Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (4K+2D Blu-ray SteelBook) (Zavvi Exclusive) [UK]

[Noodles]

Release date: August 3, 2020
Purchase link: Zavvi (Pre-order on May 21, around 9 AM for Red Carpet , at 12 PM general sale - UK time)
Price: £29.99
Note: 3 discs

Spoiler

 

[IamIroningMan]

The point here is that people who have asked to return the damaged steelbook have been denied their rights (like me) and have been rejected with the 'waiting for the investigation' to be completed, it is this reply which break the law. If you ask to return a faulty or damaged item, the retailer MUST accept if you ask for it, they can offer a replacement or refund. What they can't do is deny you your UK statutory rights as a consumer.

If people want to wait to see if a replacement or some other solution is offered if they wish to keep their steelbook, then that's fine, wait, I mean it; only been 16 days and counting since release....took ES 2 days so sort out their Jack Reacher problem, so no rush.

ES store back then had a very close relationship with Paramount hence the reason they got so many exclusive steelbooks from them even though they were just a start up. When Jack Reacher went wrong it was escalated and resolved extremely quickly. I knew the Paramount Operations Manager at the time and they actually gave a damn so there was no messing around like there is now. It's a shame ES store never really took off and became the home of steelbooks because I've no doubt they would have done a far better job of it than Zavvi (I still use the ES ebay page to order stuff and they have never let me down). Around the same time, no one had any time for Zavvi/The Hut Group because they took forever to pay for their goods. Don't know what things are like these days but this really has turned into a fiasco. Seems to me that Zavvi still has very little say in what happens and they don't help themselves with their extremely poor and inconsistent Customer Services.

 

[lights]

There's no difference to my example.
Please re read your last paragraph......

Partial refund or return for full refund.

Not asking you to wait for the outcome of some random investigation which you don't even know what's happening with it.

Steelbook, TV, Car etc.... There's no excuse for this nonsense.

It's not really a random investigation, there's loads of defective items so obviously it's having to get looked into, the same would happen if there was a production fault on a TV and especially Cars, recalls for problems with cars can take years to materialise.

 

[kootezafra]

30% partial refund for me.

 

[Bar81]

Remember when being a Star Wars fan was fun?

Nope. Not during my adult life time. It's just rose tinted glasses all around.

 

[Flloydo]

Have they actually said anything publicly about the situation yet?

All I’ve seen publicly is on twitter and it was them replying to certain people asking others to contact them if theirs is also defective. To me that’s rounding the numbers up so they have a clear number on the copies affected so they can try to get an outcome. I might be very wrong but it seems they are collating numbers. Problem is delivery too, still some that haven’t received theirs around the world. With Covid it’s obviously taking longer. And ES is being mentioned but Covid wasn’t around when ES was around. Plus the numbers are probably different. We don’t know the print run of this. I’d say 4,000 which is double the jack reacher ES issue

 

[ethnosax]

Nope. Not during my adult life time. It's just rose tinted glasses all around.

Sorry to hear that! I think 1995 was a peak for me. Hasbro started making action figures again, the Dark Forces game was released, Topps made the Widevision trading card set, the EU was in full swing (and classic comics being republished), and rumors of the prequel trilogy finally being made were just starting to circulate. In general, fandom wasn't as fancy and specialized and codified as it came to be, and it was all a lot of fun. When I look back at some of that stuff, and watch the Project 4K versions of the original trilogy, I can remember those good times.

 

[virkia]

Don't know about worldwide but I believe the UK print run for JACK REACHER was 500 with an additional 500 printed making 1,000 steelbooks in total with UK J-cards.

The print run of ESB is reportedly 3,500 which puts it in a different ballpark but I still haven't given up on the hope of a reprint.
However, if the logistics of replacing several thousand steelbooks is just too big an ask, I accept that a partial refund may be my only option as I wouldn't dream of returning the steelbook for a full refund.

 

[Bar81]

Sorry to hear that! I think 1995 was a peak for me. Hasbro started making action figures again, the Dark Forces game was released, Topps made the Widevision trading card set, the EU was in full swing (and classic comics being republished), and rumors of the prequel trilogy finally being made were just starting to circulate. In general, fandom wasn't as fancy and specialized and codified as it came to be, and it was all a lot of fun. When I look back at some of that stuff, and watch the Project 4K versions of the original trilogy, I can remember those good times.

There were a few months before the first prequel was released when I imagined how awesome it would be... and then I saw it.

In all fairness, there have been good things - Clone Wars cartoon series was great and love Rogue One (my new trilogy is Rogue One, SW and ESB - **** the Ewoks) and some of the prints that have come out more recently are amazing - in particular Ansin's Rogue One and Furgeuson's just released ESB.

But all that is dampened by the fact that all of the mainline movies (prequel and sequel) have been very disappointing.

 

[ethnosax]

There were a few months before the first prequel was released when I imagined how awesome it would be... and then I saw it.

In all fairness, there have been good things - Clone Wars cartoon series was great and love Rogue One (my new trilogy is Rogue One, SW and ESB - **** the Ewoks) and some of the prints that have come out more recently are amazing - in particular Ansin's Rogue One and Furgeuson's just released ESB.

But all that is dampened by the fact that all of the mainline movies (prequel and sequel) have been very disappointing.

Yep, I resonate with most of that, too. But I still appreciate ROTJ, in part for what I see in it now that I totally missed as a kid. Two things, especially: one is how close Luke is to the dark side when the movie opens. He's force-choking, using mind tricks, arrogant about his own powers. When I was a kid, I just thought it was all heroic and awesome, but now I see more nuance in it. Second is the way the Rebels treat the Ewoks. They are so condescending, only treating them well inasmuch as the Ewoks might be helpful to them. To me, that signals that the Rebel heroes will still have a lot to learn, even once they defeat the Empire (and sadly, none of that is anywhere to be found in the sequel trilogy). It's also interesting that in the original trilogy, the Rebel Alliance is 100% human until ROTJ, when we start to see non-humans involved (I know—newer stuff retcons that). They're obviously starting to learn about accepting others, but the Ewok interactions show there's a ways yet to go.

I have Ansin's Rogue One print on the wall here. I'm also looking forward to getting his ANH print.

 

[Doctor]

Don't know about worldwide but I believe the UK print run for JACK REACHER was 500 with an additional 500 printed making 1,000 steelbooks in total with UK J-cards.

The print run of ESB is reportedly 3,500 which puts it in a different ballpark but I still haven't given up on the hope of a reprint.
However, if the logistics of replacing several thousand steelbooks is just too big an ask, I accept that a partial refund may be my only option as I wouldn't dream of returning the steelbook for a full refund.

I already have...

 

[Noodles]

All I’ve seen publicly is on twitter and it was them replying to certain people asking others to contact them if theirs is also defective. To me that’s rounding the numbers up so they have a clear number on the copies affected so they can try to get an outcome. I might be very wrong but it seems they are collating numbers. Problem is delivery too, still some that haven’t received theirs around the world. With Covid it’s obviously taking longer. And ES is being mentioned but Covid wasn’t around when ES was around. Plus the numbers are probably different. We don’t know the print run of this. I’d say 4,000 which is double the jack reacher ES issue

That's my main issue with the way they've handled it so far then... should've made a public announcement to make everyone aware of the situation. Surely it would save them the time and hassle of folks contacting them individually and having to reply to everyone. They just don't have a clue as usual.

 

[Vangeli]

Phew, mine finally arrived here in the US today and I was worried when I unpacked it because there were a ton of scratches as already well known here but they were mostly on the shrink wrap; underneath there’s a single horizontal scratch and it’s so faint that I can’t see it without looking at an extreme angle in extreme lighting, and I can’t even photograph it with my camera, so I somewhat lucked out.

 

[kootezafra]

They have retracted with 30% ... as I paid with PayPal I will communicate it to them. Episode VI if they have done 30%

 

[paulboland]

Star Wars getting 4K UHD and Blu-ray Amaray releases in UK

HMV have them listed not live yet
4K UHD Amaray

Search Results

store.hmv.com

Release date August 24th 2020 (TBC)
Release date likely to change

Blu-ray Amaray

Search Results

store.hmv.com

 

[BluSteel2012]

I think people in the UK will have had enough of Star Wars 4K by now after zavvigate!!!

 

[tha_lunatic]

I think people in the UK will have had enough of Star Wars 4K by now after zavvigate!!!

same in Germany... the f#ckin' customs VAT + DHL Pauschale

 

[Masta Norris]

same in Germany... the f#ckin' customs VAT + DHL Pauschale

Luckily dodged this for all three of the original trilogy so far.

 

[manonfire]

The instagram blu ray community is totally different to this forum. I've never seen anyone defending zavvi. The hatred for them on there is real lol. I totally understand why also. I've personally got 10+ posts I've tagged them in when I go on my messages. Damaged purchases, terrible CS and shoddy packaging. Also who remembers when they told everyone they had won tickets to the champions league final haha? They full on take the piss. I really wish they didn't have such control of the UK steel market. I only order from them now strictly for exclusives.

I find it unbelievable that despite requesting a full or partial refund I'm still waiting around for them to 'investigate'. What has that got to do with me? If this was a £1000 item people wouldn't be so quick to let it go.

 

[Bdawg138]

Zavvi made a post on the Steelbook subreddit stating

“Star Wars Steelbooks Update

Hey all! In regards to the Star Wars steelbooks: 'A fault has been identified and is with the appropriate people who are working on a resolution.'

Please contact customer service via website/Twitter/Facebook with any enquiries as they are not active on here.”

I assume only ESB was affected? Or have there been issues with the other releases (well ROTJ?)

 

[Punker76]

I’ve just had an update from ZavviCS on Twitter to say “They are in talks with their supplier” so it would seem the cogs are still turning on this one. Patience young Skywalker...