3D Blu-ray importing and delivery thread (Amazon, Zavvi, Jpc, tariffs etc.)

[pixote]

Originally Posted by kyle

I just order all my 3D Disney stuff from Amazon UK—I wait until there’s 3 or 4 to preorder and then order together to save on shippingp, and they usually ship as they release. Never ordered from Rahul—their prices always seemed ridiculously high—I don’t mind waiting a few extra months for the UK releases to save money, I have plenty of other unopened discs to catch up on.

Bulk order is the way to go as you pointed out. My UK Antman and WASP worked out to 17.98 (16.66 + 1.32 shipping), which is $22.50 USD all in.

[GreatGreg]

Originally Posted by doctor_who

A nicer slipcover does not make a product superior imo. If it did they would charge more in USA stores for an item with a slip versus one without, but they don’t *in general*

Slipcovers are cheap and easy to bootleg. Embossed slipcovers are not.

There's a very good likelihood that his stuff is bootlegged no matter how genuine it may look.

In truth, high quality bootlegs can be almost indistinguishable from the genuine article. However, if it looks like a bootleg and is bought from a shady place, then it is most likely a bootleg.

[Joe D.]

Originally Posted by dhvsfan

Can you post what the e-mail said ?

Hi dhvsfan,

This is it.

New message from: rahul-and-i-store (10,982YellowShooting Star)
This is a global response dealing with various issues.

If you pre-ordered Ant-Man and the Wasp or Incredibles 2, there has been hold put on the Indian release. As of right now, Disney India is going through a mid-year audit with its licensing company, which has put a hold on their releases. We have sent someone on our behalf to India to help with the situation.

Disney may release the hold mid-november or 1st week of december.

If you would like to cancel this order, PLEASE START A RETURN. We will refund your money right away.

If you had a missing item that consisted one or more of these 2 titles, eBay has issues of showing partial shipments. Do not worry your order for them is till showing pending on our side. Once it is released, we will ship it out.

None of these 2 titles contains Spanish Audio or Subtitles.

If you have received a damaged item, or the wrong item, please start a return replacement request with eBay. This way we can get the replacement process done alot faster.

Please allow all international orders 4 weeks of transit time, before contacting us of it being lost. As in most cases, the item is usually delivered in the 3rd or 4th week after it has been shipped.

All our items are Authentic Releases. All Steelbook cases are manufactured in the same place as all the other international releases. Some of the discs, depending on the Studio are manufactured in Germany while others are in India. But they are all licensed products of Warner Bros, Disney, 20th Century Fox, etc...

We are sorry for the late response, we have been having severe technical issues on our side, right now we are trying our level best to correct these issues and hoping to address all your inquires in a timely manner.

[ryanmcv]

Originally Posted by doctor_who

A nicer slipcover does not make a product superior imo. If it did they would charge more in USA stores for an item with a slip versus one without, but they don’t *in general*

The steelbooks from Rahul are the exact same as elsewhere and often considered a “Best Buy exclusive” in the USA, and provide an option for a 4K+3D package and steelbook not even available elsewhere in the USA, making it a superior product.

The only valid complaint you have is audio (in my opinion), but as I had hearing in one ear damaged at a young age honestly I can’t tell the difference so I generally go with nice soundbars for all my TVs.

I don't collect steelbooks, so my experience with Rahul is based on the standard amaray/slipcover versions. From that standpoint, I'd say it's nearly impossible to argue that the Indian cases and slipcovers are of a higher quality than their US and UK counterparts. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a recent example. The 4K+3D combo I received from Rahul was incorrectly labeled as a Marvel "Cinematic Universe Edition" on the front and had markings for Thor: Ragnarok on the back. The slipcover was plain and flat with no embossing or metallic shine. The US 4K slipcover, on the other hand, is beautiful -- complete with embossing, metallic shine, and no typos.

Indian Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Front):

[Show spoiler]

Indian Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Back):

[Show spoiler]

[ryanmcv]

Originally Posted by Joe D.

New message from: rahul-and-i-store

This is a global response dealing with various issues...

We are sorry for the late response, we have been having severe technical issues on our side, right now we are trying our level best to correct these issues and hoping to address all your inquires in a timely manner.

Well, this might explain why he pulled all of his Blu-rays off of eBay. I wonder what the "technical issues" are.

[thestrangestick]

Originally Posted by ryanmcv

The 4K+3D combo I received from Rahul was incorrectly labeled as a Marvel "Cinematic Universe Edition" on the front and had markings for Thor: Ragnarok on the back.

What in the world? Does this mean rahul-and-i is paying someone to make slipcovers for their releases to make them more attractive, or just that the wherever the design and manufacturing is done in India is so lazy that they copy and paste from other movie titles and miss huge mistakes like this?

[ryanmcv]

Originally Posted by thestrangestick

What in the world? Does this mean rahul-and-i is paying someone to make slipcovers for their releases to make them more attractive, or just that the wherever the design and manufacturing is done in India is so lazy that they copy and paste from other movie titles and miss huge mistakes like this?

The official renderings at Amazon India have the same mistake, so this is a case of laziness/cheapness by Disney India.

[deltatauhobbit]

I only bought a couple titles from Rahul off eBay, no complaints from me at the time but it was quite a while ago. Picked up The Finest Hours, which for the longest time was the only option to get the 3D version and is still probably the best for those who like the covers to be in English. Also got The BFG since their release was region free and this was before I got a region free player.

I haven't ordered anything since then because most 3D titles not released in the States will find their way to the UK and it's much cheaper to order through Amazon, especially if waiting for a sale or grouping a large order to save on shipping, and not being region restricted anymore I'm less picky about finding region A releases.

[GreatGreg]

Originally Posted by thestrangestick

What in the world? Does this mean rahul-and-i is paying someone to make slipcovers for their releases to make them more attractive, or just that the wherever the design and manufacturing is done in India is so lazy that they copy and paste from other movie titles and miss huge mistakes like this?

Looks more like a bootleg.

Grammar mistakes, spelling and sloppy cut and pastes are a hallmark of the bootleg industry.

Sometimes you will get complete cast listings and story descriptions for a totally different film. I suspect this is because the guy bootlegging the slips,
(a) doesn't have a grasp of the English language in the first place; and
(b) knows that the majority of consumers don't read that fine print anyway.

[thestrangestick]

Originally Posted by GreatGreg

Looks more like a bootleg.

Grammar mistakes, spelling and sloppy cut and pastes are a hallmark of the bootleg industry.

Sometimes you will get complete cast listings and story descriptions for a totally different film. I suspect this is because the guy bootlegging the slips,
(a) doesn't have a grasp of the English language in the first place; and
(b) knows that the majority of consumers don't read that fine print anyway.

It's not a bootleg as it's also this way on Amazon India, as stated above. I was just wondering if the slipcovers themselves were custom made. Say what you want about Rahul's sloppy business but all his releases are legit from Sony DADC in India.

[ryanmcv]

Originally Posted by GreatGreg

Looks more like a bootleg.

Grammar mistakes, spelling and sloppy cut and pastes are a hallmark of the bootleg industry.

Sometimes you will get complete cast listings and story descriptions for a totally different film. I suspect this is because the guy bootlegging the slips,
(a) doesn't have a grasp of the English language in the first place; and
(b) knows that the majority of consumers don't read that fine print anyway.

The releases that Rahul sells (sold?) are NOT bootlegs. He sells authentic Indian Blu-rays. As described above, the Indian packaging and discs are often of inferior quality.

[pacman85]

Anyone ordered from playasia.com before? I placed my first order through them back on 10/26 to get Valerian 3D Blu-ray imported here to the USA. I have been following the tracking and today at 10:05AM it said "The delivery of the item was unsuccessful". I haven't seen this before so I'm not sure what happened. When I look at my confirmation email from the order my address is correct and it says it was shipped through "PostNL ePac". I actually wasn't at my house around that time this morning so I'm wondering if they have to get a signature or something but I have no way to tell if the type of shipping they got required a signature or not. Any ideas or things I can do to make sure this gets to me and doesn't get sent back to Hong Kong?

[hariseldon]

You should be able to input the tracking number into one of the sites and get more details about handling the package.

Most of these are end-delivered by USPS and with today's Holiday that might have caused an issue if a service was trying to transfer it to USPS control (assuming you are US). Many of these sites will generate a USPS tracking number once they get to the US, but I'm not 100% sure if Playasia's site will do that. If not I'd give it at least a 2nd attempt and try contacting either Playasia or directly the Delivery service.

[3DFan63]

Originally Posted by pacman85

Anyone ordered from playasia.com before? I placed my first order through them back on 10/26 to get Valerian 3D Blu-ray imported here to the USA. I have been following the tracking and today at 10:05AM it said "The delivery of the item was unsuccessful". I haven't seen this before so I'm not sure what happened. When I look at my confirmation email from the order my address is correct and it says it was shipped through "PostNL ePac". I actually wasn't at my house around that time this morning so I'm wondering if they have to get a signature or something but I have no way to tell if the type of shipping they got required a signature or not. Any ideas or things I can do to make sure this gets to me and doesn't get sent back to Hong Kong?

Not sure if this applied to you but I had something like this happen to me. Do you live in an apt. or gated community where there is a unit number? If you do probably what happened is the full unit number was incomplete having the last number dropped from the address. I have been told that when you fill out your mailing address, if there is more than one line for your address (address 1, address 2 ) use both lines being the 2 address line for your unit number. If you try to put your full address on the first line only, you take the chance that a letter or a number may have been dropped because the system could not put your full address on that one line. It's going back to playasia, you will probably have to email them to let them know it's being sent back and you will have to update your address. Hope this helps.

[pacman85]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

You should be able to input the tracking number into one of the sites and get more details about handling the package.

Yeah, on the email confirmation that my order had shipped there was a link to track the package that sent me here: https://postnl.post/tracktrace. This is where I was able to see more details with the most up to date thing saying "The delivery of the item was unsuccessful".

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Most of these are end-delivered by USPS and with today's Holiday that might have caused an issue if a service was trying to transfer it to USPS control (assuming you are US). Many of these sites will generate a USPS tracking number once they get to the US, but I'm not 100% sure if Playasia's site will do that. If not I'd give it at least a 2nd attempt and try contacting either Playasia or directly the Delivery service.

I didn't realize they hand it off to USPS actually complete the delivery. That does make sense if they did try to do that and they were closed today for Veterans Day observance. I'll wait until tomorrow or the next day and then contact playasia's customer service.

Originally Posted by 3DFan63

Not sure if this applied to you but I had something like this happen to me. Do you live in an apt. or gated community where there is a unit number? If you do probably what happened is the full unit number was incomplete having the last number dropped from the address. I have been told that when you fill out your mailing address, if there is more than one line for your address (address 1, address 2 ) use both lines being the 2 address line for your unit number. If you try to put your full address on the first line only, you take the chance that a letter or a number may have been dropped because the system could not put your full address on that one line. It's going back to playasia, you will probably have to email them to let them know it's being sent back and you will have to update your address. Hope this helps.

Nope I'm in a house in a non-gated community with nothing extra in the address. Mailbox is out on the curb and easily accessible. All packages are just either left in there or on front porch.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by pacman85

Yeah, on the email confirmation that my order had shipped there was a link to track the package that sent me here: https://postnl.post/tracktrace. .

Some of these service attach a separate USPS tracking number or send you a number once it's transferred into their hands. I'm 90% sure USPS is their partner, but it's been a long time since I've had any package from PostNL

[pacman85]

Thanks for the help everyone. My movie arrived yesterday in perfect condition. It must have been the fact that the handoff from PostNL to the USPS happened to fall on a holiday is why it said the delivery was unsuccessful. Regardless, I got it now and am excited to watch it!

[Bluray3d4life]

Rahul has nothing on EBay now......

[Joe D.]

No delivery problems with Rahul simply because there are no deliveries period!

[the13thman]

Amazon.co.uk are absolutely abysmal at the moment, I need my head examined for continuing to place pre-orders that can't then be cancelled as they are "preparing for dispatch" but never seem to get dispatched.