DOJ Confirms What We Already Knew: Explorer Searchbox Not In Violation

Yes, Movie Download Sites Still Suck

from the shocking,-we-know dept

Mon, May 15th 2006 12:26pm — Carlo Longino

Hollywood has been paying lip service to the idea of movie download stores for quite some time, backing sites that sell movies, but that do such a poor job of it, few people would actually choose to use them. When the stores first launched several years ago, they were slapped with plenty of unfavorable reviews saying they were charging too much for a product of inferior quality with too many restrictions. What's slightly amusing is that despite continued poor reviews, the sites and the movie industry haven't bothered to improve their services. Now, the Washington Post's tech columnist has reviewed the two major download sites, CinemaNow and MovieLink, and finds -- surprise, surprise -- that they're unattractive, because, again, they're selling a tiny selection of low-quality movies at high prices with too many playback restrictions -- pretty much the exact same thing the same writer said in a review two years ago. These are the same complaints mentioned in nearly every review of the sites over the last four years, yet the movie industry won't listen, and continues to offer new services with the same flaws. This obession with controlling how people can use content because of the flawed assumption that it stops piracy has rendered Hollywood unable to come up with compelling new products. Until its mindset changes radically, and it stops assuming its customers are criminals, its new-media ventures will remain an unsuccessful laughing stock.

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100 Comments

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Jeremiah, 15 May 2006 @ 12:37pm

Japan??
Japan's been broadcasting in HD since the early 90's....was Hollywood concerned about movies then?? (Ok, bit of a red-herring...HD was still analog).

I think my question stands, however: What do the Japanese record shows on? Do they not record HD programs?

Yeah, it's been about 15 years before the technology is adopted here in the states...I guess we're still on our usual curve....
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Derek Reed, 15 May 2006 @ 1:43pm

Other services?
I really see the point with the services reviewed there and mentioned continously on this site, but maybe some other sites/services that the studios are backing aren't quite as horribly concieved as the others?

I haven't reviewed it myself, but apparently Vongo is unlimited viewing / subscription based, with format portability to compatible portable devices.

I don't know if it's the only one, or if it even meets its claims, but maybe we are looking for trouble in the wrong places?
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- Joshua, 15 May 2006 @ 2:02pm
  
  Re: Other services?
  I was excited for vongo when it first came out because it was a bit different from the norm. Unfortunatly they have the same issue as others with the size of their library. I tried a few months, and actually forgot about it for a few months. Ultimatly had to cancel. Just not enough content to be compelling.
  
  I get probably 10 people a day to my blog now from people searching on 'vongo review'... so at least a few people are curious. Unfortunatly for vongo the review isn't favorable in the end.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2006 @ 1:59pm

as cliche and old as it gets, it is still amazing to me how crippled American tech is, and may always be, as a result of lawyers. oh well, thank God for the underground!
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- Tashi, 15 May 2006 @ 2:23pm
  
  Re:
  "oh well, thank God for the underground!"
  
  Haha, yeah I have to agree, downloading movies for me isn't that bad. ;-)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Don Long, 15 May 2006 @ 6:50pm

Why keep this rant going?
WTF? Bitching about movie download sites is getting old. I've used Movielink.com for years, and it's great -- except the selection of movies is far too small.

Who has trouble with downloading a movie? Look within for the problem.
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Anrkist, 15 May 2006 @ 7:25pm

They don't do anything to those sites because they only use them so they can say "We offer a fair purchase based system, pirates are just evil people, thats why they wont use our system".
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Anrkist, 15 May 2006 @ 7:26pm

They don't do anything to those sites because they only use them so they can say "We offer a fair purchase based system, pirates are just evil people, thats why they wont use our system".
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Wishful Thinker, 15 May 2006 @ 7:38pm

Ranting????
It's always good to hear the opionions of other consumers and their own concerns of an industry that has not met its claims of providing a "quality service." My girlfriend and I have tried Vongo and "Movielink," both of which were limited and did score a rating of suck to us. Eventually we dropped both due to the same issues of a lack of variety and an inconsistent download quality (we have broadband).

What it boils down to are the facts, Hollywood wants total control regardless of the quality/quantity issues involved (simply look at the movies produced in the last 5 years, quality is not their primary concern).

Sooooo, all praise the "underground" for a moral high ground on quality along with quantity.
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elaine, 15 May 2006 @ 8:04pm

I prefer to think that this is a ploy to lure people into thinking that they are serious in stopping piracy through the application of this method. If that is the case, then they have a poor job of doing so.
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Brad, 16 May 2006 @ 6:16am

Why are episodes of a 10 year old tv show $2?
Speaking of quality and a poor delivery method: why does the iTunes store sell episodes of 10 year old (or older!) TV shows for $2 each? Especially when I can get a DVD with 18 episodes for $8. And it's infurriating that you can't play them on ANYTHING but an iPod - yet the movie industry points to iTunes as a place you can get movies legally. Sorry, I really don't want to spend $10 on a 160x120 movie with poor stereo sound, any more than I want to spend $1 on a song at 128k that I can't play on my mp3 player.

I rant about this problem extensively at the link above.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 May 2006 @ 9:20pm

come on
If the entertainment industry were really serious about piracy they would stop sending their product to china to be mass produced through the front door and pirated out the back. It is less expensive to send their ware to china for mass production than it is to have it mass produced in a more secure location.
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js, 17 Jun 2006 @ 10:57pm

Vongo needs to be sued
Major issues:

NO contact number,
NO live chat
BILLED card but service failed,
FOUR emails via their contact page, which they claim is staffed 24/7 and NO replies.
ALL downloaded movies in library are unable to be played.

PLAY NOW is only met with a license acquisition screen prompting to download the software, which I’ve done 6 times, successfully (otherwise how could I see what was in my library!) Even deleted and re-downloaded, rebooted, everything.

VONGO SUCKS–
We should file a class action!
May Vongo die a slow and tortuous death for ruining my date.

I HATE VONGO!!!
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- Blue, 20 Jun 2006 @ 6:26am
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  I agree 100%
  
  I had the same problems. I spent a collective 195 minutes on hold over three phone calls in order to finally get a customer service rep on the phone.
  
  I sent 7 emails, to which I received no reply.
  
  Their excuse: "Well we've just been so popular that we can't handle it!"
  
  So now I am out 10$ for a "Service" that was buggy, had crappy picture quality, and has Starz watermarks in the corner throughout the film.
  
  Vongo can burn in hell.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:48pm
    
    Re: Re: Vongo needs to be sued
    Amen to that brother!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2007 @ 2:27pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Vongo needs to be sued
      VONGO SUCK VONGO SUCK SUCK SUCK
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - jeanette hairston, 3 Apr 2007 @ 11:10am
    
    Re: Re: Vongo needs to be sued
    do you have those bitches number they took my money from my card but there is no service please e-mail me with their number thank-you jeanette
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    - Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2007 @ 2:26pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Vongo needs to be sued
      suck suckk suck
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- se4n, 2 Aug 2006 @ 7:56pm
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  their software is so full of errors and bugs they should be EMBARASSED. I have the same licencing error when i try to play movies; apparantly this is due to a failure of the software to work with Windows XP Media Center Edition. This failure is noted NOWHERE on vongos website or their "help" Faq (which appears to be another way of hyping the service and not offering anything of substance)
  
  Their ineptitude, continuous lying and bug ridden software will have me canceling my service shortly (provided i can get through)
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- Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2006 @ 6:20pm
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  i am sorry but if this was what you were doing for your date that is pretty sad
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- Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2007 @ 12:22am
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  hell yes
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- kitkat, 3 Sep 2007 @ 2:46pm
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  HATE THEM. they did the same thing to me and it is driving me insane.
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- BL, 14 Dec 2007 @ 3:26pm
  
  Re: Vongo needs to be sued
  Vongo does not honor coupons that it includes with the pre-loaded software it pushes on people who purchase new computers. When calling customer service, the service will not give any viable excuse as to why but "user error", so the representatives I spoke to say it is my fault that they will not honor the advertisements they put in new computer boxes.
  
  I was charged for two monts of service. One month I will accept as my responsibility. But the latest, I cancelled the service within the time frame, and they charged my credit card, and will not issue a refund.
  
  I do not recommend this service. The majority of movies are outdated: Circa 1980's and beyond. Of the newer movies, most have been out on the market for a month or longer. So, the service is not worth trying out. It will be a waste of time and money. Customer service is very low par. Arguing with a person who will not give his name, nor the company leadership name, so writing this company to settle issues are not acceptable means of conducting business. A company should give the names and how to reach the office numbers of the chief of operations and/or other management tiers. This was refused to me.
  
  All this hassle for a $10.59 charge to be taken off of my credit card, and they will not do it, nor even offer my the two weeks free I should of had left. VERY poor customer service, with absolutely no empathy towards customers. So, my alternative is to file a lawsuit. For false and misleading advertisement--seeing that the original pre-printed advertisement I received with my computer says:"30 day FREE trial" of which I only received 14 days of free try out service.
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Poli, 1 Aug 2006 @ 4:22pm

Vongo
Where in the world did you find a phone number for Vongo?? I need to cancel it and can't find it!
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- BL, 14 Dec 2007 @ 3:33pm
  
  Re: Vongo
  It should be next to the charge on your billing...I could not find it on their site--anywhere. So I get my cc statement, and it is a 720-852-7700
  of course it is no toll free number...cheap a$$eS!
  
  Address I found this, because I want to file a class action law suit on them for false and misleading advertisement:
  
  Vongo is a subsdary of
  Starz Entertainment Group
  
  8900 Liberty Circle
  
  Englewood, CO, 80001
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
i812nite, 5 Aug 2006 @ 9:32pm

underground movie sites
what are some of the underground sites that are avialble
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Shaka, 6 Aug 2006 @ 1:18pm

vongo sucks
I had tech problems with vongo and the tech help told me it was due to high folume periods. In other words, they are not equipped to handle their customer base. Downloading at 5 am everymorning it felt like being the 17th caller at a popular radio station contest.

Here is the catch though. They will not refund the 9.99 they charged me for the free 14 day trial after i cancelled 6 days into it.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2007 @ 7:09pm
  
  Re: vongo sucks
  OMG, I just tried the 14 day trial last night and found out the hard way. Yes!! Vongo sucks big time.. There little phrase of if you have high speed internet you will be watching a movie within 30 seconds is a flat out lie.. If they do not refund my money I will sue..
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Mike, 9 Aug 2006 @ 10:29am

Vongo cancel phone#??
Please...what is the number to cancel.
I actually called them to resolve an issue the other day cause I had the number for one minute when the software claimed I was out of the country and outside of the USA it doesn't work.
Does someone have the number...I no longer have it.

Mike
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- vaazman, 9 Jul 2007 @ 11:03am
  
  Re: Vongo cancel phone#??
  try 1-877-866-4621
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mike, 9 Aug 2006 @ 10:43am

Found the number
I found the phone number!!!

1-877-866-4621
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- Ex Vongo Customer, 6 Oct 2006 @ 6:15pm
  
  Re: Found the number
  Thanks for the number! For the future, anyone that needs to cancel must call in
  to because they need to verify everything by phone. It's a failure in customer service not to respond back to our e-mails and poor excuse to keep charging us for a poor selection. The number was helpful. Thanks again
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  - Pamela, 5 Oct 2007 @ 4:42am
    
    Re: Re: Found the number
    Just as a friendly reminder in hopes of helping a frustrated EConsumer ljke I myself have been many times. Any time you can't get the number to a site that is charging your bank card or credit card, call the bank or your creditcard company that the bills are being charged to and they will be able to provide you the phone number and physical address. The company has to provide this info to them in order to charge your card.
    
    hope this helps in the future,
    Pamela
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Mike, 9 Aug 2006 @ 10:49am

Vongo confirmation of cancelation email
It's official baby!
Here's the email they just sent me:

Dear Michael,
This email has been sent as confirmation of the cancellation of your Vongo subscription membership on Wed Aug 09 17:45:34 UTC 2006. If you feel you have received this email in error, please call Vongo Customer Service toll free 877-866-4621 (877 VONGO 21).

Please be advised that by canceling your account online, you have only canceled your subscription membership. Even though you are no longer entitled to access our subscription service, you are still a registered user, possessing your same username and password, and capable of purchasing Pay Per View titles at any time.

If you canceled your subscription membership during the free trial, your account will not be charged and you will no longer have access to Vongo subscription and library content. However, you can continue to access and enjoy Vongo pay-per-view content.

If you canceled your subscription membership outside of a free trial, billing will cease on your next subscription date and you retain access to the Vongo subscription and library content until this date. However, after billing has ceased, you can continue to access and enjoy Vongo pay-per-view content.

If you were a PPV/registered user and have canceled your account, no action has been taken on your account as you were not being billed.

Please understand that as a registered user, your email preferences will remain in effect. If you would like to sign up for, or stop receiving email communications from Vongo, you can do so by changing your settings in the “My Account” section of the Vongo service. If you would like to cancel your registered user account (and thereby eliminate your user name and password), please call Vongo Customer Service at the telephone number listed above.

Thank you,
Vongo Customer Service
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2007 @ 12:17am
  
  Re: Vongo confirmation of cancelation email
  vongo fucking sucs.. wont let me suscribe to the member shit and t wont let me fuckn cancle fuck.
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Mike, 10 Aug 2006 @ 6:05am

Vongo
Just something else to add....the epresentative on the phone told me that Vongo disables the cancel your service feature from the software so that you have to call to cancel. I told him that I was on a forum filled with irate people whom can't find the phone number and who've been billed in the free 14-day period. He said that I wouldn't be billed....this morning I received a pop up on the Vongo software alerting me that the movies I downloaded have now been deleted.
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- Hana, 5 Dec 2006 @ 8:26pm
  
  Re: Vongo
  Vongo charged me for two months and when I called gave me a helluva time when I tried to get a refund considering that I had been under the impressiong that my account was already canceled.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
James Wolfgram, 14 Aug 2006 @ 7:47am

customer service
My experience was not so bad. I tried the Vongo service for the 14 day trial and was NOT charged even after cancelling. If you are planning on trying out the service, downloading a bunch of movies and canceling, don't because all your downloaded movies are deleted when you cancel. You will have to watch them all within the two weeks. If I had a larger monitor or a vid card with an S vid output I may have continued the service but their selection is limited unless you want to start spending $4 fpr their PPV. All in all perhaps 4 out of 10.
James
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Richard Nash, 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:17pm

Vongo is Old School
Vongo and Movielink are old school companies that seem to have no clue what they are doing. There are a few new companies that seem to have their act together on the technology - if only they ever get the better movies. One that is launching next month, Reeltimetv.net, has DVD quality, and a pretty good search interface. If these guys can get their (content) act together, they will be a real winner!
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Dave, 17 Aug 2006 @ 9:48pm

Vongo isn't worth it.
I had no technical problems with Vongo during my 14 day trial... but, quite frankly, I am surprised that any online movie service with such a poor and limited selection would expose itself by offering a free trials in the first place. I MIGHT have signed up for a month to see what they had... but now that I see they've got jack shit I am definitely not sticking with it.

Also, I had to find my way to this forum to find the Vongo phone #, which is pretty sleazy on their part. However, once I got the number, it only took a 5 minute phone call to cancel, and I don't believe that I have been billed.
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Razmear, 18 Aug 2006 @ 7:55am

Vongo Licence Fix
I had the same licence issue with Vongo on one of my PCs that took several multi hour phone calls for them to not be able to fix. I finally found out that the problem was a corrupt MS Digital Rights Management encryption key.
The DRM key is based on your hardware configuration (video cards, ethernet MAC and so forth) so if you join Vongo then upgrade your video card so you can watch on your TV, then you might find out that you can't watch anything.
After finding the solution, I sent it to Vongo so they could help other folks like me who were suffering, this was a few months back so I guess they never passed it on to their support staff like they said they would.
The fix is found in MicroSoft KB article #810422
which is located at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810422/en-us

Hope this helps,
eb
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Razmear, 18 Aug 2006 @ 8:06am

Vongo Phone
btw, I also found this forum after searching for the Vongo phone number. It used to be in the Vongo Applications Contact section. The customer service rep I spoke to said she was not aware of it being removed and that she'd look into it (not holding my breath on that one).
I had to call because I had 2 pending charges for $10.49 this month, which combined with the screw up at a local Taco Bell a few days ago where they Tripple Billed my debit card has put my back account close to the danger zone.
The rep said that I would only be billed once and that the other pending charge was just an authoization check and would fade away within a couple of days. Of course the funds are still on hold, as are the ones from Taco Bell totalling about $50 of my cash that I can't use.
At least the Vongo rep was alot more polite than the folks at Taco Bell who required me to bring a copy of my bank statement back to the restaurant and seemed to be a bit pissed that they had to deal with issueing a refund.

eb
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ragingpixels, 22 Aug 2006 @ 3:31pm

vongo
vongo is alright, but the selection does suck, the most I have ever waited for a customer service rep was about 3 minutes, oddly enough I have no idea why you guys get such a long hold time. About the subject of emailing them back and never getting a reply, your emails only get replied to and can be checked only after you have started paying, not during your 14 day trial, anyway later and Fuck America!!!!!!.....Canada as well.
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- RAndy, 7 Jun 2007 @ 2:42am
  
  Re: vongo
  Fuck America? America is like Canada, but without the cowardly French influence. In French I would add: Baiser votre mère
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
neofile, 28 Aug 2006 @ 11:49pm

Vongo
Well now, lots of people make a lot of fuss about this but I reckon that if I watch 4 or 5 movies in a month, I have my money's worth, given that this is a new service and terribly buggy. There are major issues with the Gigabeat device and Windows Media Player 11 - basically don't use WMP11 and you'll probably avoid almost all technical problems. I have spent hours on the phone with these guys and tech support has always been polite, friendly and patient, perhaps because they're Canadian, not American? Most services I wouldn't tolerate if they had so many issues, but I think these guys are working to iron things out and I feel like staying with them a while and being supportive instead of joining the moaners and groaners. $9.99 a month is peanuts, after all, and to be honest I think some people just want way too much for the money. Give Vongo some time and then see, but if everyone jumps off early, where's the incentive for them to work to improve the service?

(Ducks for cover)
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neofile, 29 Aug 2006 @ 2:23pm

Vongo
Oh i should add that I subscribed to this service purely to use the Toshiba Gigabeat, and as Vongo and Toshiba are partnered, it was the obvious service for me to choose. So I am biased towards supporting the service and working through the tech problems, so I can watch movies on the Gigabeat - which incidentally works great on Vongo now I have ditched WMP 11 and rolled back to 10. I can see why people only wanting to watch on their PC might think Vongo is not such good value, but for Gigabeat owners it's great and worth resolving any tech issues to use it. If you're an iPod owner - sorry, your device is SO last year ;)
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whoever, 31 Aug 2006 @ 10:58pm

Vongo Deleted my account for no reason!
Ok, so this is a wonderful little blog. Figured I'd post this story here because it came up so quick under Google.

Have had Vongo for months now. Giving them a chance even though the selection isn't all that. Downloaded a Guided by Voices video last night, deleted a few old movies, and a couple that were expiring in 24hrs.

Today, I come home, there's a notification by the system tray "all movies have been deleted" or something close.

...I never cancelled!!!!!!!! Checked my bank, $10 bucks gone, and a confirmation in the Vongo account area as well. Checked email... This is where it gets REALLY weird... it says that this afternoon I cancelled!!!! I wasn't even HOME at the time it says this happened!!!! I haven't used Vongo since LAST NIGHT!!!

Called their #, which is 877-VONGO-21 in case anyone's curious and the nice rep was more confused than me. She could not re-instate my account, which had been properly billed, and told me to try a couple things...

I tried "Updating account type" in the Vongo client, and it came back with a nice big RED error box with "1003" as the error.

She saw on her screen that it "has to be escalated" and nothing else can be done. Well that's dandy. Here I was trying out their service, and paying for it, only to get screwed. I rather enjoyed some of the music actually, and was looking forward to watching some GBV tonight. No such luck.

I would say, they REALLY need work on improving the entire system. Flash interface is slow, video quality is not as good as it could be, audio could at least be a little higher bitrate if it has to be stereo, that way surround would be decent... and the player... wow... why on earth can a subscriber not use Windows Media Player???

So, there's my story. Not all that upset, but they just up and deleted my whole library (over 25 movies) and ripped my account away AFTER it was paid for? I'm lost. I don't even have this computer hooked up to a TV for viewing... it's mostly used when I feel like laying in bed and being lazy. This makes no sense.

Maybe next time I'll wait for Vongo, or someone else, to work out their bugs before paying for a "beta" program. It is after all, still a beta, and weird things should be expected, but outright deltion of a longtime customer's acct. is ...too buggy for my tastes.
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- Rabbitman, 3 Sep 2006 @ 7:28am
  
  Re: Vongo Deleted my account for no reason!
  Man, do I feel for you! After 2 weeks of 'free' vongo, I attempted to contact them to cancel my account, It's been 2 months, they've charged me 2 more times and each time I call I am promised 'we are sorry for the inconvenience, we will immediately issue full refund' and of course, NOTHING is done. BUYER BEWARE! VONGO is JUNK. Video Quality is worse than VHS, worse than even BETA was (if you're old enough to remember beta). It is a terrible scam. the only movies you can get are the ones on STARZ. Don't walk..RUN from VONGO...tell your friends...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2006 @ 12:34am
  
  Re: Vongo Deleted my account for no reason!
  same thing happened here, I got billed for my next month of service, and had my account changed to ppv only, I called customer support, and after *updating* it on their end, was told to also update within the account screen, i got error 1003, and the CS girl actually tried to tell me it was because their system was down/resetting for maintenance.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ted Clevenger, 4 Sep 2006 @ 7:56am

movie download sites
Que sera sera... There are at least two million potential new customers that would use movie download sites to alleviate the boredom of travel alone. So, its a a lose/lose situation. Not all customers would be brainless kids. As to priracy, Everyone out there seems to believe that what is needed to solve the problem is to do yet more of what is already known to be ineffective; hmmmm... yet more inbreeding?
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wild, 4 Sep 2006 @ 8:49am

vongo
where are the downloaded vongo movies on my harddrive? can we copy them to a dvd? i cant even find the files on my computer.
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idropstuff, 11 Sep 2006 @ 10:11pm

good, bad, ugly
Well I have tried vongo and it really serves the purpose. I have basic bottom line cable, And the few movies on vongo does comes in handy.

You have to set windows explorer to view hidden files and folders. You will see a new folder in the "vongo" program files folder. Problem is that the movie downloadss in .wmv streaming media format, once the movie downloads, it converts to a special format that can only be used by the vongo player.

All in all I can't wait till the selection gets better, but it's cheaper for me than to pay for cablevision gold package.

ISSUES
-The vongo interface was made with some sort of flash and it is so damn sloooooow.
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Joshua, 13 Oct 2006 @ 8:40am

VONGO BITES A$$
I tried to cancel my free trial and every time I pressed cancel, the screen would minimize and nothing would happen. I wrote 2 e-mails requesting a cancel and had NO response. I was charged 10.99 ( was it not supposed to be 9.99?) and wrote back again, asking for a cancel and refund. I FINALLY got a response asking me to call it. But, after going through their stupid phone tree I get a recorded message saying they cannot answer my call at this time and to call back during business hours. It's freiken 10:00 AM MST WTF. Avoid this scam company~ Even if I did not have this problem the movie selection was pure crap and after paying for the service, the only gd movies were still PPV. Movie quality was ok but even after downloading it would still glitch a lot.

The company and product suck! Bite me Vongo!
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- Jubri, 17 Mar 2007 @ 12:01am
  
  Re: VONGO BITES A$$
  In africa we have a Saying that to catch a monkey , one must mimic a Banana. VONGO is a very stupid company for trying to trick people out of their money. After trying in vain to cancel the account. I called my credit card company to issue me another credit card and then i uninstalled their program and cleaned up my PC registry. The company is doomed by behaving very fraudulently and we shall soon see a law suit very soon
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Chris, 14 Oct 2006 @ 8:55pm

"You need a PC to view this" crap
I have a PC and yet Vongo tells me to complain to Apple because they won't release the "necessary" license for DRM for the Mac. I don't have a Mac. I have a PC running Linux. I suspect they are too incompetent to realize that the PC does not equate to Microsoft Windows. For those who don't know DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, although the smart Linux people call this “technology”Digital Restrictions Management because that is what it does. Microsoft and Apple have catered to the Motion Picture industry and profit off of licensing DRM. They are part of the reason it works so poorly although DRM is problematic and ineffective at reducing piracy anyway. My suggestion is avoid Hollywood films as they generally employ some sort of DRM. Most DVDs also employ DRM, it's called CSS. Don't purchase movies online unless you can verify it doesn't use DRM (if it requires Microsoft Windows or Mac it uses DRM most likely). When purchasing or renting DVDs limit yourself to the independent and foreign films.
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Dave, 29 Oct 2006 @ 7:33pm

Vongo Service
For all the negative comments seen here... I hate to say this but Vongo is the best online movie service I've found.

Movie quality is decent, you can have a maximum of 3 playback devices, you can watch the movie a few seconds after you start the download, and the movie selection is over 1000 titles. You also can play the movies when you don't have a current Inet connection (limited number of times).

There are of course downsides and I'll try to list a few of them. First, no matter how much bandwidth you actually have, you can't download movies at more than about 300K (which is just enough to stream watch them). Next up is the fact that when Starz looses the license, the software will delete the movie at some point after that. No Mac or Linux versions currently available.

As to software issue's, I've had ZERO. Let's face it, they do have a limited selection but, it does get new ones as they loose the licenses to other movies so your not limited to just what they have "today".

What more do you expect for ten bucks a month? You don't have to watch many movies to be ahead versus rentals which is what you really need to compare against. The question of how good the service stacks up is to compare against companies like Netflix.
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Joshua Watson, 31 Oct 2006 @ 2:14pm

vongo trying....
So, I FINALLY got through to Vongo support using the number listed above. This is after 3 days of a message telling me to call back during business hours (of course I DID call during business hours all 3 times). Anyhow, long story short..the customer service rep was helpful, appologetic and offered my refund with no hassle. Looks like they are at least trying to get better.
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mary wells, 3 Nov 2006 @ 7:55am

unable to download movies from vongo
i used the vongo service with another internet provider and it worked fine;now using the same computer and new dell laptop am unable to download any movies from vongo and nothing i have tried works;different internet provider but still has required download speed,is cable internet. could anyone help;vongo can't.
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Vongo Customer, 14 Nov 2006 @ 12:38am

Vongo account cancellation sucks
Vongo is indeed playing a sinister game with its customers. I had signed up for their servervice four monthes ago, i did not like the selection of moovies that they had so i cancelled within the trial period. I confirmed in my vongo account that it had been downgraded to the non subscriber status. The customer service rep said that i will not be charged.
Here i am 4 months later, checking my credit card bill only to find out that they have been charging me all along. I logged back into my account and saw that they had somehow put me back to active member status.

It took me over an huour to figure out that the only way to contact them was to install the vongo software, login to my vongo account. All this just to be able to send them an email.

I have never seen such disregard to customer service. I think they should be reported to the BBB or some regulatory authority, i dont think their business practice is legal. They are openly cheating customers out of their money.
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- Sylvia Baldwin, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:05am
  
  Re: Vongo account cancellation sucks
  I want a Class Action law suit started against Vongo. As with everyone else, there is NO cancellation apparatus and I have been charged twice and continue to be charged.
  
  Can anyone help me cancel this Starz llc Trash?
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Hana, 29 Nov 2006 @ 10:11pm

Vongo sucks real bad.
I attempted to cancel the service online multiple times and was unsuccesful. I could not find a phone number and was charged not only once a month but multiple times in one month! They literally stole from me! However as soon as I called them they agreed to reverse the charges, guess they do this kind of thing pretty often.
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m hall, 5 Dec 2006 @ 8:38pm

deleted for no reason
I noticed others have had movies deleted for no reason.My download is limited as well as the time.It took 4 days to get movies together for the weekend.When I logged on the 4th day it erased my library.I went around and around with tech support who tried to tell that my credit didnt go through.Their was no warning notice to contact tech support.If a customer is paid up I think its an illegal act to remove the movies they have rented before their subscription runs out.Especially with no way to reinstall them from their end without the customer having to reload everything.
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Dallas Viewer, 16 Dec 2006 @ 7:06pm

Vongo Is Horrible
I was very excited about the release of Vongo and finally gave it a shot recently only to find that there the only movies you can actually recieve through Vongo is what you would watch on Stars, but worse is that they still charge for the newer movies on Starz? I thought it was free unlimited right??? To give you an example "Gone in 60 Seconds" is a PPV movie. lol really??? I know Nicholas Cage was good in that movie, but I think it has had it's day. The download manager also was horrible falling in the middle of downloads and not nearly as fast as claimed. The concept is great, but Vongo is not the solution.
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Jeff, 29 Dec 2006 @ 3:34pm

Cancel okay, but now SPAM City
I had no problems canceling the 14 day trial, but I have Unsubscribed from their mailings, oh, about 12 times now. I just got another email from them and am currently on hold (thanks for the phone number!) to get that solved.

Yep, vongo does suck
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Jenn, 20 Jan 2007 @ 9:10pm

VONGO GRRRRRRRR
Well lets see I didnt even get that far!! We decided to try Vongo out...when we went to install the damn thing it said there there was a missing or corrupt Data file in the program. I SWEAR if my computer is trashed now there will be hell to pay
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2007 @ 3:49pm

Seemed like a good deal
I finally canceled my vongo subscription today after about 4 months of either satisfaction or supreme aggravation. I have no complaints about the selection since I use this as a supplement to my other movie sources. I also have found the support people to be helpful and helpless at the same time, if that's possible.

My problem is with the damned 'download manager'. Man that thing sucks. Sometimes it will claim that it is downloading at 130 kb/sec but the percentage never changes. I don't know how many times I have removed and re-installed this program but i've had enough. The last straw was downloading 3 movies which took about 8 hours only to find all of them unwatchable due to stuttering. If this was radio, Vongo would rule because the audio track is always perfect. I'm just not very entertained by watching a series of still photos and listening to the soundtrack. Call me crazy!
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nancy, 27 Feb 2007 @ 1:32pm

Vongo is the worst. I had a 30 day free trail and canceled withing 10 minutes becaseu the downloads took FOREVER!!! I still got charged 10 bucks. Thanks Vongo. Note to self, stay with netiflix or blockbuster.

I called customer service and they said that they do that to make sure the card is active.

Vongo, YOU SUCK!!
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William, 5 Mar 2007 @ 11:11am

Down load manager
First thanks for the phone number. I had the download running for 3 days and not until I change the order of videos being downloaded did it work. That was after I had the tech on the phone. They were nice, but no help as to why this was. $10 is nothing when is does work. One gets what one pays for. I have a dvd recorder and a way to plug my laptop into the the s-video input to play it on my TV. This also let you record at the same time. To watch later. I have download over 50 video only 3 problems. My laptop is a 1.4 ghz cpu
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Justin, 6 Mar 2007 @ 12:53pm

I tried to cancel online like 100 times and there software or the onine system wouldnt cancel my account. i finally found the online support # to cancel the service. The lady was very helpful, but the whole vongo experience sucks!!!!
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Vongo My Ding Dongo, 20 Mar 2007 @ 6:29pm

VONGO, A CASE STUDY IN $H!T
Please, download this just to see the worst application ever designed. I will be shocked if it doesn't lock up within the first two minutes and I have a p4 with 2 gigs ram and 6Mbps internet connection. they have about 100 movies I think and I found 1 that I wanted to watch. $9.99 is for the 100 movies that I would only show to blind and deaf people, everything else is PPV and nothing that is new.

So, if that sounds good, go for it...
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Jorge Valdes, 14 Apr 2007 @ 2:37pm

fuuuuuuck vongo.
1-877-866-4621 is the number to reach customer service. Vongo can gargle on my balls and die they billed me twice for a movie I wasn't even able to download once. It makes me feel better that there are so many people dealing with this bullshit. Vongo will not be around much longer.
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Jackie, 19 Apr 2007 @ 12:44pm

I like Amazon's Unbox Service
I personally just signed up for Amazon's Unbox service with my Tivo. I was actually impressed. I was able to download a very high quality movie in four hours.

The only drawback is I'm only permitted to watch in on my Tivo. I can't transfer it to my Zune or burn it to DVD.

It was, however, better than my Cable company's pay-per-view on demand service.
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Jeff, 22 May 2007 @ 1:01am

Vongo *gag*
Vongo is the net equivalent of the discount section of the local movie store. Titles I've never heard of, actors I've never heard of, all low rent stuff. Granted it's interspersed with titles I'd watch.. but not now, I'm looking for new stuff. I mean, "Ernest in the Army" ?
Oh come on!

Their sorting leaves a lot to be desired as well.... Select "action" under the movies section and the first 6 are documentaries!??

The only interesting thing I've seen so far on this service is "Who killed the electric car?"

Yes, I'm sure they offer hundreds of movies. Hundreds of movies no reasonable person wants to watch.

Combine that with heavy compression artifacts.. and DRM... *gag*
Bye bye Vongo.
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riverboom, 23 May 2007 @ 3:21am

hi
wendsday may 3rd 2007

I signed up for vongo.
The problem Im having is (there seems to be a problem with Vongo library) & it keeps closing for some reason. make sure u remove the vongo software if u restore your computer to a earlier date or u can screw your computer up. I restored my computer to an ealier date because I had some computer problems. then I noticed Vongo missing. so then I had to re install it & this is when the problem happened, but I could be rong. Im calling vongo tomarro. 1877 866 4621 let them know the problem and see where u go from there. Im calling to marro
1877 866 4621 good luck
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riverboom, 23 May 2007 @ 3:37am

may 23 2007

window pops up saying (there seems to be a problem with Vongo library)shuts vongo vault & locks me out so I opened it back keeps happening tonite, Ive been a costomer for 48 hours. 14 free days. if im not happy I get my money back.
PPV is like saying fuck u costomer, thats how I feel. there good movies cost 3.99 the rest r free. Picture quality is good.
Netflix has just started offering this service netflix web site lets u watch movies on there site plays instantly its new plus they got a gay lesbian section tho picture quality isent bad. its part of your membership , Ive been with netflix for 3 years & I think there great 14.99 2 dvd movies at a time. plus Movies on there websites free with your dvd member ship. hit the play & it start with in 20 secends. what ever movie they got to view instanly online . its not the best but its pretty good , they dont have everthing.
Im calling vongo tomaro tell them the problem.

good luck looking for movies online
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Tracy, 2 Jun 2007 @ 12:13pm

VONGO IS TERRIBLE
i just signed up today and i canceled today. it is terrible. i called them and i canceld! phew! the caller was trying to convince me to stay, but i was like no, i want to cancel NOW.
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isabella, 4 Jun 2007 @ 12:44pm

Vongo Sucks
Me too.
Let's Sue.
http://neorant.blogspot.com/
For those who have it, try uninstalling it...UR in for a shocker. Vongo is a virus. Vongo is spyware. Vongo will not uninstall. You cannot get rid of Vongo.
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DouG, 9 Jun 2007 @ 8:08pm

Vongo Sucks
Just called and cancelled. The key is to cut off every question they try to ask with "I just want to cancel."
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- jk, 31 Jul 2007 @ 3:53pm
  
  Re: Vongo Sucks
  why so rude to the customer service???? I called in because I wanted to fix my issue in regards to playback they solved it for only 3mins, now Im trying to wonder if the problem is in your computer itself guys..
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Barnabas Bodi, 2 Sep 2007 @ 1:34pm

Vongo
Vongo don't Go! Worst customer service outsurced to India.On the site no way to contact Vongo.No way to cancell Vongo on the site. Here is the phone number: 1 877 866-4621. Also you can go here to let your experience with Vongo heard. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/260/RipOff0260456.htm
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michael, 9 Sep 2007 @ 1:04am

Starz = VONGO
We all should sue the fuck out of STARZ, seeing that they are the ones responsible for VONGO. We all know STARZ can afford it! Plus $9.99 is not stated in the 14 day trial agreement, which is a breech and ground for a law suit.
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Daisey, 14 Sep 2007 @ 3:43pm

Vongo is not a good idea....
I'm a mom of three small kids. It's a royal waste of my time to have to do a computer research just to find the number to Vongo so I can cancel it's less than poor quality service.I very sincerely thank whoever was the thoughtful person to post the Vongo Phone Number that they found. I was about to totally pull my hair out. I'm grateful to have found this blog. I will say that my hassle with Vongo was nearly as HORRENDOUS as the experience I had in trying to cancel Vonage. THAT was a complete nightmare! With Vongo however .... it was only a 10 minute waste of my time.But that whole thing about hiding the customer service number and not really having a "My Account" tab...UGH...that is just unintelligent and unprofessional!
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C, 21 Sep 2007 @ 10:03am

Vongo Phone Numbers
(720) 852-7700
toll free (877)866-4621
Canceled my account, they suck!
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Jim Easton, 21 Sep 2007 @ 5:14pm

Another Vongo Pain
For those of you who bought into the View movie anywhere theme with Vongo I present the disappearing library. I purchased Vongo because of the selection and can take it with me as I travel alot, including outside the country. I was overseas, relaxing and queuing up a movie when all my movie were gone. This was the third time and none of them were expiring. Plus since I am outside the US, I cant get ahold of customer service since I cant get to the website and there is no phone contact. So I am calling my bank where the auto draft comes out and telling them to block it. I have had it with lousy download manager, the flaky and poorly designed viewer, etc.
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HATER AM A HATER, 27 Sep 2007 @ 2:34pm

VONGO SUCK
DON"T FUCK WITH VONGO AND THAT ON THE REAL DOWNLOAD SLOW
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Free at last, 21 Oct 2007 @ 3:31pm

Finally cancelled Vongo
They bill me, get paid, delete my libray, no contact w/ persons to solve issue, no phone number listed email w/in 24 hrs, lol. NO. I am a consumer, no you. Vongo will no longer consume my money, time, and energy. Thanks for the phone number.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2007 @ 12:00pm

Starz Entertainment Group LLC
8900 Liberty Cir
Englewood CO 80112
(720) 852-7700

HERE IS A VALID PHONE #
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Chris, 11 Nov 2007 @ 9:04pm

Paid $20 for nothing
Got the phone number and cancelled without a problem. Thank for the number, Mike!
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Beadrey, 14 Nov 2007 @ 2:58pm

downloading movies
Has anyone used the butterfly download network for downloading movies? I hear downloading from the underground is better, where do I find that?
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Eric, 2 Dec 2007 @ 5:01pm

Comcast
what about cable providers getting involved in the movie download business? They already broadcast to your home and some even offer internet services as well as phone service. But, I suppose they are happy doing just that. Nonetheless, it would be best if they allowed users to download movies to their computer for replay.
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may, 18 Dec 2007 @ 1:07pm

fuck all these sites
i have searched for any good site 2 download a film but all of them are suck,does any one now any useful site?
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Dalrock, 5 Feb 2008 @ 8:40am

NETFLIX has better quality than VONGO, but...
NETFLIX has better quality and a larger selection than VONGO, but I have yet to find out if you can save your downloads. Just switched yesterday. VONGO kept loosing my saved movies ... big deal ... the quality sucked anyway.

For the same price I was paying for VONGO, I get MUCH better quality with NETFLIX plus a shit load more movies.

~D~
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Rita, 27 Apr 2008 @ 2:06pm

Found Vongo Contact
After trying to find contact numbers for Vongo I finally got it. So here's the number for all you guys that need to contact them. Hope it helps out.

Starz Entertainment please contact 720-852-7700.
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Lee, 10 May 2008 @ 4:34pm

You have all saved me from Vongo!
I was about to sign up for Vongo and ran across this site. Thank you for saving me from falling into the Vongo trap.
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John, 17 May 2008 @ 7:07am

They aren't all bad
Check out http://MovieSiteRanking.Com for rankings of the legal movie download sites...
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mr.e.media, 1 Jun 2008 @ 11:30pm

Vongo stole my daughter's birthday. So yea. A bunch of kids here. My daughter wanted to put a flick on her new Zen. Vongo says no. My computer is fast as hell. Faster than what their error crap says. They suck, made my daughter upset. YOU SUCK VONGO! LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MR.E.MEDIA
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mr.e.media, 1 Jun 2008 @ 11:42pm

forgot!!! This is what VONGO says!!!!!!!
Guest: Thanks for destroying my 11 year olds B-Day. I bought all of the Zen stuff. Turns out 99% of the people say stay away from you. I have the promo code. She wants her movie. I own a record label and Magazine. Also your registration says you need blah blah. My computer is about 4,000 times faster than than your error message" I need" jesus man. make it right. My daughter had a bunch of kids here.

AskVongo: You're welcome
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Ashley, 30 Jun 2008 @ 1:45pm

vongo
Ok so i tried to register and they said i had an error so i did it again, 8 times and they charged me 8 times. if all they wanted to do was pend a dollar just to see that my account was ok they should TELL you that...not there was an error. call the phone but the person i got had a thick accent. very impossible
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Jared, 31 May 2009 @ 11:55am

Vongo?
Is Vongo still available today?
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Todd (profile), 16 Sep 2010 @ 9:26pm

Vongo?
Vongo is a thing of the past, now it is all about NetFlix and streaming video from multiple other places.
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