Open letter to Zavvi - 2 week pre-orders NOT acceptable!

[Heche1981]

As many of you may already know, Zavvi have recently announced several new Disney SteelBooks which are all apparently due for release on the 4th June. Robin Hood has been live for several months now, and we had adequate notice for this. However, Pinocchio, Mulan, and Hercules have only just been finalised within the last couple of weeks, with the latter only going live to pre-order this last weekend (18th May)! At time of writing, Pinocchio, Mulan, and another as yet unannounced Disney release are still due for release on the 4th June and have not yet gone live for pre-order

Now I'm not sure about other collectors here, but I personally feel that two weeks is not an acceptable timeframe to pre-order a new release! I know many of you will say "sooner we receive it, the better", but a lot of people prefer to budget for new releases in advance! What makes this even more frustrating is that Zavvi / Disney have chosen one of the most jam-packed months to release these titles - June 2nd having no less than SEVENTEEN other SteelBook releases alone!


I would hereby like to appeal to Zavvi to reschedule the release dates of Hercules, Mulan, and Pinocchio to a less-crowded month. At the very least, give us adequate time to pre-order new releases, as two weeks is certainly not a reasonable timeframe for any collector!

I would also like to ask that Zavvi choose their Disney release schedules more carefully in the future, and spread their releases out more evenly - January 20th was certainly not an example of good planning, with FIVE Disney releases on one day! 10th February had three, 10th March had four, and 7th April had three! We've so far had non in May, but the thought that Zavvi plan on releasing four-to-five on the 2nd June, plus Alice In Wonderland at the end of June, beggars belief - especially when one release has only had a two week notice, two are yet to go live, and another has not yet been announced!

 

[dv8mad]

I imagine that these steels (at least Pinnochio and Mulan) are not actually releasing on the 4th of June.
I think we all know how bad Zavvi is at updating information in a timely manner. Heck, aren't we all still getting a bi-weekly email apologizing for Alice in Wonderland being delayed, but still no update on the actual date on the site?

Anyway, yeah, it is annoying to see it, but I have resigned myself to the fact that Zavvi just seems to have no internet acumen.

 

[mlmaier84]

Very well written! Sounds like you've put quite a bit of thought into this. I definitely agree with a lot of your points.

 

[Gadget]

I prefer a short release time rather than waiting 3 months for something.

 

[RobertJoseph17]

I agree, but shouldn't this be in the Steelbook discussion forum?

 

[urbeenjammin]

I like how the pollster put their own reasoning behind the answers
you should do another poll regarding budget.Thats what the poll is about.

 

[alvinhwang21]

steelbook collecting is an expensive game. Steelbooks are growing and gaining popularity around the world. Where there is money to be made, companies will capitalize. I personally dont care how many releases are per day whether its 1, 5 or 100, we cant get them all regardless of the time frame of a preorder unless we make bank. Thats my two cents

 

[Orange Splice]

I prefer a short release time rather than waiting 3 months for something.

I second this.

 

[tono06]

and besides, the recent ones from Disney, we knew about long ago; i even managed to pre ordered when we did not know about the titles and to save money for the release schedule...i dont see any wrong thing here, if i have the money for them i will buy them if not i just wait to get them later on, maybe even cheaper...

 

[Peenuts]

Personally I could do without the wait to be honest

 

[crazytaxinext]

It's certainly frustrating not having solid info until the last minute though I'd be more concerned if it was a widespread thing. For these releases the dates and prices have been known for ages so I budgeted for them way in advance, the worst case is cancelling any they announce that I don't want so that aspect doesn't bother me, they're Disney films so we have a good idea roughly what's going to come along. I do agree though that they really should look at staggering them better. I get they're a little constrained by when items come in and not being able to leave them in storage until certain release dates but 5 on a single day is excessive, if they could at least split it so 3 come on one day and 2 a fortnight later it should help some to space the expense out.

 

[Peenuts]

Besides these things don't sell out anyway. Get em when u like in most cases.

 

[mkdfan]

We've known about the Disney steels being released on June 4th for months now which is plenty of time to get money ready. Delaying just the Disney releases isn't fair to the people that are only getting the Disney steels, delay some of the other 17 or just don't buy 20-odd steelbooks in a week.

 

[Horhay]

It's certainly tough to buy 5 titles in a day so if anything the scheduling seems rather off. Although Disney tends to drop plenty of titles of their non AAA animated films often, they do here in the US too (non-SB) so it seems that these SBs are getting that same treatment form Disney in a way.

The timing and dates had been available for a while now, it should have been something to think about a while ago in terms of your budget. Whether you pre-order a month, two months a year, or 3 days you will still spend the money on release date. It's no different. The real issue here is the release of many titles on the same day.

 

[snooloui]

The real issue here is that the OP can't afford to buy all these titles on the same day. If you can't afford a particular Steelbook, that is your own problem quite honestly. Why should Zavvi delay their exclusives? Why not ask Fox to delay the fifteen titles they have coming out the same week? Personally I find the sense of entitlement that Steelbook collectors seem to have rather bemusing.

 

[Horhay]

I don't particularly think he can't afford them, I honestly think that it would serve the collecting community to have a breather between releases. However, all the different people involved in making this happen they might only have a certain window to release these, so I am not sure how much real improvement can be done.

 

[paulboland]

With these Disney Releases 16-20
I have all 5 of them already on order from 30th of January 2014

They were live for a few Min all listed as ?

I already have budgeted for these releases but I would not mind if some of them had release dates changed to a later date so I can budget for other releases

Most Pre-Orders are not sold out releases and you can choose to order at a later time after they get released

Just because you have a releases you want it don't mean you must get every one on release day

The trick is to look at releases coming out keep the sold out releases you don't want to miss out

Then at your leisure and when cash flow ok order what you want
Sometimes also waiting means you get it cheaper as the price drops

There is I admit a lot of recent limited releases 2000 Ultra Print Runs out in July that are a bit to much they could do with having these release dates spread out
The Fox 15 Releases and there not Zavvi exclusives in June are mad I admit but they wont be sold out releases so plenty of time to order what you want from these

If its not a Sold Out release or a risk of been a sold out release order when you can afford them

 

[nkb32]

I like my steelbooks as early as possible as long as quality isnt compomised. But we all know what we are getting with Disney Sleelbooks from zavvi whether matte or gloss. And in this case the latter.

 

[serjitank]

how about try not pre ordering something if you're not sure if youll have the money for it

 

[Marcuszoller]

Some companies take payment when you pre-order (KimchiDVD, Plain Archive). I can only imagine this guys open letter if he was ordering from them.