Not very filling

Back in mid-February I complained to Rogers Video Direct that they had canceled my Refill privilege after one DVD was reported missing out of 200.

As background, Rogers Video Direct has plans that allow for various numbers of DVDs to be out at one time with no due date. If you go to their web site and indicate that you're returning a DVD, they will send you one more immediately without waiting for the postal service to return the DVD. Sounds great.

Except they penalize you severely for reporting a stolen DVD by canceling the Refill privilege until the investigation is complete. They claim, “When thefts are reported, we take detailed reports, in order to share those with Canada Post and the police to investigate past thefts and avoid future ones.” Sounds great except nobody from Canada Post or the police contacted me to investigate.

I mean, it's only one DVD. Do you think either CP or the cops have time to investigate that? No way, unless other mail is going missing from that route. So this is bogus.

Well, months went by and other problems with their service distracted me. I checked today to see if they had reinstated Refill (didn't seem to be the case given the delivery timings), and found out that there is no indication anywhere I can find about Refill. It was on the home page before it went A.W.O.L. It seems they silently removed that feature. Nothing like keeping your customers informed.

It never ceases to amaze me how companies have the opportunity to be excellent, but keep shooting themselves in the foot with reductions of service and poor communication with their customers.

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Here's my full complaint to them from February:

I've rented about 200 DVDs in 11 months and reported 1 stolen or 0.5%. According to your refill rules, that means I'm no longer eligible for refill. Why is that?

I can only assume that you believe it was me who stole the DVD since I'm the one you're punishing. Yet nobody has investigated the theft since I've never been approached by Canada Post or the police to determine how the DVD went missing. The fact that you use these gaudy envelopes to make it clear to everyone handling the mail that there's a DVD inside means you folks bear some responsibility. Once I put the envelope in the mailbox, it's out of my hands. Yet, you blame me. That makes no sense.

I can only conclude that Rogers/Zip has convicted me of theft without a trial and have sentenced me to life without refill. OK, it's not that serious, but you get the point.

Please reinstate the refill. If you choose not to I can only conclude you think I'm a thief.

And their reply:

Thank you for contacting Rogers Video Direct , we're pleased to assist you with your inquiry.

Please understand that without proper investigation, theft of DVDs will only lead to higher costs for all our members. Rather than accepting the risk of possible future thefts, we take the time to open investigations to help prevent future ones.

Theft investigations are not simply a matter of filing a report and carrying on business as usual. We must do our best to protect ourselves and all our members from the costs of DVD theft. So, when a member reports a stolen DVD it is not an automatic "no problem", nor is it simply a "customer service" issue. When thefts are reported, we take detailed reports, in order to share those with Canada Post and the police to investigate past thefts and avoid future ones.

During the investigation time period the slot is held until we have been assured that the shipping address is secure and once our internal investigation has been completed. Should the DVDs be recovered the slots are released immediately.

We will place the reported slot on hold until the investigation is complete. This act is not intended to be interpreted as any sort of judgment or conclusion. It is merely a safeguard to eliminate the possibility of additional DVD losses while our investigation is underway.

The Refill feature is only removed temporarily until it has been assessed that your mailing route is once again secure.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.