The new VUDU - A copycat version of everything else that we despise!

[trd365]

Yeah another Update from me, I've sent TWO support tickets to Vudu about issues with the new app, one around May 3 and another around May 7. Both have not been responded to. I can't believe how terrible Fandango is treating their customers, don't even call them Vudu anymore because they are Vudu only in name. It's Fandango who is in control, they have ruined the Roku app with this terrible update and Fandango is now ignoring complaints. They seem to not be responding to any of us, neither here with replies on these topics, nor in private email replies to assure as that they are actually aware of our concerns and are working to fix things. When it was still actually Vudu running things I'd get a response from support in 2 days or less regardless of whether they could help me or not, now all I get is the sound of crickets. It's absolutely insulting to customers who have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the years supporting Vudu.

Your work around is a good idea, but it still can't get around the fact that when you start playing or resume playing videos on the new app the first 5 seconds are blocked with the overlay controls that you can't dismiss and the screen is dimmed, which is particularly bad for TV episodes which begin immediately. You still can't access the details page for each episode from the season list because now the only option to select is a Watch button. Because of this you can't see the full description of episodes if they are lengthy and you can no longer access the button to play the episode trailers, because the details sub menu is gone! The only true solution is to revert back to the previous superior app while they fix this new one to fall in line with our requests, but Fandango remains silent doing who knows what, probably just counting their money and patting themselves on the back for creating this terrible design that they think is good!

You are correct.
It seems they aren’t responding to anyone.
I’ve been a little busy, but next week I will go to work on this.
We gave them a chance and they chose to ignore us.

[RayDyer]

I doubt less than 30 people here "says it all" but, if you say so. Everyone screaming they will leave Vudu, even with all their 100s to 1000s of non MA titles sitting here? Yeah, I doubt that. If I've learned anything in my 10 years in digital, they will be all talk, no action. I mean, 30 people are gonna make a huge company change their design? No. Now, this will most likely be my last comment in this thread, since having a difference of opinion here shows you get attacked. Enjoy the new design. I know I will.

I do find it ironic that the only consistent feedback I have provided Vudu since I started as a customer was that I became a Vudu customer because they didn't have a garbage interface like everyone else that only shows a few titles at a time.

I've got about 2500 titles (Yes, yes, I know...many people have more), and I often come to my library knowing that I want to watch a movie...and enjoy rediscovering what's in the list. On other providers, where you have to wait for the scrolling list to repopulate a few at a time, I gave up and went back to Vudu before I got out of the As.

Maybe I should have taken a different approach. Praise them for something I hate, and maybe that will go away...

[wildchildofgodbill]

I am so unbelievably disappointed in Fandango for taking over something that Walmart had nearly perfected, at least as far as their Vudu app goes, and then immediately destroying it. One of the main reasons I was so content with purchasing movies and adding them to my Vudu Library and making a library that was envied by anyone who loves movies in the manner that most of us here obviously do, was that I could do all of the things with my movies and my digital library in the Vudu app that I couldn't do in any other app out there. And now they have completely destroyed it, in one spectacular backwards step with this latest app reformatting update, by ultimately trashing the one thing that was beautiful and fun and enjoyable about using this particular movie owner's digital format. They took away all of my ability to function inside the app in a manner that I chose & apparently felt they needed to follow suit with all of the other ridiculous simple-minded apps out there so that they would have more control and we would have less. There are so many issues and problems that I don't even know where to start. I had already been saying for a long time before they even implemented this horrible new Fandango-serving monstrosity (which was practically since Fandango took over VUDU) that if I had the ability & the choice to pick up my entire digital movie library and move it to another format (preferably AppleTV or Prime Video) I would do so happily & without batting an eye. (and I say "Fandango-serving" because this app definitely doesn't serve us, the customer, in any way or practical manner as it previously did before they redesigned it to suit themselves & not their loyal customers.) The entire reason I only had a couple of movies purchased in Fandango (but still linked in through MA) before this buyout merger was because I couldn't stand Fandango to begin with. I hated their Roku app, I hated how (obviously) greedy they were with their pricing, and how insignificant the customer was as a result of all these issues and more. As far as the digital Movie Market goes, I think Fandango was completely going under before this merger and saw this buyout merely as a way to recoup not only their losses but also what they had been incapable of doing on their own with their own Fandango app and digital movie selling format. It sucked. That's why they were going under on their own. They charged too much for movies and your app was basically what we're seeing here. Simple and ridiculous and set up for their ease and comfort, not ours. I would never pay the prices Fandango was asking for digital movies back then. Not in a million years. And now you can see what they have done to the prices in our beloved Vudu app. They have raised them through the roof. They are literally attempting to break our backs financially with their greed, it seems to me, and their inability to relate to the customers & not give a crap what we think, or how much this affects all of us who have spent so much time and money buying and collecting all of these movies we have in our personal digital libraries. They could care less. It doesn't matter that this means so much to so many because this is a business and business is all about money. Point Blank, end of story. They will always only do what they think is best for their bottom line, no matter how the customer feels about it or no matter how many of us pitch a ***** over what we think is a heinous, unfriendly, BS app just like all the other BS apps out there currently. Truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this app is just a reformatted version of their previous Fandango nightmare. And we all see how well that one worked. So to be Point Blank about it, if I ever get the opportunity to pack up and move from VUDU to Apple/iTunes or Prime? I'm outta here! I was looking at a PayPal statement the other night that showed my Vudu totals, and I have spent over $25,000 buying movies and TV shows from Vudu. And this is how they treat us. I I feel like I might as well be a three year old who rents a Disney movie twice a year as far as they're concerned. I have asked question after question after question in help formats, emailed, phone calls, you name it, and each time I have always my issue referred to their superiors or sent to support on up the chain. I am currently still waiting for a response and outcome for every issue I have ever contacted them for with the exception of one. And I have close to 6,000 movies so that should tell you something about their support, because you just don't get that many movies without having some issues here and there. So if we are all waiting for this app to go back to the way it was and for things to get better, all I can say is good luck with that because unless somebody buys Fandango and decides to change it from the inside, we're always going to get what we're getting now from them. BTW, did I mention that I hate this new app format?

[Emissary35]

Excellent points wildchildofgodbill.

This new Fandango management has destroyed the app as well as the movie watching experience by blocking the first 5 second of every video with their ridiculous player controls that you can no longer dismiss! They have ignored my support tickets when I emailed them about the new app, they are ignoring all of us who complain on this forum and they ignore me on twitter when I send them messages about the new app. Fandango is a joke, they care nothing for the customers at all. My advice is everyone collectively stop purchasing and renting until they answer to us. As long as people give them money they won't address this, all they care about is getting paid. What a disaster this is, I wish Fandango was the one bought out by the previous owner of Vudu instead!

[jeremymc7]

+1

[Alan Smithee]

I liked the old FandangoNow app better than this new Vudu app.

[trd365]

I cannot believe they stopped taking calls and responding to emails.
These are things people do when they know they f'ed up.
I'm normally a glass half full kind of person, but there is absolutely nothing I like about this new VUDU interface and I hope everyone associated with it gets fired.

[wildchildofgodbill]

I had previously written a very long statement but decided to delete it because honestly, I'm concerned about repercussions. Every time I make a statement on here about what's going on and how I feel about the issue that's being discussed, I feel like things, bad things, happen even more to my account. So, since I cannot afford to replace nearly 6,000 movies and TV shows, I'm removing and deleting my comment. I honestly don't feel safe posting anything here anymore, because each time I do, within 24 hours, strange things happen to my account and the app. And since it wouldn't just let me delete the comment, or remove all the text, I had to post something or it would just put it all back as was. So instead, I am posting why I took away my post. I don't believe these guys can handle criticism or negative comments, even though nothing has been stated in a personal manner to anyone. I do believe that each time I have made a comment, something else happens in my Vudu that is not something I would prefer to happen. So in lieu of leaving my statement, I'm leaving a statement as to why I didn't leave my statement. This isn't a puzzle. It's a simple case of, I'll show you, you dirty rat. And apparently I'm the rat.

[ag-87]

Hi,

I previously posted to another thread that also discusses some of the problems with the new app, specifically the one about how you can't see nearly as many items at once on the screen. That said, I wanted to add my vote in support of this directly-related thread, as well.

I haven't posted more than once previously to this forum, so don't want to overstep myself, but I also wanted to humbly suggest that those of us posting consider coming up with a positive, clear, concise list of specific suggestions to send them; while I very strongly agree with what others are saying here and in the other related threads (and it is nice to know that others agree that some of the design choices in new interface are quite questionable), I don't think we'll get anywhere without a positive, clear, constructive, and unified request.

I'd also like to point out that I am a long-time software engineer (meaning, in general, not at this company) and also previously worked jobs in areas such as tech support and QA. I've worked for companies of varying qualities, but I've never been in one where the software developers, tech support staff, etc. were to blame for the problems - they are usually quite competent, professional, and want nothing more than to do their jobs well and provide good products and services for the customers, helping the customers. Most problems usually originate from poor decisions from high-level management against the professional advise of the developers - there is very often a huge gap between the financial side and the technical side of things.

Their tech support is probably flooded with a backlog of support cases right now and likely very under-staffed. In fact, recently they got back to me with a polite apology for taking so long on an issue I filed quite a long time ago, and I really appreciated their politeness in that response and their help with the issue.

Therefore, I'd suggest not blaming the developers and tech support staff and such for the problems and would like to suggest that in fact the developers, tech support staff, etc. are potential allies that can help resolve/improve the problems with the new app if we can get a set of positive, clear, concise suggestions through to them; I'm sure they would be happy to help us if given the opportunity and the information they need to do so. In some of my previous jobs I even spent extra time beyond my standard required work just to give customers some extra assistance or to implement extra enhancements; I enjoyed helping the customers and helping to build products that I could be proud of.

Another important thing to point out seems to me that the company has likely already invested a great deal of money/time/effort into this new interface. As much as we would like them to throw it out and go back to the old version (I know I certainly would vote for this), it seems very unlikely that they would be willing to do so. But what they COULD do is fix various issues on it, improve it. I think that is quite feasible.

To that end, I'd like to suggest the list I mentioned.

Here are a few items I've been thinking about or remember reading in other posts:

- Improve the number of items in a given list that can be displayed at once, perhaps by either reducing the clutter (particularly the info at the top of the screen) and/or by reducing the size of the movie/show display elements. This could even be a user configuration option for those of us that prefer this approach even if it were not the default (maybe something like "Display element size: Large (default), medium, small").

- Allow using the back button to dismiss the on-screen interface that is sometimes displayed when playing a movie/show (just like in the old interface)

- Move the "View all" button to the far left side of the list so scrolling far to the right to get to it isn't necessary. The far right is a very bad position for the "View all" button for those of us who want to immediately go to the grid layout.

- Fix the subtitle synchronization. I requested this maybe a year or two ago and, while I think there may have been some improvement made, unfortunately there are still problems - subtitles are still often out of synch with the voices. Netflix subtitle synchronization is rock solid so there's clearly no technical reason why this can't also be the case on other services such as this one.

- Work on interface efficiency. (While I haven't seen a lot of lag myself, I have seen some in a few places, plus from reading other posts, there do seem to be some people who are having severe efficiency problems such as with the startup logo screen.)

- Work on better support for all device models. (It appears from reading other posts that some people are experiencing crashes which I would suspect most likely due to different device models.)

- In general, consider one very strong solution to all of the various issues would be adding configuration options for those of us who want the app to function in a very particular way. Even with the new app, this would allow Vudu to once again distinguish its interface from those of other services by giving people a good list of USEFUL interface configuration options. Configuration options seem to have fallen out of favor in recent years for some odd reason, but that is very unfortunate because they are very easy to implement and maintain, and are a great way to resolve negative customer feedback on UI issues while still maintaining any desired default look and feel to the UI for those who don't mind it. Say the intro screen is really slow on old devices - then let those customers turn it off. Or say some of us want more things on the screen at one time - then let us reduce the size of the movie/show UI elements. And so on. These are very easy to implement and would solve countless problems.

OR there is another alternative:
(and the best choice for the customers)

- Implement a configuration option to activate the old interface for those of us who prefer it. The big problem with this would be maintenance of two entirely separate interfaces, so asking for this is a long-shot, but I do not think nearly as much of a long-shot as asking them to simply throw away their new interface entirely.

Are there other items to add to this list?

After deciding on a concise list, then perhaps all of us who would like to do so could offer it as the same feedback to them so they are receiving a clear and unified message. Again, I would suggest our feedback to them be positive, constructive, clear, and unified.

Again, I hope I am not overstepping myself by being new to this forum and making these types of suggestions, but I've been thinking a lot about this issue for many weeks (ever since first experiencing the unfortunate update) and came to these conclusions. I hope that my suggestions are helpful.

Thank you

[trd365]

Update:
It looks like they're finally working on it.

[jeremymc7]

Update:
It looks like they're finally working on it.

Details ?

[trd365]

Details ?

I haven't had time to fully test everything yet, but for starters, the first thing I noticed was the "My Movies" movie count.
The second thing I noticed was that they doubled the viewable line count, so instead of being limited to one line of 5 titles at a time, we're now able to view two lines of 5 at a time or 10 titles/screen however you wish to look at it, with very little stalling on the scroll.
It's a start. I still prefer the old interface, but at least someone is working on it now and hopefully all other issues will be resolved soon.

[trd365]

Details ?

Have you noticed any additional improvements?

[wildchildofgodbill]

Hey ag-87! Just wanted to give a humble & well deserved "KUDOS!!" to you for the very coherent, easily understandable & well described suggestions you posted in our lil' BGC (*****, gripe & complain) Column about this subject. It should be quite apparent to most of us here from your comment that rather than all our combined groanings & angry ravings, what we should be doing is EXACTLY what you purported to do, which is to leave coherent, feasible suggestions that can actually be implemented by VUDU's support staff, rather than the lot of us simply lashing out at them with our combined fury w/ our ongoing confusion & frustration in these matters. I'd like to be the first to compliment you on the excellent list of suggestions you gave, which is a much better place to start than anyone of these other angry & raving customers could've hoped to suggest with our abrasive lashing out, which frankly, no one ever gets the smiting out of those words the writer intends to deliver & of course nothing ever changes as a result. So thank you for being the level headed one to offer actual realistic suggestions & not just more angry words of frustration. I think if we ALL followed suit most, or at least many of these problems we're collectively facing could've been solved, or at least heard by now. As it stands now, I sincerely doubt anyone at Vudu/Fandango has heard very much, if any, of anyone's hopeful goals here because our anger & frustration has so far been the only thing truly voiced. Thank you for posting positive suggestions & not just more verbal bashing of the support staff. If only we all thought our comments through before posting them, I think what you said in your comment would be much more along the lines of what people would truly hope to say instead of what they have said. But since the pent up anger is always the first thing written in people's statements in these columns you tend to only get what we have here instead of more realistic and intelligible comments like what you had to say. Keep it up my friend. Maybe more people will follow suit and we will actually get things accomplished instead of people just venting.

[ag-87]

Hey ag-87! Just wanted to give a humble & well deserved "KUDOS!!" to you ...

Thank you, I really appreciate that and am glad that my post was helpful

It looks like some things have now been fixed (a thank you to them) and there's still some things it would be great to have fixed.

As for one particular thing I've noticed that is fixed, the back button seems to be working to dismiss the UI during playback (at least on my device) - thank you

As for something that would be good to fix, the grid view choice still requires scrolling all the way to the right and really would be vastly better if moved to the left-hand side as the very first choice in any list.

Another (something that I noticed only after my earlier post so have not yet mentioned) is that the wish list in grid view no longer directly shows if something is on sale or not (you have to click into every single item to check). That said, the initial few items that show up before selecting grid view DO seem to show the sale information correctly. Also, the problem is specific to the Roku app; the web page was working fine last I checked.

Anyway, thank you again