Boutique Sales Megathread: Complete List of Current/Upcoming Sales

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu31

I won't go into reasons why but I no longer do business with Orbit. All my orders/pre orders are with Atomic.

They like to hide behind the small business moniker but more and more they act like the Amazon of boutique sellers. Looking at that picture someone posted from their social media with bags and bags of boxes, I’d say they are doing pretty well for themselves.

[Member-922335]

Why were a bunch of posts deleted that were calling out problems with various boutiques? I still love Atomic but there were some alternatives to Diabolik and OrbitDVD that were posted and suddenly disappeared along with other posts about Diabolik and OrbitDVD issues.

[Cherokee Jack]

I stopped feeling warm and fuzzy about Orbit when they blew off my polite inquiry about getting a replacement for my badly misaligned Arrow Chucky set. First and last time I messaged them about an issue with my order. I didn’t stop ordering from them entirely, but I have looked elsewhere first since that bad experience.

That said, I generally expect boutiques to be relatively difficult when it comes to returns/exchanges. Margins are too small for them to not be sticklers about it. It’s the main reason I only buy Shout titles from Amazon or direct from Shout now. No way in hell I’m playing the scratched disc game with a boutique.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

I stopped feeling warm and fuzzy about Orbit when they blew off my polite inquiry about getting a replacement for my badly misaligned Arrow Chucky set. First and last time I messaged them about an issue with my order. I didn’t stop ordering from them entirely, but I have looked elsewhere first since that bad experience.

That said, I generally expect boutiques to be relatively difficult when it comes to returns/exchanges. Margins are too small for them to not be sticklers about it. It’s the main reason I only buy Shout titles from Amazon or direct from Shout now. No way in hell I’m playing the scratched disc game with a boutique.

That's why I always offered to cover the shipping costs beyond returning the item. They are basically establishing that they can ship you damaged items and if you say anything they will ban you. Not for being rude but just because they don't like you. If they said all copies were damaged, or they had no replacements, I never once argued with them. I'd say thanks and move on. But to cancel a pre-order I made months before, and paid for, that included titles that can't be ordered anywhere now shows just how awful they have become. I've never tried to cancel or amend a pre-order but from what I understand they were completely inflexible. Yet they have no qualms about screwing me over badly just because I asked to exchange one title from a more recent order.

[SoundCreateUnit]

Originally Posted by playsignal76

Why were a bunch of posts deleted that were calling out problems with various boutiques? I still love Atomic but there were some alternatives to Diabolik and OrbitDVD that were posted and suddenly disappeared along with other posts about Diabolik and OrbitDVD issues.

Are you conflating this thread with the City of the Living Dead UHD one? I see a bunch of posts about the various mom-and-pop home video mail order sites in that thread. With a few comments regarding them in the previous page of this thread (and surely a bunch more prior to that).

So far I have ordered from Orbit, Atomic, Diabolik, and Grindhouse. My experience with all four of them has been good. They all package well with bubble wrap.

8 orders so far from Orbit, 41 movies total. Every one of them has been mint with the minor exception of The Wicker Man UHD, where the slipcover has a minor crease on the upper part of the spine. Which is not a big deal at all to me. 40/41 movies being completely mint and 1 near-mint is a way better experience than I've had ordering anything from anywhere else.

3 orders so far from Atomic, 6 movies total. All have been mint.

3 orders from Diabolik, 11 movies total. All have been mint.

1 order from Grindhouse, 5 movies total. All were mint.

So in my experience all the mom-and-pop home video mail order sites do a great job, especially compared to major retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Target, etcetera).

Grindhouse got rid of the free shipping for $100+ orders and are sadly shutting down their mail order website by the end of this year. Diabolik doesn't have a free shipping option ($6 no matter what) and their prices tend to be a bit higher than the other options, but they do have a good selection.

Orbit and Atomic have become my main options because both of them have a free shipping option (three or more movies with Orbit, $50+ order total for Atomic) and tend to be the best in terms of pricing. Orbit has a better selection overall, especially when it comes to Masters of Cinema titles, but for new releases they are both great options, just comes down to any minor pricing differences and whether I am ready to buy three movies or only $50 worth.

Brother Belial and The Movie Room both seem like good new options. Brother Belial has the unique aspect of shipping in-stock movies to you before any pre-orders if your order contains a mix of both, which none of the other sites do (all the other ones ship your order after any pre-orders have released). I've never minded waiting for a pre-order to release in order to get all the movies in my order but I could see some people appreciating that unique aspect of them.

In terms of customer service, my interactions with all of them have been good so far, albeit very limited.

[LeDroitDeTuer]

You really don't know how good a place is until you have a problem and see how they handle it. It's easy to be all starry-eyed when everything is peachy until they treat you with suspicion and resistance when you bring up an actual and legitimate issue.

There's a lot of value in being graceful and giving longtime customers the benefit of the doubt in such cases, even if it means eating some costs. I used to run a mail order shop myself and a lot of repeat customers remember things like that.

[Stanis]

No one else saw that photo of TGTBTU shipment received at Orbit? They posted it on facebook, and the large boxes are stacked 3 high and the bottom boxes are buckling under the weight. I feel sorry for anyone whos slipcover is in the first box lol I just thought it was odd to show that to a bunch of physical media collectors

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by WillieMLF

I'm not trying to focus on any one person here, but I find a good bit of complaints on the forum are a bit much at times. My dustcover corner is bent, or I have a misaligned cover, seem like such petty issues, but I know they are HUGE deals in this forum. Honestly, if I were some of these businesses, I would ignore most of the OCD spectrum folks, or just ban them outright. They can do business elsewhere. I wouldn't want to dig myself in a very thin profit margin hole because some OCD wizard is hard to please. Let me have it boys!

Eh, I pretty much agree with you. Like I said above, I get why boutiques can be difficult about returns. And my rule of thumb is I don’t complain about small dings when the retailer packaged it well, which basically means I don’t complain about them when buying from any of the major boutiques.

That said, the misalignment I referenced was on a box set that cost over $100. It’s marketed as a display piece, and I think consumers have a right to be irritated when something like that is manufactured so poorly that you end up having to turn it to its side to hide the design flaw. Wasn’t unique to my set either, most of the unboxing videos of the set have the alignment problem to varying degrees. My message to Orbit was basically asking if they had any of the less egregiously misaligned sets, and I made a point of saying that I blamed Arrow, not them. But it was clear they didn’t care and probably thought I was one of your OCD customers. Just rubbed me the wrong way, and it made a little less likely to dismiss other people sharing bad experiences with Orbit.

[Rayjg]

I want to be clear that I was perfectly happy with them. I probably did more business with them than any other site save one or two. It came completely out of the blue without warning. And why did they need to cancel pre-orders that they knew full well going by their social media I would not be able to re-order elsewhere? I didn't go to their store and flip over a display or curse at anyone. I guess they are big enough now where they can show their true colors

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

I want to be clear that I was perfectly happy with them. I probably did more business with them than any other site save one or two. It came completely out of the blue without warning. And why did they need to cancel pre-orders that they knew full well going by their social media I would not be able to re-order elsewhere? I didn't go to their store and flip over a display or curse at anyone. I guess they are big enough now where they can show their true colors

I guess my question would be what percentage of orders were you messaging them about returns/exchanges since that seems to be the reason for the ban. I would have thought they’d have messaged you with a warning first at least. That’s what AMC did when I was cancelling my A-List reservations too often. That’s actually laid out in their terms of service though. I was probably lucky they didn’t just ban me too.

[maverick22]

Consider it a blessing.

Atomic is better than Orbit anyways in my experience! Cheaper free shopping threshold, Kyle actually lets you edit an order after it’s placed, and Kyle has always been friendly when I have a question via email.

[Member-922335]

Originally Posted by SoundCreateUnit

Are you conflating this thread with the City of the Living Dead UHD one? I see a bunch of posts about the various mom-and-pop home video mail order sites in that thread. With a few comments regarding them in the previous page of this thread (and surely a bunch more prior to that).

Nope, there were quite a few posts in this thread as well that were deleted.

Originally Posted by SoundCreateUnit

Brother Belial and The Movie Room both seem like good new options.

I appreciate the alternatives though! Diabolik has been the worst by far I've ordered from, not just in terms of these boutiques but even compared to Amazon. Three separate orders with damaged product the last year alone that were clearly damaged before shipping. Rude customer service as well.

OrbitDVD has been better but not great in my experience while Atomic has been stellar across the board so they have become my go to for ordering unless I'm purchasing directly from the label themselves like Arrow or Shout. As for Brother Belial and The Movie Room I'll definitely give them a look next time I'm ordering but for the time being, Atomic gets my money

[Ishai]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

Eh, I pretty much agree with you. Like I said above, I get why boutiques can be difficult about returns. And my rule of thumb is I don’t complain about small dings when the retailer packaged it well, which basically means I don’t complain about them when buying from any of the major boutiques.

That said, the misalignment I referenced was on a box set that cost over $100. It’s marketed as a display piece, and I think consumers have a right to be irritated when something like that is manufactured so poorly that you end up having to turn it to its side to hide the design flaw. Wasn’t unique to my set either, most of the unboxing videos of the set have the alignment problem to varying degrees. My message to Orbit was basically asking if they had any of the less egregiously misaligned sets, and I made a point of saying that I blamed Arrow, not them. But it was clear they didn’t care and probably thought I was one of your OCD customers. Just rubbed me the wrong way, and it made a little less likely to dismiss other people sharing bad experiences with Orbit.

That sounds like an issue you need to take up with Arrow. Orbit can't fix something that was a design flaw and if I was the retailer I'd assume it's a partial refund scam (where you complain with the goal of just getting some discount and keeping the product).

[Afriendofours]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

What's worse is I had a pre-order of the The No Name Trilogy UHDs from Arrow and the US Dark City UHD and they cancelled the entire order even though it was months old and would've been shipping soon. I was wondering why all these refunds started showing up this weekend. I thought it was for the tariffs. So now I'm out those four titles since they are out of print already. I assume the item I sent back to exchange was also refunded around the same time and won't be sent to me and that item is nearly out of print. Pretty horrible to treat a customer that has been buying from them for years in such a way. I might be picky but I was never rude or even argumentative. I don't think I'll even bother re-ordering elsewhere the five titles I ordered last night and that was cancelled right away.

That's really f#$ked up. Especially on LE items. My guess is it's the way they stack their boxes; it's the reason they have so much damaged product going out. When the outside box looks perfectly fine, but the inside slip is crushed over the disc and weird dents are on the plastic case, something else is up. I got you covered on Dark City 4k if you want it. Just cover cost and shipping to you.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by maverick22

Consider it a blessing.

Atomic is better than Orbit anyways in my experience! Cheaper free shopping threshold, Kyle actually lets you edit an order after it’s placed, and Kyle has always been friendly when I have a question via email.

I guess it is a blessing that new stores keep popping up. It shows just how healthy this business is right now and makes Orbit’s attempt to hide behind the brick and mortar, mom and pop stuff all the more pathetic.

Originally Posted by Afriendofours

That's really f#$ked up. Especially on LE items. My guess is it's the way they stack their boxes; it's the reason they have so much damaged product going out. When the outside box looks perfectly fine, but the inside slip is crushed over the disc and weird dents are on the plastic case, something else is up. I got you covered on Dark City 4k if you want it. Just cover cost and shipping to you.

Appreciate it. Yeah, I don’t get why they had to cancel my pre-orders. They at least could’ve shipped them first. They could’ve even thrown in the replacement item to save shipping.

[JurassicBD]

Originally Posted by Ishai

That sounds like an issue you need to take up with Arrow. Orbit can't fix something that was a design flaw and if I was the retailer I'd assume it's a partial refund scam (where you complain with the goal of just getting some discount and keeping the product).

You're absolutely right, the burden should be on the manufacturer. But, they don't seem to see it that way. Having contacted a number or producers over the past few years about defective discs (Shout, Kino, Mill Creek, Paramount, Universal), the one thing they all have in common is their initial response: "Return it to the store where you bought it". And Arrow seems to have an especially bad reputation for product support, at least for US customers, possibly due to their base of operations being overseas. Though, even responsive producers won't always support packaging defects.

There are lots of scammers out there for sure. Offering a straight up exchange is professional and will weed those type of customers out, as they don't have anything to gain for their hassle. But, unless they've already been banned every place else, I don't see that type of scammer paying more to a mom-and-pop outfit like Orbit just on the chance of talking them down later, which could still end up being more than they'd have paid elsewhere. Orbit's problem is more likely that with their higher prices and TLC packaging image, they attract a clientele with less realistic standards that take more of a price-is-no-object approach to buying and don't trust the quality of big-box etail. They want hand-picked perfection, as unrealistic as that may be for mass-produced media, despite the ever more premium pricing. If Orbit has had to crack down on nit-picky returns, legit complaints are likely to get caught in the cross-fire. And from my two experiences with Orbit (one order, one inquiry). I didn't get the sense that they're nearly the personable old-fashioned corner store that some here seem to credit them for. They package more responsibly than mass-sellers, but they don't ship any faster and it sounds like they don't put the same TLC into picking orders or customer care either.

[strumdogg]

Arrow's customer service sucks a**. Even when it's a production error and they issue a disc replacement (ahem, The Cell 4K), you have to jump through hoops just to get it.

FWIW, contacting them via social media (IG) delivered faster results, after many attempts/months of email.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by Ishai

That sounds like an issue you need to take up with Arrow. Orbit can't fix something that was a design flaw and if I was the retailer I'd assume it's a partial refund scam (where you complain with the goal of just getting some discount and keeping the product).

People buy from boutiques so they don’t have to deal with Arrow. I actually did begrudgingly end up talking to Arrow about the issue, and they of course did nothing after stringing me along for a week or two.

And your scam sounds like the kind of thing that gets pulled by a random buyer on eBay, not someone with a verified account who had spent over a thousand dollars at a store without a single complaint. Anyway, I never brought up the idea of a partial refund. I asked in my first message if I could exchange my otherwise mint unopened set for one with better alignment, and the discussion never escalated beyond that since they dismissed the idea out of hand. The response struck me as surprisingly cold and inflexible for a small independent company, that’s all.

[starsteam]

Are there any active codes for Shout's webstore?

[Quake1028]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

I guess my question would be what percentage of orders were you messaging them about returns/exchanges since that seems to be the reason for the ban. I would have thought they’d have messaged you with a warning first at least. That’s what AMC did when I was cancelling my A-List reservations too often. That’s actually laid out in their terms of service though. I was probably lucky they didn’t just ban me too.

Interested in the answer to this as well