Movieconnect charging for lost DVDs.

[intalex]

I signed up for their service (Have to sign up on the 14-day free trial first, no option to sign up as a paying member straight away). I had to accept their "general" (and only) terms & conditions when signing up.

The trial started and the movie dispatch/return cycle began, all moving smoothly until one of the DVDs they apparently sent out to me never actually reached me.

So I waited the standard 4 days' postal deliveries to arrive and when I still didn't receive it, I emailed them advising that the DVD appears to be lost in the post. (I was still in my free trial period then).

On the same day I decided to cancel my account with them as I wanted to try a different service. I sent back the 2 movies which I did receive from them, and they received these back one day before the payment date.

Hence, the only DVD outstanding on the eve of my payment date was the one they sent to me but which I never received. In response to my email reporting this DVD as lost in the post, they replied stating that they will not cancel my account, but rather let it run past the payment date, charge me a month's subscription, and then mark the DVD as lost in the post and pursue a claim with Royal Mail.

So I called them to contest this, and they said that their terms & conditions state that the customer is always responsible for any DVDs lost in the post in either direction (from them to the customer as well as from the customer back to them). When I asked about the terms about the occasional lost DVD (this was the first one lost since I signed up), they stated that this term only applies to paying members. So here they are basically stating "new and alternate, but non-documented" terms for customers in their free trial period (once again, the free trial is not optional, it's the only way to become a member).

Hence, their actions were to force me to become a paying member (i.e. take payment from me) and then mark the DVD as lost in the post (I'm still waiting for the DVD to disappear from my "DVDs At Home" list). All this because one of the DVDs they sent out to me never actually reached me.

I think everyone here would agree that it is unfair to hold the customer responsible for a DVD which went lost on its way to the customer. I'd appreciate some thoughts on this and, if possible, some stories of similar experiences and ideas on how to tackle this injustice.

[LaZ]

Here we go again - yet another shoddy company to add to the list of avoiding at all costs.

[Furgy]

If i was you, I would phone them up and demand a refund and cacellation. If they refuse then you could try going for a chargeback. You've got nothing to lose.

[intalex]

I don't know how to do a chargeback, maybe I'll go to my bank tommorrow to find out. Although I'm less fussed about the amount they charged me than I am about the principle involved and their attitude.

I have already pursued legal channels about this anyway seeing that they have clearly breached their own contract as explained in my original post.

They're gonna have to refund the money very soon and they're gonna do it the hard way. It's their own choice though, they could have avoided this.

[andym]

Urrm... guys these are the same people as MyMovieStream..
a company called Muze according to some earlier poster on this forum. try a search. i didn't believe him at the time but think it may well say muze on mymoviestream.

ps they're dvds are not-for-rental companies and they are a one man band, i say it once i say it again, avoid in case of problems..

edit: here's the link http://dvdtrials.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=276&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=muze&start=60

[LaZ]

Nope, Muze is just simply the catalouge system CD/DVD retailers/renters use to display the info/pics, eBay also use their system.

[andym]

Well, I was right then.
MyMovies aka Ken is a one man band, the other poster told me I was wrong and they were Muze who "were part of Tower Records". Go figure.

MyMovies were using a false address but have since changed it to a care/of address.

movieconnect.co.uk are seperate, contact them here:

Jeremy Mears
56 CLONMORE STREET
LONDON
SW185EY

whois:
Domain Name:
movieconnect.co.uk

Registrant:
Jeremy+Mears
Trading As: Jeremy Mears

Registrant's Address:
7 The Halliards
Walton-on-Thames
London
0
NZ

Registrant's Agent:
Register.com, Inc. [Tag = REGISTER]
URL: http://www.register.com

Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 11-May-2004
Renewal Date: 11-May-2006
Last updated: 04-Jan-2005

Registration Status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers listed in order:
ns33.1and1.co.uk 195.20.224.152

[intalex]

i couldn't possibly believe that mymoviestream and movieconnect are one company having seen the huge gulf between their service levels. mymoviestream are one of the best rated companies out there today (experienced it first-hand) whereas movieconnect are already on their way to the very bottom with scenarios like the one described in this forum.

as for my complaint, sadly it was jeremy (the director) whom i spoke to about the situation and it was he who argued that the customer is responsible for all lost DVDs during a free trial period (inc. ones on their way to the customer). if the director himself makes such rules, would you want to bother dealing with anyone there whose job would be to defend and enforce these rules?

[andym]

You miss the point. Jeremy has little or no staff, he handles the entire business himself. Being a director isn't a high powered job like you seem to think. If he is prepared to rip you off for £15 then it says something about him, take him to court he has not a leg to stand on. do not accept his excuses, past experience has shown people like this probably never sent the disk. one even posted on here with the aire that since the customer had "ripped them off" by not subscribing after the free trial then they had the right to make money off them this way as per some bizarre form of moral compensation.

MyMovieS are the same as movieconnect i.e. TINY, I haven't any problems with them other than their catalogue is tiny & they use false addresses. But I don't really feel they can compete with the big guys who have been there and learnt the mistakes themselves, however smart ken at mymovies think he is there's nothing mymovieS can do more efficiently than the big players. Customer service is only good at the moment as they have a postage stamp worth of users.

[intalex]

Hmm.. got an email from them confirming that my account has been de-activated and no more payments will be taken out, however when I log-in into my account, that lost DVD still appears on my "DVDs at home" list.

Spoke to Jeremy again and he advised that the claim with Royal Mail is already in the process and once it is completed, they will remove the movie from my "DVDs at home" list and refund me the month's subscription which they charged me against my will. He did confirm, however, that no further payments will be taken out of my account. Just gotta wait and see how things progress.

He also agreed that their terms & conditions are not clear and that the alternate terms for people in their free trial period should be better clarified. I don't see them doing anything about it, however, as this would then scare people from signing up in the first place.

[intalex]

Here's an update on my situation, more than 2 months after my last post:

On 09/10/05, I sent them (FAO: Jeremy) a reminder about Jeremy's promise to refund my month's subscription and remove the lost DVD from my DVDs at Home list. Here's the reply I got:

***The claim for the lost disc is with the September batch. Because we are not in control the Royal Mail process, we will give you a closure date when known. The disc will be removed from the “At Home” list when it is formally classified as “lost”.***

Fine, so I waited a bit longer and then sent them a couple more reminders with one more today. Here was their response:

***In these circumstances the month's subscription is refunded if and when the discs are formally recorded as lost. As outlined in previous responses, we will need to lodge a claim with the Royal Mail. We do not control their turnaround, therefore we are unable to estimate conclusion.***

I found it hard to believe that Royal Mail would take this long (2 and a half months) to process a claim for a lost DVD. So I fired the following email back to them and am waiting for their response now:

***Many thanks for a slightly clearer response. Jeremy assured me on 23/09/05 that a Royal Mail claim had already been lodged, and that was 2 and a half months ago. I find it hard to believe that Royal Mail take 2 and a half months to complete a claim. Can you not chase it up with them? If you can't, then please provide me with a contact at Royal Mail that you deal with along with a reference number/code for this particular lost DVD and I will chase it up with them myself.***

Does anyone know up to how long Royal Mail can take with regards to these claims?

[intalex]

... and their only response was "thanks for the offer".

[intalex]

I asked them what they meant by "thanks for the offer" and they elaborated:

***Thanks for the offer but we don't need the help. Unfortunately, we provided as much guidence as we can.***

Unwilling to accept this, I sent them another email asking them to confirm whether the following statement is true or false:

"""You are keeping hold of my money because Royal Mail lost one of your DVDs on its way from you to me, and you won't return my money until Royal Mail have compensated you for the lost DVD."""

To this, they responded:

***We are establishing formally that the disc is lost or has been stolen. When the status of the disc is confirmed, then your account will be fully deactivated. If the Royal Mail advise that the disc was delivered, the month's subscription will be used to offset the cost of the disc as per the terms and conditions of use. Otherwise, the subscription cost will be refunded. Because we have repeated the process to you on more than three occasions, please do not expect further communications until the status of the disc is confirmed. ***

I replied:

"""Well, what do you expect? Your Director Jeremy Mears assures me that the issue will be well and truly resolved by the end of October. We are now in December and we aren't even one step further. You blame it on Royal Mail, you can't chase it up with them yourselves, and you refuse to let me chase it up with them. Just how long do you want me to wait? 6 Months? 1 Year? 10 Years? Depite numerous emails from me, you fail to realise that the problem is that you have only provided me with a timescale once and have failed to deliver on that timescale. Royal Mail surely work on service level agreements, so you can't tell me you have no control over how long they can keep you waiting. Anyway, whether or not you respond to this email, I'll be printing out all your previous responses to my emails and take them to my local CAB/Trading Standards office first thing in the morning. I'll let them investigate why Royal Mail have taken this long to process a claim assuming you are right about that being the reason for the delay. I'll also let Watchdog know of the entire situation and publish your responses to my emails in every DVD Rental Review/Forum site I can find online. Let's hear the public's opinion on your dealings. You pushed me, now face the consequences. If you have doubts about me having any grounds for a case, you just need to re-read your previous responses to me and think like a normal customer."""

They did reply back, but with an unconvincing statement:

***The issue will be closed in due course.***

And yet again they fail to specify a timescale by using the general phrase "due course"

So basically, they are waiting to find out from Royal Mail which of the following is the truth:
(i) the DVD was delivered to me (hence accusing me of stealing it), in which case, they would use my month's subscription to offset the cost of the DVD
(ii) the DVD was really lost, in which case they will refund my month's subscription

Whatever happened to the possibility of the scenario "They never sent the DVD out to me in the first place!"

[Furgy]

Wow, What a bunch of idiots. Will never become a paying member!

[Taliesin71]