Peerflix Procrastinating On Customer Refunds
Duncan Riley
21 comments »
As we reported yesterday, Peerflix is to close its core DVD sharing/ swapping business April 23. Since then we’ve heard reports from users who are having problems cashing out their Peeflix accounts. Here’s what one reader received:
The Peersafe Protection Program will also be terminating effective April 23, 2008 meaning that you will no longer be able to make any Peersafe claims starting April 23, 2008. So, if you have DVDs that you have been holding on to but were planning to send at some point, now?s the time! If your Trade Cash account balance is greater than $10 and you would like to cash out your remaining Trade Cash balance, you must do so before April 30, 2008. To request a cash out of your Trade Cash, please log in to Peerflix.com and click My Account in the upper right corner, then click the My Cash tab and then click on the Request Cashout button and follow the indicated steps. As of April 30, 2008 you will no longer be able to request any Trade Cash payments from Peerflix and your Trade Cash will immediately expire and be forfeited. All cash out requests remain subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Peerflix Service Policies and will be charged a $10 processing fee.
Closing a service and charging users $10 to cash out is a little rough, but not only that they’ll have to wait as well. After following the process, they received this message:
Please note that requested amount is not removed from your cash account until the request processed. Cashout requests are processed and paid approximately 45 days after the end of the month in which you made the request. You will receive a confirmation notice when your request is processed and your payment is on the way. If you do not have the necessary funds in your account at the time payment is made, you will receive the remaining balance, but under no circumstances will we issue disbursement for less than $10.
45 days from the end of the month would place the transaction due date as mid May, 3-4 weeks after Peerflix is due to cease trading. As the reader commented, it “doesn’t sound good.”
For a company wishing to continue (in another form) as an ad network, leaving your existing customers empty handed isn’t going to create a lot of goodwill going forward. Peerflix burnt through $10 million in funding received over two rounds from 3i Group, Battery Ventures and BV Capital.
Homer: Hey, what the hell’s going on?!
Bill Gates: Oh, I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks!
I just tried to check my balance and they had cancelled my account for ‘inactivity.’
Their service was crappy anyway. It’s not worth waiting an indeterminate amount of time to receive something you can just go buy at the store for $10, especially considering the fees involved with Peerflix.
Duncan — I have to chime in here to set the record straight on your post. It’s one thing to not be a fan of me or of the Peerflix business — that is entirely your right (even though you and I have never met or spoken) — but it’s another thing to inaccurately characterize a situation when you have no direct knowledge. The cash out policy that we have today at Peerflix and you reference above is the same as it has been for over a year since we initiated the ability for members to cash out their trade cash balances in early 2007. There has always been a 45 day holding period for the purposes of fraud prevention. If we enabled people to initiate a cash out request today and then we sent them their check tomorrow, how do we prevent someone from fraudulently committing to send 20 DVDs today (but never actually sending), getting a balance of $100 and then cashing out that money? We have to wait the holding period to make sure that DVDs people sent actually arrive at the recipient before we can turn around and give the sender cash for what they sent. I fail to see the evil in this that you seem to imply? It’s simply a matter of making sure that we do not fall victim to fraud or scams.
We appreciate all of the members of Peerflix who have been buying, selling and trading DVDs with us over the past 4 years and as a result we have made every effort to do right by them. We could have just turned the trading off immediately but I didn’t think that was the right way to treat our members so instead we have given them 30 days notice of our intent to discontinue the marketplace so that they would have an opportunity between now and then to send or request to receive any DVDs they were holding or waiting on.
Again, I have absolutely no problem with you taking issue with me or my company whatsoever just please make an effort to be diligent and accurate in your reporting whenever possible.
Thanks,
Billy McNair
Peerflix, Inc.
pffft, if you’re shutting down the business you should give the user’s their “Trade Cash” without a fee. Unless you don’t care about your customers, then that’s another story
Wow. TechCrunch is really where it happens. The Founder and CEO coming here to set the record straight… while the Peerflix company blog ( http://blog.peerflix.com ) has not been updated since… Aug 2007 !
Others have > noted the “coincidence” of this move by Peeflix, and their investor 3i exiting early-stage VC funding.
listen bill, this is total bullshit. i’ve purchased 100 dollars about a year ago of your peerflix bucks trading points whatever. only used maybe 25 dollars while trading DVDs, and now suddenly i can’t access my account anymore ?
here’s a copy of an email received from you on 01/23/08 :
_____________________________________
Dear Peerflix Member,
You have not logged in to your Peerflix account in the past ninety (90) days. The Peerflix Terms of Service state that any account that has been inactive for more than ninety (90) days is subject to cancellation without further notice. Unless you log in to your Peerflix account within thirty (30) days of this notice, your account will be terminated and any Trade Cash balance in the account will expire at that time in accordance with the Peerflix Terms of Service. To maintain your account in active status, you must log in to http://www.peerflix.com within the next thirty (30) days. Going forward, any account that has been inactive for ninety (90) days or longer will be subject to cancellation without further notice. If you have any questions please contact help@peerflix.com. Thank you.
Best regards,
The Peerflix Team
______________________________
in other words, you a**hole stole from me 75 dollars !!! Billy Mc Nair should be nominated for the worse CEO ever and is a definite crook. Now don’t tell me you care about your members fvcking liar !!!
oh, and FYI, bill, during these 90 days i was out in Irak fighting for your ass. excuse me for not taking the time to find a hotspot in badgad to login to my peerflix account ! i can’t believe it, what a bunch of loosers. they made up these new terms of service just on purpose when everything smelled bad and never informed their members of these changes by email. i guess that’s illegal, by the way. i really wish someone will sue your ass.
i want everyone to know that this guy should be black listed from VCs, and actually go to prison or at least be under investigation about what happened to the 10 millions dollars.
man, i can’t believe this sucker had the balls to reply here.
Duncan, you rock.
You know it seems like a new one of these pops up every week - now in our building we have a company that does Video Game trading…
Do any of them actually make any money or just blow investor capital?
Mystery CEO
This is one of the many problems with stupid point trading systems.
What happens to all your points (money you earned!!) when the company goes under, changes its model, etc.
Nothing…they evaporate into thin air and your screwed.
Swaptree is the ony true trading site that doesn’t use points but instead has sophisticated trade algorithims that can instantly find 3 and even 4 way trades. You only send something off when you are getting something in return. Makes sense to me.
Billy McNair - that is one of the least honest responses I have ever seen from a company representative.
1. The cash out policy was already in place? That may be true but that was for people who voluntarily left not for people who are now being forced out.
2. The $10 fee is outrageous to begin with. Such a transaction should cost $1 at the most. And why no option for PayPal or ICH transfer?
3. Why is there a one month PLUS 45 day waiting period even for people who do not have outstanding DVDs out? Also why not simply wait for the trader’s confirmation and then send the refunds immediately?
The PeerFlix concept was great, and the “print your own mailer” also a good idea, but there was a subtle issue with the print-your-own-mailer: no control over the quality of paper being pressed against the DVD playing surface during shipment.
For the same reason you shouldn’t polish your glasses or a camera lens with paper (or a DVD for that matter). And compounding the issue was laser-printed, as the toner has a very high carbon content and is EXTRA-SCRATCHY.
And so, any DVD that had passed through the system more than a couple times would slowly be micro-sanded / scratched up.
I took to wrapping my DVDs with a little Saran wrap before shipping and placing a little sticker explaining why.
I tried contacting PeerFlix about this but never really received a satisfactory response.
I leave $2 in my account.
Aren’t these peerbux like gift cards? Shouldn’t they be honored at full face value up to the total amount with no minimums?
How on earth did this company burn through all that cash?
That service was ripping people off by charging for each trade to begin with. SwapADVD doesn’t charge anyone anything - you just pay postage. If they could get an even larger user base they’d be the perfect dvd swapping site.
Hmm…sounds like another company who decided they wanted to be an ad network and gave it to their customers in the shorts.
Isn’t this what VideoEgg just did to all their customers? I understand the need of companies to change direction to competitively survive, but doing right by your customers is critical. Leaving them holding the bag financially (as in PeerFlix case) or unplugging a mission-critical part of a site’s functionality on 60-days notice (as in VideoEgg’s case) is just bad business.
Billy,
You could 100% save face by partnering with a service that is still in the business of trading DVDs. Simply let all your members know they can join said service and once they do let them know you’re a former peerflix member…said service checks a list provided by you and credits their new account the appropriate amount of points.
Former peerflix members are happy, you don’t have to payout all that cash and you don’t have posts like this ones popping up all over the internet.
Sara (swaptree staff?),
You forgot to mention how swaptree members are getting ripped off NOW and probably everyday. Without points what do you do to REFUND members when they send something they own but never get what they requested in return? Word on the street is the ripped off member just gets a “Better luck next time” type response and the fraudulent member gets a slap on the wrist and maybe removal from the site after a couple infractions. Ripped off members try to voice their frustrations on the forums and their posts get locked or removed. So step off that soap box you’re trying to stand on.
MysteryCEO,
I have no funding and monthly costs next to nothing. Not trying to break the bank with this idea and it’s basically turned into a little hobby. So as long as there are members still enjoying the service I will have no problem keeping the lights on for them.
best and most reliable service : barterbee.com
created 4 years ago (way before peerflix), they’ve proven their business model.
All these point sites were stupid 5 years ago when they first came out.
I love it when other companies using the same point system model (12 and 13) come on here and try to woo peerflix members to bring their points over to their site where they can cash them in for ….drum rolll…..their stupid points. AWESOME. And where do i take them when your unfunded site goes under.
There are even swapping sites now that allow you to swap….another drum roll….points. It ludicrous.
If i have to use points, i might as well use cash.
Jackson,
The fact that we’re not funded is why we will not “go under”. Our monthly costs to keep the site running are next to nothing and I don’t depend on it to pay my bills so again…as long as there is someone still enjoying the site I will keep the lights on for them.
hey 18 commend your passion for your hobby but what happens when you get hit by a car, your wife tells you to get a real job, or the fire inside dies….what happens to our points then?
I got crushed on points when webswap went bust years ago, now the same thing happened to me on peerflix.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Im done with all point schemes except for my mileage points.
I give “points” a big thumbs down too.
I REALLY like swaptree.com. I think it’s a brilliant site.
I tried to file a claim for a DVD not received but could not access the page to file it. I kept getting Security Certificate Errors and the page would not display. I changed numerous settings to no avail. I also sent numerous E-Mails but they still do not reply. I’m out $12.00 Plus $1.52 which they have no intention to refund it. I currently have a balance of $8.00 Which is also lost with a grand total of $21.52 they stoled from me. Had I know this would happen I would have closed my account 2 months ago. They give you a 30 day notice that they are ceasing operations but to get your money we’d all be dead & buried. Today I will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau just as soon as I locate their address. We never had to pay a $10.00 service charge to get cash out and I have requested numerous cashouts with no fees. They just want to screw everybody before they close, and they will have the last laugh..
If everybody filed a complaint with the BBB maybe they will think twice about even staying in business. I personally will not use any of there services. Good Luck To Everybody