Zip.ca President, Rick Anderson, Responds to Complaints
Rick Anderson, president of Zip.ca, just posted to the ongoing comment thread on Zip.ca.
I posted the last time Zip found my comments, back in October 2004. The original post (a link, mentioned because my friend Dave was trying the service) was from February.
Almost one year later, the current statistics are: 2355 page views on the original post, and 64 comments.
Rick, as I posted the last time I brought this up -- feel free to contact me if you want some tips on setting up a blog, forum, other avenue to let your customers interact with Zip directly. I've also posted your comment in it's entirety below, so hopefully your point of view gets some more publicity.
Note: I have still not tried Zip's service. I have comments on my website. I do moderate postings from anonymous users, but only to remove spam.
Well, this is certainly a different read from what we are used to.
Zip.ca takes service, selection and value seriously - and we are generally rated number one in Canada in all three areas.
But it is clear we have some work to do in one or more of the cases described in this thread. I encourage anyone with an outstanding Zip.ca issue to send the details directly to me,
In the meantime, allow me to address some of the general points referred to in this thread.
Our standard membership is 4-DVDs-at-a-time, for $24.95 monthly (not 3 DVDs as stated here). We also have 1, 2 and 6-DVD memberships, but 85% of our members choose the 4-DVD membership. Members basically determine how fast they turn around rentals - our most active 4-DVD members rent up to 18, 19, 20, or even more DVDs per month. Some rent just one or two.
Zip.ca's average 4-DVD member receives 8.5 DVDs a month from us. That means that their rental costs average $2.93 per DVD. Home delivered, at our cost both ways. From an unbeatable selection, best in the country by far. Pretty near impossible to beat that deal.
As stated in the thread, our first new member shipment usually does go by Xpresspost, to help people get started quickly. It usually has the new member's first 3 or 4 DVDs, of course that depends what they've selected and what we have on hand that moment. After that first shipment, everything is shipped back and forth individually, so that if you have one or two DVDs in the mail, you still have two or three at home ready for watching.
Until last fall, we did offer telephone support as well as web-based support and e-mail support. Frankly, we did not always feel the accuracy of information conveyed in the less-formal environment of telephone support was up to par, so we suspended it until we can get tghat to the quality we think it needs to be. We'll be reinstating telephone support soon. In the meantime, most of our members' web-based support requests are resolved same day, and that's the best way to get customer service.
Stolen goods are a fact of life in many retail businesses, including online and catalogue-based services which deliver goods by mail. Just as with shoplifting, they raise costs for all of us. Our success to date in preventing and fighting theft is pretty good: of more than 850,000 DVDs shipped to Zip.ca members over our first year, over 99% arrived without problem. Like other responsible vendors, we take reasonable precautions, and take written reports when discs are stolen, share those reports with postal and law enforcement authorities and investigate thoroughly. Where theft involving a particular locale is a recurring event, we really have little choice but to suspend service. If someone has a better idea how to handle this problem, we are all ears: we do not enjoy being victims, having our goods stolen, nor cancelling memberships. Thankfully, these are all rare occurences, but once is too often...
In our experience, Canada Post provides very efficient service. We airship out to all the largest Canadian cities every single day, so that our members' shipments are mailed locally in seven places across Canada each and every day. This means that over 80% of Canadians are in our "local" mailing area, for which Canada Post's service standard is generally two days. Together with co-operating members, we survey shipping results on an ongoing basis, and Canada Post pretty reliably achieves these service standards. Sometimes they do even better, delivering our DVDs in just one day. It can take three, it is rarely more than that. The return is just as good - and our service even allows longer-term members to declare a return online, upon we'll send them a replacement within a day, even before we get their return. Try that at your local video outlet.
Nobody's perfect, certainly not a start-up about to turn one. We don't pretend we know everything, but we try our best, and we do pretty well by most objective and independent assessments. More important, we are prepared to keep learning and improving, and among other things we count on member feedback for this. Look at our site and service - they're changing, innovating and improving constantly, often thanks to the many great ideas being advanced all the time by our creative and demanding members.
We have a very simple rule for building our library: if it's missing, and legally and commercially available, and you want it, we'll add it to our library. Even if there's just one of you. That's how we've gotten to 26,000 DVD titles, 8 or 10 times the variety available at most video outlets, and twice or three times the selection of any other online service in Canada.
Bottom line: we - and most independent reviewers - think we're doing pretty well in selection, service and value. But where we can do even better, we will. And we will always welcome your feedback and suggestions to do so.
Thanks for your time.
Rick Anderson
President, Zip.ca[Email your problem to]rick@zip.ca, and I will see it attended to. (If you also copy our service manger, George Leclair, george@zip.ca, that'll save a step).
Similar
Comments
zip.ca
Unusually slow...
I am a relatively new zip.ca user. I loaded up my list with over 50 films, very few new releases. I thought this would suggest that they would not be in as high demand as the newer releases and might therefore be more likely to ship faster. I figured why compete for movies and wait, right? Well, as of today. living in Winnipeg and receiving my selections from the Calgary distribution centre, I am experiencing an average of 16 days of turnaround on my selections. Keep in mind that, like other users, I am returning my selections the same day, directly to the Post Office!
In the President's message above, he states the the company ships by air to seven major Canadian cites each day. Now I don't want to sound pompous, but I'll just assume that Winnipeg is one of those major cities. In that sense, I cannot imagine it taking 7-8 days to receive discs that ostensibly are here in Winnipeg the day after they have indicated on the Company's website that the discs have been shipped. Hell, even trucking the stuff from Calgary should only take three days!
So as I sit writing this, I have returned four selections that they have yet to receive, and one on it's way that was 'shipped' 8 days ago. And NO DVDs. In the meantime, as they have yet to receive the four DVD's I have returned, no more are forthcoming until such time as they account for them. Even if they receive my returns tomorrow(fat chance!), They will still not arrive for nearly two weeks, as it is now Thursday and a long weekend in eminent.
Why bother indicating on their website that you have returned the discs if they won't send you more until they get the ones you are returning into their hot little hands? Seems pointless to me. At this rate, I will see no more that 7 films per month, and I am not in control of what they are or when they come. I am quickly becoming jaded, but I'll give it another month. I suppose I need that much time to prepare to cancel my account from what others have posted here.
Bottom line: If you have a decent video store in your city, your money is better spent instore. I see zip.ca as useful for rural renters or for tough to find titles.
Zip.ca has stopped shipping DVDs to Subscribers
Please note that Zip.ca was not able to ship out any DVDs to me since Jan.15,2008. My incident report was not answered nor the toll free 1-866-422-4830. It seems Zip.ca is no longer operating, yet my last monthly membership fee was debited on Jan.22, 2008. Please let me know if anyone has the same experience.
Incident #080118-000450
Customer (Kam Lung Ip)
01/18/2008 07:54 PM
I returned my 3 dvds and received by Zip one (The simpsons Movie) on Jan.15, 2nd one (Superbad) on Jan.16 and the 3rd one (The Kingdom) on Jan. 18, yet there is no shipping arrangement for my account up to this moment, no Zip Refill, no nothing even I have more than 20 titiles in my Ziplist. Why??? Again!!!
Zip Service Has Improved
I contributed to this conversation a couple of years back and was very critical. However, I stuck it out and now it seems that Zip has ironed out the problems it was having. I've had good service from them for quite a while now - even when a DVD went missing. (It actually turned up about a month late, but they didn't try to blame the loss on me in the meantime.) When I've had problems with disks not playing they've sent me free replacements.- - and truthfully, since I got my new DVD player, I haven't had a disk that won't play, so that was probably my fault rather than theirs.
Anyway, since I was one of the original complainers, I thought it only fair to report back and acknowledge the improvement. Good job Zip!
Peggy Kemp
zip.ca is a fraud
Ghost in The shell disc1:
I order it twice. Never received it TWICE. They will charged me twice ? They never delisted that title the first time. In my view they don't delist stolen/missing DVD, and they cash on it, pretexting we don't return it. I think this is a fraud, it certainly feels like one.They have affiliates that put their ads on their website. Maybe it would be time to contact them, and ask them to remove the ads of Zip.ca. Make them aware of the growing problem it's causing on the net, and to canadioan costumer.
call him
check out my anti zip.ca blog. http://zipcomplainer.blogspot.com/
Zip 'stolen' DVD
I have been dealing with (via email only) - I cancelled my mebership as the DVD was returned. I was subsequently notified that I was being charged for a DVD that I did not return.
The DVD was returned, and I had cancelled my mebership, re-setting spam filters accordingly.
I did not know the DVD was 'stolen' (note, not missing) until I was charged, at which point it is strictly too late to file a 'stolen' DVD report.
This has presented a circular argument that is yet to be broken, with 4-5 different people responding to the issue.
zip delivers as advertised
I'm not sure what the complaints are about. I've been a member for 8 months. As Rick noted, i get 8-10 rentals a month for 24 bucks. It isn't easy getting new releases to be sure, but new releases are overrated. :) The money i save on late charges more than pays for an occasional rental at the corner store for that new title.
A reccomendatin i have for other subscribers is keep your list at about 20 titles. (not all new releases) that way you get some new releases but always a movie. If you have a long list 40+ you will rarely get new films.
Zip.ca
I used to be very happy with zip.ca ... I have noticed that they have gotten slower and slower and since they have bought vhqonline. The time I get any dvds and i send them back .. you would be lucky if you get it within two weeks. I use to be able to get a dvd and return and get new ones all within one week. That is no longer the case ...But worse if how they treat people that have incident that have reported the dvd as stolen. They treat you like itz you FAULT that the dvd was stolen. You return in on time and they expect you to check if FIRST zip recieved it and SECOND if they haven't then its up to the customer to report it. When you report it, nobody knows responds to you but your ziplist is block off. YOU have to call them to find out and you will be lucky if you can GET an answer from them about it. Even when they screwed up and block your ziplist by their OWN MISTAKE. They don't fix the mistake and expect you to pay for it and that is even after talking to customer service that they will fix it.They talk about service guarantee. The service guarantee is that you recieve and send the dvds back. If you lost it or report ANY PROBLEMS. Expect to have problems in receiving your dvd. While in the meantime you are STILL PAYING FOR THE SERVICE and not getting anything for your money. What kind of service is THAT. They mentioned to me that they can't have a afford to lose $150 worth of dvds like I LOST THE DVD for THEM. I did my part, if it is lost, it is part of the business. Even video stores lose dvds and they don't turn away customers. It happends, that is why you have writeoffs. If it is a pattern that the customer is ALWAYS losing the dvd, then maybe I can understand it or even let the customer know they are on the red list tha their account might have problem. Dont keep taking my money while you SO CALLED investigate. Let the customer know what YOU are doing about it.STAY AWAY FROM ZIP.CA All they want is your money with no service.
I aggree, Despicable service from Zip.ca
I have had the same issue regarding lost or stolen DVDs when returning the to Zip.ca. I recently cancelled my account with zip.ca and promptly returned the two dvds I still had. I recieved one notice at the same time I had returned the DVD's that they had not recieved them and that if they did not reecieve them within a week I would be charged for them. I did not hear from them for weeks after that so I aassumed that they had received them. One month later I received a charge on my credit card for the cost of the two DVD's and an email, after the fact, stating that I was being charged for unreturned DVD's. I replied online and by phone stating that I had returned them and that I did not fill out a stolen report form as I did not know until one month later that this was the case and that I did not have access to this online report form as I no longer was a member. Again they were blaming me for still posssing the DVD's or not filling out a stolen report. This was over a month ago and I have still not recieved any helpfull reply from customer service or the president, Rick Anderson. I would definitely NOT recommend anyone give there money or credit card info to ZIP.CA
MADNESS I TELL YOU!!
I am in the beginning stages of a battle that is going to get quite interesting. I had been waiting for my four DVDs to arrive in the mail and no show for about a week or so. I have been a ZIp.ca member for over two years and was quite pleased with the expediency of the service, really feeling like I was getting my monies worth. I only started noticing a difference in the quality of service when Zip started aquiring other companies (Rogers, etc.) I digress. I contacted Zip regarding my missing DVDs and they said I had to file a Theft Report. So I did, for all four of them because none of them had shown up yet. So, needless to say I get an email stating my account is Deactivated and I may possibly be charged with the DVDs if nothing comes of their investigation and I want to get my account back up and running. I had been emailing them back and forth clearly explaining my concerns, but they kept coming back to me with quotes from their Company POlicy. I have been, what i would call, a dedicated and courteous customer, prompt in my returns and fully using all of Zip.ca's features. And now they are treating me like I am the one who stole the DVDs and I am going to have to pay for someone elses criminal actions. How does that work? February is almost over and my montly account fee has been for nothing. I have asked if I will be reimbursed for that and they have failed to answer me. I also asked if my account being deactivated means it is no dead and buried, or is it in a stasis where they will keep charging me my monthly fee? I am awaiting their response.
If anyone has experienced something similar could you please let me know so I can prepare myself for the battle ahead.
Cheers.
Zip.ca has fallen apart
Initially I was very pleased with Zip.ca but it has deteriorated hugely.
It is impossible to get customer service now. When a customer tries to access the "live chat", they are told that they are in a queue, that they are number 1, or perhaps 2 - then they wait, and after a while it says "no agents are available" and then hangs up. Just great.
My major complaint is that when you rent a series, they send you the first one, and you don't get the next one for ages. By the time you get the next one, you've forgotten so much of the first one that it doesn't make sense to you. They supposedly try to get you your ASAP choices as soon as possible but I sincerely believe that they make no attempt whatever to do so. In fact, I'd say you can pretty well guarantee NOT getting a movie by marking it ASAP.
I have been trying to watch a series with my son, but I keep getting other movies instead of the installments we are hoping for. It seems that nothing gets through to them. I feel so frustrated that I want to scream. I too have sent an e-mail to Rick Anderson. I hope I'm not still waiting in vain.
Peggy Kemp
I've been a member of Zip.ca
I've been a member of Zip.ca for several, several months. And I want to say, contrary to many of the experiences here, for me, Zip member service has been stellar.
I did feel uneasy when they discontinued phone service. I'm was especially upset at how they baldly lied to customers about it. (The web page only said that phone service was suspended for system upgrades, that lasted for over 4 months)
However, that being said, I've had two problems (that can only be from Canada Post), that Zip.ca handled very favorably (for me). One was an entire shipment of 6 dvd's all cracked in half. (No, I have no idea how that happened.) When I sent the movies back, I had to wait over a week before Zip acknowldged receiving them; However, after sending a message to customer service, and even suspending my membership for a time, the matter was just simply dropped.
It was the same with a movie that never arrived. After a week, and a couple messages to customer service, all was quietly made right.
And to the poster complaining about the innacurate "availability" bars, I'm afraid you misread the icon legends. The bars do not represent inventory availability at any given point in time. They only represent demand vs quantity, and your right, it's never 0 unless there is no quantity. That being said, It's very rare that I've not received movies that I ASAP, even when they are new release high demand movies. Regardless, if all you want is the newest top 7 movies, you'll likely be much happier sticking with Blockbuster. Zip's strength is the sheer unbelievable selection. It will be a long time before I run out of things I wan to watch. and with Zip adding over 200 titles every month, I can't even keep up with the new stuff, let alone the backlist.
Just can't get new releases
I really enjoy watching new releases at home so when I found ZIP.ca I thought that I had found a great service. Unfortunately, I struggled to come up with 20 movies on my Ziplist that I wanted to watch & haven't seen. Once I filled the list, I received mostly the older releases on the list regardless of how many ASAPs I put on the list. So I ended up going to my local videostore anyway and rented what I wanted to watch. I canceled my membership because it wasn't worth it for me. They are billing me for a DVD that I mailed back to them and seem to never have received. What can I do ? After I drop it in the mailbox is it my reposibility that they receive and account for it. that's another $27 down the drain. Zip is ok if you like old movies and documentaries, foreign films and such but don't expect anything recent. Just don't cancel your membership before you return the movies. I suggest that you empty your ziplist and return the movies you have before saying goodbye to zip.ca
Careful if you complain too m
Careful if you complain too much they will cancel your service.
It happend to me. Talk about great costumer service.
Rick Anderson ... send complaints to him ... rick@asci.ca
and to Heather Anderson heather@zip.ca.
George Leclair no longer works at Zip.
They get rid of people that don't agree with them.
Nice.
zip.ca
Very good service. I'm realy happy with the choice...and fast service.
Thank you zip.ca
Bad experience for me!
"As stated in the thread, our first new member shipment usually does go by Xpresspost, to help people get started quickly."
I signed up or the free trial put 13 DVDs in my zip list and after 8 busines days have not received a single DVD.
"In the meantime, most of our members' web-based support requests are
resolved same day, and that's the best way to get customer service."
I submitted a complaint on the 6th business day as the website suggested. I have yet to receive a reply from the customer service.
Frankly, my first weeks with Zip have been horrible. The only reason why I signed up with zip is because of their selection, but they better start fixing their issues soon or else once their selection is matched by other companies things will get much worse.
I signed up for a free trial.
I signed up for a free trial. 8 business days later still no movie, even though I have 15 listed on my zip list. My zip list doesn't even indicate that a movie was shipped. It seems like my account is being ignored. The also haven't responed to my complaint after 2 business days. Hello Zip.C ... anyone home???
The only thing they've made quick and easy is signing up. After that you're left in the dark. The idea is great, but they really need to work with a shipping company to get the movies out quicker.
I signed up for free trial too...
Same experience. No movie has been shipped. I called twice and twice I was told that there was a little glitch in my registration but that it will be fixed within the next 10 minutes. Still, no movies have been sent.
And this is service for free trial customers, the ones that should be treated better so they will eventually join.
On the positive side, the phone works, not much waiting time at all.
Zip.ca
I am running out of energy on explaining the problems I am having with Zip, to Zip, so I'll just copy & past the letter I wrote to them this past weekend. A reply is pending - it's 12:50 pm on the day I've told them I'd be calling visa.
I am posting this in the interest of alerting other consumers to the risks. If it is resolved, I will post a report.
Here it is: (I have removed employee names)
Hello,
I came across your e-mail addresses when looking for other complaints similar to mine with Zip.ca.
Up until recently, I have enjoyed Zip.ca's services and found your responses to questions or issues to be prompt and helpful. My impressions of you as a good company to deal with are, however, rapidly deteriorating.
I will summarize my complaints for you:
1. On February 14, 2005, I received my Visa bill and noticed that I had been charged the monthly membership fee 3 times in January. I sent an e-mail to your service department explaining the error, and asking for a refund on my Visa or the two erroneous additional charges. I received an automated reply to this e-mail the same day.
2. Two days later, I had yet to receive a reply on the complaint, when I dropped a DVD and it broke it half. I opted for the honest approach and immediately submitted a report via your "Report a Problem" interface. I was surprised when the interface informed me I would be charged $90.57 for the one disc, but I assumed it was some technical error and e-mailed your service department asking for clarification and correction. The same day (February 16, 2005), I received a response from Xyz in your service department, explaining that as the disc was part of a series, Zip could only replace it by purchasing the entire season (Six Feet Under Season 2), therefore I had to be charged for replacement of the entire season.
3. The same day, I replied that although I could understand the predicament, if I was going to be charged for the full season, than the remaining discs in the season (aside from the one I had broken) would belong to me. I asked that I either be shipped those discs, or charged an appropriate fee for only one disc.
4.Two days later (February 18, 2005) I received a reply from Xyz saying that the issue was being looked into. I have not heard anything since.
5. February 17, 2005, I finally received a reply from Abc apparently regarding the multiple membership charges complaint, but the message from Abc bore no relation to that issue, instead referring to "7 dvd Selections are either in your possestion or in transit."
6. Today, I checked my Visa online and discovered that a mysterious charge of a whopping 104.16 had been put through on my Visa by Zip.ca. This morning I sent an e-mail to your service department questioning this charge.
I am always willing to allow for human error when dealing with a company such as yours - I am not unreasonable in such matters, as I am sure you will see if you look through the series of messages in your records. But at this point, things have really gotten out of hand.
I request that you refund my visa in the amount of 161.56 (for two erroneous membership charges of 28.70, plus the mysterious 104.16). I think at this point it is fair for me to also request that I not be charged for the broken disc at all, given the series of mistakes being made on my account and the time and effort it is taking me to address them.
I would also like to request a phone number so I can better address these issues with you.
If I receive a satisfactory response, I would like to give Zip.ca another chance at doing good business with me. But my research today has shown me there are several other companies providing the same service, so I will not hesitate to cancel my membership if necessary.
As mentioned in my other messages, if I have not received a satisfactory response by Monday February 21, 2005, at 4:00 p.m., I will address the disputed charges directly with Visa.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I'm a frustrated customer!
First of all, they started charging extra for priority status in the movie queue. Which seems like cheating all the regular folks who initially signed up thinking everyone got a fair chance. What's worse is that if you do go for that priority status service, there's still no guarantee that you'll get the movie immediately.
And not to mention delay after delay! Email response time is terrible -- often 2 days. I'm still waiting for them to "receive" my returned movies. It's been longer than a week and their system still shows those movies as out. What's funny is that I didn't return 4 of the movies at once, instead I returned them 2 at a time, one day apart, so this should exclude the possibility of some sort of mail screwup.
And I suspect their availability meter doesn't go as low as zero. I'll bet that meter's rigged to always show a minimum availability of one, even if all copies of that title are out. Just about everything on queue is at a one, and I never get those titles when on ASAP.
Too many things about their operation seem sneaky and underhanded. I wish they'd tell it like it is -- "Sorry, we have 0 copies of that movie in stock" -or- "You're #105 in the queue for Spiderman 2". This way we could figure out the best way to make our movie selections, or at least figure out if zip.ca is worth using as a service.
Anyway, I'm thinking of switching. I'm gonna look around at the other online rental shops.
I agree - zip.ca is terrible.
I have been a member for months. It is getting worse and worse.
Do not sign up to zip.ca!
I have actually just sent an email to Rick and George as Rick asked above. We will see if it does anything useful.
Phil Jensen
service is getting slower
I am noticing in the last month or so that the Dvd's are taking much longer to get sent than normal. I being a 4 DVD $24.95 a month plan have been only receiving 3 Dvd's at at time , even when I sent back all 4. I recently switched to the 3 DVD unlimited plan, same amount of money per month. If this is really going to get worse my business may go elsewhere(like Blockbuster on-line).
zip.ca
My girlfriend and I have been using zip.ca for a month and
have had no problems. Though we have
been regular customers at a great local video store in Toronto
we found their prices were getting too high for the amount of movies we watch
and the selection wasn’t always available.
As a student I have to watch my $$$ and zip saves us money.
Reading these other messages (below) could be cause for
concern but let’s face it – blogs and web sites are notorious for myths and
half-truths. While I have no reason to
specifically doubt these complaints neither do I have cause to doubt zip’s
integrity. I sincerely hope it remains thus. We had concerns re reporting lost or damaged
DVDs that were not our fault. Courier
services could fix lost items but likely the costs (and process) would be
prohibitive.
Clearly, what is integral to a
web-based business is customer service.
The nature of web-based transactions does not have the person-to-person
element and is thus alienating. Only
immediate, effective and satisfactory (within stated company policy, of course)
customer service can help eliminate alienation and the associated mis-trust
(crucial for zip since the entire concept is based on a bond of trust between
the company and client – something I find kind of cool).
Suggestions:
Provide weekend shipping. I perceive a loop forming where the 4 movies we
order arrive at the beginning of the week and are shipped back near the middle
or end – leaving us with nothing for the weekend. Also, harking back to the customer service
point, provide clear access for posting feedback; provide opinion-polls,
surveys re service, issues, etc.
Prediction:
Either break your backs bending
over backwards to provide stellar customer service and customer access to the
company ‘ear’ or lose out to someone who will.
But so far, no complaints.