B5:TLT Actual DISCUSSION Thread

[hypatia]

No, Jan, that would take too much effort. They prefer to complain here.

Nah, I just learned that letter writing seems to be a waste of time. It isn't worth wasting the effort anymore.

Once again, who's angry? I admit I was surprised and personally disappointed when I heard the news. But business is business.

What's odd is how many seem offended that I now choose to wait longer, and see if last-minute specials or deals might be available. Why do you object to that?

 

[KoshN]

What's odd is how many seem offended that I now choose to wait longer, and see if last-minute specials or deals might be available. Why do you object to that?

I'm not offended. I just think it's crazy.

Do you think there's going to be a similar perk in every future B5:TLT release? I wouldn't be surprised if this was a one time thing. Hell, if I was WB,/WHV and was seeing all this consternation over who got the comic and who didn't, I'd never put out another such perk ever again. You could well end up waiting to buy it locally at Best Buy, having a harder time finding one, getting no perk, and paying more for it, and that's smarter shopping?

You're making your future buying decisions based upon one data point.

 

[hypatia]

I'm also not as rabid to see it as soon as possible as many. And I have seen last minute deals cut with some distributers, they just always had to do with prices, not "extras".

It added information to the data bank. If by some odd chance enough people do change from pre-ordering, then WB will have to think of some special deal to cut to improve sales.
Before I had no information, and thought pre-ordering might have an advantage. Now I have more information than I had before, and realize that maybe the pre-ordering wasn't such a good idea after all. When I get yet more information, I'll integrate it, and see if that further encourages me to try something new. It's how learning works.

At least it's a relief to hear it's not considered crap by most people. I was not looking forward to basically spending 8 dollars an "episode" for cheap "let's milk the dying cow" writing. I have heard mostly good things about the plot.

 

[dencor]

Boy did things get out of hand here and fast over a mini comic, that I did not even know of until the day before. I would have went to Best Buy anyways to purchase it, regardless of the comic. I did not order online because yes, I wanted it right away and I took a risk because no other retailer, Circuit City , Target or Walmart carried the dvd. When I went back to Best Buy tonight, TLT was sold out, which is a good feeling indeed.
Does it really matter so much if the dvd is bought online or at a store in the end, it is overall sales that count, not who sold how many more than the other guy. But I do agree that it should have been released at the same time everywhere.And lets not forget was is important here. Babylon 5 is back and hopefully to stay for awhile.

thanks
dennis

 

[Mindwalker]

The comic will show up somewhere online sometime, thats all i care about. So I can at least read the darn thing. I don't have a best buy anywhere near me

 

[raw_bean]

I just learned that letter writing seems to be a waste of time. It isn't worth wasting the effort anymore.

Tell that to Jericho fans.

 

[Jan]

The comic will show up somewhere online sometime, thats all i care about. So I can at least read the darn thing.

For those who aren't interested in pirated material, I've written a fairly detailed description/synopsis of the mini-comic. PM me and I'll reply with it.

Jan

 

[KoshN]

Boy did things get out of hand here and fast over a mini comic,

Yeah, hard to believe.

...no other retailer, Circuit City , Target or Walmart carried the dvd.

They didn't? Anybody else notice that? Best Buy was the only store I checked yesterday, because I *knew* they'd have it.

 

[Sindatur]

The thing that gets me bent, is I pre-ordered on Day 1 from Amazon, and my disc didn't show up yesterday. IMHO, if you pre-order, regardless what shipping you choose, the item should arrive at your home on the Street Release date. now, i am blaming Amazon for this, not WB, but, the reason we pre-ordered was to show upfront there was demand. It did at least leave Richmond, CA yesterday, so hopefully I'll get it today or tomorrow, but, still...

 

[KoshN]

The thing that gets me bent, is I pre-ordered on Day 1 from Amazon,

So did I.

...and my disc didn't show up yesterday.

Neither did mine. Didn't arrive today, either, but then again I got FREE (slower) shipping. I did buy one at Best Buy yesterday when they opened, to get the comic.

IMHO, if you pre-order, regardless what shipping you choose, the item should arrive at your home on the Street Release date.

I don't expect that, especially if I'm getting FREE shipping.

now, i am blaming Amazon for this,

IMHO, that's not justified.

but, the reason we pre-ordered was to show upfront there was demand.

Agreed. It was to send a signal, but it was ALSO to get it for the cheapest price, which we did.

 

[Sindatur]

I chose standard, not free shipping. (I'll never choose free shipping again, I did that for two items I ordered recently (A CD and a DVD), both in stock, and they took a full week to pull them, and then the travel time, from Richmond, CA to Sacramento, CA was another week)

Why shouldn't a pre-order that was ordered months in advance be expected to arrive on the street release date?

 

[KoshN]

Why shouldn't a pre-order that was ordered months in advance be expected to arrive on the street release date?

It depends on how early the Etailer got the DVDs, where you fell on the first come, first served basis, and how long the actual shipping takes to get to you. It's possible, even if you ordered months in advance, that you may not get it by the street date, especially if you went for the free shipping.

 

[raw_bean]

Why shouldn't a pre-order that was ordered months in advance be expected to arrive on the street release date?

More to the point, why *should* it?

I mean, I'd certainly like that to be the case and it has happened on occasion for me with things ordered from Amazon.co.uk, but there's nothing on Amazon that I've seen that characterises a pre-order in this way.

 

[Sindatur]

More to the point, why *should* it?

I mean, I'd certainly like that to be the case and it has happened on occasion for me with things ordered from Amazon.co.uk, but there's nothing on Amazon that I've seen that characterises a pre-order in this way.

Because you ordered in advance, the order should be packaged and ready to go ahead of time. THey had every opportunity to ensure they had enough product on hand to fulfill orders and enough information on demand to ensure they didn't overstock. DVDs, CDs, books etc, do not arrive at the big etailers warehouses the day of release, they arrive ahead of time, and the quantities ordered to stock are based upon pre-order activity. I'm not talking about ordering a day or two before street date, I'm talking about ordering months ina dvance. If a customer has done them the favor of allowing their backlog to reflect the revenue they should expect on the day of release, and the proper stocking levels, the customer should be rewarded by having it arrive the same day they would get it from a brick and mortar store, IMHO.

 

[hypatia]

The thing that gets me bent, is I pre-ordered on Day 1 from Amazon, and my disc didn't show up yesterday. IMHO, if you pre-order, regardless what shipping you choose, the item should arrive at your home on the Street Release date. now, i am blaming Amazon for this, not WB, but, the reason we pre-ordered was to show upfront there was demand. It did at least leave Richmond, CA yesterday, so hopefully I'll get it today or tomorrow, but, still...

Ah, I think you have to pay the extra shipping charge for 1-day shipping. They had a special deal for Harry Potter, so I got it on time. But I wanted free shipping since I need to save money now, and I won't watch it the day it arrives anyway.

I thought preordering helped the project, overall. Since it doesn't seem to, and I won't ever be so rabid for the product that I'll "need it" on the first possible day, I'll not preorder anymore.

I can't see how this would inspire anger in some posters here. I'm not bitching about your shopping habits, kindly don't insult me for mine, and we should get along fine.

If by any chance preorders do help the project overall, then it'll turn out they might have made a tiny public relations mistake.

 

[grumbler]

If a customer has done them the favor of allowing their backlog to reflect the revenue they should expect on the day of release, and the proper stocking levels, the customer should be rewarded by having it arrive the same day they would get it from a brick and mortar store, IMHO.

That has always been true for anything I have ordered from Amazon.com that has been released by WB (I got all my B5 stuff, with free shipping, on the release date or even the day before, and this was true of TLT as well), but has never been true for anything I have ordered from Amazon that was released by, for instance, HBO. My guess is that different distributers have different rules.

 

[Jan]

Just as a data point, I thought I'd post what happened with my copies. I'd ordered one with free shipping and one expedited delivery. The free shipping one arrived yesterday because they'd shipped late last week. The expedited one arrived today because they'd shipped on Monday.

Jan

 

[KoshN]

I'll continue to pre-order because it allows me to get it for the best price, and because I think it shows support for the project.

 

[Sindatur]

I just checked Amazon to see where the Disc is sitting as far # Ranked seller, now that it's actually released (currently back up to #6) and found this in one of the reveiws

After many false starts such as the Legend of the Rangers and the planned movie, The Memory of Shadows, it is nice to see that series creator JMS has finally been able to get Babylon 5 back. The DVD is the first of a planned 6 that will look at select characters from the series that will fill in bits of their story as well as that of the Babylon 5 universe as a whole.

Is this true, there is an actual plan for 6 discs (obviously, I understand, it's depending upon sales). I was under the impression JMS was just gonna play it by ear. Anyone have an idea (if sales go well enough, which I imagine they have to be at this point) how frequently the desire is to put out the discs?

 

[Jan]

After many false starts such as the Legend of the Rangers and the planned movie, The Memory of Shadows, it is nice to see that series creator JMS has finally been able to get Babylon 5 back. The DVD is the first of a planned 6 that will look at select characters from the series that will fill in bits of their story as well as that of the Babylon 5 universe as a whole.

I'd love to know where that reviewer got that figure. It's not anything JMS has said either online or at conventions . In fact it directly contradicts his saying that the potential for stories is pretty limitless. We know that no second disk has been greenlit so talking about a 'plan' doesn't make any sense.

Jan