Slipped discs

Posted on 30 Jun 2004 at 13:57

 

Gallery

Matthew Holbrook is content to train his sights on unscrupulous online dealers

The internet is an excellent way of comparing prices, and high street stores have been hit hard by competition from online vendors in recent years. WH Smith appears to be having a permanent closing-down sale in the entertainment sections of its shops, although its products still come out among the most expensive during an online price check.

Even so, it seems that you have a better chance of getting what you've ordered if you pay more. In November a message board posting requested the best price for the new Depeche Mode 101 DVD. The first post advised that www.play.com had it for £17.99. The next revealed that www.cd-wow.com was doing it for £13.99. I joined the party and discovered that www.musica.co.uk had it for £12 including delivery. In my message I noted that anyone feeling a bit flush that month could opt to pay £27.98 at www.whsmith.co.uk, including £2.99 for delivery.

Naturally I placed my order with Musica. The email receipt confirmed that VAT of £1.79 was included in the price, and according to my order history at Musica I had successfully bought a CD from there about a year before. The company debits transactions immediately and I keep a keen eye on such orders. In January I became worried because my order no longer appeared on the website. I contacted the company and received an email telling me that hackers had corrupted the site. My order was reinstated at a higher price, although I didn't expect to pay any more as I had already paid.

My order had vanished again when I next looked at the website in March. This time my emails went unanswered and the contacts page showed only a fax number and Jersey mailing address. This was unacceptable, so I wrote to my credit card company. The transaction was below the £100 level required for automatic protection, but Musica had taken my money five months previously and was no longer communicating with me. My card was quickly credited with the missing £12.

I still don't have the 101 DVD but a quick check at the time of writing shows that www.101cd.com is now the most expensive, beating WH Smith's £27.98 by a penny. The best price is now at www.powerplaydirect.com, at just £10.99 including delivery. I haven't taken the plunge yet. I couldn't help noticing from the contacts page that this is a Guernsey-based company, again with only an email address and fax number.

Making a splash
The online store SplashDVD (www.splashdvd.com) often had the lowest prices on DVDs and CDs but also debited credit cards on order. The company couldn't sustain its bargain prices and ceased trading on 9th March. Few buyers had a trouble-free time with the company. It was common to wait weeks for items; the longest I waited was five months before asking for a refund. Even that failed and I had to ring up to ask for my money back.

It's strange how a new bargain can make you forget past problems. I went back to SplashDVD again and again. Most items arrived within a few weeks, but delays started to become longer at the beginning of the year. By the time of the company's demise I had three items outstanding totalling £27. I was going to put this down to experience as I had saved a lot of money using SplashDVD but soon changed my mind, as I think it's an unacceptable business practice to debit from credit cards when you haven't got items in stock.