Help ... DVDHype.com problem

[Benk]

This has come up fairly recently. No one had found a way to contact them their either. You might as well just dispute the charge.

[exile183]

It is entirely possible that, by waiting this long, your credit card company may not reverse all of these charges other than the most recent one. Most of them have language in their cardholder agreements (and printed on the statement) that says that if 30 days go by from the date of the statement and you don't dispute a charge, you've deemed it to be correct.

You mentioned that they've billed you for three months. Let's assume this scenario: your credit card company should reverse at least the most recent charge (and POSSIBLY the other two - if you're lucky). You should also instruct them NOT TO HONOUR any further credit card charges from this company - that will end all future problems and only leaves us with past billing issues.

Finally, if your credit card company won't reverse all of the charges, you can either eat it or go after DVDHype for them - and I'd start by threatening to sue.

[YKdvd]

Have you tried using "Submit a Ticket" on their site, or direct email?

There seem to have been other people with similar problems (read here).

There doesn't seem to be a corporate phone number available that I can see. There is one listed on their internet domain registration, under the name of their president. This may be a residential number, so if you use it at all, please do so with discretion.

[Canadian_Pappy]

I would like to add my experience with this so-called 'service' company. Unfortunately, I fell for their '2 free weeks' and have been paying (and paying) ever since. I joined (more likely succumbed) in mid-October 2006 and cancelled in early November 2006 after finding that it took them an incredible amount of time to mail from Montreal to Ottawa - I could have WALKED it faster. However, they keep on charging my credit card even though I have the cancellation confirmation e-mail and have sent countless e-mails to them and entered countless so-called tickets to them about it. I have contacted the credit card company to ban DVDHype from further charges, but the CC say that they can not (or will not) do that. I have entered disputes for the unauthorized charges, but it is very slow going. It appears that I am going to have to cancel the credit card to get relief. IF anyone has a mailing address, I would appreciate it. I couldn't find any contact info on their cheap website.

thanks

Pappy

[BlackObs]

... I have contacted the credit card company to ban DVDHype from further charges, but the CC say that they can not (or will not) do that...

What?! Tell me you're joking, or dealing with a joke of a credit card company. Who is it, anyway? They should be automatically rejecting further charges from DVDHype (something that is trivial to set up), and they should've already offered to cancel your current card and issue you one with a new number. If they haven't done so, you need to call them and tell them that they need to do this, in order to prevent ongoing fraudulent charges. That's the key phrase here; with some of the, er, "lower quality" card-issuers, you actually have to drop the f-bomb (no, not the four-letter one, the one I underlined for you) to get them to be useful. Then once you have this sorted out, cancel the card entirely and go find a credit card issuer that has more than three brain cells to rub together.

[Canadian_Pappy]

Nope, not joking at all.. It is a BMO Mosaic Mastercard. They said that they can not block a merchant from submitting unauthorized charges.. which I admit I found hard to believe. I didn't get their rationale on this either. And they have been extremely slow and I must admit less than pro-active on MY behalf in addressing this matter. I have called them and used their Web site to register my dispute but it is still going on after almost 2 months.
Never heard a WORD from DVDHype, and after checking on a website called onlinedvdrentalguide.ca there were a number of similar comments about unresponsiveness of DVDHype -- it is a MOST appropriate name, since they are a lot more hype than anything else... I just found a most interesting definition for the word...

hype 1 Pronunciation (hp) Slang n.
1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion:
2. Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material:
3. An advertising or promotional ploy:
4. Something deliberately misleading; a deception:

I think that says it all!

[YKdvd]

and after checking on a website called onlinedvdrentalguide.ca there were a number of similar comments about unresponsiveness of DVDHype

Actually, this is the onlinedvdrentalguide.ca site...

[Canadian_Pappy]

oops.. sorry, you are of course correct... I didn't look at my address line when I wrote that.. my apologies

[BlackObs]

Pappy: It's true that they can't block a merchant from submitting unauthorized charges, but they can, as an almost trivial matter (literally thirty seconds, three mouse clicks, and one line of text entry, if they're using the software I've worked on or one of several similar packages) automatically deny the charges once submitted.

BMO is the only major Canadian bank I don't have any first-hand experience with (I only know of two people who carry their cards, and neither has had any fraud-related issues yet), but they, like all of the other banks, should have given you a timeline--usually 60 days--for resolution. I've never had any financial institution actually take the full sixty days, but they usually give you a timeline at least as a CYA.

One last thought: when you're calling BMO's Mastercard line on this matter, are you speaking to the first-line customer service staff? If so, you should be speaking with their fraud department (they probably have a different name for it) instead. The people there typically have much better training in general, and in fraud-related issues in specific.

Apologies for dragging the thread off-topic, but the advice should be useful for anybody having the same sort of problems with DVDHype as Canadian_Pappy

[YKdvd]

Do you have confirmation emails for each of the discs outstanding when you cancelled? They may be claiming a disc didn't get back to them and charging you as an ongoing customer, which the CC people would probably consider a "disputed" charge, not "fraud". Of course, DVDhype is in pretty sleazy water regardless if they aren't responding to you. There is a contact phone number attached to their internet domain registration (see my old posting above for the link) - although this may be residential and should be used with discretion. Also, if your CC people are refusing to reverse the charges, they should at least be able to provide contact info.

[Canadian_Pappy]

Actually, no I have had nothing from them since I canceled the account. The cancellation e-mail does state that the account will remain temporarily open until the outstanding movies are returned.. with a deadline (if you will) date of 7 days. HA, as if anyone can control Canada Post.. and as if they abide by their own dates either! As I mentioned earlier, they take so long to actually mail the DVDs that it would be faster to walk there and pick them up. After that cancellation confirmation e-mail I heard nothing at all from them, and of course, I can't get back into the account to check up and see what's happening there.
Now, Yesterday I did send yet another e-mail to both their so-called support centre e-mail address and the qprogram e-mail address. I got a standard say-nothing auto reply from them but I'm not holding my breath for any positive (for me) action.

I have never used the "F" word myself, as I want to be careful. I have just used the term "unauthorized", which is the case as the authorization died when I canceled the account. Way back when I first contacted the CC company, they did give me a supposed contact number, but it turned out to be wrong... for an entirely different and unconnected company... don't know how they found it...?! And the CC has never mentioned anything about a charge reversal either. I will have to call them again and see what, if anything, they are doing.