General Zavvi Thread - Blu-ray Forum

MuckyMuckMan · 02-23-2016, 12:26 PM

Anyone else think Zavvi's customer service is shocking? I keep getting shunned every time I send a query and there is no phone number to ring.

I ordered the January ZBox, but they auto renewed the order so I then received the February ZBox that I didn't want. I sent it back by writing 'Return to Sender' and they are saying they haven't received the package so tough luck, no refund will be given.

This is shocking considering I never ordered the thing. Their customer service pales in comparison to Amazon. So much so that I'm considering boycotting Zavvi from now on.

levcore · 02-23-2016, 12:49 PM

Zavvi has customer service?

merznoise · 02-23-2016, 12:55 PM

In my experience, to return anything to Zavvi you have to go through the nightmare returns process. This involves complaining to them repeatedly, then getting them to approve the return, filling out the returns form and then tracking down a Collect+ pickup point.

If you just 'returned to sender' it probably ended up at a completely different warehouse to where the returns usually go.

stigdu · 02-23-2016, 01:16 PM

I once took the silver foil off my sandwich that I'd eaten, scrunched it up into a 1cm round ball, and attached it as a photo saying my steelbook had been horribly damaged in the post. Really!

They didn't reply to me, though.

And yes, their (lack of) customer service is legendary.

Flack999 · 02-23-2016, 01:32 PM

Yeah by far the worst customer service I have encountered yet.
When there are no problems with an order, I like zavvi, but god beware something needs to be returned or refunded.. then the nightmare begins.

It was almost comical when I had to deal with them... I laughed out loud at some emails because I could not believe how incompetend they were.
They had send me a wrong disc and I wanted to return that one and get the right one instead.
Everytime I contacted them I had another person reply to me, they had no idea at all what was going on and what had been talked about with the previous guy so every mail I started at zero. So I had to repeat the same problem to about 4 different customer service guys and each one gave me the same reply.. then when I replied to their reply, it took another 2 - 3 days to get an answer to that.. which was usually yet another person telling me the same thing that the previous 4 did.
Once, days and god knows how many emails later, I got to the second stage of them acknowledging they made a mistake.. then they kept asking me to take a picture of the wrong disc and send that to them via the website.. but the upload function on the website did not work so I couldnt send it to them. I wrote about 5 (not kidding) emails telling them I can not upload a picture to the website. Every reply to that was "sorry we could not see your picture, please try again".
I kept asking for a regular email adress where I could send the picture and finally they were able to give me one.
I send the picture, it again takes about three days and I got the reply where they asked me if I wanted to return the item and get a refund or a reshipment (I told them I wanted a reshipment in every single mail I had send them previous to that).
Again, every reply came from another person that had no idea what I had talked about with the one before. At this point I was almost close to giving up and just not deal with this shit anymore.
Eventually though, I got to the point where I could print out a returns form. When I asked who would pay for the shipping (I am in Germany so it was not cheap to send it back to the UK) they said they would refund.
So I send the item back, they got it about 10 days later and shipped the correct disc. Hallelujah.
Never got the refund for the postage I had to pay though.. I asked them about it but when I got the same f'ing stock answer yet again, I just didn't care anymore.

CZDK · 02-23-2016, 01:32 PM

I have received multiple items in a condition ranging from smashed corners to completely destroyed.

And I have had two items from different orders never show up, which they refused to do anything about leaving me with a loss of more than £40.

More than once I have been told that someone will get back to me within 48 hours only to never hear from them again before I contacted them several days later.

Lastly I have currently been writing back and forth with their customer support for more than 6 weeks because a product I received was not the one pictured on their product page. 6 different customer reps have replied, according to the names at the bottom of the replies, completely ignoring all the previous messages in the thread and giving answers all over the place.

I will never use Zavvi again and I can only encourage others to stay far away from them as well.

malcy30 · 02-23-2016, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuckyMuckMan

Anyone else think Zavvi's customer service is shocking? I keep getting shunned every time I send a query and there is no phone number to ring.

I ordered the January ZBox, but they auto renewed the order so I then received the February ZBox that I didn't want. I sent it back by writing 'Return to Sender' and they are saying they haven't received the package so tough luck, no refund will be given.

This is shocking considering I never ordered the thing. Their customer service pales in comparison to Amazon. So much so that I'm considering boycotting Zavvi from now on.

Don't like to say but you are almost certainly screwed, not sensible to just write return to sender as they will deny receipt even if reaches them.

Yours will be considered an unapproved return. As merznoise says they only accept approved returns. You have to go via their online messaging and they will send you linked for personalised return.

With regard to not ordering, I am sure they will have in the small print of the Zbox that their is an auto renewal unless cancelled before next month's item ships. This is standard practice by many companies, not just Zavvi.

Flack999 · 02-23-2016, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CZDK

Lastly I have currently been writing back and forth with their customer support for more than 6 weeks because a product I received was not the one pictured on their product page. 6 different customer reps have replied, according to the names at the bottom of the replies, completely ignoring all the previous messages in the thread and giving answers all over the place.

Yeah. That!
Same thing happened to me everytime I had to deal with their customer "service".

CZDK · 02-23-2016, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flack999

then they kept asking me to take a picture of the wrong disc and send that to them via the website.. but the upload function on the website did not work so I couldnt send it to them.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the upload function not working when I had to send them a picture of one of the items I received which was smashed to bits. And waiting several days for a reply.

Definitely the worst customer service I have ever dealt with as well, bar none.

Telstar · 02-23-2016, 01:48 PM

I can only echo everyone else here. Zavvi is by far the worst, most incompetent and unethical online company I've ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Filmbloke · 02-23-2016, 02:48 PM

Trying to get out of a ZBOX subscription is an effing nightmare!!!

Kamelot121 · 02-23-2016, 03:31 PM

Everything the peeps above have said - worst customer service I've ever dealt with.... You basically have to threaten them with legal action to get them to respond. I order the bare essentials from them these days. Would rather my money go to Amazon or HMV.

MuckyMuckMan · 02-23-2016, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filmbloke

Trying to get out of a ZBOX subscription is an effing nightmare!!!

Tell me about it. I only subscribed to the 1 month subscription so I could take advantage of the free steelbook with the January Zbox. Thinking 1 month subscription meant just that, but oh no they auto renewed it.

I've written to the Ombudsman and reported the whole situation.

I might even write to Watchdog if they don't sort it out!

Kalvar · 02-23-2016, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telstar

I can only echo everyone else here. Zavvi is by far the worst, most incompetent and unethical online company I've ever had the misfortune to deal with.

MovieMail aka Simply Media are by far the worst in my opinion. Absolute incompetent shysters.

FastAndFluid · 02-23-2016, 05:57 PM

Had to laugh when, just after ordering a Zavvi exclusive steelbook (the only reason I would ever order from Zavvi - ie when there's absolutely no other choice) they sent me an email welcoming me as a new customer.

I have ordered a ton of exclusives from them over the years since Blackstar went under.

Idiots who haven't got a clue and screw up at every single customer contact point.

tomahawk · 02-23-2016, 06:20 PM

I contacted Zaavi customer service after the very first order I ever placed with them (a single blu-ray) because I thought that there may have been an error on my shipping address. I emailed them immediately after the order was placed, and the reply I received back was stunningly curt and to the effect of "Sorry, once the order has been placed there is nothing we can do. If you don't receive it, buy it again - that's the only option we can give you buddy." My phrasing is actually more diplomatic than their's which was far more in the manner of a snotty teen, as I recall. Anyway I luckily received the item, but swore to never buy from them again, which I broke this past New Year's after a couple of their deals were simply too good to pass up. But yes, completely unconscionably terrible customer service from them, for sure.

The Maltese Falcon · 02-23-2016, 07:13 PM

Never just write Return to Sender on a parcel, from any retailer.

KRW1 · 02-23-2016, 07:37 PM

I'm convinced companies like this actually have no customer service people, just automated programs that reply to your email in response to keywords and hope for the best. There must be hundreds of people who just give up.

Wouldn't touch Zavvi with a bargepole.

Aclea · 02-23-2016, 10:02 PM

Bad as Zavvi are (and it took two months to get a refund when they sent me two copies of the same film and charged my card twice), they're still only the second worst for customer service: DeepDiscount in the States are even worse. You can actually deal with a human being who handles complaints there, though he makes absolutely no attempt to hide the fact he regards all customers as vermin who deserve any problems thrown up by their computer system (which at one point nobody at the company knew quite how to work properly resulting in some items being billed twice) and would sooner kill his own children than cancel a duplicate order that hasn't even gone into the shipping process.

Strangerbyday · 02-24-2016, 09:24 AM

I had a steelbook arrived damaged recently. Contacted them, attaching pictures of the near-bent in half steelbook. They offered me, "as a gesture of goodwill", a 15 percent refund, which amounted to 4 euro. I said it wasn't good enough & that I wanted a replacement, so they enquired how much it would cost to return the item, even though I had no return of address. I asked for the return address, they sent me the return/replacement form & I sent the item through registered post. It delivered 2 days later but it still took 9 days for me to receive confirmation that they'd got the item & they'd now investigate the case.

First time using Zavvi's customer service & I'm absolutely baffled how they think this is adequate!

02-23-2016, 12:26 PM	#1
MuckyMuckMan Member Member since:Nov 2013 Location:UK Home Theater Gallery:35 4K collection:67 Blu-ray collection:2135	General Zavvi Thread Anyone else think Zavvi's customer service is shocking? I keep getting shunned every time I send a query and there is no phone number to ring. I ordered the January ZBox, but they auto renewed the order so I then received the February ZBox that I didn't want. I sent it back by writing 'Return to Sender' and they are saying they haven't received the package so tough luck, no refund will be given. This is shocking considering I never ordered the thing. Their customer service pales in comparison to Amazon. So much so that I'm considering boycotting Zavvi from now on. Last edited by BigNickUK; 10-16-2019 at 07:44 AM.

02-23-2016, 05:57 PM	#15
FastAndFluid Banned Member since:Sep 2012 Blu-ray reviews:1	So after years of ordering I'm suddenly a "new customer" Had to laugh when, just after ordering a Zavvi exclusive steelbook (the only reason I would ever order from Zavvi - ie when there's absolutely no other choice) they sent me an email welcoming me as a new customer. I have ordered a ton of exclusives from them over the years since Blackstar went under. Idiots who haven't got a clue and screw up at every single customer contact point.

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02-23-2016, 12:49 PM	#2
levcore Blu-ray Archduke Member since:Jun 2011 Location:Dryland 4K collection:264 Blu-ray collection:2461 Trading Score:3	Zavvi has customer service?

02-23-2016, 12:55 PM	#3
merznoise Member Member since:Nov 2011 Blu-ray collection:1618 Trading Score:5	In my experience, to return anything to Zavvi you have to go through the nightmare returns process. This involves complaining to them repeatedly, then getting them to approve the return, filling out the returns form and then tracking down a Collect+ pickup point. If you just 'returned to sender' it probably ended up at a completely different warehouse to where the returns usually go.

02-23-2016, 01:16 PM	#4
stigdu Blu-ray Guru Member since:Mar 2010 Location:Surrey, UK 4K collection:371 Blu-ray collection:899 DVD collection:262 Trading Score:4	I once took the silver foil off my sandwich that I'd eaten, scrunched it up into a 1cm round ball, and attached it as a photo saying my steelbook had been horribly damaged in the post. Really! They didn't reply to me, though. And yes, their (lack of) customer service is legendary.

02-23-2016, 01:32 PM	#5
Flack999 Senior Member Member since:Aug 2011 Location:Berlin, Germany	Yeah by far the worst customer service I have encountered yet. When there are no problems with an order, I like zavvi, but god beware something needs to be returned or refunded.. then the nightmare begins. It was almost comical when I had to deal with them... I laughed out loud at some emails because I could not believe how incompetend they were. They had send me a wrong disc and I wanted to return that one and get the right one instead. Everytime I contacted them I had another person reply to me, they had no idea at all what was going on and what had been talked about with the previous guy so every mail I started at zero. So I had to repeat the same problem to about 4 different customer service guys and each one gave me the same reply.. then when I replied to their reply, it took another 2 - 3 days to get an answer to that.. which was usually yet another person telling me the same thing that the previous 4 did. Once, days and god knows how many emails later, I got to the second stage of them acknowledging they made a mistake.. then they kept asking me to take a picture of the wrong disc and send that to them via the website.. but the upload function on the website did not work so I couldnt send it to them. I wrote about 5 (not kidding) emails telling them I can not upload a picture to the website. Every reply to that was "sorry we could not see your picture, please try again". I kept asking for a regular email adress where I could send the picture and finally they were able to give me one. I send the picture, it again takes about three days and I got the reply where they asked me if I wanted to return the item and get a refund or a reshipment (I told them I wanted a reshipment in every single mail I had send them previous to that). Again, every reply came from another person that had no idea what I had talked about with the one before. At this point I was almost close to giving up and just not deal with this shit anymore. Eventually though, I got to the point where I could print out a returns form. When I asked who would pay for the shipping (I am in Germany so it was not cheap to send it back to the UK) they said they would refund. So I send the item back, they got it about 10 days later and shipped the correct disc. Hallelujah. Never got the refund for the postage I had to pay though.. I asked them about it but when I got the same f'ing stock answer yet again, I just didn't care anymore.

02-23-2016, 01:32 PM	#6
CZDK Senior Member Member since:Oct 2015 Location:Denmark 4K collection:95 Blu-ray collection:2964 DVD collection:4 Trading Score:1	I have received multiple items in a condition ranging from smashed corners to completely destroyed. And I have had two items from different orders never show up, which they refused to do anything about leaving me with a loss of more than £40. More than once I have been told that someone will get back to me within 48 hours only to never hear from them again before I contacted them several days later. Lastly I have currently been writing back and forth with their customer support for more than 6 weeks because a product I received was not the one pictured on their product page. 6 different customer reps have replied, according to the names at the bottom of the replies, completely ignoring all the previous messages in the thread and giving answers all over the place. I will never use Zavvi again and I can only encourage others to stay far away from them as well.

02-23-2016, 01:48 PM	#10
Telstar Special Member Member since:Feb 2009 Trading Score:25	I can only echo everyone else here. Zavvi is by far the worst, most incompetent and unethical online company I've ever had the misfortune to deal with.

02-23-2016, 02:48 PM	#11
Filmbloke Expert Member Member since:Nov 2009 Location:Croxley, London 4K collection:35 Blu-ray collection:1080 DVD collection:471 Digital collection:70 iTunes collection:17 Blu-ray reviews:6 Trading Score:1	Trying to get out of a ZBOX subscription is an effing nightmare!!!

02-23-2016, 03:31 PM	#12
Kamelot121 Expert Member Member since:Aug 2013 4K collection:231 Blu-ray collection:1687 MA collection:3 Digital collection:6 Trading Score:77	Everything the peeps above have said - worst customer service I've ever dealt with.... You basically have to threaten them with legal action to get them to respond. I order the bare essentials from them these days. Would rather my money go to Amazon or HMV.

02-23-2016, 06:20 PM	#16
tomahawk Active Member Member since:Apr 2013 Blu-ray collection:343 Trading Score:5	I contacted Zaavi customer service after the very first order I ever placed with them (a single blu-ray) because I thought that there may have been an error on my shipping address. I emailed them immediately after the order was placed, and the reply I received back was stunningly curt and to the effect of "Sorry, once the order has been placed there is nothing we can do. If you don't receive it, buy it again - that's the only option we can give you buddy." My phrasing is actually more diplomatic than their's which was far more in the manner of a snotty teen, as I recall. Anyway I luckily received the item, but swore to never buy from them again, which I broke this past New Year's after a couple of their deals were simply too good to pass up. But yes, completely unconscionably terrible customer service from them, for sure.

02-23-2016, 07:13 PM	#17
The Maltese Falcon Member Member since:Feb 2014 Location:UK	Never just write Return to Sender on a parcel, from any retailer.

02-23-2016, 07:37 PM	#18
KRW1 Blu-ray Guru Member since:Oct 2012 Blu-ray collection:45	I'm convinced companies like this actually have no customer service people, just automated programs that reply to your email in response to keywords and hope for the best. There must be hundreds of people who just give up. Wouldn't touch Zavvi with a bargepole.

02-23-2016, 10:02 PM	#19
Aclea Blu-ray Baron Top contributor Member since:Jun 2012 Blu-ray reviews: 118	Bad as Zavvi are (and it took two months to get a refund when they sent me two copies of the same film and charged my card twice), they're still only the second worst for customer service: DeepDiscount in the States are even worse. You can actually deal with a human being who handles complaints there, though he makes absolutely no attempt to hide the fact he regards all customers as vermin who deserve any problems thrown up by their computer system (which at one point nobody at the company knew quite how to work properly resulting in some items being billed twice) and would sooner kill his own children than cancel a duplicate order that hasn't even gone into the shipping process.

02-24-2016, 09:24 AM	#20
Strangerbyday Special Member Top contributor Member since:Jul 2014 Location:Ireland 4K collection:628 Blu-ray collection:2518 Trading Score:1	I had a steelbook arrived damaged recently. Contacted them, attaching pictures of the near-bent in half steelbook. They offered me, "as a gesture of goodwill", a 15 percent refund, which amounted to 4 euro. I said it wasn't good enough & that I wanted a replacement, so they enquired how much it would cost to return the item, even though I had no return of address. I asked for the return address, they sent me the return/replacement form & I sent the item through registered post. It delivered 2 days later but it still took 9 days for me to receive confirmation that they'd got the item & they'd now investigate the case. First time using Zavvi's customer service & I'm absolutely baffled how they think this is adequate!

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