So I got a postcard today about the 5 free movies from the Summer promotion that I ordered in early October. It blames the delays on the studios being short of supply to fulfill the movies and sets a new ETA to ship them of February 22, with up to another 30 days to receive shipment.
So let's see, I have a confirmed, signed receipt that they received the order of October 17. It therefore took them 13 weeks to acknowledge (despite a promise to fulfill in up to 10 weeks) that they were late with fulfilling and it will take an estimates 22 weeks to receive 5 discs (I don't say "my" discs since I am likely to receive 5 random discs that I didn't ask for).
In the meantime, they are fulfilling the Fall orders for people who bought their players months after me (and frankly have much better titles to select from) in 4-6 weeks on average.
The truly amazing part is they had the gall in the postcard to suggest that I might want to consider canceling the order -- not substituting it, mind you, which they refuse to do, but just saying "no thanks, you don't need to send them" -- and they even supplied a pre-posted return card where we can acknowledge we don't want the order. So they have the time and energy and money to do all this, but not to actually fulfill the movies?
What bothers me most is the whole excuse for the delay is totally bogus. They claim they are waiting to get re-stocked on the movies but I have two fundamental problems with this:
1) How can they claim they are waiting to fulfill the movies as a reason for the delay when we know with a certainly they plan to randomly substitute other movies than what I selected anyway? When I spoke to a supervisor they even acknowledged this. But when I asked for the logic of claiming a delay if they substitute anyway, he said That's a really good point, but I don't have an answer for you. When I asked to speak to someone who did, he said there was no one in the organization (Archway, who does the fulfillment) who could. In fact, when I said It just sounds like an excuse then he actually said, Between you and me, you're right, but there's nothing I can do. When I volunteered to select substitutions, he said that was impossible. So I am supposed to wait 22 weeks to receive random movies they could have fulfilled any time. Great.
2) All of the titles I have selected are in ready supply everywhere. I have seen them all at the stores all the time and I just checked three online sites and they are all in stock everywhere. Every single one of them (except the one that is a Paramount title that they won't fulfill anyway). So the idea that they are waiting on stock is either a lie or the studios are refusing to fulfill them despite inventory. Heck, all the ones I ordered (except the Paramount one) are so readily in supply that they are being sold for $14.95 or $19.95 at Amazon, and you know they do that for the ones they are trying to unload excess stock on
I have tried speaking to Disney (who allegedly manages the program), Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association and all of them completely disown any responsibility. They all say it is an Archway issue and Archway says it's a studio issue and that regardless they are not obligated to fulfill by any timeline or with any particular movies.
I think this is bad faith on everyone's part. These films were part of their sales process (they promoted up to $200 value even). I am left with a bad taste in my mouth for all the parties involved. And I could care less that the HD DVD's are having similar fulfillment issues. That doesn't justify it. If no one was receive movies because they were out of stock everywhere, fine. But there is no excuse to fulfill 3 week old orders while 13 week old orders sit collecting dust despite no intent to actually send the requested movies anyway. And if they can marshall the resources to send a postcard trying to get people to opt out of the program, they certainly could have figured out how to handle allowing them to substitute their orders.
So let's see, I have a confirmed, signed receipt that they received the order of October 17. It therefore took them 13 weeks to acknowledge (despite a promise to fulfill in up to 10 weeks) that they were late with fulfilling and it will take an estimates 22 weeks to receive 5 discs (I don't say "my" discs since I am likely to receive 5 random discs that I didn't ask for).
In the meantime, they are fulfilling the Fall orders for people who bought their players months after me (and frankly have much better titles to select from) in 4-6 weeks on average.
The truly amazing part is they had the gall in the postcard to suggest that I might want to consider canceling the order -- not substituting it, mind you, which they refuse to do, but just saying "no thanks, you don't need to send them" -- and they even supplied a pre-posted return card where we can acknowledge we don't want the order. So they have the time and energy and money to do all this, but not to actually fulfill the movies?
What bothers me most is the whole excuse for the delay is totally bogus. They claim they are waiting to get re-stocked on the movies but I have two fundamental problems with this:
1) How can they claim they are waiting to fulfill the movies as a reason for the delay when we know with a certainly they plan to randomly substitute other movies than what I selected anyway? When I spoke to a supervisor they even acknowledged this. But when I asked for the logic of claiming a delay if they substitute anyway, he said That's a really good point, but I don't have an answer for you. When I asked to speak to someone who did, he said there was no one in the organization (Archway, who does the fulfillment) who could. In fact, when I said It just sounds like an excuse then he actually said, Between you and me, you're right, but there's nothing I can do. When I volunteered to select substitutions, he said that was impossible. So I am supposed to wait 22 weeks to receive random movies they could have fulfilled any time. Great.
2) All of the titles I have selected are in ready supply everywhere. I have seen them all at the stores all the time and I just checked three online sites and they are all in stock everywhere. Every single one of them (except the one that is a Paramount title that they won't fulfill anyway). So the idea that they are waiting on stock is either a lie or the studios are refusing to fulfill them despite inventory. Heck, all the ones I ordered (except the Paramount one) are so readily in supply that they are being sold for $14.95 or $19.95 at Amazon, and you know they do that for the ones they are trying to unload excess stock on
I have tried speaking to Disney (who allegedly manages the program), Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association and all of them completely disown any responsibility. They all say it is an Archway issue and Archway says it's a studio issue and that regardless they are not obligated to fulfill by any timeline or with any particular movies.
I think this is bad faith on everyone's part. These films were part of their sales process (they promoted up to $200 value even). I am left with a bad taste in my mouth for all the parties involved. And I could care less that the HD DVD's are having similar fulfillment issues. That doesn't justify it. If no one was receive movies because they were out of stock everywhere, fine. But there is no excuse to fulfill 3 week old orders while 13 week old orders sit collecting dust despite no intent to actually send the requested movies anyway. And if they can marshall the resources to send a postcard trying to get people to opt out of the program, they certainly could have figured out how to handle allowing them to substitute their orders.
