A Few Words About A few words about...™The Apartment -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[JoshZ]

And I'm really stuck on two exchanges that were shared in this thread, one between Arrow and the customer, the other from Bullmoose and the customer. Bullmoose is a small New England retailer with a reputation for providing excellent customer service and really caring about their products and customers. Bullmoose told their customers that they had originally ordered X number of copies, but that at the last minute, Arrow drastically cut their allotment and only shipped out a small percentage of what they had ordered. Arrow told the customer that they didn't cut anyone's allotment, that every retailer got the exact number of copies they had been promised, and it was the retailer's fault for selling copies that they knew in advance they weren't going to get. Which one of those responses seems more believable? That a retailer got caught by surprise when the label cut the number of copies they were receiving at the last moment? Or that the label sent out everything out as promised, and that the problem is that the retailers are lying and took orders they knew they could never fill? Both of those things can't be true at the same time. I don't think Bullmoose is lying.

Consider the possibility that when Bullmoose says "Arrow drastically cut the allotment," what they really mean is that Arrow's distributor cut the allotment, not necessarily Arrow themselves. The Arrow spokesman may not have been in the loop with what problems their distributor was having. From Arrow's perspective, they sent out all the discs they were supposed to and didn't cut anyone's allotment. The problems happened somewhere in the distribution chain between Arrow and the retailers, with neither end getting the full story.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I have watched Arrow releases for a long time, and their U.S. release dates routinely get pushed back at the last minute. I believe they've had recurring problems with their North American distributor. This disc probably should have been rescheduled for January, but the label may have tried to hold firm to a late December release in order to keep it on the books for 2017. Ultimately, the distributor couldn't follow through with that.

Nobody at Arrow could have possibly expected this disc to be an immediate hot seller (which, again, it actually wasn't). If they had believed it to potentially be a major revenue generator, they never would have scheduled it for the day after Christmas, which is traditionally one of the slowest days for retail the whole year. That date is a last-minute dropping ground for product that needs to be on the books for the calendar year.

[Edit: I was writing this at the same time as the response that got posted immediately before it.]

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Consider the possibility that when Bullmoose says "Arrow drastically cut the allotment," what they really mean is that Arrow's distributor cut the allotment, not necessarily Arrow themselves. The Arrow spokesman may not have been in the loop with what problems their distributor was having.

To me, this falls on Arrow, because they're still responsible for what their subcontractors do in their name. If the lights had been on and had someone been home, perhaps this could have been prevented.

 

[MarkA]

If you have an original order and cancellation email -- I'd call again and talk with a supervisor level. More than worth it at $34, but no reason to waste $12 of your Gift Card esp if you weren't one of the customers they gave a $10+ apology to

If you have an original order and cancellation email -- I'd call again and talk with a supervisor level. More than worth it at $34, but no reason to waste $12 of your Gift Card esp if you weren't one of the customers they gave a $10+ apology to

I looked back at the cancellation email and they had given me a $5 credit, so at least that was something.

 

[B-ROLL]

According to their own website
http://www.arrowvideo.com/news/arrow-academy-usa-release-calendar/808
The original US release date was December 12, 2017

Here's a list of all of our released/announced titles in the Arrow Academy catalogue to date. We'll be updating regularly, as and when new releases are revealed.

Sacha Guitry: Four Films 1936-1938 [Dual Format] 6 March 2018
Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971 [Dual Format] 6 February 2018
Viva l'Italia [Blu-ray] 30 January 2018
Viva l'Italia [DVD] 30 January 2018
The Witches [Blu-ray] 9 January 2018
The Witches [DVD] 9 January 2018
The Apartment [Blu-ray] 12 December 2017
Zoology [Blu-ray] 14 November 2017
Zoology [DVD] 14 November 2017
Voice Of The Moon [Dual Format] 31 October 2017
The Legend Of The Holy Drinker 26 September 2017
The Big Knife [Blu-ray] 12 September 2017
The Love Of A Woman [Dual Format] 22 August 2017
The Taisho Trilogy [Dual Format] 8 August 2017
Terror in Texas Town [Blu-ray] 11 July 2017
Spotlight On A Murderer [Dual Format] 30 May 2017
The Jacques Rivette Collection [Dual Format] 23 May 2017
Kiju Yoshida: Love + Anarchism [Dual Format] 9 May 2017
Three Brothers [Dual Format] 25 April 2017
The Assassin [Dual Format] 18 April 2017
Cinema Paradiso [Blu-ray] 21 March 2017
Cinema Paradiso [DVD] 21 March 2017
Cinema Paradiso [Barnes & Noble Blu-ray Exclusive] 14 March 2017
The Creeping Garden [Dual Format] 14 March 2017
Story of Sin [Dual Format] 14 March 2017
Property is No Longer a Theft [Dual Format] 7 March 2017
Ludwig [Dual Format Limited Edition] 7 March 2017

I received two shipping delay notices ... the 12/26 US shipping date was established towards the end and Arrow (Academy) had already established their company vacation and could doubtfully be able to tell employees Xmas is cancelled you have to work...

Ideally, someone should have been "volunteered" to make sure the release went smooth ... but that business decision was not made ...

I can't help but suspect that seasonal warehouse workers would not have been overjoyed to not spend Xmas with their families so they could assist with something for a job that would have been essentially over circa December 24 ...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

So why not bump the release to 1/2 or 1/9 instead of 12/29? The product is still delayed, but this way they're not relying on things going well without any oversight.

 

[B-ROLL]

So why not bump the release to 1/2 or 1/9 instead of 12/29? The product is still delayed, but this way they're not relying on things going well without any oversight.

My best guess ... Fiscal/budgetary reasons

I worked for a hotel management company that was building a new hotel. Due to construction delays the hotel was not ready by it's original opening date. They had to "open" the hotel before December 31. They "rented": four rooms to management on 12/30 ... then closed the hotel and then finished building it ...

My job entailed sending revenue figures for the locations of the company I worked for in our area . I would send them via a data terminals that could send messages to other terminals in the system. These figures were sent to the home office which had such a terminal .

When I received the the call with "figures". I told them "I heard you guys couldn't even open" . He explained the situation to me ... Rooms Rented 4 Complimentary Rooms: 4 Total Room Revenue $0 Total Food Revenue $0 Total Revenue $0 Average Daily Rate $0

 

[BarryR]

Billy Wilder might have found this a farce worthy of One Two Three.

 

[David Norman]

I looked back at the cancellation email and they had given me a $5 credit, so at least that was something.

When the price was 29.99 that would have made a difference, but if it's back to 49.95 now that every other online retailer they price match, I'd still call a couple times while it's in stock and try to get the to get the price back to mid 20's ($30+ $5 apology would be an OK exchange since it would be close the price you ordered at).

David, I think the distributor-warehouse screwup is most likely, myself. I think we're pretty much in agreement on what the most likely options are.

T.

I think it's pretty obvious that I think Option 3 is the most likely and something at the delivery stage got fouled up. ARROW is ultimately indirectly responsible for their contractor, but directly responsible b/c of their poor response of the issue afterwards (again it's not the 1st time so they should have it worked out by now) even if Option 4 happened. I still don't think the retailers are completely off the hook for canceling order so quickly, but

 

[Peter Keller]

I was able to order the disc at $29.99 at around 12 noon today. So far no cancellation notice yet. And expecting delivery this Sunday or Monday. I’ll post an update here.

Received my disc today this afternoon and the picture, sounds, the book, everything else are all great! Get it if you are able to!

*Ordered through Amazon

 

[RolandL]

When the price was 29.99 that would have made a difference, but if it's back to 49.95 now that every other online retailer they price match, I'd still call a couple times while it's in stock and try to get the to get the price back to mid 20's ($30+ $5 apology would be an OK exchange since it would be close the price you ordered at).

Glad I got it for $29.95 on 1/5.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I just got my (highly refrigerated) copy today. I look forward to checking this out. Next up from Arrow: Cat O' Nine Tails by Dario Argento.

 

[BarryR]

Mine arrived today from U.K. 8 days ahead of schedule! Thank you Harry and Meghan!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I just got my (highly refrigerated) copy today. I look forward to checking this out. Next up from Arrow: Cat O' Nine Tails by Dario Argento.

I have the Blue Underground BD version of Cat O' Nine Tails so I think I am going to pass on the Arrow version.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Mine arrived today from U.K. 8 days ahead of schedule! Thank you Harry and Meghan!

Nice to know the UK doesn't hold a grudge against us upstart colonies...

 

[BarryR]

Nice to know the UK doesn't hold a grudge against us upstart colonies...

Precisely my thought too!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Nice to know the UK doesn't hold a grudge against us upstart colonies...

It's been weeks since I dumped any tea in a harbor.

 

[SAhmed]

Please don't dump any P.G. Tips or Tetley tea - give it to me please

Regards,

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Cleaning out my cubicle at work today, I found a box of Celestial Seasonings tea bags from 2006 (lol) that I just might dump in the nearby harbor. Ah, to inhale deeply from an entire box of tea bags and smell literally nothing at all whatsoever.

 

[Garysb]

Got my copy from amazon.com on Sunday. Let's see how long before it shows up at Big Lots for $5.

 

[Mark Booth]

I finally received a reply to my email to Arrow. Anthony apologized for any inconvenience and then promptly blamed everyone else (Amazon and distributors). He also mentioned Arrow will be releasing a statement in about a week. I strongly suspect the statement will be the announcement of the standard edition Blu-ray.

Mark