Zavvi - Retailer chat [Europe]

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**Retailer charges cards when items ship

Per update received at HDN, starting with August 4,2014 releases, Zavvi will ship in boxes again.

[email protected]

Possible contact #s:

- 08442 640702
- 01606 336169
- 08442 439088

Thanks yeslek!

Current packaging is a cardboard mailer with the steelbook usually wrapped in either a layer of bubble wrap or foam

Spoiler: Past Packaging Updates

Update 9/5/2013:

https://www.hidefninja.com/forums/showpost.php?p=753977&postcount=1732

Current packaging-thanks dv8mad:

Spoiler

Previous packaging:

Spoiler

3/20/2013 Comparison of Play's old packaging to Zavvi's new packaging-thanks Zesty!

14/03/2013 By Wreck:
I now have confirmation that I can announce ... for all those worried about future packaging from Zavvi. My Play contact has been working with zavvi as well on this mission for better packaging. Between the 3 of us and the future comments from this community after its in place I'm sure it will be go over well.

View attachment 29368
from the pick line .........
foam inside

Spoiler

1/19/2013 Member Nyvo tweeted Zaavi about packaging concerns. They said they may be looking into alternate packaging methods.

http://www.zavvi.co.uk​

Zavvi shipping international list:
Zavvi UK

Box update1- 1/7/2014

Spoiler

https://www.hidefninja.com/forums/showpost.php?p=872703&postcount=2421

Box update 2-1/17//2014-we're told they have boxes again.

 

[DrH]

I find my self in the position that Zavvi have taken a lot of joy out of collecting steelbooks.
I have a budget that I like to stick to each month as I have other hobbies as well.
Moving dates around makes that impossible to manage.

Disney Tarzan came out before Christmas and I received mine. It was damaged so I arranged through the oh so long customer service for a replacement. Sent it back for a replacement as agreed. Once Zavvi had it they then stated they were out of stock.

So being the only Disney Zavvi steel I was missing I paid one over the odds on the bay.
About a month later suddenly they had some in stock.

As only Zavvi does the Disney steels and I am a big Disney fan I have no choice but to use them.
The latest saga with The Avengers Assemble steel is just unbelievable.

I will only now use them as a last resort.

Good business model upset your customers, lose your customers

 

[Heche1981]

It is getting to the point where I am fed-up with Zavvi that I want to file an official petition against them in order to get them to improve their service! How has a consumer watchdog not gotten involved?

Zavvi can't stick to advertised release dates - Delays are inevitable, but they just don't seem to be able to manage a release schedule, and more often than not releases will jump forward several weeks / months without warning! Even more annoying is the fact that they don't even bother to notify their customers of these release date changes, so the first many know about it is when they get a shipping eMail! Most people like to budget their fnances, but how are they exected to do this if the retailer keeps making it up as they go along?

We don't know what is going on with a handful of releases - StudioCanal releases in particular, which a few weeks ago were all delayed due to an unknown reason. Advertised release dates come and then go, with a few being rescheduled. Many newer releases don't yet have confirmed release dates either, which is not very helpful (31st December is a palceholder BTW)

Everything I send back has to be chased up because they conveniently "lose" any damaged returns. If I request a refund, they send a replacement. If I request a replacement they give me a refund. When they do send me a replcement it usually suffers from the same kind of damage as the one I sent back (such as a spine slice or chips in the corner)

Their distribution centre is shit. Plain and simple. They cannot ship items on time, and obviously can't handle a vast amount of orders each week, yet Zavvi keep populating each week with more and more SteelBook releases. No wonder they are losing customers hand over fist! I receive some releases the Thursday / Friday before release, and others staggered throughout the following week, but NEVER actually on the Monday! WTF is up with that? Why can't they just send me one frigging package with all releases for that week inside, or would that be too simple? I can't keep playing catch-up with them any more!

Their recent Fast & Furious mystery discount was not very well thought out, and you couldn't even use it with Fast 7! Seriously!?

The final straw is cancelling my Avengers Assemble order for no apparent reason! What! Why?

...and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

HOW IS A RETAILER THIS BAD STILL ALLOWED TO TRADE?

As another member recently mentioned in a Steelook thread: "Considering they call themselves the home of SteelBooks - SteelBooks deserve a better home!"

 

[Heche1981]

I'd be here all day quoting people in this thread, but this one caught my eye quickly:

I find my self in the position that Zavvi have taken a lot of joy out of collecting steelbooks.
I have a budget that I like to stick to each month as I have other hobbies as well.
Moving dates around makes that impossible to manage.

It's this which a lot of us have issue with. I agree that Zavvi have ruined the hobby for the vast majority of us and have taken the joy out of collecting SteelBooks. Not only are there far too many now, but it wouldn't be so bad if they made it manageable! A lot of us are trying to deal with budget constraints and ordering accordingly for each month, but then Zavvi go and throw a spanner in the works by shifting release dates around at the last minute! If we think X amount of titles are coming out two months away, we don't expect to then receive a dispatch eMail the week later! We can't deal with this BS!

I've been caught out so much this month with Zavvi bringing forward all of the Marvel releases. As it stood they were supposed to come out after my pay day, but now I was caught short several weeks early. Add to that the whole StudioCanal fiasco, and I'm living on the edge of my seat. I'm a nervous wreck! I don't know what to expect or when! I'm trying to budget my spending, but am living each day in fear in case Zavvi decide to bring forward a bunch of Disney releases (which they have done before).

 

[Heche1981]

• First they always offer you a partial refund (why they think we would want to keep a damaged item is beyond me)

They need to stop this ASAP! Not only is it highly offensive, it just wastes everybody's time. As if they think a partial refund would change the fact that the item is damaged! No collector here would be pleased with the fact that they have a dented or spine sliced SteelBook and brag about the fact that they paid 10% less than everybody else. It's a premium product, and should be treated accordingly! If people wanted cheap damaged SteelBooks, they would buy them from CEX instead of brand new! The sheer audacity of Zavvi never ceases to amaze me!

 

[Flash]

With zavvi clearly having problems with steelboolk releases, surely they should stop announcing new ones until they have sorted and sent the ones people have ordered

 

[sgmido]

Decided to do a little background history search on the past shenanigans of our self proclaimed 'Steelbook specialist's'.

This may be old news and it's not Steelbook related but i just had to post this. Total Classic!

Sums up the incompetence of said company. Don't you think?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25330615

 

[Flash]

I wonder if it's all getting too much for them, despite any issues, I rarely had not received an order I placed in time, until the start of the year and these recent multiple delays are troubling and now cancellations and even locking accounts?

 

[psychoscot]

I wonder if it's all getting too much for them, as awful as they have always been, I rarely had not received an order I placed in time, until the start of the year and these recent multiple delays are troubling and now cancellations and even locking accounts?

Who's account was locked??? [emoji47]

 

[psychoscot]

I have done a lot of research online and since December a number of customers (including ones on here that wish to remain anonymous) have had their accounts deleted/locked/suspended without explanation.

That's way out of order!!!

They should only be locked if they continually try ordering bulk as that's against policy. Outside of that is just plain wrong. [emoji35]

 

[Flash]

That's way out of order!!!

They should only be locked if they continually try ordering bulk as that's against policy. Outside of that is just plain wrong. [emoji35]

I know, it's all very bizzare.

 

[steel888]

With the latest round of issues with this crap retailer, let's hope it's an indicator that they go the way of the dodo bird very soon.

 

[Flash]

It's a shame because I have loved so many of their releases

If they do go I just hope Amazon gets more exclusives.

 

[Ricardo13]

So might aswell kick this off what's the general feeling of all the half decent steels being changed to £49.99 hahahahaha

 

[vampire75]

For me the raising of prices from out of stock items, like they did with gotg, they have crossed the line... i will not cancel my pre orders, but I will defenetly think 3 times before I make an order at Zavvi from now on. Like people already stated: the last few months they have hit rock bottom....

There are better releases out there from Kimchidvd and Filmarena, I will probably turn to those more often from now on.

 

[Mr Y Fronts]

This was a moment I, and many others feared, the moment a retailer bites off more than it can chew, and it was all it's own making.

From the greed it craved when Play.com decided to quit selling Steelbooks direct, in obtaining the unsold stock, to declaring itself the 'Home of Steelbookz', they thought they had just won the lottery, and for a year or so, they were correct. Zavvi even tried to ease the worries of the community by using white boxes and foam for its steelbooks.

We lapped it up, but then it started to go wrong, customer service wasn't quite up to standard, the thick foam in the white boxes changed to a very thin type, then they started to run out of boxes altogether, shipping steelbooks in carboard A1 mailers.....alarm bells began to ring...

Then the rate of steelbooks they released skyrocketed, multiple releases announced every week, it became a flood.

So many releases, but sales began to fall as customers began to lose faith, floods of catalogue releases, constant delays, cancellations, poor quality control and lack of customer service all mounted.

Desparation began to set in, popular titles suck as Disney or Marvel steelbooks, would be artificially made to be 'SOLD OUT', in order to give an impression of popularity and play mind tricks on the general public, then the ZBOX scam surfaced. Suddenly those popular titles increased in price, first it was £49.99 and then it crept up even further. Buy a Zbox they said, and get the steelbook for only £19.99............ It failed, the people fought back with their wallets.

More tricks followed, but the people just didn't fall for it anymore. You see, the people woke up !

Poor Zavvi couldn't afford to pay their suppliers enough to keep up the supply, and with a dwindling demand, it all began to collapse, and so began the viscous circle that led to 'The Home of Steelbookz' to become 'The Graveyard of Steelbookz'

And inevitably, once loyal customers gave up completely, leaving 100's of thousands of steelbooks stuck in a lonely warehouse in a remote island and left to gather dust for all eternity.

The warning signs were all there, LASERDISC, BETAMAX, VHS, DVD.... but £ signs blinded them to the oblivion that lay ahead.

That was the story of Zavvi. and its ultimate downfall.((c)2018)




........................well that killed 20 minutes..

 

[Ronnie3067]

Zaavvi seem to struggling with the amount they have already but have just announced another lot of exclusives, does anybody else think they've reached overload stage?

 

[Flash]

What I don't get is when they have not released a bunch of stuff that was supposed to be already out why are they still announcing new steels??

Next thing we know they'll be charging at time of order and I would never do that with them.

 

[Blu-devil]

I have just about had enough of their shoddy business practices and price gauging. I for one hope they do go tits up. Teach them a lesson. It will also serve as a warning to any other retailer that thinks it can get away with shafting its customers.

 

[Hamill82]

In the past month I've been having multiple problems with zavvi. I ordered few steelbooks that I paid in advance and later on cancelled. I received email saying I'd get money refunded in 3-5 working days, but now it's been almost 3 weeks and nothing has been refunded. All the time I have been sending messages to zavvi, but they don't seem to get things worked out. One point I was guided to contact Adyen, some middleman in the whole process, no contacting info, nothing. Honestly it's zavvi's job to refund my money and not my job to start hunting down my missing money and trying to contact different parties around the world. What kind of customer service is this? Also I have lots of pre-orders paid in advance, but now I'm afraid to cancel any since I might not get my money back.

Then it really pisses me off to see zavvi selling things they don't even have. Happened with Ender's Game, which got finally despatched after a long waiting, but also with Rocky steelbook.

 

[Flash]

It's now on the website

For a chance to get your hands on one of these ultra limited Zavv Exclusive steelbooks, Simply buy the Animation ZBOX and get your steelbook for £19.99

http://www.zavvi.com/offers/zbox/offer.list?utm_source=ENZ-_steelbook-zbox-offer