I have never had a good customer service experience with any adult online dvd company.
Once, after a horrible, horrible experience with adult dvd empire, I finally spoke to a woman who, I believe was the top dog (president or something like that) and she was great, cool, and sounded hot, but if the best experience you have is one when you've spoken to three other people and had numerous really stupid people resond to your e-mails and phone calls with answers that were both rude and unbelievably dumb, that isn't saying much.
First off, good luck if you have any specific questions because they won't likely get answered.
And if you receive a defective dvd, as I just did from action dvd, THEY expect you to pay to ship it back to them to get a working disc. At almost any other company, they reimburse you or send you a return label. Why should I have to pay twice, which means the purchase price ends up being higher than it was when I bought it, when it wasn't my fault?
And don't try and explain that to them. Their response is often, "Why should WE pay twice?" It's the same kind of thing Movies by Mail (horrible company) did when I get several scratched discs. They once sent me a dvd and when I opened it, it was unsealed. So I e-mailed them and told them I didn't order a used dvd, I ordered a NEW dvd and they wrote me back with complete disdain and lack of respect and said that the dvd made a noise like it had popped out of place before it shipped, so they opened it up and put in back in place and then sent it to me. Um, how about grabbing another SEALED copy? How about the fact that if something is opened, it's no longer, technically, new. Ever go to a grocery store and buy an opened jar of pickles?
Regular people, not even businesses, know not to even do this on Ebay and that place is loaded with people who are hoping to scam you. A new dvd is one that is sealed. You can list it as opened and never viewed, but if you don't you're misrepresenting what you're selling. And this is what Movie By Mail thought was the RIGHT and PROPER thing to do.
With scratched dvds, they'll argue that it "could" have happened in the mail. So what? You are a business selling something and there are risks. If I order something and pay $24 for it, there should be NO more cost to me unless I get it and don't open it and decide that I don't want it.
This is the usual and it makes me really mad. Doesn't anyone out there care? Do they do this because they are stupid? Do they really not know that the policy of almost every legitimate online e-tailer that sells dvds or cds is to take responsibilty for defective and scratched discs? Don't they ever shop online themselves? I hate how it seems to be all of them.
My guess is adult dvd empire is the best, but the best on a scale of 1-10 would be a 6. Is that something they are proud of?
I am waiting now 3 weeks for a dvd from dvd planet. I don't even know if it's shipped. They're horrible and don't even let you know if something has shipped. And 3 weeks seems normal for dvdplanet. They will tell you it's the media mail, free shipping, but I work with mail every day for my company and media mail that takes 3-4 weeks is the exception. I've ordered from deep discount dvd with their free shipping for over 5 years and I might have waited 3 weeks once or twice. DVD planet doesn't ship items right away, I know it. Other companies try and pull that too, by listing a lot of things in stock that they don't have.
I honestly can think of a really good online store. Again adult dvd empire might be near the top if you get the right person, but their prices are usually the highest. Sex 69, I think I tried and they had something listed as in stock when I ordered it and then I got an e-mail about 2 days later that it actually wasn't in stock, so they were going to hold the ENTIRE order. Hello? What's wrong with these people? They make the mistake and they wanted me to wait indefinately for something to get back in stock. I had to contact the owner to get things resolved. They just must hope people won't try and get things settled because they don't want to talk about porn to somebody. It's crazy.
I ordered 2 dvds in the past year, where I watched about half or so (porn dvds can be really long and since it's sex, do they really expect people to watch the whole thing or about 5 minutes at a time?) and didn't watch them again for about a month. I have other stuff and a life. So both of these discs had problems with freezing and pixelating later in the films and there was no wear and tear on my end, so clearly they were defective and the companies won't take them back because it was past 30 days and they included the shipping-in transit time in their calculations. These people are horrible and the companies who make them have to be involved. 1 of the defective discs came from Adam and Eve and the other Evil Angel.
I wrote them both letters, very polite and so far no word from Evil and a big fat "it's not our problem" from Adam and Eve. And I know the guy that responded was a moron and gets to have the final word. In the letter, I explained I bought it from an e-tailer, didn't see it all for a while for obvious reasons, and the disc was defective could they replace it if I paid MY own money to send it to them. I got a 2 line e-mail from some punk at Adam and Even asking if I'd bought it from them. He hadn't even really read the letter. And he gives a toll free number and refuses to give me the name of a manager. They just hope you'll give up just like the stores.
All studios that make mainstream movies have departments to deal with defective discs if returns aren't possible. And Adam and Eve couldn't even take a look at it. The stores know they can get away with anything and the studios don't care about their customers since they get paid and don't seem to check what these online stores are really like. Or they know and don't care.
Obviously, this is really upsetting. This is a long, angry post, but I'm sick of hoping the order comes perfectly or else knowing that I'm screwed either losing money or lots of time with e-mails that get ignored or phone calls to people not interested in helping anyway. And, believe it or not, this is the abridged version of my list of complaints. The complete list could be bible sized in a short while.
There is not one online company that I can just say does everything very well like a model company. Not one. That's terrible.
Edited by - veronica_mars on Jul 5 2005
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 5 2005 : 4:08AM
Just a note to the people who were patient enough to wade through that entire rant.
I received an e-mail from Tricia Devereaux not long after I posted this.
The Evil Angel dvd that was defective was a Joey Silvera's Service Animals disc.
I had no idea that Tricia, herself, would ever see this letter, let alone respond to it. I posted once in the thread about her directing debut and she's simply a stunning looking woman, it's almost unbelievable that's she so cool too.
She read basically the same letter I wrote to Adam and Eve and, without hesitation, she said send back the dvd for a replacement and provided me with the address to do so.
I had ALREADY made a comment that Tales From the Crack is the best title I own and it really does seem to mean something when, from the top to the bottom, a company is impressive.
Tricia takes her time to come her and post with fans and, yes it's great promotion, but she's so huge and successful she doesn't need to do anything and, certainly, she doesn't need to be so gracious and responsive to those who post about her work.
But, to me, that kind of attention and kindness is the mark of someone who's really great at everything they do. I don't know her but I suspect she's this way in everthing she does. And the people she works with seem to be the same way, as the make some of the best stuff that I own.
And with that kind of one time experience, with a person that I'll never meet who could easily be doing something better than e-mailing me, I will not only buy HER next movie, but I'll be looking more closely at their website and everthing they put out.
I've yet to have a good e-tailer experience, but this is my first with a studio and there is nothing but love and admiration from me to Tricia and the folks at Evil Angel.
I read the whole thing..definitely sounds like you've had some bad luck.
I'll agree with DVD Planet. I don't really like them that much so far. I ordered a really common and new DVD and it took them one week to send it. With Amazon and everyone else shipping in 1-2 days you can't expect people to wait that long if you want to be succesful with your DVD store.
I've had nothing but good luck with Adult DVD Empire. I consider their DVD prices to be high. Not that high, a few dollars over other stores such as XrentDVD and AdultDVDtoday. I usually go with them when I want items quickly without delay.
XrentDVD is my favorite though. I always order from them and the DVDs go out the same day. I ordered some DVDs at like 7pm once and got them the next day when I paid for next day air! If I receive a defective rental i'd prefer if they'd just give you a credit for another title. Does anyone really want to rent the same one again?
I will say though that'd i've only received 2 bad discs in my entire life. One was a Japanese region 2 disc from Yesasia.com. They sent my a return label within 3 days, but they don't sell many Adult DVDs.
Actually, my only really bad experience was with Rodney Moore's website. I ordered a movie a long time ago and it took nearly a month to receive. I actually had to email them asking where it was. In the end I was satisfied though. They usually reply quickly.
Seems my best experiences have been with Japanese based Adult DVD sellers, mainly Cosmonlink/Av-megastore.
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 7 2005 : 9:53PM
To be honest, I've had my best experience with adultdvdmarketplace sellers like globalflix and all delight. They are BETTER than any of the online adult companies that I've used. They are in CA and I'm out west too, so the media mail doesn't effect me much. I've only had 1 problem with those 2 companies and compared to other companies, that's VERY good.
Even the used dvds are better than I could imagine. I've never gotten one with so much as a small scratch when it was listed as like new. You can't get that lucky with a used dvd on Ebay.
DVDempire is great unless you have a problem. Then, their customer service is not much better than the lesser companies. And I've found their prices to be usually $10 more than, at least, 5 other companies (often many more). That's a lot more money to me and that's a lot of other people selling it for less.
If they did more to have the lowest prices for new releases, I would order from dvd empire a lot. Now, I pretty much stick with action-dvd or globalflix and all delight. Action's customer service isn't good, but their prices are usually very competitive, often the best, and they usually don't make mistakes so I don't need to deal with their customer service.
DVD planet is the worst of the worst and they shouldn't be allowed to list on the marketplace in my opinion, because they are commiting fraud on a regular basis.
Of the companies that you have mentioned, Empire is the only one that I use with any regularity. On the few occasions that there have been any problems, they have been very good about fixing the problem.
Most of my purchases come from 5-Star, Adult CD Movies and X-Rent. I've never had any problems with anything that I've gotten from X-Rent, so I can't say anything about how they handle problems (but if they handle problems like they handle the rest of their business, I can only assume that they do a great job).
With the few problems that I've had with 5-Star and Adult CD Movies, I can only say that their problem resolution has been nothing short of excellent.
As far as studios are concerned, I'm probably biased, but, for problem resolution (as well as most other things), I think that Evil Angel is the best by far. Had you done a search on Evil Angel in the Tech Talk forum (where all discussion regarding defective DVD's takes place), you would have found this thread discussing the problem that Evil Angel had with discs produced by one replicator between 1999 & 2002 and how to go about requesting a replacement disc from Tricia.
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 7 2005 : 11:51PM
5 star is just really hit and miss with having something in stock. It's about 50/50 when I've looked in the past and I just can't count on that. Cd Movies also have many, many title that aren't in stock, that list like will ship in 2-7 days and, even then, it's often more than 7.
Empire is usually great, as I mentioned, but, considering how big they are, you'd think they'd have better prices.
CD Universe is pretty good.
Tricia was just awesome. I was completely impressed by how she helped me out immediately and without hesitation. To me, that's a sign of a really good company in any line of business. Adam & Eve treated me horribly and I won't buy another disc from them ever. And they don't care. I think Tricia, as best as humanly possible, cares about all of her customers and it shows.
Adult CD Movies is located in "Porn Valley" and carrys very little inventory on hand. That's how they are able to keep their prices so low. When they get orders, they get exactly what they need from the studios and ship it. With as much porn as I own, I really don't need to get the movies that I buy within a day or two.
For the opposite reason, Empire has high prices. They maintain a very large inventory. That's expensive to do. So their prices are higher. Essentially, you have a choice. Pay more for guaranteed inventory or pay less and wait a few extra days. To save 3 or 4 dollars per disc, I'm willing to wait a few days.
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 8 2005 : 12:19AM
Yeah, this whole thing is kind of new to my wife and I.
We'd rent things in the past and then just would order something from an adult channel because we felt uncomfortable in the stores.
Then we ordered one, we liked it, and things have progressed to the point where we actually talk about what we want and who we like.
But, since we're new to buying adult dvds, we're really used to ordering movies from Amazon or just picking up new releases at Best Buy and Circuit City.
We need to be more patient and as our collection grows and that we don't watch a movie or even a scene in a movie every night, we'll probably be less worried about shipping time.
Unless it's a Penny Flame title. We both agreed that we order those immediately and don't wait for reviews or descriptions.
We will also preorder Tricia's new movie and, as impatient as we are, we hardly ever pre-order adult movies.
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 8 2005 : 12:23AM
PS-I think Empire, more often than not, is more than just a few dollars more per disc. I think if you averaged it out over 20 or more disc, it would add up to $10 per disc more than the other choices you might have.
It's only about $3-4 over Adult CD Movies. I took a look at the prices of discs from 4 of the biggest companies and found: Evil Angel $26.95 Empire, 23.99 ACM Red Light $19.95 Empire, 16.99 ACM Hustler $25.95 Empire, $20.99 ACM Private $24.95 Empire, $20.99.
If you take into account the fact that, if you join the ADT Kickback program, you get a credit of 15% of your total order value, for orders placed at Empire, back to use for future purchase, the price at Empire gets even closer to the others.
I'm international, but of the US-based companies, I second Fivestar DVD as a fine company to deal with, and I'd also give Adult DVD Today my highest reccomendations with regard to customer service.
I think that there are more factors than inventory that affect porn DVD prices. After all, not all retailers listed in price search are located in or close to Porn Valley, yet some of them are able keep prices a lot lower than DVD Empire.
If you attribute relatively higher prices at DVD Empire to their customer service, that's fine. It's up to customers to choose where to shop and what kind of customer service to expect. However, as people mentioned, there are retailers that offer comparable (if not better) cutomer service who manage to keep prices competitive. In light of this, it remains mysterious to me why DVD Empire, as big a retailer as it is, still maintains higher prices.
Hi, the 3 main online stores I use are DVDempire, DVDexplorer, and Excaliburfilms. Excaliburs website is pretty cool also, where if you buy 1 movie, your a member for a whole year. The only thing in your original post I'd dissagree with, was how you said you didn't get around to watching the movies for over 30 days, then found out they were defective. No store would take back merchandise if you tryed that. You do have to decide whether you want speed in delivery, or good prices. Excalibur's site has great prices, but you might have to wait for one of your titles. You can tell them to ship your order complete, or ship the movies that are in stock. It is bad when they say the movies are in stock, when their not. Like I said, I've never had a problem with the 3 companys I mentioned. Take care, Daredevil
No Beer, No TV, Make Homer Go Crazy!
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veronica_mars Deactivated User
Arizona 106 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 10 2005 : 5:22AM
Wrong again.
First off, porn isn't like mainstream. You don't always watch an entire porn feature in one sitting, as you would likely do with something like Million Dollar Baby.
Second, if the disc is defective, if there are no surface scratches or unreasonable wear and tear, a lot of stores will even take back a mainstream dvd. If you bought it locally, they will usually put the dvd in one of their players to make sure it does what you say it does. Then, if it does, they will almost always, within reason, exchange the disc for the very same disc, no refund or subsitution.
Also, if the pressing was bad and there is a bad batch of dvds, generally the studio will known relatively quickly and, if you buy something and don't get to watching it within 30 days or can't return it for any reason, you simply call up their customer service line. If they are aware of the defect, they will exchange discs or, if they need to wait for good disc to be pressed, they'll take your disc and send a good one when they have it.
The store, at the very least, should have asked me to send the disc back and, if there were no marks on the disc (there aren't), they should have tried the disc out where they could see for themselves it was a defective disc. A defective disc refund, should be refunded back to the e-tailer from the company that made it.
Adam & Eve should have checked to see if there had been any complaints about problems with this disc. I would bet there are. They should have exchanged the disc if either it was in perfect condition upon return and didn't play properly or if they knew this dvd had been having problems and complaints from other customers and stores. They would have known, then, it was the result of a bad pressing.
you should also try adultdvdclearence.com I buy from there all the time they have great prices and service I got one of pennys movies just18 and it was defective and they took it back with no problem and sent me another copy they are a great company
I've never had a problem with discs I received from X-Rent either. I did have a problem where a shipment went missing and I didn't get a response to my emails about it (other than an automated 'got your mail' response). However, as soon as I posted about it here, XRentDVD Guy jumped in and fixed it. He even sent me a new DVD when I had originally order a used one, because there wasn't another used title in stock. Now that's smart service. It cost his company a little bit in the short term but he's smart enough to know that he'll make it back up from my repeat business.
Companies are run by people so mistakes are going to happen. You shouldn't blow somebody off unless they keep repeating their mistakes or act like their customer's problem isn't their problem.
BTW, so far as I can tell from the local outfits, most porn DVD's are not shrink wrapped by the original manufacturer or the distributor. They're shrink wrapped by the retailer, so getting an unwrapped one doesn't necessarily mean it's used.
PS - 5 Star has also been berry berry good to me, but I rank it just behind X-Rent.
