Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[toxic-shock]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

If your items are in stock right now then you'll have your order in about a week or so. If you ordered anything that is currently on backorder you should have it in time for Halloween.

I think what I ordered was in stock, so hopefully I should be good

[toxic-shock]

Originally Posted by inconsistentluddite

Toxic-shock, I'm going to be honest with you, because everyone deserves to hear the truth. Even apart from the current pandemic situation, SF has often been slow in processing and shipping out my orders over the years-- partially, because their various releases ship from multiple locations across the country, and also because, in my experience, many of their older releases are often heavily back-ordered, even though the website almost always shows them as being "in stock" for customers to order. (More on this in a moment.)

It has taken me over a month to finally get most of the Blu-rays that I ordered in an admittedly quite large order (my "stimulus check" celebration!) of twenty-one titles, I think, placed back on 4/28. I'm still waiting on six of them though, but I did get a tracking number for one of them today. One down, five to go! (I'm also still waiting for all six titles in another order placed on 5/8.)

I've written about this repeatedly here, but why not once more, since it continues to be a real problem with SF: I am both mystified, and annoyed, by the fact that Shout/Scream Factory continue to refuse to list currently back-ordered titles as back-ordered titles on their website. I have respectfully, politely, asked their customer service agents, for years now, to pass along the request to please add this feature to their website, as a courtesy to their customers. The answer I always get is that it's a good idea, and hopefully, next year, it can be done. It has never happened. The only times that I order directly from the SF website, now, are when they have good sales, and when I simply cannot buy one of their discs elsewhere without paying an exorbitant amount.

Oh no....I ordered what I assumed where in stock titles...but how do you find out it's backordered? The titles I picked were listed in their OOP section: Alienator, Ninja III The Domination, Loreley's Grasp/Night of the Sorcerers and The Evictors. I assumed it was up to date...well hopefully it goes out. But ugh thank you for the warning, I wish they had a more intuitive system.

[inconsistentluddite]

Originally Posted by toxic-shock

Oh no....I ordered what I assumed where in stock titles...but how do you find out it's backordered? The titles I picked were listed in their OOP section: Alienator, Ninja III The Domination, Loreley's Grasp/Night of the Sorcerers and The Evictors. I assumed it was up to date...well hopefully it goes out. But ugh thank you for the warning, I wish they had a more intuitive system.

This has been my increasingly bitter experience with SF over the years-- the only way to find out that an item is back-ordered, on SF's website (because it won't appear as back-ordered there), is to actually order it (because it appears to be in stock), and then wait and wait for the order to move out of "processing" status, and then, if or when it doesn't, send a message to SF customer service to ask about your order. When they finally get back to you, they will let you know that the reason your order is taking so long is that the item, or items, are back-ordered.

That may all seem hard to believe, or just insane, in terms of SF policy and practice, but it's the truth that I have experienced, over and over, for years. This is why I only order from SF directly now if or when they are having a really good sale, or if I truly cannot find one of their releases, that I seriously want, anywhere other than their website.

Ordering directly from SF has literally become the last resort for me in terms of buying their movies. It has become a very frustrating process... or, maybe I should say, for me, that it used to be much more frustrating, until I finally, recently, became virtually numb, almost incredulous, at just how long they can take with fulfilling and shipping orders, pandemic or no pandemic. I'm not even going to allow myself to get upset about it anymore. It's just not worth it to me. My SF movies which haven't finished "processing" and shipped yet-- some, for weeks, and some, for over a month-- will get here whenever they get here. I have so many other movies to catch up on in my collection anyway.

[SonnybytheSea]

Originally Posted by Surge92

Same here. Otherwise, I'm done with Shout. The wait time is ridiculous.

I placed an order on May 8th and still haven't heard anything about shipping! Kino is having a sale and I placed an order on May 26th and have already gotten an e-mail saying my items have been processed and shipped.

Funny how both labels have said they've been bombarded with so many orders, but only Kino has been able to properly communicate with their customers and have been able to get their orders out in a reasonable amount of time! Yet SF has been dead silent in communicating with customers and are taking not weeks but in some cases months to ship orders! It as if SF business practice is to just and keep updating their list of OOP movies.....

[Member-222782]

On one hand I'm glad no announcements have been made so far - I've spent so much money on movies in the past 3 weeks that if I keep up I'm going to become homeless. OTOH, I haven't been genuinely excited about anything Shout has announced since Let's Scare Jessica and April Fool's Day - which was, what, like a year ago? The Paramount deal was great - and I'll always anticipate more announcements from this deal - but I'm not holding my breath for any "spectacular" announcements forthcoming.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

On one hand I'm glad no announcements have been made so far - I've spent so much money on movies in the past 3 weeks that if I keep up I'm going to become homeless. OTOH, I haven't been genuinely excited about anything Shout has announced since Let's Scare Jessica and April Fool's Day - which was, what, like a year ago? The Paramount deal was great - and I'll always anticipate more announcements from this deal - but I'm not holding my breath for any "spectacular" announcements forthcoming.

I'm pretty excited about Orca and Tales from the Darkside. I think those are really the only two titles that I'm over the moon about so far this year. That will all change if we get the Dead Zone and the Friday set.

Hopefully we hear something today.

[TripleHBK]

We've entered into peak announcement season and so I'm expecting a couple of good things this month. Honestly I think June may be my favorite month for announcements all year. Fingers crossed this year's titles are good ones.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by SonnybytheSea

I placed an order on May 8th and still haven't heard anything about shipping! Kino is having a sale and I placed an order on May 26th and have already gotten an e-mail saying my items have been processed and shipped.

Funny how both labels have said they've been bombarded with so many orders, but only Kino has been able to properly communicate with their customers and have been able to get their orders out in a reasonable amount of time! Yet SF has been dead silent in communicating with customers and are taking not weeks but in some cases months to ship orders! It as if SF business practice is to just and keep updating their list of OOP movies.....

I'm in the same situation. Placed the order on 5/8 also and still says 'order placed' on their site. I also placed the order right after the sale went up, which doesn't make sense. If they didn't have the titles, why list them for sale on your site????

[postmodel]

I'm hoping for some good stuff to come, but to be honest I'm simply always hoping for good stuff haha. Even if an announcement is underwhelming to me, I'm always glad to see if others are excited for it.

With that being said...come on Scream with a worthwhile set for Friday the 13th! Maybe at least part 1 in 4K now that Shout has gone UHD with feature films!

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

We've entered into peak announcement season and so I'm expecting a couple of good things this month. Honestly I think June may be my favorite month for announcements all year. Fingers crossed this year's titles are good ones.

September and October are usually the big months for labels in horror. Last year Arrow crushed it, but remember Scream had very few titles for October which I remember thinking weird. There was the Blob and can't remember what else. Hopefully this year they don't hold back.

[Bradsdadg]

Two more from my April 30th order just shipped. One left with that order. Still waiting on April 8th and May 8th though.

[LeeFanatic007]

First page needs updated as Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell has been delayed again, new date is August 18th, 2020. Hopefully that date sticks as this was originally slated for May alongside The Evil of Frankenstein.

EDIT - Also How to Make a Monster and War of the Colossal Beast are coming on September 8th, not the 5th (that's a Saturday).

[critterdvd]

Originally Posted by LeeFanatic007

First page needs updated as Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell has been delayed again, new date is August 18th, 2020. Hopefully that date sticks as this was originally slated for May alongside The Evil of Frankenstein.

Ugg, I just noticed the date change myself. This is one of the few Hammer's I haven't seen, so I'm starting to get impatient! I know it's available streaming, but if I'm dropping the $$ for a Scream disc I'd rather watch it there first.

[LeeFanatic007]

Originally Posted by critterdvd

Ugg, I just noticed the date change myself. This is one of the few Hammer's I haven't seen, so I'm starting to get impatient! I know it's available streaming, but if I'm dropping the $$ for a Scream disc I'd rather watch it there first.

Yeah it stinks that it got delayed again. This is a pretty good one in my opinion, I have the old Paramount DVD from years ago, but really looking forward to rewatching it in HD and with some cool special features hopefully.

[OdeToFender]

I just received a shipping notice placed order on May 8th. Hopefully more people receive them.

[toxic-shock]

Originally Posted by inconsistentluddite

This has been my increasingly bitter experience with SF over the years-- the only way to find out that an item is back-ordered, on SF's website (because it won't appear as back-ordered there), is to actually order it (because it appears to be in stock), and then wait and wait for the order to move out of "processing" status, and then, if or when it doesn't, send a message to SF customer service to ask about your order. When they finally get back to you, they will let you know that the reason your order is taking so long is that the item, or items, are back-ordered.

That may all seem hard to believe, or just insane, in terms of SF policy and practice, but it's the truth that I have experienced, over and over, for years. This is why I only order from SF directly now if or when they are having a really good sale, or if I truly cannot find one of their releases, that I seriously want, anywhere other than their website.

Ordering directly from SF has literally become the last resort for me in terms of buying their movies. It has become a very frustrating process... or, maybe I should say, for me, that it used to be much more frustrating, until I finally, recently, became virtually numb, almost incredulous, at just how long they can take with fulfilling and shipping orders, pandemic or no pandemic. I'm not even going to allow myself to get upset about it anymore. It's just not worth it to me. My SF movies which haven't finished "processing" and shipped yet-- some, for weeks, and some, for over a month-- will get here whenever they get here. I have so many other movies to catch up on in my collection anyway.

Mhmm, I guess I'll just play a wait and see game. How long on average does it take you to get your orders through them?

[freddy=legend]

Over 3 weeks later, finally got an e-mail about my broken disc. I did send another this morning expressing how answering e-mails is something someone can easily do while socially distanced & about 3 hours later got a response. I doubt it had anything to do with it, but whatever. At least they're finally replacing it. Hopefully I'll get it before September, but here we are.

[borntorun_intheusa]

Originally Posted by inconsistentluddite

ordering directly from sf has literally become the last resort for me in terms of buying their movies. It has become a very frustrating process... Or, maybe i should say, for me, that it used to be much more frustrating, until i finally, recently, became virtually numb, almost incredulous, at just how long they can take with fulfilling and shipping orders, pandemic or no pandemic. I'm not even going to allow myself to get upset about it anymore. It's just not worth it to me. My sf movies which haven't finished "processing" and shipped yet-- some, for weeks, and some, for over a month-- will get here whenever they get here. I have so many other movies to catch up on in my collection anyway.

+100000000

[gimmeshelter]

I sent an email on Friday about a DVD that I included in an order from April 15 that was still 'Processing'; I already received the rest of my order in 2 previous shipments. I got a nice reply yesterday stating that the disc was back-ordered and they had no idea when it would be back in stock and offering to refund; I agreed and got a notice from Paypal that the $13 was returned from Shout today.

[Mykol Gantt]

Their response to delayed orders has been abysmal. I understand that there is a pandemic going on and modifications have been made to adhere to social distancing, but even smaller companies are coping better with the situation. Orders not shipping for a month and no customer service support is a bit extreme for a company as big as Shout. What makes things so bad is that you pay for the merchandise upfront and have to request refunds. If things are as bad as they claim due to COVID-19 and the volume of orders that they have received, they should temporarily suspend new orders from being taken and work through their backlog of emails and orders until they are caught up. Companies like Vinegar Syndrome and Severin do this all the time after sales to regroup and process things. I placed an order on May 13th and when I sent an email a few days ago – they followed up today repeating the blurb that they have posted on their site. They obviously don’t want to do a better job.