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!

 

[bigdavehopes]

It sounds to me that the OP is having trouble budgeting. It is not like we didn't know the release date for these, we only didn't know the titles until a couple weeks ago. You don't have to buy every steelbook and if you feel like you do then it may be a case of being less a collector and more an obsession.

I've missed out of plenty of steelbooks i've wanted due to the release dates/price not fitting my budget, but hey, that's how collecting works. and you never know, you might find it cheaper somewhere later on.

 

[pmwhelan]

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.

The profanity filter would $hit itself.

 

[jackanape]

I have no problem with Zavvi putting things up for pre-order with the same release date as multiple other titles. Nor when that pre-order will go live - though I appreciate that two weeks is a touch ridiculous.

The real problem is Zavvi putting steelbooks up on their site months in advance and then delaying the pre-order stage for an age - the Disney steels are a good example, but also things like Clerks and Gone Baby Gone. Whereas in other cases they will announce a steel and have it available to pre-order a couple of days later - like the Toxic Avenger.

I just wish that if they announce a steel they would have a set timeline of WHEN it can then be pre-ordered. So if they announce it on the Monday it can be pre-ordered from the Saturday or similar. If they have to move back the release date at any point, no problem, but at least let people pre-order rather than announcing stuff and then having it sat on the site for months with no further info.

 

[snooloui]

The problem is that if they move them, they just create a problem elsewhere as there will inevitably other titles scheduled for the same date. You also then have the problem of customers not being aware of the new release dates. It's better just to select a date and stick to it.

As for Zavvi putting listings up and then not updating them for weeks/months, I guess they just don't have the information. There's no point in allowing customers to pre-order if you have no idea when the Steelbook will actually be available. It would annoy people even more than a listing with no info.

 

[Tchinkwe]

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

Can't agree more !

And I'm pretty sure the Disney wave of the 4th June will be delayed, look what happened to Alice In Wonderland...
First release date was in March, and still not yet on our shelves...

 

[Paulie]

2 weeks is plenty of notice...

 

[crazytaxinext]

I forgot their one real sin, setting a preorder release date then charging way early just because its come into their warehouse so convenient to them to ship earlier than stated. Happened two or three times now and that's unacceptable as its caused people unnecessary problems

 

[themanfromunkle]

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!

-Zavvi are over-saturating the market-possible because they need revenue fast-hence the quicker turnaround for releases. However if they stopped releasing catalogue titles at 4-5000 unit runs that don't sell they would be better off
-just because a site releases 17 steelbooks in a month doesn't mean I have to buy them all..learn to fight the battles you can win or at least survive

 

[Jericho]

As has been stated, Zavvi had announced that something would be coming in early June for months. I also have a pre-order for these titles from January. The exact titles were not known, but not sure how that's not enough time to plan.

That said, it would not shock me to see a delay. But personally I love the quick turnaround. The other extreme are those Indiana Jones preorders I have from March 2013.

 

[glennturner21]

I ordered all of these when they went live in January, but as time went by and we did not know the titles i did assume the dates would be pushed back. I can live either way but as it is now only 2 week away and they havent all gone live i would asume that they will be delayed.

 

[digitalbabe]

Hey guys, a quick update:

Mulan, Pinocchio and Hercules have now gone back to 7th of July, and one of them may go back further.