Do many people still use Play?

ferris57

Standard Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2003
Messages
874
Reaction score
2
Points
161
Been ordering r1's from the states since 97/98. Started off as I am sure many others did paying about £22 per dvd from various companies (usually phone orders from companies in the back of magazines or from american companies who required all sorts faxed to them before they took your order).

I then discovered Play. Was amazed at their cheap prices and fast delivery (5-7 days) and THEN good customer service and customs refunds if applicable. Never used anyone else (or even bothered looking).

However, last year I went looking for alternatives as they started to go down hill and seemed to be less and less competitive.

I now use almost solely cd-wow and dvdsoon for r1 and yesasia for r3 stuff (all due to recommendations from this site). Cd-wow though is without doubt the best company out there in my opinion.

Now Play still have the occasional good price on older stuff or superbits (mainly r2) especially when they have a sale on, but I was wondering if anyone still uses then regularly when there are so many better companies out there now?

Just a couple of recent examples:

Pirates of the caribbean.

Play=£15.99
Cdwow=£13.50 with vouchers
dvdsoon=£12 or less if used with vouchers.

Alien quadrilogy

Play= £51.99+customs
cd-wow=£49.99 or £47.50 with vouchers
dvdsoon=£38
 
I also used to use play for R1 a lot, but other sites seem more competitive for quite a few titles - they do seem to have a good selection and customer service has also been no trouble.

But then again, their competitors also now generally provide pretty good service. I use to use DVDBoxoffice a lot (and I mean A LOT) when I started buying DVDs about 3/4 years ago - nothing wrong with their customer service but their prices just ain't what they used to be!
 
I still use them but only for Region 2 items, they are still the cheapest out there for Star Trek Boxsets and most of the time they send them out wednesday/thursday so I have them for the weekend, before release day but I am starting to get more and more stuff from else where.
 
Don't really buy that many R1 dvd's anymore as I prefer Pal. Only things I tend to buy are R1 anime and play are no the best place for them. Also with some shops now selling new releases at very competive prices I usr the shops more, especially some where like asda. Having said that Play have some very good deals and I still use them if there is something specific I need.
 
I bought from Play since 1999 but stopped this year, i find competitors offer cheaper and faster service.
 
For R2 I use Play, Popcorn and Amazon - almost exclusively TV DVDs (which make up the bulk of my collection).

For R1 I use DVD Soon, I prefer movies in the NTSC format due to the correct running time, and more importantly American TV shows.
 
I use Play for R2 items, and for cheaper (i.e. < £18) R1 items.

For US TV boxsets it is always DVD Pacific for me now.
 
...Yes. I do.

Do use CD-Wow for the X-files box sets as they are/were quite a bit cheaper. Don't like the fact they take the money straight away...even on pre orders so don't use them for anything else really.

Also they don't have as much choice as Play.
 
I've been using DVDSoon for most of my recent R1 purchases, although I recently pre-ordered the new Re-Animator DVD from play for £12.99.

As for R2, I order almost exclusively from Play. They still have very competitive prices, and I find their website to be painless to use. CD-Wow's website really bugs me. I know that's petty, but it just means that I check the price on Play first, and if it's good, I don't bother to look anywhere else.
 
I still use Play for R1, R2 and DVD-A. They offer good choice and in over 150 orders only one got lost in the post (not their fault) and they replaced no problems at all.
So I know the odd title you can get cheaper elsewhere, but to me it's not worth the bother, and it's good to show a bit of loyalty, you never know when you may need it returned!
 
I definately feel they are losing thier competetive edge on new titles. I, almost exclusively, buy my R1's from DVDSOON . the prices are just sooo good.

This year I have split my R2's between

DVD.CO.UK
CD Wow
Splash (I know, but they have improved a bit lately!)

& Play

With the odd purchase eleswhere when the price is right.

Before this year it was probably 80% from play and now probably 20%

I still think they are superb but they really need to look at their prices for new titles (they always have a good bargains section)
Maybe we'll see an improvement next year??
 
I've ordered a Playstation2 > USB convertor from them this week. Looked at my order history and I haven't ordered from them since last december.

I tend to use DVDSoon and CDWOW these days. Find them cheaper.
 
Just use Play for cheap R2 discs and the odd CD now.
Only really buy R2 discs once they've dropped to £7.99 or less.
Anything that I 'must have' I get R1 from dvdsoon.

Over a year since I bought an R1 film from Play.
 
i don't use play anymore since i got rid of my credit card and got a visa electron debit card and they don't accept them!!

dunno why?

I use cd-wow as they are cheap, fast and have good customer services


long live cd-wow


:clap:


from pete
 
The last couple of times I have checked PLAY for their price on R2 titles, I have found the same thing to be cheaper at Virgin on the High St!!!!!!!

I've pretty much given up on them.
 
I used to get all my region 1 dvd's from Play, but began to get frustrated at the slow service when it came to getting new releases. Generally found that when I pre-ordered a dvd well before release date, it wouldn't turn up until about 10-15 days after it's street date, but when I used Movietyme, new releases are often received 2-3 weeks before official release.

Tend to only use Play for older, discounted region 1 titles now, and get everything else from Movietyme and cd-wow.
 
i allways used play till last year when i order band of brothers tin set which came through the post looking like it just came from WW2 put cant complain as they gave me my money back and i kept the tin set which i never got round to send it back dont
 
as with many of you, i used play from about '99 when they were the only reliable R1 supplier i could find. these days, i use them for discounted R2's , for which they are very good. i must say, there have been a few negative comments about their customer service, but i personally can't fault them. after about 200 discs ordered, only 2 have gone missing, and both times i got an immediate apology and a replacement disc within three days.
 
This seems to be the same trend that I experianced, I used Play exclusively from around 1999 to 2002. Then began to find them unreliable and moved to Future Ent, but now for the last 7-8 months, I use Movietyme and find them fantastic, not always the cheapest, but so reliable.
 
I was thinking of starting a thread the same as this mate!

Totally agree, they have become a laughing stock, the dvds they sell can be found cheaper on the high street, and many other online retailers such as cd-wow are at least £2 -£3 cheaper.

With the zero loyalty of online shopping, how does play expect to survive in the long term? Seeing as the main reason at least I shop online is due to the cheaper prices. Why would anyone wait 5-7 days for a dvd in the post that they can buy now in a shop at the same price?
 
What has been the average amount of time people have had to wait for Region 1 and Region 2 dvds, mine are as follows...

Region 1 when they shipped from Belgium was 2 or 3 days

Region 2 has always been 2 days, if they shipped on a monday I would always have on the wednesday
 
Although I don't use Play a lot anymore I think some of the comments here are a little bit unfair. Is it right to blame Play for a damaged DVD when the problem is more likely to be the way packages are handled by postal staff.

Play have become a victim of their own success. When a company gets bigger it inevitabley needs more staff, hence more wage bills, bigger offices etc. The whole company becomes more difficult to maintain control of, and still remain competitive with more overheads.

When this happens the level of service always suffers. This ends up paving the way for smaller companies to fill that void, satisfying people such as myself and many other users on this forum with good customer service.

I'm positive that in a couple of years CD Wow will be getting the sort of negative feedback that Play seems to suffer from, whilst another newish company will be praised for their level of customer service.
 
ive stopped ordering box sets off play as they dispatch them in jiffy bags instead of boxes and they just get smashed to pieces and rammed through the letter box!!!

:mad:

i contacted play around 3 times about this but they wont do anything

so i now go physically to the shops to pick up new released box sets

example alien quad tomorrow:eek:
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is Home Theater DEAD in 2024?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom