A star indeed! (blackstar.co.uk)

Member Name: tairrie

Product:	blackstar.co.uk
Date:	29/11/00 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quick, reasonable prices, great service,...

Disadvantages: found none so far

BlackStar was warmly recommended to me by a friend. So I decided to try it out. Probably I should explain first that I am from Germany and I am having difficulties finding English (language) films for a reasonable price. The current exchange rate of 3 Marks something to a pound doesn't exactly help either.
So BlackStar comes as if in answer to my prayers free shipping worldwide with most articles. Yes!

Prices for videos (can't say much about DVDs as I don't own a DVD player yet) are okay, there are loads of special offers, browsing through this online shop is just heaven for me.

The site is very well organised, the search function is very good and the navigation is easy and self-explaining. The range of products is comparatively large and there's hardly anthing they DON't have. In case there is something you can't find, you can run a search (never tried it but it seemed like a very good idea to me) meaning that BlackStar will try and find the video for you.

Opening my account was no problem whatsoever, I was a bit worried because I wanted to have my account marked "over 18" (not what YOU imagine!!) and it said you could send or fax a copy of your ID card, license or whatever. I don't own a fax machine and the post would have taken a couple of days, so I tried scanning it in and send it via email. No problem. The auto response mail came in telling me exactly how many other mails were "queueing" in front of mine and when I could expect an answer. The reply arrived promptly, my account was marked and - what was even better, my shopping basket was still there with all the items in it I had picked. (I thought I had to do it all over again when the message came that I needed to have my account marked 18+). The customer service is very friendly, they're all young people as far as I can see and most of them seem to be real nutters as well with a sense of humour. :-) My friend had some rathe
r funny mails.

Payment is no problem either credit card, cheque, money order, eurocheque, (don't know about switch but I guess it works as well)...whatever takes your fancy. I sent in a eurocheque through the mail as I don't have a credit card and there wasn't much money left on my account in England. Only three days later I get an email that the order has been shipped...already!! I'm impressed!

Another good thing I like is that you get 20% off an all pre-orders. I ordered a film just three days before the official release and (remember that my cheque took three days in the post) now the video is on its way already...still got the 20% off. Great!

They've got several features like a "hitlist" and a "watchlist" which I find really mean as I already put a couple of films and actors in there and it reminds me of what I COULD be buying if I had loads of money....*sigh* Anyhow, you can always have a look at the status of your order and once you've ordered something and everything went okay, my friend tells me they give you credit. They usually shipped her orders before her cheque arrived. I mean, I'm generally a trustwirthy person but I was still amazed when I heard that.

For every ten pounds you spend you can collect black stars (which you also get when you fill in their opinion poll by the way). Black Stars can be saved up and exchanged for gifts ranging from a blank video tape to a DVD player (well, who on earth is gonna collect that many black stars though?).

I can only strongly recommend this shop to anyone in and outside the UK, it's definitely worth bookmarking!

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update: Everything went perfectly with my order, it was fast, complete and everything.

Summary: