CinemaNow closing accounts .. beware

[ruinit]

For anyone out there that like me bought Cinemanow gift codes off of ebay or other sites.

Burn up your store credits as fast as you can because they have started closing accounts completely. I just received and email that they closed my account for having a credit balance that they feel was obtained improperly.

Now I have purchased many movies long before this purchase and back when they sold Disney movies so they have effectively stole my credit balance in addition to all movies not being UV prior to and after 2014.

I had over a $1000 in store credit and now my account is gone. I am going to report them to the FTC and everywhere else that I can because I had no idea when I was buying these codes they were not legit and the new owner of CinemaNow does not care. So just a warning to all others. Use up your credits before they close your account.

[pharmtech]

Did your account being closed have any effect on your previous UV purchases?

[ruinit]

Originally Posted by pharmtech

Did your account being closed have any effect on your previous UV purchases?

Not as of yet. My UV locker is intact but big scary cinemanow is reporting my account to UV ... I didn't use that much of my credit anyway because I thought the gift codes were valid they redeemed fine and they have been honoring them for years. Cinemanow was so expensive I rarely purchased movies there. Their crappy interface rarely showed all of my movies anyway.

[pharmtech]

Keep us posted...

[MifuneFan]

If you had over $1000 of credit then you must have bought quite a lot of illegal codes, and that's why your account stood out. I doubt they're going after everyone who bought them.. I find it hard to believe that you didn't think for a second that buying all these credits at huge discount off ebay couldn't be illegally obtained.

[alexy25]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

If you had over $1000 of credit then you must have bought quite a lot of illegal codes, and that's why your account stood out. I doubt they're going after everyone who bought them.. I find it hard to believe that you didn't think for a second that buying all these credits at huge discount off ebay couldn't be illegally obtained.

i think he is already having a bad day no need to make it worse

[master gandhi]

I've only ever used CinemaNow to redeem UV codes given to me by Best Buy. That's a thing of the past, so I haven't used them in a long while. They can close my account if they want. I figured they'd be out of business soon. Heh

[ruinit]

Originally Posted by alexy25

i think he is already having a bad day no need to make it worse

Hehe thanks .. I guess no one has ever bought itunes codes gift cards when they were on sale at 75c on the dollar on ebay some deals are true.

[ClownPrinceofCrime]

Originally Posted by ruinit

Hehe thanks .. I guess no one has ever bought itunes codes gift cards when they were on sale at 75c on the dollar on ebay some deals are true.

Do you mean to say that you spent $750 or some such to acquire $1000 worth of CinemaNow credits?

[alexy25]

Originally Posted by ClownPrinceofCrime

Do you mean to say that you spent $750 or some such to acquire $1000 worth of CinemaNow credits?

I think more or less he is trying to say that if he saw CN credit at a discount - he bought it as most of us would...there is absolutely nothing wrong with that ... I have seen CN cards on ebay sell for $20 per $50...why? it was admist the change from bestbuy to another owner and people thought crap they are going out of business. How was he suppose to know that the credits were obtained by other methods? Sure he might of thought it but cut the guy some slack he didn't deserve an account closure for it... Do you really think people are buying $20 christmas movies and selling the $10 vudu credit for $6 just to recoup some funds on the same exact dvd set that they have had for years with the same credit ? It is the same thing....

[ClownPrinceofCrime]

Originally Posted by alexy25

I think more or less he is trying to say that if he saw CN credit at a discount - he bought it as most of us would...there is absolutely nothing wrong with that ... I have seen CN cards on ebay sell for $20 per $50...why? it was admist the change from bestbuy to another owner and people thought crap they are going out of business. How was he suppose to know that the credits were obtained by other methods? Sure he might of thought it but cut the guy some slack he didn't deserve an account closure for it...

I think you might have just contradicted yourself.

And unless you are new to ebay, you would know that there is something seriously wrong with anybody selling credits at such a high discount. It has been this way for EVERY service ever. Used to happen all the time with Fandango codes, Movie Money, and both AMC and Regal theaters promo codes, to the point that those companies stopped issuing them altogether. Our company even got letters from AMC and Regal explaining how promo codes were no longer going to be issued due to a high risk of fraud. We do a lot of business for group showings and such and have had to switch over to corporate discounts on their passes. This also happened as recently as last month with Atom tickets. Somebody sold close to 2000 codes at $10 or less per, with each code giving you $100-120 worth of free movie tickets to any theater serviced by Atom. I'm sure you can figure out what happened to most of those purchases.

I am not saying that he is at fault or he deserved what happened to his account, but this is ebay we are talking about. There is zero protection when buying gift cards and codes on there. The legitimate ones sell for the entire value most of the time, if not more. He used iTunes as an example. You are more likely to win the lottery than to find an iTunes gift card for 75 cents on the dollar.

I do feel for him, but racking up that much credit for a service like CinemaNow, it sure is a hard lesson learned.

Originally Posted by alexy25

Do you really think people are buying $20 christmas movies and selling the $10 vudu credit for $6 just to recoup some funds on the same exact dvd set that they have had for years with the same credit ? It is the same thing....

I would answer if I understood what you were trying to say.

[GuyIncognito]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

If you had over $1000 of credit then you must have bought quite a lot of illegal codes, and that's why your account stood out. I doubt they're going after everyone who bought them.. I find it hard to believe that you didn't think for a second that buying all these credits at huge discount off ebay couldn't be illegally obtained.

I guess buying Vudu codes for $0.50 on the dollar is also obviously illegal then right? Because you see that everywhere (even on here).

I'm just curious why he would be sitting on $1000 of credits. That's the only part that seems odd to me

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by GuyIncognito

I guess buying Vudu codes for $0.50 on the dollar is also obviously illegal then right? Because you see that everywhere (even on here).

I'm just curious why he would be sitting on $1000 of credits. That's the only part that seems odd to me

By the prefix we know where the Vudu codes come from.
I remember when the Cinemanow codes were for sale, at least some of them were definitely of questionable origin. Not at all comparable to buying discount itunes codes from paypal or giftcard mall on ebay or buying a few Vudu codes from sellers here.

EDIT: Back when BestBuy owned Cinemanow, Bestbuy employees could take a quiz or do a training module of some sort, and receive Cinemanow credits in return. Some employees figured out how to game the system and come up with an endless supply of codes, some of which made their way to ebay.

I don't know if this is the origin of Ruinit's credits, but it does show that some of the Cinemanow credits out there did not come from upstanding sources.

[GuyIncognito]

That might not be public knowledge just like many people probably don't know all the ins and outs of Vudu credits. They just see that there are codes that people are selling at a discount. I know I didn't know anything about CinemaNow codes (and still don't). I have never used the site.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by ruinit

Hehe thanks .. I guess no one has ever bought itunes codes gift cards when they were on sale at 75c on the dollar on ebay some deals are true.

I'm sure they have over time, but it's odd that you'd amass so much credit without using it. Even if there wasn't any issues, I'd worry that my credit could disappear overnight. I'd have bought movies with them and hoped they were good for other platforms.

Gift cards and store vouchers do sell for very little of their worth on occasion, people just don't want them or need to turn them into cash.

[MifuneFan]

You just have to look at the OP's post history to realize that he not only is very aware of the fact that codes bought on ebay are likely not legal, but that he had his balance wiped out in the past a couple years back when CinemaNow was cracking down on fraud. He eventually got the credits back, and planned to spend them all before they took them away again.

His argument is one of ignorance. He has repeatedly stated the argument that "how ever am I supposed to know they're illegal ".. He absolves himself of all responsibility in this case and passes the blame solely on to the sellers of such codes. While it very much is the seller of such codes who are the culprits here, the OP has to also acknowledge the risks of knowingly buying potentially illegitimate codes. You get what you pay for..if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and so forth..

[alexy25]

Originally Posted by ClownPrinceofCrime

I think you might have just contradicted yourself.

And unless you are new to ebay, you would know that there is something seriously wrong with anybody selling credits at such a high discount. It has been this way for EVERY service ever. Used to happen all the time with Fandango codes, Movie Money, and both AMC and Regal theaters promo codes, to the point that those companies stopped issuing them altogether. Our company even got letters from AMC and Regal explaining how promo codes were no longer going to be issued due to a high risk of fraud. We do a lot of business for group showings and such and have had to switch over to corporate discounts on their passes. This also happened as recently as last month with Atom tickets. Somebody sold close to 2000 codes at $10 or less per, with each code giving you $100-120 worth of free movie tickets to any theater serviced by Atom. I'm sure you can figure out what happened to most of those purchases.

I am not saying that he is at fault or he deserved what happened to his account, but this is ebay we are talking about. There is zero protection when buying gift cards and codes on there. The legitimate ones sell for the entire value most of the time, if not more. He used iTunes as an example. You are more likely to win the lottery than to find an iTunes gift card for 75 cents on the dollar.

I do feel for him, but racking up that much credit for a service like CinemaNow, it sure is a hard lesson learned.

thinking and knowing are two different things and i do agree it is a hard lesson learned

[alexy25]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

You just have to look at the OP's post history to realize that he not only is very aware of the fact that codes bought on ebay are likely not legal, but that he had his balance wiped out in the past a couple years back when CinemaNow was cracking down on fraud. He eventually got the credits back, and planned to spend them all before they took them away again.

His argument is one of ignorance. He has repeatedly stated the argument that "how ever am I supposed to know they're illegal ".. He absolves himself of all responsibility in this case and passes the blame solely on to the sellers of such codes. While it very much is the seller of such codes who are the culprits here, the OP has to also acknowledge the risks of knowingly buying potentially illegitimate codes. You get what you pay for..if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and so forth..

ok I see your point here as I went through the old thread $50 for $375 worth of credit well ......that definitely seems way to good to be true and here i thought $20 for $50 was a steal

Although Ruinit I must ask when the took away the money back in 2013 and gave it back - why didn't you spend, spend, spend?....

[master gandhi]

Originally Posted by alexy25

ok I see your point here as I went through the old thread $50 for $375 worth of credit well ......that definitely seems way to good to be true and here i thought $20 for $50 was a steal

Although Ruinit I must ask when the took away the money back in 2013 and gave it back - why didn't you spend, spend, spend?....

Yeah, it's not like they have frequent sales to wait for. But in the end, it's unfortunate that he lost all that credit. He lost money spent, and that sucks.