Don't buy from DVDsoon.com!

DVDsoon.com is a mail-order retailer of DVDs and related products, based in Quebec. I, and many other customers, have had money stolen by this company, and this page exists to warn potential customers and provide some support and information. "DVD Import" appears to be another component of the same business, run by the same people.

UPDATE: (August 25, 2006) Benoit is in contact with a TV show that wants to cover the DVDsoon story, and they are looking for ex-customers who can given them interviews by Webcam. If you're available for that, please contact him at qcsoon@hotmail.com as soon as possible.

Some news: Site visitor "Benoit" is located in Quebec and is attempting to coordinate a group effort to explore lawsuit options, talk to the press, etc. He's created a hotmail account for correspondence related to this effort, so if you'd like to be involved, please contact him at qcsoon@hotmail.com. Note that that is not my address, and I'm not in charge of that effort. He's also been posting some bulletins in the comment section at the bottom of this page, so look there for his updates. I, the maintainer of this Web page, can be reached at mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca.

Over $25,015 stolen from readers of this page (through 29 May)

View source for a list of the reports I've collected. That number includes $20,000 lost by one reader who was evidently a major customer. The remaining reports are for amounts ranging from $30 to over $1000. I myself lost $200. I don't count amounts that people successfully got refunded; this counter is for money actually lost.

Summary

DVDsoon were formerly a reputable and popular business, and I was a happy customer of theirs for several years, but around Spring of 2005 their quality of service began to decline. It appears that they were listing products as "available" when they did not actually have them in stock. So I placed some orders and after a few weeks was notified that my orders had been cancelled - they were unable to deliver, but invited me to re-place the orders. The items were still listed as "available", but the prices had risen. They did not refund my money, which they had charged to my credit card at the time I placed my orders. Instead they issued a "credit" to my account with them.

Perhaps foolishly, I believed the email I received from DVDsoon, and I did re-place my orders using the "credit" and paying the diffence in prices. In my defence, I did have a long history of dealing with DVDsoon and had always received excellent service in the past, so I had every reason to trust them. They had made good on their credits once before (when they'd accidentally shipped me The Princess Diaries instead of The Princess Bride - a reasonable mistake). This was NOT some random fly-by-night Web operation.

After a few more weeks, my orders were cancelled again. There followed several more iterations of the same sort of thing, as I tried ordering different items to get the value of my "credit" one way or another. One complicating factor was that these were limited-edition DVDs and by this point I'd lost any reasonable chance of buying them new from other sources. There were also policy changes in a "customer loyalty" program (which I hadn't joined because of its large up-front fee), a shift from billing at order placement to billing at shipping (nice, but no help to me because I'd already paid), and so on. In retrospect, I suspect that the delays were designed to stall me from making a chargeback claim on my credit card until after the time limit for doing that had expired.

As of early December 2005, I was owed approximately $200. I and many other customers received an email message that began "It is with a lot of regret and sadness that we must announce the closure of the company 9086 - 8316 Québec Inc who managed the operations of DVDSoon.com." The message goes on to explain that the assets, but not the liabilities of the company have been transferred to "Canadian Distribution Services", and that the "new owners" will continue to operate the business just as before, but they won't make good on any credits. They do not actually use the word "bankrupt", but they strongly imply that that's what happened to the former business.

Since that time, DVDsoon has apparently continued to operate. It is not entirely a fraudulent business, because some people have placed orders and actually received them, but there's been no joy for people in my situation. In February 2006, the "new owners" issued an email announcement saying that they would make good on the full amounts of the debts of DVDsoon, but:

That's not acceptable. My opinion is that they have defrauded me of $200, and I want it all back, as actual money, not merchandise, and I want to be compensated for the time they've cost me and for the fact that now I can't buy new the items I originally wanted at all, because they were limited editions that have now sold out. I also think the "rebate" offer looks like an admission of guilt: if they really had nothing to do with the "former" business, then they wouldn't have any obligation to make good on its debts. The February 12 email looks to me like "We admit we owe you this money, and we do not intend to pay it."

I've attempted to pursue it with the credit card company and in various other ways and had little success, so I'm posting this page as a warning and information source for other customers and potential customers. Don't buy from DVDsoon.com! (I am also switching credit card companies, but I won't post details on that until after all the paperwork is finished.)

Since posting this page here, I've heard from dozens of other former customers of DVDsoon with similar complaints; it's not just something specific to my dealings with them, but an overall pattern of fraud against many customers.

9086-8316 Québec Inc.

9086 - 8316 Québec Inc.
1001, Boul. Montarville #75023
Boucherville Qébec
J4B 7Z2

If that company were bankrupt, then the only legitimate way a new company could take over its assets would be through the bankruptcy process. In that case, there would be a bankruptcy trustee we could appeal to for payment of the former company's debts, and the new holder of the assets would be only too happy - and also legally obliged - to provide creditors like myself with the name and address of the bankruptcy trustee. But the company does not appear to be bankrupt, and the "new" operators of the Web site first promised to provide me with the contact information of the bankruptcy trustee, then stopped answering my mail at all. Physical mail to the above address also has gone unanswered.

I was able to find 9086-8316 in the Québec corporate registry. The registration is to someone named Éric Giuard, "Appartement 75024" at the above address, and other names registered are "Act-Net", "Action-Nette", "Courriers2boites", "DVDbientôt", "DVDsoon", and "Mail2box", all of which are listed as "en vigueur" - conspicuously, not bankrupt.

Canadian Distribution Services in B.C.

There is a company based in British Columbia named "Canadian Distribution Services, Ltd." They operate a freight brokerage, and a Web site at www.cdsltd.ca. This company is unrelated to DVDsoon; please do not harass them! I've spoken to representatives of the BC "Canadian Distribution Services" and they say they've heard from a lot of disgruntled DVDsoon customers, because one of the email messages sent in late 2005 announced that DVDsoon had been sold to "Canadian Distribution Services". It's not the one in BC; see below.

Canadian Distribution Services and other names in Quebec

Thanks to site visitor "Francois" for the following links to the Quebec corporate registry:

I've saved copies of those in case the become inaccessible. What they say, in French, is that 9072-9534 Québec is registered to Michel Salin, Christophe Mignani, and Vincent Lesaux, with the additional business names "DVD Depot", "DVD Import", "DVD Warehouse", and formerly "DVD Passion". Then 9127-8572 Québec is registered to Vincent Lesaux, with the additional business names "Canadian Distribution Services (C.D.S.)" and "Canadien Distribution Services (CDS)". The two companies have nearly identical addresses: 276, Saint-Jacques, Bureau 815, Montréal, Québec, H2Y 1N3 for 9072-9534 Québec; the same address except "Bureau 816" for 9127-8572 Québec.

WHOIS for dvdsoon.com

This contact information isn't very useful because it's hidden by a "cloaking" service - which I think shouldn't be allowed, but you can thank the US government for allowing "free enterprise" to run the WHOIS:

WHOIS for dvdsoon.ca

As of May 2006, dvdsoon.ca doesn't answer HTTP, but it resolves to the same Class C as dvdsoon.com, and it was formerly a (buggy, nonfunctioning) redirect to dvdsoon.com. Its information is more informative; I don't usually like CIRA (the authority that manages .ca) much, but at least their "must absolutely have real contact information" policy is useful in this case. NOTE: Someone named "William" has posted in the comments section saying that he is now the holder of the cell phone number listed here as "Admin-Phone", he has no connection to DVD Soon, and to please stop phoning him. If that's the case, it would appear that the number either was fake right from the start when it was entered in the WHOIS, or it has lapsed and been re-assigned, which would be consistent with Mr. Giuard trying to avoid his creditors.

Filing a chargeback

If you wish to dispute a charge on your credit card, you can generally do that at any time within 60 days of the time the charge was posted to your account. Pay all charges you are billed for. Your credit card bill is between you and your credit card company, not you and the merchant; you are required to pay it even if there is a dispute, and paying it does not hurt your ability to dispute charges. The credit card company is still required to help you if you make the claim within the time limit, even after you pay.

Before doing this, make sure that there really is a problem. It can sometimes take a long time to ship items. If you have time, attempt to contact the merchant (DVDsoon or whoever you're dealing with - the procedure is the same regardless) and see if they have an explanation for why you haven't received what you expected. When you are sure, call the credit card company at the phone number that should be on both your bill and your card. Explain the situation and tell them you wish to dispute the charge. They may ask you for supporting documentation.

Everyone I'm aware of who has make a chargeback within the deadline has gotten their money back. I didn't. I missed the deadline because at that time I still trusted DVDsoon to make good on the "credit" they had issued to my account with them. Do not believe DVDsoon or any other retailer if they promise you future merchandise via a "credit". Credits are great, but if they can't make good on them in time for you to dispute the charge should they fail, then you should dispute the charge!

DVDsoon's Web site currently posts a terms of service agreement that appears designed to intimidate you into waiving your right to make a chargeback. I believe that's illegal, and it certainly ought to be.

Reporting Economic Crime Online

The RCMP (Canada's national police force) operates a Web site called recol.ca, for "Reporting Economic Crime Online". I am not aware of anyone who has had any satisfaction from filing reports against DVDsoon through that site, but it appears to be the channel you're supposed to use for situations like this one, and the one that other police forces will eventually direct you to. If you achieve any results by talking to recol.ca, or any other police organization, please let me know.

The Office de la Protection du Consummateur

The Province of Québec operates a consumer protection office which may be of some interest. I've heard that people have had good results contacting this office with complaints about other merchants in Québec. The office has a hotline number: +1 888 672 2556 (probably good only in North America). They answer the phones in French. If you say "Je ne parle pas francais" they will attempt to speak English for you, but they're definitely more comfortable dealing with you in French. I called and was told that my next step under the circumstances would have to be small claims court.

Small claims court

If you really want to pursue it all the way, and are willing to travel to Longueuil, Quebec to do it, you can file a case in small claims court. The actual filing can be done elsewhere in Canada, but it appears that the hearing has to be in Longueuil. I'm not sure who chooses what language will be used in the courtroom, whether translation is provided, etc. There are costs associated with this option; you can ask the judge to award you your costs as well as whatever damages you claim. If you are owed less than $100, as most disgrunted customers seem to be, it may not be very attractive to go through this process. There is a statute of limitations that may apply; the time limit seems to be 2 years from when the damage occurs. Needless to say, I'd like to hear about the results obtained by anyone who attempts this option.

Class action lawsuit

This situation looks to me like a perfect example of what class-action lawsuits are for. To successfully mount one of those, we would need one or more "typical" plaintiffs - people who were damaged by DVDsoon - and one or more lawyers willing to take the case. Then we could sue on behalf of not only ourselves, but also everyone else like us, aggregating all the little claims (which individually wouldn't be worth a court case) into one big claim for the entire amount that was stolen. I don't have the time and energy to attempt to organize such a thing, but I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who might want to make the attempt.

How you can help

Disclaimer

Everything posted here is my opinion, the opinion of the person who posted it in the case of third-party comments, or factual information obtained from public sources, and I would be delighted to explain that to a judge.

Comment Archive

Only the most recent comments are shown below; I've moved the older ones to archive pages for faster loading:

Comments

Patrick (Holland) from 86.80.2.172 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:02:28 +0000:
I've just found out about this crap. So I guess I won't be getting my two dvd's which were only about 25 canadian dollars which I order end of April this year. By mid June I got an email, they charged me and said it was sent! Since I'm a pretty patient guy, I've only decided to write them an email now and I just found out their bankrupt! Besides the 25 for the order, had an additional $25 on credit with them. So I've lost 50 dollars. Which is about 35 euros. And I probably won't get that refunded, it's way past the 45 day period of asking a refund.

They basically dug their own grave by offering cheap prizes and free shipping. It's attractive to the customer, especially from people outside of canada or the US. There's no way they could ever make a money on this. My advice to people from Europe or elsewhere ordering region 1 dvd's from little known sites, cheap is good, so make sure you don't order tons of dvd's at once. Even if you're a regular customer.

Marc Bedard from 70.82.185.228 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 03:43:54 +0000:
Hi Everyone,
I'm one of the lucky ones - my order came in & I had the good fortune of cancelling any other "outstanding" orders as they never replied to 2 emails I had sent them.
I'm also fortunate to live about 10 miles from where their offices used to be - yes, they are closed & if you also want to know; I passed by the house supposedly built by the screwball owner & it seems to either have been sold or seized - when I passed, it seemed to be an older couple that lived there.
In any case, i've provided my alternate email & if anyone has any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.
On another note, I also wanted to let everyone know not to hold their breath unfortunately; from a legal standpoint your best chance to be reimbursed is to provide proof to your credit card company that the order was requested cancelled (I'm quoting Canadian Law here so it might be different if your in another country) & as stated in several emails, generally speaking credit card companies will give you 60 days grace to request a chargeback.
Having said this, I've also tapped into my connections & tried to get any info regarding the Incorporation that they were using (9086-8316 QUÉBEC INC.) as here in Quebec, every company must be either incorporated or registred.
What I found out was that they are both currently being investigated but no longer in business - even their banking info is no longer active...
The unfortunate part about the internet age is that we will see more & more of these types of situations -- in this case, I believe that DVD Soon was in a different set of hands a couple of years ago & that young maverick Eric came in & saw an opportunity to make a quick buck & "profit" from it all the while leaving little or no trace.
I know that it won't bring back your bucks but hopefully this can shed a little light for everyone -- I still passed by their offices a few weeks ago to see if they would reopen or something. I'll let everyone know if there are any changes. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me at my email address.

Helen, UK from 82.109.255.162 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 12:40:31 +0000:
Hi there everyone. Another sad story from me - although I'm lucky in that I only lost $45 dollars, not some of the amounts others have been speaking about, well into the hundreds!

I ordered my DVD in April as a pre-order, and they charged me straight away, but I thought this was nothing unusual, now it's september and I still have no dvd, and from reading these comments, I'm unlikely to see it, or my money back, as the 60 days with the credit card company is well up.

I had been quite a loyal customer of theirs for several years and had spent a lot of money with them in the past, so I thought I would be ok, but not now. I've switched to dvdcraze.com an australian firm, but I think I will do some research on more internet companies now before buying from anyone anymore!

Greg - Australia from 210.84.44.234 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 13:55:04 +0000:
Alas, I too have been sucked in. I was a customer of DVDSoon for a few years and never had a problem. Then I hit the same "pending order" hurdle as everyone else but was assured by DVDSoon it was on it's way. Of course by the time I realised it was all crap it was too late to initiate a chargeback. Now, whenever I order from a company I'm not familiar with I check to see if there are any forums online. I'm down about $CAD130 but feel bad for the others who have been robbed of more. What I don't understand is how were these people allowed to operate for so long?

Greg - Australia from 210.84.44.234 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 13:57:17 +0000:
P.S. With any luck their extravagent house they built with "our" money will become infested with termites!

Jonas S - Sweden from 193.235.142.98 at Fri, 01 Sep 2006 14:52:31 +0000:
I've been a happy customer for DVDSOON for a couple of years - good price fast delivery - never any problem (except for slow pending orders). Since last year...
I've lost about $150 CAD this year and about $120 at their last bankrupcy in 2005. It doesn't seem possible to get any money from my bank in Sweden. I payed with VISA and they don't have any phone number in Sweden so... for me it seems impossible to get any refund!

Richard E(UK) from 87.102.21.205 at Sat, 02 Sep 2006 00:13:19 +0000:
Jonas surely you can request your credit card company to do a charge back. Customer account telephone numbers will be on your statement or on the back of your Visa card.

Sean M from 156.34.138.132 at Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:14:33 +0000:
On Jul 25, 2006 I placed an order for $40CDN. I recieved an order confirmation email but that was it. Nothing! I am going to try to contact my cc company to see what they can do. What an effin rip off.

Simon W (UK) from 80.1.224.8 at Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:52:38 +0000:
I've just found out that I've become another victim of DVDSOON. Out of ten transactions dating back to the 9th May, I have recieved only the first order. Therefore, I fear, losing a grand total of $200.

JohnG (UK) from 172.134.122.46 at Sun, 03 Sep 2006 15:23:49 +0000:
MBNA CC were appraised of problems with an order placed with DVDSoon June 18 on August 7 (amounting to about $CAD 120), and after due consideration, reported on Sept 3 that they would credit the CC with the entire amount with the proviso that, if they received additional information from the merchant and/or bank, they would re-charge the CC. However, a successful outcome.

Tanja from 70.68.251.19 at Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:40:49 +0000:
I would just like to wish you all luck against DvdSoon and to say thank you. A few months ago I was looking at the DvdSoon site and noticed some anime titles that I couldn't find anywhere else but at the time was unable to order and just now I was looking for the DvdSoon site again to sign up and maybe place an order that might not have been filled but instead I found your warning and I truly and sincerely thank you for it.

Tyrone (UK) from 86.129.26.36 at Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:57:19 +0000:
Hello fellow suckers! I too was seduced not only by DVDSoon's cheaper than average prices but also the fact that they claimed to have in stock DVDs that other reputable internet DVD sites were selling either at astronimical prices or did not have in stock at all. The initial difficulties I had in registering did not perturb me from eagerly placing an order for 10 DVDs for just over £70 including 4 Criterion titles! I placed this order on 3 June 2006 and after a fortnight of that order 'pending' it was 'shipped' on 17 June 2006. The fact that people who opted for 'free shipping' would have to up to 8 weeks seemed worthwhile to obtain such bargains. Alas, 8 weeks later - no DVDs and my suspicion levels ran high. Decided to check DVDSoon's website to see if there were any general problems let alone specific to me and found like many of you that the site had disappeared. Placed 'DVDSoon' in my search engine and thankfully stumbled across this site. Immediately contacted Egg, my credit card provider who advised me to lodge a dispute. Within 10 days of doing so, Egg refunded me in full, for a transaction that was way over the supposed 60 day limit. For this outcome I submitted copies of the e-mails I received from DVDSoon.com confirming I had placed an order and stating that my order had been shipped. I also gave them details of this website. In future, I will stick with tried trusted and reliable site such as play.com/usa.com, amazon.co.uk/com,fr blahdvd.co.uk, cd-wow.com, bensonsworld.co.uk, hmv.co.uk. You may pay a little bit more but at least you get your DVDs without the infinitive wait!!! Thanks again.

Dave from 207.216.137.138 at Wed, 06 Sep 2006 04:16:46 +0000:
I want to report some success with my credit card company. 5 out of 6 transactions were permitted "provisional credit adjustments to your account" The letter also goes on to say, "If the merchant is able to provide us sufficient proof that the transaction is valid, we reserve the right to re-debit your credit card". Since DVDSOON is bankrupt, I don't expect any disputes.
The only transaction to fail to get a chargeback is the one where I cancelled a order but there was no record of it anywhere.
I highly recommend all customers to contact their credit card companies immediately to get chargebacks. My transactions were over 60 days old. As well, my credit card company said it would be easier to get money back if the company is actually bankrupt.

Zlatko from 217.68.101.68 at Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:19:27 +0000:
Hi all!
It is so strange to read about all these "problems" with DVDsoon. I have been a customer there for quite some time. Never had any problems whatsoever. I placed my last orders on DVDsoon around february, march. And I got all of them.
That's why I was quite amazed when I found out what had happened to most of the people who have visited this web site. I just hope you guys can reclaim the money you're owed from this company.
Good luck to you all, and thanks for this highly informative page.

bevan from 139.130.254.242 at Thu, 07 Sep 2006 05:07:39 +0000:
Hi
Had a season of DVDs not arrive (PP317 shipping code too) from March. Contacted DVDSoon via email and they sent me link to a claim form but then disapeared before I could send it back :(

Put in a dispute form with my bank (NAB) and they have been co-operating quite well so far. I have to fill in an additional form, but they havn't rejected it out of hand even after such a long time.

So... if you havn't got your goods, lodge a dispute with your bank even if it has been a long time.

Rosemary from 216.99.59.122 at Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:03:00 +0000:
Count me in among the "suckered". On July 28, 2006, I ordered a Marx Brothers boxed set at the incredible price of $30.98 (I have to work half a day to earn that!) which I hadn't received to date. When I tried to access the customer account status webpage today (Sept 8), it was gone. By chance, I googled "DVDsoon" and arrived at this shocking webpage. I haven't finished reading all the testimonials yet, but I'm already crestfallen and ashamed that I could have been duped like this. Not sure what I can do; thirty bucks is thirty bucks. This experience really puts me off making any further Internet purchases, I tell ya.
Rosemary, Toronto

Lawrence Mayka from 71.155.240.135 at Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:48:53 +0000:
In February, dvdsoon made my $80 credit from last year's failure available to me, as a 50% rebate toward new purchases. I stupidly went ahead and ordered $160 worth of DVDs. They were supposedly shipped in March, but I never received them. In April I filed a complaint of nondelivery, and in May dvdsoon restored $160 to my account as store credit. If I had had half a brain, I would have immediately requested a cash refund of it, but instead I again stupidly ordered $160 of DVDs using that credit. The DVDs were supposedly shipped in June, but of course never came.

I think I've lost.

Ben Wicks from 68.150.37.101 at Mon, 11 Sep 2006 01:44:56 +0000:
So, I lost over $1700CAN ... filed a dispute with TD VISA credit card and letting them know the whole story and when the purchases were made and from whom, and I've only gotten about $450 back from the $500 stolen in the last 90 days. Looks like I'm getting screwed again and again and again ... also being screwed for about $3000US from a seller on ebay. My lesson learned for everyone: KNOW YOUR TIME LIMITS for claims and claim it no matter what the seller tells you and no matter how long you've dealt with them in the past ... It's sad but really you cannot trust anyone in our world. PEACE ;0)

Wilfred from 82.173.205.79 at Mon, 11 Sep 2006 07:12:43 +0000:
I ordered The andere Wajda box ( three war films; criterion) and the nba dynasty series box from the 76. I've paid about 50 euro.

DVDSoon.com: Order Payment Confirmation

Your order 2090623 is presently in packaging and should ship in
the following 24 to 72 hours. A shipping notification will be sent at
upon its departure.

The DVDs were shipped(??) in Jule, but of course never came.

GeirS from 80.202.91.134 at Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:39:10 +0000:
Hehe. All the story is like been telling by meself. :D. It sucks bigtime to be sucked like this. I had close to 2.500-3.000CAN$ in orders to this "fine" company. After the last shippment was notified I gave up hope, recieving any movies from DVDsoon.
A friend of mine got one film, so iI tried ones more- with the same result: No film in mail... I really have mailed DVDsoon in search of missing movies, but they never respond to mails. :-(
Sorry to hear that so many had the same experiance as I...

JohnG (UK) from 172.147.11.19 at Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:40:11 +0000:
Although when I emailed DVDSoon last (orders@, info@, hr@, veronique@dvdsoon.com), a receipt was generated when the message was successfully forwarded, postmaster@dvdimport.com now reports delivery failues for mail issued to the DVDSoon.com address.

Given the track record of the company, it would be helpful for current activity of the Company Directors to be tracked, and for this information to be posted on this site. If they set up another business based on the DVDSoon or DVDImport business model, We can at least minimise the risk of their approach to customer management being repeated.

Karyn Richardson from 220.236.20.188 at Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:34:28 +0000:
(Aus) I too am in the same situation - used DVDSoon for a long period of time with no problems - now have two orders "missing" or more likely not sent & a credit which has never been received ...sad that companies like this are allowed to continue to operate!

Steve Turner from 62.64.212.179 at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:48:42 +0000:
Having used DVDSoon many times before I didn't hesitate to order a couple of dvds (about 18 GBP in total) from them in June 2006. They confirmed shipment but alas nothing has arrived.

Unfortunately I used a debit card rather than a credit card.

And now I can't get onto their website - and Google found this page.

B-man from 192.197.178.2 at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:04:46 +0000:
Has anyone ever ordered from www.VideoCanada.ca? How was the experience? And where is the operation located? Thanks.

Matthew Skala from 67.158.77.195 at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:24:36 +0000:
The domain name videocanada.ca is registered to "4269799 Canada Inc.", with an address in Dorval, Quebec. The site design reminds me a lot of DVDsoon's site design, but that may not mean much because almost any online DVD retailer would probably have a similar-looking site.

Raul from 195.93.60.106 at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:41:03 +0000:
bought 'once and again season 3' which they listed as being available (at that time amazon.ca had it listed similarly). charged on card and never delivered. two months later, listed item as shipped which never arrived. I then find out the dvd was never released by the studio, so how did they ship??? as usual, no way to contact them either by email or by phone... crooks

Roman from 69.21.48.65 at Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:00:33 +0000:
Well it looks like im the next un lucky Sucker taken by Dvdsoon.con . I guess I Have been to Patient since my order was placed in dec of 2005. fortunatly for me they only burned me for 1 DVD around 20 U.S Dollars. But I kept all my order numbers and paperwork from them like there RMA - Affidavit.
so add my $20 to the final total of theft.
hopefully somebody ends up nailing these thiefs to the cross and if that happens I would like my turn at the Hammer!
Nobody Likes a Theif!

Mike Triolo from 24.74.98.48 at Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:22:47 +0000:
Hi:

I have browsed the DVDSoon site on several occasions and found there prices to be extremely high. I have been doing business with DeepDiscount DVD and CD Universe and have never had a problem with not receiving what I ordered.

Mike Triolo

Greg (New Zealand) from 210.55.17.36 at Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:11:51 +0000:
I'm another who got burnt (to the tune of around $100). I was a long time customer who came to accept long delays as the norm. The wierd thing is I did manage to get a successful credit refund back around March 2006, and also an order delivered around the same time. This gave me renewed confidence to order again! But both an order for 2 season sets of Stargate SG-1, and a seperate order for 2x Blu-Ray discs were paid for and supposedly despatched around June 2006, but simply never arrived (I now highly suspect that they were never actually sent!). Of course, no response to any email follow-ups, and then the whole website vanished! Yes, I would like my product or my money back, but appears to have all the signs of a pre-planned fraud!

Michael (Switzerland) from 89.217.10.92 at Tue, 19 Sep 2006 11:33:55 +0000:
In 2005 I ordered a few times at DVDsoon with no problems and even decided to dump fellow canadian site dvdboxoffice.com for it (which is btw one of the best online shops for free shipping worldwide). The problems began in 2006, when the new owners cancelled an order of mine (around 50cad). Like everyone else, I trusted them and placed a follow-up order for 100cad in February to regain my full rebate (and was instantly charged for it). It took them almost a month to confirm the shipping but eventually they did and I was looking forward to the sweet Alien Quadrilogy Box among other DVDs.
On their website it said that oversea shipping needs up to 8 weeks and no complaints should be placed until then. Well, of course I waited patiently until may and, as I learned later, that's too late to get the money back from your credit card company.
I started to write polite emails to DVDsoon but never got a reply (in 2005 they replied after 3 days). The former polite emails got angrier and angrier and in july I started to call the phone number mentioned in their contact details (Canada and UK). Of course they never picked up the phone.

I gave up and accepted the loss of the 100cad (plus 30cad for the useless membership card). But up until now I never thought that so many others were victims of DVDsoon, too!

I hope the authorities will get these bastards!

lesley from 128.205.63.93 at Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:31:49 +0000:
I had the same problem with them. I placed an order a few years back which included three DVDs. Two of them arrived, but one did not. I contacted the company and they told me that it was out of stock. I waited and waited but never recieved it. Finally I decided to try to get a refund for it. I filled out the paper work required and sent it off to them. They approved it and said that I had "59.00 in credit." Then I tried to use it and the re-charged my credit card. So now I was out another 60 bucks. And I NEVER GOT THIS ORDER either. When I tried to ask for another refund I recieved that email about the company switching over and blah blah blah. In the end I gave up and lost about 120 Canadian dollars. It's too bad too because the other DVD's got to me really fast and they were much cheaper than other sites.

Eric from 69.159.96.181 at Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:43:15 +0000:
There was never any plan to fraud customers. Things just didnt workout right and problems started piling up. At the same time, nobody wanted to stop the business because an important amount of orders were still coming in. A good percentage of customers were still getting good service, but that number started windling down. Everybody had the best intentions, but not necessarily the expertise to have a good customer service approach and to "correct" those problems. They found a few quick-fixes but there came a point where you just couln't put a band-aid anymore, the bleeding was too thorough.

Matthew Skala from 67.158.79.211 at Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:53:17 +0000:
They made promises they could not keep, at a time they knew they could not keep them, and accepted money for it. That's fraud.

mark haines from 86.20.202.80 at Tue, 26 Sep 2006 01:55:32 +0000:
i ordered over 100 dvds with dvdsoon and was very happy with there services and was a happy member of there discount card then it all went wrong. as with all the comments left on this site it happened to me ok it was all the same so i will not go into details but we must ask why ? dvdsoon was a great company lets face it we would all say to a friend after cheap region 1 dvds that dvdsoon was the best up to the end of 2005 so again i ask why my guess is that loyalty card yes it was great and i saved a lot of money with it but they had to many members and lets face it the dvds were cheap without the loyalty card discount so they had to end the card but thats were the problem started for them .lets think about it you got a dvd company you buy a dvd in to sell for $10 and i come along with my discont card and buys the dvd for $9.99 it dont take a lot to see there is no profit init so you end the discount card great problem over NO you now got all these old orders that you cant make money on so what do you do cancelle all the oders and give them credit great all sorted they can now reorder there dvd at the non discount card price problem over NO the customer does not want the now pricy dvd so please refund me but you spent there mony on dvd that made you no money and the credit card companys are starting to take money back so now you got no money for new stock so dvd comany goes bust ok so thats my view on what happened to dvdsoon i will try to rember the money i saved not the $180 i lost but if i think about it i saved up to $10 on each dvd so i will still smile (O:
please give your view on why it all happend )O:
but im still thinking (i am sad to see dvdsoon go bust)(sorry)

Renee - Australia from 59.167.235.61 at Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:34:04 +0000:
I too was a very happy dvdsoon purchaser and in the end of july this year i made a$275CAD order and i just thought the long wait was normal but its been 2 months and i sent them an email about a month ago and to my dismay never recieved one back and still havent recieved my dvds and by the sound of things never will!!!!! and now the websites gone so i spose thats a good thing at least other people cant get burnt by them

cafe_eighties from 58.179.74.124 at Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:46:56 +0000:
Renee,
I urge you to contact your bank for a chargeback before your 90 days are up.

david from 210.84.57.201 at Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:42:31 +0000:
In respeonse to 'Eric' above.Yes they DID try to defraud people with INTENT. They deliberately claimed to have sent merchandise which they NEVER did in the first place(The PP317 fiasco). Systematical and intential fraud. it wasn't as if back orders were piling up. It was a case of falsely teling people their orders were shipped when they weren't. FRAUD!!!!

John S - Australia from 220.237.172.169 at Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:11:22 +0000:
Hi

I've been a regular customer of DVD soon since 2002 and had no problems up until late last year.

I have 2 Return Authority requets on 2 orders I did not receive to the value of around $100 Candian.

I had e-mailed this several times over the past month or so and had no response, now I have read this site and know exactly whats happening.

I suggest you buy from Amazon or another reputable online company. I will contact "Today Tonight" an Australian current affairs program to see if they would be interested in doing a story on this. If any other Australians are out there I urge you to do the same.

John

olzolz from 24.37.108.204 at Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:08:08 +0000:
IN RESPONSE TO ERIC:
It's not because what happened wasn't planned from the start that it's not a fraud. As Matthew says: "they made promises they could not keep, at a time they knew they could not keep them, and accepted money for it". The crucial point is "at a time they knew they could not keep them". Even unexperienced, they knew for sure they couldn't seriously offer Criterion DVDs (that's just an example among many) for CAN$22.00, that is about 55-60% less than Amazon.ca or any other DVD retailer. When they saw their business was sinking, they decided to continue instead of going into bankruptcy, knowing exactly what they were doing. By the way, it seems this wasn't something new because they had already frauded their customers last year with an even more tricky plan.

david from 203.158.60.244 at Tue, 03 Oct 2006 09:48:39 +0000:
The fraud was claiming to have shipped items which they clearly hadn't.And this wasn't the odd shipment. It was on a mass scale toward the end. Trying to get as much money as possible before they declared bankruptcy with no intention of supplying goods to the customer. They didn't even pretend to have stuff on backorder(pendind as they would phrase it), they just lied and said they shipped it. Bald Face LIES.

Sandra from 62.252.128.25 at Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:16:57 +0000:
I stopped ordering because I thought it was odd when they went out of business then came back. My son did not know about the fiasco and ordered in April 2006 $90 worth, prices were good etc. They never arrived & I thought he had lost his money but from what some folk are saying it is still worth making a claim It is sad that we accept that if you order online eventually you will be scammed [I was also scammed by an ebay seller Ben]there really should be a better way to police it. Finding who to report any online theft to is difficult, in Britain anyway. One company chinatown.net I reported to the co that handles their finance. If we cannot get them or our money at least we should make it difficult for them to start again. I think dvd soon are just the tip of the iceberg.

Vaquette from 82.250.69.184 at Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:32:42 +0000:
Hello,
I lost 80 CAD for an order July 30, 2006. I want to know if it's possible DVD Soon payback me. My order number is 2092210.
Thanks you.

Bonjour,
J'ai passé commande le 30 Juillet 2006 de 80$, je voudrai savoir si je pourrai récupérer mon argent.
Mon numéro de commande est le 2092210.
Merci.

Steve from 203.212.139.189 at Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:40:06 +0000:
Vaquette, you have no chance of getting your money back from DVDSoon. Assuming you paid by credit card, contact your bank and put in a claim. Sometimes they have time limits on how long after your purchase you can claim, but sometimes they waive this. Contact them as soon as possible, explaining you have never received your goods. It will help if you have saved any emails etc from DVD soon.

Laila from 159.162.68.18 at Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:39:19 +0000:
I have a similar experience as you - many years of happy buying and suddenly deteriorating service. Fortunately I don't think they owe me any money. Once I cancelled an order and ordered again, and only paid the difference between earlier payment and new. I was probably out of it when it became really bad.
What irritated me the most is that they kept changing loyalty program, and suddenly then giving free postage to people who were not in the program as well, etc. But I figured out that I got a lot more back on saved postage and rebates than what I paid for the year of loyalty program, which is probably because I am overseas. Probably not paid very well for people in Canada.
Anyway, is the company now finally out of business? The website appear not to have been working the last month - at least it won't load.

JohnG from 172.162.214.136 at Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:02:53 +0000:
Laila - the website went down from Aug 2, and shortly thereafter emails sent to DVDSoon were simply bounced.

Kathy Moore from 209.17.181.85 at Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:45:01 +0000:
I was also a victim of Dvd soon, just like most of you, I loved the company until I ordered a bunch of movies, prepaid as I always did and then were pending for months, untill I received an E-mail indicating their drastic sudden change and no refunds would be issued, this is bull shit. We all work hard for our money and most of us put up with lots of bs from our jobs to make this kind of living and we deserve this refund.

Anthony Truong from 68.145.114.221 at Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:59:35 +0000:
I was a longtime Canadian customer of DVDSoon. Granted I did take advantage of their coupons that were offered through Visa. At the time I did not know how they were making a profit with the prices that they had.

After the change where all orders were cancelled because they were "switching" to the a new system that charges your Credit Card when they shipped, I got about a $100 credit. The next order i put didn't use the credit but instead charged my credit card.

I then called my CC company but I couldn't get a refund because the original order was past 90 days.

I've also filed a complaint to the BBB in Quebec but I have never heard back from them.

This experience has made me very leary of dealing with any businesses based out of Quebec, especially if the BBB does not take any action when a formal complaint has been filed.

Matthew Skala from 129.97.79.144 at Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:11:36 +0000:
The BBB has no official status; they're not the police, just a private organization. They can only take action against their own members, and there's a good chance DVDsoon wasn't one.

Stephan from 84.130.3.25 at Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:04:01 +0000:
So are there any news from the DVDSoon "front"? Have any of these criminals been apprehended? Has there been any media coverage in Canada?

Tony Sweden from 81.232.82.130 at Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:02:35 +0000:
i made a order in june 2005 and i havent seen the dvd yet =(.
every time i contacted the dvdsoon, they told me to wait and check custom...after a couple of month the phone number and all atempt to contact them disapeard =( I told myself its no use ...im glad i only ordered a single dvd disc to try them out... so i didnt lose much ....but still it sucks when u have waited for a dvd for so long and it never turns up =(..

benoit from 70.81.98.238 at Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:44:35 +0000:
Here are some news. As you have read on top of this page, I was involved into getting some TV reporter to cover this story.
I am happy to tell you that this friday Nov. 24 2006 , a coverage of our misfortune will show. It is at 7:30 PM (Quebec time) at J.E. show. It is in french. We have gathered interviews from all around the world, some of them will be there. I was
interview for 1:30 hre.Naturally they have condense the stuff quite a bit. They also found the owner of CDS (dvdsoon) and interview him on the phone.
For those who cannot catch our Tv signal i will post an address
so this will be reacheable thrue internet to be viewed.

CDS is officially bankrupt and cannot be sued to get any money back. So get to your credit card company and request refund.

All this will not bring money back , but at least will warn people as to whom they do business on the internet.

Francois from 65.94.187.21 at Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:36:46 +0000:
Thanks Benoit,

I'll sure be watching the show.

Benoit from 70.81.98.238 at Fri, 24 Nov 2006 04:01:47 +0000:
Please note that the show is from 7 to 8 PM. Not 7:30PM

Sorry

Benoit

JohnG from 172.142.126.206 at Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:14:37 +0000:
Although, in the UK, I wont see the broadcast, it will be interesting to learn of the excuses which DVDSoon will give for their incompetence, and whether or not authorities have taken any action against perpetrators since any offences were committed before any official bankruptcy. I doubt whether DVDSoon staff interviewed will come across as being the most intelligent of people.

stephane from 64.229.249.132 at Sat, 25 Nov 2006 00:50:57 +0000:
I was a customer of dvdsoon for a year or two. I made about 15 orders with them without having any problems at all. Even the price where very interesting. Everything was all good until middle-end of 2005. Everybody seems to have the same problem. Too bad they went bankrupt, it was a very good site to buy from an this can happen to any compagny. It did happen to me with a real store (i had bought something with the store extended warranty, then they went bankrupt so i was never able to get my merchandise repaired.) By the way dvdsoon and dvd import was belonging to the same owner. P.S i am looking for a good site to buy dvd's from in canada. if anyone knows anyone good, please let me know.

benoit from 70.81.98.238 at Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:44:16 +0000:
Here is the way to look at the interview on TV

http://tva.canoe.com/emissions/je/reportages/14619.html
Just copy and paste
Then click on the window where you see 30000$

To resume, the syndic (those in charge when someone goes bankrupt)are still investigating to see if there is reason to transfer the case to the GRC for criminal charge.

To Stephane: I use http://www.deepdiscountdvd.ca/index.cfm

Cheap and super fast delevery.

Kerilyn from 145.221.52.72 at Wed, 20 Dec 2006 14:20:58 +0000:
In July 2005 I ordered a DVD from this site for my brother for his birthday, since he was living in Canada and I was living in the UK. I would never have known about dvdsoon.com at all, if CIBC VISA had not been promoting the site by offering extra discounts to CIBC VISA Dividend cardholders. You wouldn't think that a major Canadian and global financial institution like CIBC would be involved with such a disreputable company like dvdsoon.com, but there you go. My credit card was charged immediately for a shipment that never arrived, my order was cancelled when they supposedly introduced a new billing system, refunds and credits were promised, etc. Loss: $53.

Hans Christian Berge from 80.203.35.121 at Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:38:49 +0000:
I purchased around 10 DVDs from DVDsoon during 2004 and 2005. I recieved everyone, and never had any problems at all. Loss: £0

Andre Lieven from 205.188.116.74 at Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:07:42 +0000:
It looks like I might be the luckiest buyer of DVDSoon. On Dec 31, 2004, I ordered seven box sets from them. None arrived before
late Febuary, and the last one only trickled in in early April 2005, but among all that, a second copy of one box set also arrived from them. And, as I got all my items, I had no cause to get my credit card firm to do anything. I considered the extra set to be a form of penance from DVDSoon. :-)
I am truely sorry for all who lost with this firm of thieves, and I only hope that you all find better places to buy from. There don't seem to be any good discount dvd sellers in Canada,
amazon and the stores of Best Buy and Future Shop seem to have the market all sewn up. Fortuneately, I travel to the US a lot, and also have US pals who can deliver US ordered goods to me in Canada. If any of you hve either method available to you, that would be possibly useful. For instance, in a sale ending today,
Circuit City is selling seasons 1-9 of Stargate SG-1 for $17.99
each.

Michael Blower from 155.140.122.227 at Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:13:07 +0000:
Hi

They stole £60 from me, I ordered two products in June 2006 neither of which ever arrived, despite their site saying that they had been despatched.

They refused to answer any of my 20+ emails and I had to eventually claim my cash back from the credit card company.

I had used them several times in the past, when their service was excellent!

david from 58.107.228.123 at Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:23:47 +0000:
hi all from australia

just wanted to know if anyone can offer any other candian dvd websites they buy from and trust, as deep discount.ca has closed and the new deep discount in the usa isn't offering international shipments at the moment or ever.

i was able to get $800 on charge back but lost my $1000 in credit. so that helped a little, still not happy though.

thanks

Paul Rose (UK) from 62.31.94.161 at Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:11:13 +0000:
I was a long term customer, but in the end lost well over $400, this was down to multiple orders which were cancelled/credited/re-ordered several times. Due to this and the time involved there is no way I could possibly figure out what was ordered by debit or which credit cards, so there is no chance of any refunds. All I can do is accept it, and try to think that for the several years they were operating successfully I probably saved a lot more than I lost ( I ordered a hell of a lot!). I just don't know how these people sleep at night, they say good guys finish last, well I'd still rather be a good guy. Paul.

Queralt from 62.57.73.202 at Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:37 +0000:
Hola, Mi nombre es Queralt de Barcelona - Spain. Yo como los demás confié en DVDsoon.com en varias compras sin problemas, hasta que desafortunadamente un día un pedido pagado jamás llegó a mi destino, después de muchas reclamaciones sin respuesta he desistido… he perdido unos $100…

Terry from 58.105.211.214 at Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:09:09 +0000:
When I get hold of this Eric Guiard I'll rip his fucking heart out on the spot. No-one rips me off and gets away with it. Even if it was only a dollar.

Fran Meq from 24.202.182.159 at Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:11:17 +0000:
Hi guys,

May those bastards at DVDsoon rest in peace...
It used to be the best online store for R1 DVDs. I stopped shopping from them right before the chaos ( I Wasn't smart, just broke LOL.)
My problem today is to find a new online store to get my DVDs.
buyadvd.com has great prices but the shipping cost double your check!!!!
So if anyone knows some good sites... It would be great to get back on our feet and start ordering again from a sure place...

Thanks in advance.

Stephen from 84.130.33.122 at Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:07:15 +0000:
As for alternative online DVD retailers, I have recently tried dvdpacific.com - and was actually quite happy with them. Reasonable prices and more than reasonable shipping rates - they seem to be fast and reliable, too.
Of course there's deepdiscount.com - their prices are usually very good - but I have had DVDs lost in the mail a number of times - which has never happened with any other retailer. So I don't order there anymore.
Often even amazon.ca / amazon.com / amazon.co.uk are a very good alternative - especially some marketplace sellers.
Finally, cdwow.com often has amazing prices, as they offer DVDs from around the world, so you can get a lot of films very cheap if you buy an Asian version.

David from 203.208.88.138 at Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:05:57 +0000:
I too have had trouble with this company. I had orders cancelled and was given credit to use on future orders. However when attempting to use this credit I was informed that I can only use a certain percentage towards a new purchase. Which ultimately meant that I would need to spend additional money for something that is worth less than my credit amount. Disgusting.

JohnG from 172.146.28.147 at Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:35:20 +0000:
Thankfully, DVDSoon are history now, and people will be wary of shady practises perpetrated by those intimately involved.

As for alternative DVD suppliers - one of the interesting issues at the moment is that the $:Â£ exchange rate has exceeded $2:Â£1 for the first time in 20 years - which makes DVD prices seriously competitive when ordering from the US and Canada.

Francois from 217.148.249.102 at Tue, 01 May 2007 07:29:02 +0000:
Hi,

I received today a very puzzling promotion mail from a new DVD Canadian company, based in Montreal:
http://www.xpressdvd.biz

What I find VERY puzzling, is that the message was sent to an email address that I used only on very, very few websites, that included DVDsoon and DVDimport!!!

Hence my immense suspicion regarding this new player on the Web.

I checked the domain name, and here is what came up:

Domain Name: XPRESSDVD.BIZ
Domain ID: D12485045-BIZ
Sponsoring Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 2
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID: 40442365
Registrant Name: XPRESSDVD
Registrant Organization: XPRESSDVD
Registrant Address1: 8754 rue de Gros Bois
Registrant City: Montreal
Registrant State/Province: Quebec
Registrant Postal Code: H1K 2G7
Registrant Country: Canada
Registrant Country Code: CA
Registrant Phone Number: +1.5142369044
Registrant Email: no.valid.email@worldnic.com
Administrative Contact ID: 40442365
Administrative Contact Name: XPRESSDVD
Administrative Contact Organization: XPRESSDVD
Administrative Contact Address1: 8754 rue de Gros Bois
Administrative Contact City: Montreal
Administrative Contact State/Province: Quebec
Administrative Contact Postal Code: H1K 2G7
Administrative Contact Country: Canada
Administrative Contact Country Code: CA
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +1.5142369044
Administrative Contact Email: no.valid.email@worldnic.com
Billing Contact ID: 40442366
Billing Contact Name: Richard BRUNET
Billing Contact Address1: 8754 rue de Gros Bois
Billing Contact City: Montreal
Billing Contact State/Province: Quebec
Billing Contact Postal Code: H1K 2G7
Billing Contact Country: Canada
Billing Contact Country Code: CA
Billing Contact Phone Number: +1.5142369044
Billing Contact Email: xpressdvd@gmail.com
Technical Contact ID: 40442365
Technical Contact Name: XPRESSDVD
Technical Contact Organization: XPRESSDVD
Technical Contact Address1: 8754 rue de Gros Bois
Technical Contact City: Montreal
Technical Contact State/Province: Quebec
Technical Contact Postal Code: H1K 2G7
Technical Contact Country: Canada
Technical Contact Country Code: CA
Technical Contact Phone Number: +1.5142369044
Technical Contact Email: no.valid.email@worldnic.com
Name Server: MY.PRIVATEDNS.COM
Name Server: YOUR.PRIVATEDNS.COM
Created by Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS INC.
Domain Registration Date: Fri Feb 17 17:05:02 GMT 2006
Domain Expiration Date: Wed Feb 16 23:59:59 GMT 2011
Domain Last Updated Date: Mon Jun 26 13:56:44 GMT 2006

>>>> Whois database was last updated on: Tue May 01 07:15:25 GMT 2007 <<<<

Does anyone know if this Richard BRUNET can be linked in any way to the previous companies?

I know I am acting border line paranoid, but better safe than sorry!

Matthew Skala from 129.97.79.144 at Tue, 01 May 2007 18:45:16 +0000:
Here's the corporate registry info for XpressDVD:

https://ssl.req.gouv.qc.ca/igif-bin/isl08tr1/cidreq/**URL**?matricule=1144921195&banque=C&action=ETAT_CIDREQ&RECHERCHE=1144921195§ion1=O§ion2=O§ion3=O§ion4=O

I compared it to the similar records for DVDsoon's various numbered corporations (links in the text above) and I don't see any names or addresses in common. It sounds to me like the only indication of a link between the two is the business about XpressDVD having the email address you gave to DVDsoon. That alone is pretty suspicious, but it could have a relatively innocent explanation like someone from DVDsoon selling their mailing list to an otherwise honest business.

tweaktubbie from 62.148.179.150 at Tue, 01 May 2007 21:18:26 +0000:
Hmmm... When things got worse, dvdsoon removed a phone number from the site for contact purposes; only a mailadress (no replies btw).

This time: no info on shippings costs, no chamber of commerce number or something like that, links that have no info (like the FAQ).

Using xpressdvd@gmail.com for registration... *COULD* be no connection whatsoever.

But "LE SERVICE D'INSPECTION MUNICIPALE" - as previous company name???

Francois from 217.148.249.242 at Tue, 01 May 2007 21:51:09 +0000:
Well, there is more...

I just realized I received the mail from this company IN FRENCH ONLY, which is the language that was selected in my parameters on DVDsoon.

In my opinion, this is definetely NOT a coincidence.
There is a connexion somewhere.
OK, maybe just a mailing list that was sold...

And in the meantime, a second mail arrived from them, in French as well.

Voxhominis from 82.226.217.99 at Thu, 03 May 2007 07:47:08 +0000:
Same thing for me. I live in Paris and received the mail in French. Another thing that reminds me bad memories in the "General conditions of sale" : "The total payment of the invoice, including the purchase of the good and its transport, is paid immediately at the date from the order." Never again!!!
Two other companies appear in the CIDREQ file : 2157-6996 QUÃ‰BEC INC. 9023-8080 QUÃ‰BEC INC. Does anybody have informations about them?

Wolfsong from 212.112.62.144 at Thu, 17 May 2007 21:37:37 +0000:
I only lost about $100 in credit gotten by a canceled order which I didn't get around to use before they went down and was feeling kind of down about it. But judging from what I've now reed at this site it was much bigger then I had anticipated before as I had no idea how badly run they where since the change in administration.

Stebby- IGN from 210.4.29.178 at Fri, 25 May 2007 14:40:13 +0000:
WOW!!!! The other day, i went up to my attic.. and saw a DVDsoon box. then i remembered i used to buy tons of dvds from them. but when they started to charge memberships, i kinda stopped buying from them, and switched to futureshop/ bestbuy.ca

so i typed in dvdsoon.ca just now to visit for old time's sake.. and i got nothing.. and did a google search and stumbled across here.

WOW is all I can say. I feel for you, guys! .

i'm just glad i stopped buying when they started charging memberships!!! :)

guess all those free shipping did indeed take its toll on the company.

Richard E (UK) from 87.102.44.142 at Sun, 27 May 2007 22:46:38 +0000:
Hi, so does anyone know what actually happened to the people who arn off with our money for orders that didn't arrive and credits on our accounts. it seems to have gone quiet?

Michael from 207.216.18.223 at Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:48:54 +0000:
Thanks, Matthew, for having this for us to post to.
I really liked buying from DVDSoon for the first year. It quickly went from bad to worse after that. I think they ripped me off for about $40 CDN. I guess in the scheme of things I got off easy. Michael (Victoria, BC)

Michael from 207.216.18.223 at Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:59:47 +0000:
P.S. Francois "I received today a very puzzling promotion mail from a new DVD Canadian company, based in Montreal: http://www.xpressdvd.biz":

One thing I learned from my DVDSoon experience is that I will never deal with an internet company I cannot call by telephone and talk to somebody real. (DVDSoon started out that way, then they seemingly ditched their operators and stopped returning calls, then emails soon enough after that.)

Gordon from 64.229.8.182 at Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:37:03 +0000:
The phone number (514) 236-9044 is a Bell Mobility cell phone number.

Their "Privacy statement" (http://www.xpressdvd.biz/help.php?section=business) lists their address as 5421 Avenue de Verneuil Montreal, Quebec H1K 3J7. This is the same address as that listed for the "Third Shareholder" Marie Turgeon listed in the CIDREQ.

It also states that XpressDVD is a "division of" Distribution BDLT Inc. 8754 Rue de Grosbois MontrÃ©al, QuÃ©bec H1K 2G7.

Perhaps suspiciously, the XpressDVD/Marie Turgeon address is in a residential neighborhood (according to Google Maps/Earth,) only a few blocks away from the Distribution BDLT address.

Not surprisingly, the other two addresses listed in the CIDREQ are residential addresses in the Montreal area. From the looks of Google Earth satellite images, the "Second Shareholder" Ã‰rick Lesieur lives in a very posh neighborhood out in the suburbs, whereas the "President" Richard Brunet lives in an older very ordinary (possibly dodgy) part of Montreal.

Using the reverse address lookup at canada411.com, I found that 5421 Avenue de Verneuil (technically in Anjou not Montreal) is occupied by Marie Turgeon and her phone number is (514) 680-5194. Also, a Richard Brunet does indeed live at 6354 Rue Chabot Montreal, QC H2G 2T2 and the phone number there is (514) 543-3435. I could not find any information for an Ã‰rick Lesieur (or Le Sieur) or a 1220 Bellevue (Place or Rue, or Belle Vue). 8754 Rue de Grosbois belongs to a company called Le Groupe dâ€™Intervention en Affaires Municipales. Their telephone numbers are (514) 353-9555 / (800) 263-9033 and they have a website http://giam.ca/. It could be that 8754 Rue de Grosbois is an office building (but very small according to Google Earth), but no other businesses were listed at that address and the GIAM website doesn't list any unit or floor number. I called the 1-800 number at 5:20 pm Montreal time, which is of course after business hours, and it rang several times before switching to an automated answering service. I don't speak French, but I am Canadian and therefore took French in high school so I can make a few things out. It sounded to me like a generic voice mail system from a phone provider, not a corporate system. The female voice said something like no one is available, and then a brief recorded message from a man was played which sounded like it was recorded over the telephone. The female voice then asked me to leave a message after the beep.

To me, all of this only makes me more suspicious, but I recognize that you could look at it the other way and conclude that it must be legit. I'd love to phone the other numbers that I've found, but I'm not that bold and I don't speak French.

craig from 195.43.48.132 at Sat, 15 Sep 2007 08:09:13 +0000:
Dear all, good news. I lost no where near as much as some of you $40 to be exact and was really amd overall with their service. Like many having tried to get money back it was just pointless. I have since found a fantastic trader on ebay that sells region 1 dvd's really cheaply. Even with postage to the uk brand new dvds usually cost around Â£8, I have also never had a signle problem with postage. Go to ebay and in advance search by seller, type in DAMS1987 and visit her site, she is awesome.

Nate from 58.104.82.212 at Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:37:22 +0000:
(Australia) I too was duped by those Mother F#@%ers @ DVDSOON by more than $400. I had no idea about filing a credit card charge back until I read about this process in a forum similar to this. It took some work but luckily I saved all the emails I had received from DVDSOON which I printed and took to my financial institution. Within a few weeks, my bank refunded the whole $400 and this was almost a year after DVDSOON had stolen it.

Richard from 87.102.38.89 at Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:55:40 +0000:
I have checked my e mails I sent, apart from the failed orders, I have just realised I had $55 in 'rebate' with them. I guess there is no new news on whatever happened here.

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