General Zavvi Thread

[ILove3D]

I'd just like to echo some of the comments made on here. Zavvi are an absolute disgrace in terms of how they run there business, but most of all I'll never forgive them for the way they have seriously tainted the quality of UK steelbooks. Poor movie choices, even worse art choices, cheap matte finishes on nearly every exclusive release. They really are the pits

Their reputation must be at an all time low - but still they don't show the slightest hint that they are taking customer feedback on board to change things. That clearly doesn't enter into their business model, even if sales must surely be suffering.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by ILove3D

I'd just like to echo some of the comments made on here. Zavvi are an absolute disgrace in terms of how they run there business, but most of all I'll never forgive them for the way they have seriously tainted the quality of UK steelbooks. Poor movie choices, even worse art choices, cheap matte finishes on nearly every exclusive release. They really are the pits

Their reputation must be at an all time low - but still they don't show the slightest hint that they are taking customer feedback on board to change things. That clearly doesn't enter into their business model, even if sales must surely be suffering.

Yeah, because Zavvi are really responsible for designing each and every individual steelbook they release. Chances are all they do is ask distributors nicely and offer them a good deal for the exclusivity. I seriously doubt they have much input in art choice and finish, and I'd be surprised if they had a lot of say in movie choice.

[chip75]

Well they are paying for some exclusivity with their Steelbooks, so it's in their interest that they at least try and have a product that will attract customers. I imagine they have choices when it comes to artwork, but knowing Zavvi they know that people go nuts for Steelbooks no matter what's on the cover so they're happy to knock 'em out regardless.

[Big-D]

I recently left a negative review of Zavvi on Trustpilot.

They sent me a rather expensive Blu-ray boxset improperly packaged in a flimsy bubble wrapped envelope which resulted in it arriving badly damaged.

It took customer services a week to authorise the return and another three weeks in order to process a replacement. By which time I gave up, took a refund and sourced it elsewhere.

What separates a good retailer from a bad one, is after-sales service. Which Zavvi drastically lacks.

[IanSchultz23]

I've only heard horror stories about Zavvi so i've never ordered from them.

[buck135]

I've actually had success with Zavvi's customer service. Back when the Diamond Luxe blu-ray of Batman '89 was announced, they were to have an exclusive documentary. Shortly before the blu-ray shipped, the description of the blu-ray no longer displayed the exclusive documentary on their website. I received the same blu-ray that everyone was selling, but at a premium. I contacted them and they refunded the difference right away.

I recently ordered the complete series of House for $50 from Zavvi. It wasn't packaged great, but it arrived in one piece. Thankfully, that box set is solid. For $50 I can't complain.

[insomniac013]

Zavvi is the worst UK retailer no doubt.

[mikey 6]

Yeah they suck. This is what I posted recently in another thread:

This is the first time I've received a damaged Zavvi steelbook after many purchases.

"I have now entered the Zavvi customer service hell that I have often heard speak of.
- I would like a replacement.
- First we must see photographic evidence of supposed damage.
- I have taken a photo but it will not upload to your site.
- Here is an email address you can send photo of supposed damage.
- I have sent the photo to you.
- We have received it. We are sorry you received an item damaged like this. As good will, we offer you a 10% refund.....

They only seem to respond to 1 email a day. This has now been going on for 5 days."

[chip75]

I've never really understood "good will" when it comes to damaged items, usually good will is a company that gives you something when they know they don't have to, but when they sent you items that are damaged good will really doesn't apply anymore.

They should apologize and offer a refund, partial refund or replacement. I'd be tempted to respond with "as a sign of bad will - to your shitty customer service, I'll ungraciously accept 50% off and a nice fruit basket ..."

[Kalvar]

I bought 3 dvds from MovieMail last year. All items listed as in stock. After 2 weeks and no dispatch I sent many emails and then had to resort to the public facebook account to get communication. I was then told that the orders would be cancelled as requested.

2 months later a dvd arrived. A week later another dvd arrived, the third never did. A few weeks later I got a letter demanding money for one of the dvds by Simply Media. I didn't understand who they where until a google search found them connected to Moviemail. Once I realized they never charged my card and it was Moviemail wanting the money, I paid it back.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Kalvar

Once I realized they never charged my card and it was Moviemail wanting the money, I paid it back.

After your orders were cancelled I don't think you were obligated to pay them for the items (I think it's under the distance selling rules or something similar), it was nice of you to do so, but they were in the wrong sending them out after cancelling the orders.

Usually people are obliged to message the seller and say "thanks for the free stuff!" but that's about it!

[Kalvar]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

You were told the orders were cancelled and you were never charged? Personally I would have kept the DVDs, after all what could they do? Send you the occasional strongly worded letter? **** 'em, their mistake, not yours.

Yeah.

The letter didn't even state the it was for the dvd, just demanding £8.99 from an unknown company.

I had bought the dvd's elsewhere after cancelling with them which made the situation even more pathetic.

[jimidini]

Originally Posted by mikey 6

Yeah they suck. This is what I posted recently in another thread:

This is the first time I've received a damaged Zavvi steelbook after many purchases.

"I have now entered the Zavvi customer service hell that I have often heard speak of.
- I would like a replacement.
- First we must see photographic evidence of supposed damage.
- I have taken a photo but it will not upload to your site.
- Here is an email address you can send photo of supposed damage.
- I have sent the photo to you.
- We have received it. We are sorry you received an item damaged like this. As good will, we offer you a 10% refund.....

They only seem to respond to 1 email a day. This has now been going on for 5 days."

For me it worked differently.

Their site has some upload limit for photos, so I had to compress my photos more, so that I could upload them.

Anyway, I received one steelbook a few months ago very badly damaged, but not via shipping. Must have been manufacturing. There was glue all over it. I directly sent them a photo and they immediately asked me, if I want a refund or a replacement. No 10-15% offer. Replacement was sent out within 2 or 3 days. I was surprised, because I had a harder time some years ago.

I can't really complain about them wanting / asking for photographic evidence. I don't want to know how many asses are abusing it. I heard that zavvi forces tracked delivery for some countries, because lots of people in those countries contacted them about "lost mail" all the time (and there were even forum posts somewhere, where they bragged about getting 2 steels for the price of 1 - it's simply disgusting, because those people are responsible for higher prices for everyone).

I order lots of items from zavvi, so I guess maybe that's why they are trying their best. I also had a case of 1 lost steelbook last month too. Got a replacement without any problems. Took a few days though.


Still 2 years ago or so I received an obviously used 3DS game from them. Club Nintendo code was missing. Not shrink-wrapped. And there was even dirt on the case. I wrote them I think a total of 6 or 7 times. They literally ignored me. I couldn't believe it. Well, since then I haven't ordered video games from them. Although to be fair, amazon UK sent me at least one used game as well (Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U), and their customer support wasn't helpful either.

I also ordered a Predator head last year from Amazon France. Tracking stopped at some day. And I waited. And waited. Then I saw that Amazon was selling the last few heads. When 2 were remaining, I contacted support myself. Sure, they then sent out a replacement copy almost immediately, but if I wouldn't have contacted them, I guess I would have been out of luck. I literally got the last one.

I mean amazon could have easily automatically checked tracking, especially for expensive items and when it looks as if the package got lost, then well maybe do something instead of doing nothing and waiting for the customer to contact them. The tracking had stopped for OVER A WEEK and they did nothing at all and as I said - it was almost sold out.

All in all when I compare zavvi with amazon, I actually have had less issues with Zavvi than with Amazon. I try to avoid amazon whenever I can.

[jhird2007]

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.

Had been buying off them occasionally throughout the years whenever a good bargain was on offer. Had no issues until December last year when this happened:

Thought I would give you an update to how things played out.

2nd December - Order made for 2 Items - 3 separate cancellation requests mad which were ignored. Items dispatched. This included £4.99 delivery.

4th December - Items arrive.

6th December - Request made for return.

7th December -E-mail received with label for return.

8th December - Item sent off Royal Mail Signed For - £4.40 cost.

14th December - E-Mail received acknowledging returned item.

16th December - Refund received for £40.89. After complaining about the £4.40 cost of me sending the item back they refunded me that too on the 28th.

So basically it took the guts of 4 weeks to resolve and I still lost out on the £4.99 delivery cost from the beginning. I would say it is unlikely I will ever use them again.

[MuckyMuckMan]

I just got another generic email from them. I really don't think they are listening to my case at all.

I'm now going to get what I think is £20 worth of customer service time out of them by pestering them and then I might take it to Watchdog. If anyone else wants to take it to Watchdog let me know.

[Tiger Tanaka]

worst retailer ever. the way they behaved when i had a problem with an order still makes my blood boil. i hope they go bust asap

[Tiger Tanaka]

Originally Posted by IanSchultz23

I've only heard horror stories about Zavvi so i've never ordered from them.

your sir, are a smart man !

[Tiger Tanaka]

just a warning: i took my case to visa to get a refund for a wrong item. visa mistakenly refunded the two items (and not only the wrong one) but this was rectified. zavvi considered the mistake by visa as a scam and they blocked me out of my account forever since. once you are blocked you can not even make claims anymore of you have problems with another order

[Huseyin]

On a few occasions they send me one of those generic emails i just cancel my order and goto ebay and pay a few quid more. I'd rather pay extra than deal with Zavvi's poor customer service.

[MuckyMuckMan]

Nice collection Tiger! Where do you keep them all?