money.

Rated "B": seller did not ship all DVD's but promptly refunded money for unshipped items.

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I encourage you to contact the owners of Marketplace.

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The nice thing about ADM is you rate each disc in the transaction instead of the purchase as a whole. If I was told I had to select another instead of being given a refund I'd give the lowest possible rating, not make another selection and contact Gary.

2. If the seller simply refunds your money on your credit card, what rating do you feel is deserved?

I generally give a "neutral rating" in this case assuming that the seller initiates the refund very quickly and on their own. Neutral is generally the middle of the scale. If I have to do work to get the refund the rating drops in accordance with the amount of work I've had to do.

3. Should the non-delivery of the missing DVDs affect the feedback rating of the DVDs I received?

Since ADM does each disc as a seperate item, no it shouldn't in my opinion since you received the other ones with no problem. However you can leave info in the text description area stating that although you received this disc you didn't receive the whole order.

4. How should I best summarize this experience in 100 characters or less?

"Unable to supply disc ordered, forced a different pick instead of a refund"

"Had to contact ADM as seller didn't supply ordered disc nor a refund"

"Did not receive ordered title nor a refund"

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As for the questions...

1. What feedback rating do you feel is appropriate for one of the missing DVDs if you are asked to select another?
I'd have a hard time giving it above a 4. With my experience above, where I feel I ended up with a better deal than what I originally planned, I went away happy. If they wouldn't have something I was interested in, then they'd definitely be getting a 1.

2. If the seller simply refunds your money on your credit card, what rating do you feel is deserved?
Mistakes happen now and then, so communication is the key. You drop me an immediate e-mail saying "Oops, there was a problem and we can't fill your order" and I check the site and see that you no longer list the item, then I'll probably give a 3. I'd rather have a seller drop me a line letting me know that they have the item but it sounded like it was in multiple pieces in the case so they're cancelling the order and refunding me completely than having them ship it out and try blaming it on the post office.

3. Should the non-delivery of the missing DVDs affect the feedback rating of the DVDs I received?
Almost certainly, but again, it depends on the seller. I've had a couple have problems where you could tell it was an accident or something beyond being sloppy, and they always gave me the option of either cancelling the order or pick somthing else at a higher value to make up for the problem. In my mind, they're admitting they screwed up and trying to make the customer happy, so as long as it isn't a repeated thing I have a hard time nailing their balls to the wall for it.

4. How should I best summarize this experience in 100 characters or less?
Seller didn't have item as claimed (with a "but still listing on ADM" if applicable) and offered other DVDs that did / didn't interest me instead. Seems to be common, so be careful!
Poor communication. Forced to take different disc than ordered rather than cancelling order.

"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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Edited by - shark1 on 2/20/2007 12:23:39 AM

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My personal experiences:

DVD Movies Direct - EXCELLENT. Never had a problem. Consistently the best.

MILLENIUM_MOVIES - EXCELLENT. Never had a problem.

Globalflix - EXCELLENT. Never had a problem.

AllDelight - EXCELLENT. Never had a problem.

FilthyDVDs - HORRIBLE. They don't answer emails. Never got the order. Had to request refund from the website (which I got immediately).

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As for DVDMoviesDirect, I doubt I'll ever use them again. The last order I had with them I commented in my feedback about them shipping media mail even though it would have been cheaper to ship first class and I received an e-mail letting me know how "woefully ignorant" (their words) I was in an e-mail that was just as rude throughout. Normally I stay away from the "big guys" with thousands upon thousands of feedbacks and go with the little guys instead.

As for "smaller" sellers I've had good luck with...
1price
godjen99
vinnytagg
snakepusher
nicknight
aaa-xxx
piercedone
marmac
mazeroski

and for probably never use again:
filthy
jjmdist

"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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AllDelight.com
globalflix.com
Quickflicks_DVD
eroticdesire
south405
1price
dvdrush20
NickNight
bobsroom
DVDtrader

Each of these have provided me alot of great sales and fast service and I highly recommend them.

Edited by - Asmodeus on 2/25/2007 6:08:48 AM

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I'm David and I'm new at ADM. My job is to improve the site in general. I was delighted to see all the genuine feedback in this thread.

I'm not fully oriented with ADM yet, so forgive me if I can't intelligently discuss everything right away.

I know things are in the works to get the shipping situation a bit more uniform. A tracking # for every shipment is the goal.

I also understand the concern about feedback and large sellers. Considering the dynamic nature of ADM, things can go wrong. I want to help make that occurence as infrequent as possible. I believe there are pros and cons to dealing with both small and large sellers. Does everyone feel that it is easy to discern between the 2 on ADM?

If there is any more feedback I would love to hear it. Without our buyers, ADM would not exist... so please do not be shy.

David

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(I just saw the other thread(s) that discuss certain sellers and I am sure the too good philosphy is in place in many circumstances, so I will stick to my original question "How cheap is too cheap on ADM?")

Edited by - phatbasey on 2/25/2007 2:15:43 AM

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The ones with the cheapet price usually have 15k listings or some large number like that. Reasons for non-delivery are not as heinous as you might think. Reasons are

a) they were told it was in stock by their distributor, only to find out just before you that it's out of stock.

b) they are a wholesaler/retailer with extras. They may actually sell a listing in the store or some other outlet just after you buy it here. When you're selling 7k DVDs a month.. it can be hard to keep track of everything in real time.

The point is, bad things can happen on that scale.. it's just a numbers thing. Thats why wholesale/retail is setup the way it is. If you don't want to take the chance that you could be in that statistic, pay the higher price if necessary for someone who can confirm they have the DVD in hand and are listing it just for ADM. You pay for service, and that is a higher level of service compared to someone loading up an .xls they got from a warehouse with 50k units, or yesterday's inventory report.

I'm not excusing misconduct of deceptive sellers, but overall I think the majority of the big guys try to do right.

It's also quite possible to find someone selling a gem out of their collection for a low price. ;)
In fact I think once I get my account going, I'll try and source some rare ones and list them for cost. :)

Edited by - David ADM on 2/25/2007 2:43:29 AM

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Regarding the tracking number, it's a great thing except for one little detail... the post office. Single DVDs are under 3/4" and according to the post office you can't ship first class under 3/4" with a tracking number. That gives the the choice between shipping first class without a tracking number and having the order arrive in about 3 days or shipping media mail with a tracking number, having the order take a week if you're really lucky (and maybe two or three), and giving consent for the post office to inspect the package as it's a restricted class. Although I like seeing sellers providing tracking numbers, given the choice between the two I'll go for the seller who I know will ship first class 99% of the time.

"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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I know something is trying to be worked out with a 3rd party solution provider so that there is a tracking # with all 1st class mail. When I hear more details, I will let you know.

I agree that the entire feedback system could have a bit more functionality. Even though it's via email, you can still notify ADM of a problem, and it should be taken care of. I know seller accounts are terminated everyday for not sending DVDs.

Edited by - David ADM on 2/25/2007 2:07:42 PM

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That's crazy that it wouldn't be accepted now. I can think of many times within the past year or so where I received a package and my signature was supposed to be required, yet the mailman just left it in the screen door.

I wonder what happens in that type of situation... I guess it would be on the USPS.

Edited by - David ADM on 2/25/2007 2:34:35 PM

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We use Stamps.com at work and you can't even let you print a shipping label with a delivery confirmation code unless it's over 3/4" thick.

"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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The "Track and Confirm" lookup tool doesn't actually provide tracking information for Delivery Confirmations like UPS does. (i.e. all of the routing stops between origin and destination). Delivery Confirmation service only gives you the date, ZIP Code and the time your article was delivered. If delivery was attempted you will get the date and time of attempted delivery. Delivery Confirmation does not require a signature and there's no verification that it was actually delivered to the addressee. (There's also no proof that the postal worker isn't a thief and swiped the item for themselves. This happens all the time with DVDs.) It's just a record of the time that the postal worker dropped the item off in the mailbox/PO Box/front door/etc.

In order to beat a chargeback dispute you need to use Signature Confirmation service. At least that was the case in 1998 - 2001 and the Merchant Service we used. (Most of the retailers that I have spoken with state that this is still the case.)

Also, from the Delivery Confirmation Service page:

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I wasn't selling adult dvds, but the account I had was with Humboldt. I guess I got lucky, because I only used delivery confirm. These were mostly the cassette sized box going priority mail. I also sold the same product, and didn't think twice about sending another one if someone said it didn't arrive. The required sig in this situation makes perfect sense.

Oh, and I'm not the CSR :) I'm just seeing if I can find ways that I think might make it perform better. Genuine buyer/seller input is important. I'll make recommendations, and then it's up to someone else if anything is done.

I couldn't find anything that stated a reason for the 3/4" thick rule. Do you have any insight on that? Has anyone experimented with making it work? Considering your standard DVD with standard case weighs 3.2oz, do you think there is a way to construct a package that works?

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I've accidentally sent some envelopes listed as packages before, but it's a hit or miss thing on if they'll come back. Doing a quick search across the net, there's a couple places that make DVD shipping boxes, but I'm not sure if they go over the 3/4" mark or not. They're also six bits to a buck each, which is a heck of a lot more than what one can pick up a good envelope for. For guys who'd be selling a lot of stuff on ADM that would seem like a decent sized increase in their expenses.

"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling

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http://www.packagingsupplies.com/DVD_Shipping_Boxes.html

These are 200 for 34.91. Shipping to NC was 12.50, to CA was $18.08. So on the high end thats about $0.26 a piece if you buy retail. There are discounts for volume.
They say the dimensions are only 5/8" thick. Drew quoted this guideline, which I feel is open to VERY liberal interpretation:

I found boxes that were 7/8" that were priced $0.41 a piece before shipping. These more expensive boxes weighed 2.4 oz a piece, therefore the 5/8" should be the same or less. So the max possible weight to ship one dvd first class would be 5.6 oz. That's a cost of $1.59. According to the USPS website, sig confirm is $2.40.

So far we are at $3.99. From the sources I mentioned, you'll be adding .23 to .51 for a box. That's a max of $4.50 for a guarantee, and I'm sure these could be sourced cheaper.

According to the USPS site. The only difference between first class and priority mail is the weight. They both have the same domestic delivery time. Now this is my PERSONAL OPINION, but it seems to me that shipping a dvd first class with sig confirm would be considered expedited.
Even if you don't want to mess with boxes, you should be able to stuff a large envelope in such a way that it's "thickest point" is 3/4". Consider if you shipped a vibrator that way. It's going to be 3/4", but the rest of the packaging is going to be very thin. Why not wrap it up in bubble wrap? That's cheap, and gets bulky pretty quick. I'm sure there are a million other substitutes that would work.

The sig confirm is over 50% of the cost! I'm sure there has to be a way to get that down.

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QuickShipDVD
Angel Sexton

I just placed my first orders with them and they both provided me excellent sales and service. Shop with confidence!

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Re: AAA-XXX...thanks for the head's up about them. They are listed as shipping from AZ and, while they may do so, they must have to wait to get the DVDs from NY because I am in AZ and their shipping time is veeeerrrryyyy sloooooow. I won't be ordering from them again. I've actually had pretty good luck with filthydvds, but would rather order from sellers in CA such as All Delight and Global Flix.

Just FYI, one of my personal fave sellers, however, is john corey. A stand up guy and in AZ so I get my orders fast. (And he is well-known here, he said not so cryptically).

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We appreciate the feedback. I talked with the customer service rep who handled that. Your guess was correct. That 6th order was inadverntly overlooked due to misplaced mouse click. I believe everything has been sorted out now.

We appreciate those seller recommendations as well. We are glad you are apart of the ADM community.

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Luckily, some of the other good sellers, like AllDelight, are pressing him pretty hard on price these days. But, it's pretty upsetting to find out that he's selling under other user names as well. That shouldn't be allowed.

I'm surprised ADM tolerates him, but I guess they are dependent on the order volume he brings them.

I'm also suspicious of his good feedback rating. I don't see how that's possible when he has such a consistently bad reputation among users here on ADT. I mean, it's universally bad. His name comes up periodically on various threads and nobody ever says good things. It's ALWAYS bad. ALWAYS. EVERY TIME. But, maybe it's just buyers that post on ADT that have bad experiences with him and everyone else loves the guy. Good ol' reliable Justin.

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FilthyDVDs (and his alter ego AAA-XXX) are highly unreliable.

My top 5 favourite sellers from Adult DVD Marketplace lately are:

1Price
DVD Movies Direct
MILLENIUM_MOVIES
tendernights
vinnietagg

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myspace.com/emt_mikey

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Over a span of about 3 years, I would guess I probably ordered from him maybe 10 times. I would estimate that probably 8 of those 10 times the order either didn't arrive or it took more than 4 weeks. When the order did finally arrive, the postmark never showed that it shipped within 2 days, or even 7. No, usually I would get an order after 4-5 weeks and it would show that it was shipped a week or so prior.

I could probably live with the delay if the guy had the ability to communicate effectively on the status of my order - if he could just tell me what's going on so I know what to expect. But, he can't even do that.

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http://www.adultdvdmarketplace.com/xcart/adult_dvd/user_view.php?listing_login=123dvdxxx

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