The Better Business Bureau has given Warner Home Video a grade of "F" for numerous offenses. I suggest you not deal with these people directly, if you plan to purchase any videos. It's hard to believe a studio such as Warner would be so grossly negligent in providing movies to people which they have ordered/paid for. In many documented cases on this site and others, movies are arriving months late (if at all).

See here:

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=32601

WEll, I'm sure that will hurt their feelings...

Well duhh. They screwed up tons of orders they deserve it.

I took a quick look... Am I reading correctly that the grade of "F" was in looking at 8 incidents over 36 months?

If so, then it is of course bad for those 8 people... but probably a very small sampling of actual customers.

I know I've had food poisoning at a restaurant, something that actually can kill you (unlike poor DVD service)... and yet the place I ate at I only knew 1 other person who got sick like I did.. and they were still in business many years later last time I checked.

So my rating would have been obviously horrible... but not necessarily a reflection of most people's experiences.

I took a quick look... Am I reading correctly that the grade of "F" was in looking at 8 incidents over 36 months?

If so, then it is of course bad for those 8 people... but probably a very small sampling of actual customers

Yes, but that's only because only 8 people bothered to post about it.

If you look around the specific format forums there are dozens (hundreds?) of people complaining about the horrible service - myself included.

That said, looking at what each letter grade actually means, I'd probably give them a "D" rather than an "F."

They deserve it. Warner's customer service is terrible on MANY levels. Maybe it's only me, but I don't find having to wait 2+ months for an order as being acceptable. Also, when I request to have my order canceled, I don't expect to wait over a week for that to be granted.

The absolute worst company I've ever dealt with.

I used them once, and it took over a month to get my movies. They were pre-orders and had to be in stock, the day that they were released. Amazon, on the other hand, has been quick and reliable. Too bad, since the prices at Warner Home Video where pretty good.

Don't get me started on WHV... abysmal.

That's not good, I'll admit wether it's a small sample or a large one (obviously with a smaller sample any rating system would easily be 'fixed')

BBB is no longer what it used to be. Countless claims won't bring justice to those who have been done wrong by shady business owners and managers. It's more of a laughing stock now than anything.

On the whole I'm very fond of Warner's product, and they have put a tremendous amount of content out that none of the others would touch. However, I have never bought directly from Warner.

WHV = Wacky Home Video

I know I'm in the minority here, but my first order with WHV was nothing but pleasant. I ordered six movies, one of which is (still) a preorder. I received the first batch (two movies) five days after I ordered, the next batch (two movies) a few days later, and the most recent delivery (one movie) just a few days ago (less than two weeks after ordering). All of these shipments were next day air, which I didn't pay a single penny for.

I had absolutely no reservations about ordering another three movies today (with free, hopefully next-day, shipping). Knock on wood.

I've still to see my Ocean's Trilogy or refund for four discs that I had to return because they arrived weeks after the release date after which I had cancelled them and purchased at another store. They deserve lower than F.

The only experience I have dealing with Warner directly was when they had to replace DVDs on the Ultimate Superman set. They handled that pretty efficiently, for me anyway... so I have no complaints.

I've had lots of good dealings with other companies that have been publically panned... and I've had horrible experiences with highly rated companies too. It's like anything else, our mileage may vary.

WEll, I'm sure that will hurt their feelings...

Oh, yes. Right now, I'll bet they are very worried and running around screaming "OMG, we got an F! What shall we do with an F? It is the the end!!" :p

Is it just ordering from Warner Home Video that is affected by the slow processing of orders - or is it Warner discs from other sources that are affected too?

Still, if this sort of thing was brought to their senior management's attention, they might have an urge to fix it. A revamp of their IT and fulfillment system and perhaps staff changes might address what looks like a strange behavior for WHV's etailing section.

Their website's a mess, dead links and error messages all over.

as it should be. they aren't even getting their HDM titles into the B+M stores nationwide on release date, let alone home customer orders. anything that might help stimulate them to action is a good thing.

i have ordered on 3 separate occasions form WHV since sept. the first order did take awhile but the next two were delivered within the week. it looks like they maybe getting there act together.( at least with delivery, their email system still needs work) but if they continue to offer discounts, i will continue to do business with them.

it took them over a month to get me Purple Rain.

PURPLE RAIN PEOPLE.

I could understand if it was a hot new titles. But this had been out a month or so when I ordered it. The odd thing is that I canceled orders from them for some preorders in mid october and every few weeks they send me an email saying there is a delay in shipping them. They also tell me there's a delay in shipment of Purple Rain nearly a month after I finally got it. I assume it's just a database glitch, but they better not be sending me more copies of Purple Rain.

I had a pretty good experience ordering from them earlier this year, but things have clearly gone downhill since then. It has to be a major embarrassment for them.

Does anyone know what we can do?

Who can we talk to about this?

What can be done?

People having to cancel credit cards to get orders that are months late.

It's just wrong.

Does anyone know what we can do?
Who can we talk to about this?

What can be done?

People having to cancel credit cards to get orders that are months late.

It's just wrong.Quit buying from them. ;)

I pre-ordered the Kubrick films from them waaay back.

I got free shipping, and they arrived in three separate containers....biiiiiig boxes that could have held dozens of discs. Plus, they came UPS! Must have cost those idiots a small fortune to fulfill just my one order.

They just better not screw up Blade Runner, that's all I can say.

Don't get me started on WHV... abysmal.

Agreed. I will never order from them again.

Best thread ever!

great and i guess my order with them for the harry potter movies will be messed up then...

I've ordered from them three separate times. Just got a shipping notice for "Blazing Saddles", which is the last movie dues from the last order.

With the birthday discount codes and no expectations of getting the movies tomorrow, I have been fairly satisfied with their service. The first time I ordered from them I ordered The Matrix box set and I was impatient and got pissed off, but since then I just order for the discounted price and am happy to wait.

I'm going to count my lucky stars, they've been great for me. My Kubrick's were at my door on release day, and the other movies I ordered have made it in a timely manner. I have the HP set on order, let's hope I don't get screwed on that one.

I am still waiting for 2001 and I have ordered Harry Potter, Oceans and Blade Runner and I assume I will see them around January February, if I am lucky.

The Better Business Bureau has given Warner Home Video a grade of "F" for numerous offenses. I suggest you not deal with these people directly, if you plan to purchase any videos. It's hard to believe a studio such as Warner would be so grossly negligent in providing movies to people which they have ordered/paid for. In many documented cases on this site and others, movies are arriving months late (if at all).

See here:

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=32601

I have never done business with WHV, so I won't comment on the truth or veracity of Baccusboy's negative statements about them.

However, I will comment that any BBB recommendation should be taken with a grain of salt. <www.ripoffreport.com>. Recently I filed a complaint with the BBB against Sony & then discovered that a Sony Exec. VP is a BBB Board member! What does that tell you?

If you think about it, there's people visiting here that MUST know WB senior management enough to be able to pass them a word that their website's quite a mess. (At least it was when I checked a couple of months ago).

This is their corporate image to the world, so if they really want to be on the cutting edge of internet interactivity, the best place to start is to show the world how a proper website is done.

It doesn't take much, but it needs funding and good creative people to maintain such a site, something they could do easily if the will is there.

Many years ago, I was in a company with 3000+ employees with a website run by 2 people, needless to say the whole thing was a disaster and needed a total redesign, but after it was done, it worked rather well.

Why would it take them over a month to get a movie when they are the distributor?

Why would it take them over a month to get a movie when they are the distributor?

They probably aren't the distributor. Confused?

Many companies separate these kinds of business, and if they sell direct to the public they don't sell "direct" to the public. By which I mean, WHV may have to order from the same distribution hub/warehouse that all the other retailers order from.. which makes them no different than Amazon... in which case even if the warehouses are right next door, they may be prohibited from walking over there and picking up any differently than a normal retailer chain would be able to do so.

Well, I only used Warner one time, and I will never use them again, thats for sure.

I'm still waiting on my Ocean's Trilogy.

I even emailed them to change it to the Blu Ray version, which they do have in stock, and I haven't received any notice back yet.

I just want my movies!!!

Is that too much to ask?

WHV processed my last order fairly quick and they also sent me an extra copy of Troy DC(blu-ray) free :D

Swifty, that was probably my copy, which I'm still waiting for.

I know someone who went to a local Best Buy store and bought a shrinkwrapped hard drive only to find out that the drive inside was a used/returned one that wasn't even the same size as the one paid for.

I know someone else who went to a local Best Buy store and bought a hard drive box, only to find out he had bought a brick... literally!

I also know a lot of people were eventually fired from that Best Buy store after being found pilfering (which led to things like the bricks and old hard drives being re-shrinkwrapped and sold as new).... but in both cases the BBB was of zero use to the customers who were shafted.

I, on the other hand, had bought from that store many times and never had a problem. I have since switched to a location nearer to me... but still get DVDs every once in a while that when I get home and open actually have no DVDs inside! These appear to be manufacturing/packaging glitches as they all have the tamper seals intact... but it is like pulling teeth sometimes to get the store to exchange with me as they think I'm trying to pull a scam or something.

So... problems can happen anywhere.

The BBB is nothing more than a means people can use to report a bad business. People have done so, and it works.

What do you expect? You think the BBB has the authority to go sue Best Buy?

Just because Best Buy had lots of trouble (my father won't shop there, and still thinks they're crooked) and the BBB didn't bring them to their financial knees, does not mean the BBB is something to be ignored.

If you think Warner is so great, then I invite you to purchase all of your movies there. That's probably the meanest thing I could suggest to anyone who likes HD movies. If numerous complaints from customers on this site (and others) and a grade of "F" from the BBB don't matter to you, then by all means -- spend spend spend.

As for me, I've got $150 in orders that have yet to be delivered, and they refuse to respond to any and all inquiries.

They're useless.

Warner should dump their retail outlet rather than get the negative PR

The BBB is nothing more than a means people can use to report a bad business. People have done so, and it works.

What do you expect? You think the BBB has the authority to go sue Best Buy?

That was actually my point, that the BBB is essentially impotent. It's a place you can use as a sounding board, but they carry no actual authority to do anything. A local "on your side" newschannel can actually apply more pressure at the local level by covering a store on the news... whereas the BBB really can't do anything.

Just because Best Buy had lots of trouble (my father won't shop there, and still thinks they're crooked) and the BBB didn't bring them to their financial knees, does not mean the BBB is something to be ignored.

If you think Warner is so great, then I invite you to purchase all of your movies there.

I don't like or dislike Warner. I already said I haven't ordered with them before. I just wouldn't base their evilness on the BBB report I saw in this thread nor a few posts on an internet forum.

The internet bashes Dish network (which I have and haven't had any problems with ever) says my Toshiba HD player shouldn't work (and yet it does) and tells me all sorts of things that are bad that I should avoid, and yet I don't and have no problems.

On the flip side, UPS seems to have a great business worldwide... and yet in my area they often cannot find the same house 2 days in a row. I lost track of the number of lost packages I have had over the years... but my experience seems to be localized otherwise if the rest of the world saw the same failure rates as I have (and my parents, and several co-workers) then they would have gone out of business long ago.

My main point here is... It is worthwhile for all of us to share experiences... but keep in mind that while people will seek out these forums to post about bad experiences (in this case with Warner Home Video).. I daresay there will never be a line forming for posts by all the people who have positive experiences... so I take everything I read on the internet with the appropriate weight it carries.

I don't ignore them... just don't give them any more weight than they deserve.

Warner should dump their retail outlet rather than get the negative PR

I'd actually call it a wholesaler rather than a retailer.

Yes, their website is a complete disaster. It needs to be completely redesigned, and the same guy who did the website is also probably responsible for handling the orders. The 1-800 # probably points to 1 phone with 1 line. I worked in shipping for a while for a title insurance company. It was run terribly, and we had much the same issues as WHV has. It sounds to me like they just aren't properly staffed and they have a manager who might pop in once a week to ask how everything is going, if they're lucky.

And WB may be the distributor, but they have to order the disks from the warehouses just like every other company. And they obviously do not order enough copies.

It is a mess, the best you can do is just avoid it. The sales they have are not worth the hassle IMO.

The BBB may not do anything to help you but it is a great place to go to see if other people have had issues before buying from such a company.

And I've had the same problems with UPS in my area. hehe.

I wish I had seen this thread before I pre-ordered Harry Potter in HD from them. I just received an e-mail from them this morning that the order is on Back order. The thing isn't even released yet and they are out of stock. Oh well, I really can't complain as I got it at a really good price. I guess I will just have to wait and see when it will arrive. Was hoping to have it before Christmas to watch during my winter break.

Ok, now I officially have a positive WHV order experience to share. My first order with them incidentally.

I placed an order for 3 movies on 11/18 at roughly 10:30pm. I ordered just enough to qualify for the free standard shipping. I got the confirmation email shortly after ordering.

I checked yesterday and saw that my order had shipped on 11/20 (yesterday) via next day air! This morning, about 9:30am, the UPS guy rang the doorbell and I have my new movies.

Not even 3 days total from the time I placed my order. It actually took them longer to process the shipment than it took to ship, since I ordered on the weekend.

Really hard to beat that!

Good for you. Not a single one of my movie has shipped, and I too got a notice that Harry Potter is delayed, despite it not being released yet.

Regarding the delay on new items not yet shipped... I learned this the hard way ordering from Symantec many years ago.

I knew a new version of Norton was coming out so I pre-ordered it from Symantec to get the cheaper price and not have to deal with buying local and sending off for the upgrade rebate.

When the time came and it was on the retail shelves, I found out from Norton that basically they had fulfilled their retail chains first (even above direct orders) and it was going to be another month before I would get my pre-ordered copy.

I don't know why this happens... but it appears to happen with some companies. Maybe Warner is doing the same thing... fulfilling orders from their warehouses to Wal-Mart and Best Buy and whatever before they fulfill WHV orders placed for pre-order sales.

I agree this is bad... and it makes it seem like companies want to steer customers away from pre-ordering directly from them. I can't speak to a pre-order through Warner since that didn't apply to my recent order... so maybe the mileage does vary there.

Good for you. Not a single one of my movie has shipped, and I too got a notice that Harry Potter is delayed, despite it not being released yet.

was harry the only thing you ordered at that time or did you order other things ?

I got the potter message cause it was on the same order as ocean's set

I ordered multiple movies -- some of which are out already (Troy is one, 2001 is another) and also some that are coming out later as pre-release.

There are several more, and I have no received the same delay note for Potter. Even still, the ones that have been available for some time have not shipped.

I had sent them a cancellation message last week, and they just now got around to responding, saying that they'd ship them in a month, then later e-mailing that they'll attempt to cancel them, but if they ship, it's out of their control.

Seeing as it's been several weeks and they haven't shipped yet, they've basically given me no answer at all! Gee... we'll cancel them, but if we ship them to you, we'll have to charge you.

Duds.

Thread update: I am happy to announce that my movies were finally canceled by Warner this past week.

Now I'll just hope they don't still send them out, as they have done to others. Am also glad I canceled their Harry Potter boxed set! I wouldn't want it to be packed with the wrong discs.

They don't charge your card until your item ships. And then they have been shipping mine overnight instead of ground.

I see they've had 9 complaints. 9 complaints? Is that it.

That's all from the people who bothered to list on the BBB site (which is actually quite a few).

Would you like a list of AVS threads where people are complaining about Warner?

Now they've been putting HD-DVD disks in with the Blu-ray Harry Potter box set.

Please don't try to make it sound as if this company's own web sales and distribution is anything but totally screwed-up.

Who and more importantly WHY would ANYONE order movies directly from a studios store?? Isn't the pricing majorly outrageous??

No, they had some excellent deals.

Unfortunately, they were taking in excess of a month to deliver movies, and sometimes delivered after cancellation. Now they've sent out the Harry Potter box sets, and are including the discs for the wrong format.

See here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=953612


Also, yet another thread about WHV:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=910084

I cancelled all my remaining orders with them. I had no problems until recently. They've gone completely downhill.

great and i guess my order with them for the harry potter movies will be messed up then...


lol, it's funny looking back at this post.

I wonder if he ordered the Blu-ray/HD DVD "combo set". :rolleyes:

I can't believe Warner mixed up discs like that.

I actually had good luck with them (Planet Earth, Matrix Trilogy, etc). After hearing so many complaints though I stopped placing orders with them. I figured it was just a matter of time before something went wrong.

F

We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices. :p

I'm well aware of the widespread complaints about delays and such but my experience has been a positive one thus far. My previous order a few months back arrived within a week. My recent order of Blade Runner, HP box, and The Omega Man is looking good too. I received The Omega Man earlier this week and BR & HP have been shipped so I look for them to arrive very soon. I was skeptical about ordering from them again but their recent deal on the HP box was worth taking a shot IMO. Now I just hope it arrives with all blu discs and no reds. ;)

Yep. I ordered 2001, Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner on Blu back on Aug 6, and still nada. They suck.