Alliance screwing over Canadian Customers (Please Help!) (1 Viewer)

[Laurence Price]

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and Canadian Consumers will get the shaft and will be the ones who are always left in the cold. These deceptive business dealings that have led these mega corporations in Canada such as Alliance Atlantis or Quebecor to be driven by greed and money while having a total disregard for consumer satisfaction and input at the exact same time is unjust and wrong. Now their way of thinking has become so hardened and set because they feel so cozy and safe by being protected from foreign competition by our government and are so complacent and content with their gigantic monopolies. As a result these corporations dominate the Canadian market place with utter disdain and contempt for us and have no reason to be compelled to change or implement any reforms or overhauls to provide Canadians with the DVD product that we deserve or desire. Instead they will continue to go by their same old stale guidelines that are so familiar to them and follow the same conventional pattern of incompetence and ineptitude that has become such a mainstay of their corporate infrastructure and creaky framework.

Canadians do not deserve to be treated like this and there should be no exceptions ever made whatsoever because we are not second class citizens as they may selfishly believe. I find the whole arrogant attitude of Alliance Atlantis to be appalling and insulting. If enough people request that the DTS track should not be removed then this should be openly heard and respected. If people don’t like the French bilingual packaging and would accept a compromise of reversible packaging then Alliance Atlantis should take this into consideration instead of ignoring the fact that people are distressed and unhappy. It is regrettable that they think so little us that they justify it by doing whatever they want or please on a whim to our Canadian DVD releases and then have the boldness to charge inflated prices for a poor, inferior and butchered product. I predict it is going to get progressively worse and not better.

As long as I can import DVDs from elsewhere and online then I will be satisfied. If this is cut off for some reason then I predict there will be a lot of angry and furious Canadians that these corporations including Alliance Atlantis will have to answer to. Hopefully this won’t happen though.

 

[Laurence Price]

It's déjà vu all over again...

Does this look familiar to anybody on this forum? Sorry for the extra post but I thought it was important to share the preprepared canned response I just received from Alliance Atlantis. This is sad and unfunny.

"Thank-you for taking the time to write to us here at Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Group, Home Video Department.

As a Canadian company distributing motion pictures on home video across the country, we feel that our releases should reflect the official languages of all provinces in which they're sold. The removal of certain features unfortunately has to happen from time to time in order to add our County's second language to the disc - in a lot of cases there simply isn't enough room on the disc to keep everything.

We regret that this does not meet with your approval but we plan to continue with a format that is inclusive of the largest number of Canadians.

In regards to the absence of the 28-page comic in the release of The Punisher; unfortunately the rights to the comic were limited to the US and we could not acquire them for Canadian distribution. We understand and appreciate the disappointment of our consumers but the absence of the comic was a legal issue.

The Canadian street date for the 10th Anniversary Edition of Clerks has been pushed to the 21st of September due, in part, to the special packaging requirements. Again we apologize for the inconvenience and are working at resolving the printing issues as soon as possible.

Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Home Video would like to thank you for your comments and suggestions. I hope this answers all of your questions, any further inquiries please don't hesitate to contact us, and thank-you once again for writing to Alliance Atlantis Home Video."

 

[Eric_B_C]

I find it funny that their form response is so surly. "We're sorry it doesn't meet with your approval".

I've yet to write back to them. Other people in this thread have kinda demoralised me.

And as much as I hate to speak up in their defence, I believe later seasons of Due South were partly funded by the BBC. Of course, there's plenty of other shows (notably Food Network Canada content) that shouldn't be on there.

Don't even get me started on the fact that Food Network in the US airs Good Eats every night and we seem to get the same ten episodes over and over again... (Okay, off topic, but we don't get Good Eats like the US, yet we get that prick Emeril three times a night.)

What I don't understand is their comment about "largest number of Canadians" when all the Canadians I've spoken too are pissed off about this. Where, exactly, are these Canadians who are quite happy with this?

 

[Laurence Price]

These Canadians have most likely been devised and made up by Alliance Atlantis as a way to justify they're intolerable actions. Even French Canadians are probably not happy with this so I don't believe Alliance Atlantis' argument. I would presume these Canadians are "imaginary" and "non-existent" even though that sounds peculiar and sly on their part but then again this is Alliance Atlantis I am refering to.

Management probably sent customer service a memo of some kind that tells them to cut and paste that repetitive nonsense in their Emails specifically pertaining to the different information a customer requests. That is why there are only subtle differences within every redundant message that gets sent out. I may sound pessimistic and cynical when describing this company but they have given me no reason not to think about them in this manner.

If I want information on an Alliance Atlantis DVD that they are unfortunately distributing I will not be Emailing that disorganized and wretched company anymore. Instead I will continue to come on this forum, as well as DVD Rumor and Review sites which are more accurate and helpful. Contacting Alliance Atlantis was an incredible waste of time and effort.

I also, agree with you that there is no need for them to convey such a hostile tone and surly disposition in their responses. I guess the impression that I am getting is that Alliance Atlantis doesn't care about customer concerns but, the company also has no need to do so.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

It's plainly obvious by now that emailing the evil Alliance just isn't working. This morning I got two email responses from them with the exact same wording, even though my original letters to them were about two different things. There's obviously some kid working in their customer service department who just sends out the same old email every day, over and over. It's frustrating, because we all have legitimate concerns but they won't even hear them.

What next, people? Any advice?

On an up note, I got my import copy of Red Heat today from Amazon. What lovely English packaging it has! And only like $20 CDN. shipped right to my door. Beats the bilingual Alliance version (due September 21) with an $18 price tag (plus tax) any day, I'd say, yes?

 

[Eric_B_C]

Dammit. I replied to this, then accidentally closed the window.

I've become convinced that they barely glance over the emails, if not outright ignore them and just find keywords and send a form email accordingly. (Though they DID address my Punisher comment specifically.)

So anyway, with that in mind, I just sent the following.



I figure if they don't listen, we can at least write and do what they've done to us. AKA, piss them off.

As for what else to do, do they have a 1-800 number we could bombard with complaints? Maybe create a bunch of stickers and go round your local DVD emporium and slap on a sticker detailing what's missing? For example slap a "Missing the comic US buyers get" sticker on "The Punisher". Could just use post-it notes, but those would be too easy to remove.

I'm all for some form of guerilla action on this to educate the consumer

 

[WarrenM]

To be fair, this isn't always the case with IFC Canada... I have seen some of their films in the OAR, like "Lost Highway" , "The Terrorist" and "Show Me Love" are a couple of films that spring to mind that were shown in OAR. You are right though, most of the stuff they show is P&S which doesn't make a lot of sense, considering the channel is geared towards film buffs. I am hoping they will eventually show all of their programs in OAR.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Eric, I have to say that I applaud you and your efforts. That 'hookers and gin' line...priceless!

As far as guerilla action goes, how about this:

A new Future Shop opened in my area a few weeks back. On the first day, I walked in to see how their DVD selection was. Lucky for me, some Future Shop bigwig was there telling his underlings how to place new product. As he was next to me, I picked up some crappy Alliance title. "That's new today!", he said to me, and I replied, "Yeah, I know, but I have mine on order from the States because I hate bilingual packaging."

His face dropped.

I went on: "It works out to be the same price, so why should I buy something I think is ugly?" He was pretty shell-shocked by this point. He didn't say anything back. I walked away. The end.

I think more action like this would get results. Do you think stores want to lose money? Just ask to see the store manager and tell him your complaint. That's what they're there for. Kind of.

I mean, it's true: I would buy a LOT more at the shops here if I could, but as it is now, my conscience won't let me do that.

I promise to do this tomorrow if everyone here does the same! I get a weird kick out of making trouble, after all.

 

[WarrenM]

Another Alliance blunder...

I just got the dvd for Dogme film #5 "Lovers" on dvd today, and the back of the cover says that the DVD is "enhanced for 16x9 televisions"... well, I put it on PowerDVD and now I find out that it isn't. Not a huge deal to me since I don't own a WS tv, but I am sure it will piss a lot of people off...

However, maybe it shouldn't even be in WS in first place. I thought all Dogme95 films were supposed to be shown open matte? All the other Dogme95 dvd's I have are in 1.33:1... so it looks like Alliance may have screwed up twice on this one. The good thing I can say is, at least it was only $15CAD, unlike most of their extremely over-priced dvd's. The film has a "Remstar" logo on it along side the AA one, but I am guessing Alliance were mostly involved in producing the DVD.

 

[WarrenM]

Well, as I've opened another AA dvd, I find out they are quite the hypocrites...
At first I thought AA actually did good for once. I got my "Tiresia" dvd today, and was shocked to see it actually contained a few special features. Very surprisingly for an obscure french film that I don't even think has seen a DVD release in its own country. However, when I go to look at the special features, I find they are in "french only" and no english translation at all!

they say this...

" As a Canadian company distributing motion pictures on home video across the country, we feel that our releases should reflect the official languages of all provinces in which they're sold. The removal of certain features unfortunately has to happen from time to time in order to add our County's second language to the disc - in a lot of cases there simply isn't enough room on the disc to keep everything"

Then they don't english subtitle the french extras! Isn't English an official language of Canada? It seems like they have no trouble bending over and catering to the French crew, but they do absolutely nothing for the English canadians. "We feel our releases should reflect the official languages of all province in which they're sold" - well AA, I think in Alberta more people speak english than french, it would be nice if we could understand the special features when you DO decide to include them! :rolleyes

 

[Laurence Price]

This happened with the Jet Lag DVD. It was loaded with extras but, when I went to play them instead of a DVD that was superior to the United States I discovered that a few of the special features lacked subtitles. Fortunately I only rented it so I did not feel burned or conned.

 

[Rob T]

I see. It's too bad that Sony couldn't just handle it for all of North America. Now I'll have to import it.

 

[ChristianB]

I have actual emails for employees (including 'head' guy for home video) who work for Alliance Atlantis directly if anyone would like them? Post here! You can email someone directly instead of just a generic homevideo@ one.

I would email myself but after several incidents in the past, AA do not like me

The truth hurts.

Christian

 

[Mathieu Lalonde]

It doensn't matter if they just send us their form letter without reading our emails... we should just all email them once a day, they'd end up notincing

But seriously... if they send us a form letter answer, shouldn't we send them all the same form letter complaint?

...just a thought

 

[Laurence Price]

If the U.S studios can take the time if needed to write a personalized and direct response answering specific questions from a customer that is inquiring about their product then it is strange that Alliance Atlantis refuses to do the same.

The U.S studios potentially serve and cater to a market that is 10 times the size of Canada’s population and are probably inundated with plenty of Emails and phone calls per day. Meanwhile Alliance Atlantis will possibly serve a population that is not even remotely near as immense or vast compared to the United States’ populace. This is why it’s absurd and frustrating that Alliance Atlantis has oddly chosen to pre-compose standard form letters that are all identical except for some subtle changes here and there.

This is due to plain laziness, inattentiveness, apathy and a complete lack of enthusiasm and willingness by Alliance Atlantis to try and please or even seriously acknowledge or recognize their customer’s legitimate worries and concerns.

Alliance Atlantis just won't listen to anyone but themselves and do not want to solve any problems that are pointed out to them. Alliance Atlantis also rejects the idea to make use of the input or suggestions given to them by people to implement changes that could make a difference and lead to improvements. The company also persistently denies that anyone actually finds fault with the quality of their product and their questionable business practices.

 

[WarrenM]

I would like to email them and see what they have to say about the Tiresia dvd. For a company that keeps spouting how important it is for them to include both of our official languages on the disc and packaging, they seem to have left english subtitles off the special features. I mean what is the point of going through the effort to produce special features for such an obscure film as this, then failing to subtitle them? They seem to go thru all that effort to make bilingual packging and french tracks, and they can't subtitle two short featurettes?
I wonder what their response will be this time... they can't give me the typical "bilingual" speech, since this time they haven't even followed their own rules. :p

 

[ChristianB]

The main guy is David Partridge. He is the Vice President,
Home Video, Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution

His email is:

[email protected]

Good luck!

Christian

 

[ChristianB]

Oh, and just received word that Alliance has delayed the release of Clerks until October 5.



I simply don't understand.

Christian

 

[Laurence Price]

This is the message I got when trying to Email Allaince Atlantis with the addresses that you provided:

"This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed."

These Two Email addresses are no good:

[email protected]

[email protected]


This Email Seems to work fine (for the time being anyway at least):

[email protected]

 

[ChristianB]

Ok will edit my post.