Page 1 of End of the road for Encore Direct

I`ve been in total bits since I found this out earlier this evening.

Most of you will know that I have nothing but total respect for this company (and heck, yeah, their DVD player too - seems to pale into insignificance now though, really...)

The company have closed down today, due to the `big High Street boys` muscling in on DVD, making their business no longer financially viable.

Encore began life three years ago and in that time built up a reputation as a small but perfectly formed DVD company, offering customer service that was second to none. They bailed out owners of the Sampo 560 DVD player by buying up the stocks of DVD players from Magnate, rebadging and upgrading them and releasing them as the Encore DV450. In the last 12 months the player has won lots of review mag awards.

My first contact with the company was in April 2000 to order the player and I was immediately impressed by them. When the player developed a fault they took it back, no argument, telephoned me to let me know when it was coming back, and lobbed in a free DVD to boot.

When Dukey suggested I start up a website (http://www.area450.co.uk) I thought why the heck not, and the website has been an outstanding success, thanks, in no small part, to Encore Direct (and Mark Rutland in particular) offerring high visibility technical support on the forums. They never wavered in their support of my site, and it wasn`t until a few weeks ago that Mark advised me that the DVD market place was getting too competitive.

Their insistence on fantastic customer service lasted right up until the end - a ridiculous sale in which most of their stock was banged out (and delivered, I hasten to add) at £5.99 a time.

Even now the company has folded they are still writing to all customers who had outstanding orders/pre-orders and explaining the situation.

This company should have been a model for the DVD world. Anyone who has experienced their service will know what I mean. For those that never used them, I can only say you missed a once in a lifetime retail experience - a small, approachable, friendly company that did everything they said on their tin.

They will be sadly missed.

my sholder is there for you old son.

Your site has turned from a fansite to a museum, but that is no bad thing as even though there willbe no new player from encore, I doubt encore owners will abandon it for a new player soon.

what you need now clayts is some talented owners to update the firmware.

ENCORE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are they still trading ? Their website is still up and running. This isn`t such a silly question, as often turnover of stock and money is required even when the company is in receivership etc.

Just I had found a bargain on there I wanted....

Andrew

Mark Oats, this is what happens when you dont pay the postage!

Still clayts Sony need a new canteen.

I have to agree with Clayts, the service I got from Encore for one purchase was fast and effecient. I was looking forward to them having more sales !

We do need more competion in the market to drive down prices but not at the expense of losing top sites !

BV

The final straw was Kingfisher (i.e. Woolies, Comet, etc) buying up Streets Online.

Read all about it at : http://website.lineone.net/~clayton.hayward/Whatsnew.htm

Oh dear! I ordered something from these the other day, their site is still up (just checked now), will I get my stuff ???? They havent contacted me to tell me I wont!

Bare - sorry Bear - if you refer to my posting about Encore Direct, you`ll find I withdrew my comments about them completely. Anyway, I wasn`t complaining about the £1.50 handling fee, I was complaining about hidden charges. I would rather pay "more" for a DVD and have the shipping and handling costs in the price advertised rather than added at the checkout as a handling charge. It just makes price comparisons easier.

It`s all beside the point. We`ve lost one of the cornerstones of the online DVD market and we`ll be the losers in the long run as the High Street stores take over the market. I`ve dealt with ED in the past and found them to be reliable, courteous and frequently having titles that were unavailable from other etailers. I mourn their passing and wish the team at Encore Direct all the best for their future enterprises.

What? This is news to me. I have a dvd on order from them. They have to send it to me right?

They seem to be fulfilling orders from stock, but all preorders are cancelled - and no, they don`t _have_ to fulfil the order.