Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by brainofj72

Yeah, the lack of a free shipping threshold really does stop me from ordering more TT titles in general.

If Kino and Shout can offer free shipping over $50, there's no reason TT or SAE can't. Hell, even if they upped it to $75, I'd still find enough to make it past the threshold. Whatever they lost in shipping costs they'd MORE than make up for with increased sales.

The major soundtrack labels like Varese, Intrada and the like should do this too. I recently splurged on a $250 order at Lalaland Records, and my total shipping costs for about 10 or 11 CDs was about $27.50.

[Aclea]

SAE have never offered free shipping - they're more interested in finding ways to increase shipping costs. Most soundtrack retailers have pretty high shipping, some high enough to be more than their sale discounts.

[brainofj72]

Originally Posted by Aclea

SAE have never offered free shipping - they're more interested in finding ways to increase shipping costs. Most soundtrack retailers have pretty high shipping, some high enough to be more than their sale discounts.

That’s very strange, especially since media mail is dirt cheap.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Aclea

SAE have never offered free shipping - they're more interested in finding ways to increase shipping costs. Most soundtrack retailers have pretty high shipping, some high enough to be more than their sale discounts.

Twilight Time's own site is even more expensive when it comes to shipping through, at least to Canada.

I recently bought 8 movies in the Severin sale, which offered free shipping over $100 to Canada. Two of those films I only bought so I could get that free shipping (I'd rather my money go to an actual product than shipping costs).

I've also found that from selling on E-Bay, people hate paying for shipping. People will actually pay more for an item if there is free shipping than if the item was priced lower but you added shipping costs, even if the combined costs of the latter were lower than the former.

[Aclea]

Canada seems a special case: I gave up importing from Canada because the shipping and duty were so ridiculously high.

I tend to get my TT titles direct from them, largely because SAE's customer service got so bad about a decade ago when they changed the helpful member of staff who used to handle it with one of those the-customer-is-always-wrong-and-I-wish-they'd-just-go-away-and-leave-me-alone types (in the days when their server regularly went down the day limited edition CDs came out his default response was to insist there was no problem and anyone who said there was was just a damn liar - even though the problem was so well known to them they had a standard workaround for it - and the company was now too big to deal with the 'few' customers who had problems with the site ). I only ever buy from them as a last resort. And even then I'll usually wait for it to turn up on Ebay instead.

[Aclea]

For all I know they may have got rid of Mr Happy and customer service could be much better these days (though the shipping prices aren't), but after supporting the company for years as a CD customer their changed and surprisingly hostile attitude pissed me off so much that the only time I've ordered from them in the past decade or so was when they were the only place you could get the Blu of Go Tell the Spartans (like I said, the very last resort). But sadly it's not unusual for small businesses that survive on customer loyalty in their early days to ditch their 'early adopters' when they get big enough not to have to care about them anymore.

[Sivorp]

Some of the titles offered here for the weird price of $22.46 or whatever I remember buying for $14.95 like a year ago. Bullet Train, Rillington Place and some others. Wasn’t The Fortune like $9.95 recently? They need to do better....

[XGEEKEDGERX]

I was going to jump on some titles when I had the e-mail through but it hardly looks like a sale, plus with international shipping on top...nah, no thanks.

Like some are saying, there's a number of these titles that were marked down cheaper on the previous sale...

[whedon]

I contacted them in relation to my copy of Cutter's Way not arriving. The response I got was the most hostile, aggressive and uncalled for correspondence I've ever received from a company. I was genuinely shocked by how unnecessary it was, all I wanted to know was were they able to trace my order to see where it had gone or if there was an issue with the order. I did later on get a response apologising for the manner in which they spoke with me but it still left a bad taste.

[Reddington]

Placed quite a few orders with SAE over the past few years and have never had a single service issue or concern. They did make a nod towards the cost of shipping by introducing the choice of Media Mail at checkout - but I completely agree that they might like to consider a free shipping threshold.

I would just like a decent sale so I can pick up some of the titles lower down my list - which I don't think is being unrealistic or "greedy" as we've had them before.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I've wondered the same and I'm not sure who the primary driver for the releases is now since Nick passed away.

Let's hope they can keep it going.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by klauswhereareyou

Good sale for the recent stuff, not so much for the older ones that have been cheaper before in a past sale.

That's about how I see it.

The recent stuff is mostly what I've been holding off on, so I'm in for at least one order, probably make it tonight. Possibly another order towards the end of the month...

(Oh and I only order directly from Twilight Time these days, having now read some of the subsequent posts.)

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Aclea

For all I know they may have got rid of Mr Happy and customer service could be much better these days (though the shipping prices aren't), but after supporting the company for years as a CD customer their changed and surprisingly hostile attitude pissed me off so much that the only time I've ordered from them in the past decade or so was when they were the only place you could get the Blu of Go Tell the Spartans (like I said, the very last resort). But sadly it's not unusual for small businesses that survive on customer loyalty in their early days to ditch their 'early adopters' when they get big enough not to have to care about them anymore.

Wasn’t there a guy named Ed who did their customer service? He was a bit on the ornery side. Now it’s Katie I think, she’s been fine when I’ve had to deal with them.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Wasn’t there a guy named Ed who did their customer service? He was a bit on the ornery side. Now it’s Katie I think, she’s been fine when I’ve had to deal with them.

No, I never had any real problems with Ed at SAE - far from it. It was when he was replaced by Chris that I was told 'We are too big now to handle specialized instructions for specific customers' when there were server problems (which he insisted there never were and were purely made up, though if you go back to the early pages of this thread their server going down the day pre-orders for TT titles went live was a regular occurence and happened on a regular basis long before when limited edition CDs would go live). It just got so unnecessarily obnoxious that after years of ordering from them I just don't want them to get any of my money anymore.

Luckily I managed to get the TT titles I wanted between then and TT selling direct before they went out of print.

[bdgking]

I myself think this is the worst twilight time sale offering ever .
Yes some of the newer stuff is slightly lower but nothing that significant .
As far as the older titles you would think the rates would be $10-$15 .
Yes they have a handful at $7.95 but most of those are ones that they likely know are such slow sellers that the only way they can sell out is to lower them to those rates .

Shipping has always been way to high as most know .
I expected a far better sale than this . I myself have supported buying from them but I will not if the rates continue to be so high with their sale rates , the shipping to be so high as well and I know for a fact their customer service is really bad overall for the most part .

I will say on the positive . Great films . I do not like they switched to the clear cases as they crack and damage easy a lot during shipping and the blue cases they used before were far better and less likely to be damaged .

I hope they take all our posts / feedback as constructive criticism and I hope they understand they are frustrating a lot of us loyal customers and they will soon enough drive enough of us away which is not good for them at all .
I sometimes think they believe that people whom buy from them will just take whatever they dish out ! They fail to realize at times you can buy these same movies at amazon , ebay , as well as many of these films get re-released even cheaper than what they are offering . It's all a matter of time before al these films get re-released . Look at The Bounty , Summer Lovers just as a couple of examples of being re-released on bu ray etc. Sales should be like it was before $6.95 , $9.95 , $14.95 & $19.95 at most on only newer stuff .

SAE only has 1 x copy of Hardcore remaining before it sells out . F.Y.I.

All the best everyone

[belcherman]

Twilight Time doesn’t tell me how to spend my money and I won’t tell them how to run their business, but yeah, they’re not getting my money this sale.

[fdm]

I must be the only one who made an order.

I'm ok with 25% off for recent releases, though obviously wish it was more.

[larrys]

I made an order as well. I bought Oklahoma Crude and The Hot Rock. I was waiting for both of them to drop to 19.95, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. Bought them from TT's website and chose the cheapest shipping option. I ordered them Monday, they shipped on Tuesday and I received them on Friday. Pretty damn good considering July 4th was a postal holiday. Shipping included, it was $50 and change. $25 per movie. If I had ordered both of them when they were first announced/released, I would have paid at least $70 (shipping included). No complaints at all.

[Mose Harper]

I got fed up with TT's "sale" prices last year and resolved to sit them out until they hit my comfort level- $19.95 for anything older than six months to one year, $14.95 for anything older than that.

There's been about 12 titles released in that time that I've wanted to get, but I'm still holding fast. At a certain point, no matter how much I crave several of them, it becomes easier and easier to just put them out of my mind. They won't sell out. The material I like almost never does. And the longer I wait, that much closer I figure I am to seeing a UK label like Eureka, Indicator, or someone else release the same title and usually as a much better and more affordable package.
You wait long enough and you'll see TT license expire anyway. Two years left on The Hot Rock and Gloria. What are the odds someone in R:B land will put either or both of those out in an equal or better package in that time? I've got Criterions purchased in B&N sales in 2014 I still haven't gotten around to watching. I can wait.

TT has to do what it has to do.

But so do I.

[drb124]

Speaking of SAE customer service, I had an issue a few years back when I had placed an order with one of the autograph promos. I later decided I wanted to ad an item to the order but of course their system can’t do that. So I have to place a new order and have them put a note to include the autographed item that was being held back for my previous order. They forgot to include the autographed title, and when I emailed them, I explained, trying to make it easy for SAE, that I would be willing to take a a regular production copy without any autograph or even a different movie. I got an response backhandedly accusing me of trying to scam them saying that the shipping weight and invoice indicated that the title was included. They did agree to send the missing item, but not without telling me that I was getting the only spare autographed copy they had, and had they not had that one on hand, I would have received nothing.

On the other hand I bother Vinegar Syndrome every other month when I inevitablely get a damaged slip and they are nice enough to send out a new one with my next months package. They do a lot of black and dark colored slipcovers so any damage or friction wear really shows up.

Back on topic, with all of the other sales going on and prices being pretty high, I never really considered buying anything at this sale, especially, as other have said, considering the shipping costs. I know what it costs to send something via media mail. I understand that they may have to build in the cost of packing, shipping materials etc.. it is a deterrent to my buying as it just keep going up when it should essentially plateau at 1 lb, 2lb, 3lb etc.