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A.I. - OAR vs. P&S pricing (1 Viewer)

Brian McHale

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My money says that this is the typical "stock reply" you so often get from customer service reps who don't bother to really read/understand or research a complaint.

I really don't think there's any chance that CC is having to pay more for the WS version than the P&S version. If the MSRP is the same for both versions, they are paying the same for both versions. The price difference is probably a typo.
 

josh4040

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I just went to outpost.com to see what Fry's has for the the prices. They list A.I. as being 16.99 but do not show where it is widescreen or not. Also they show The Last Castle as being 14.99 where both best buy and CC show it for 19.99. I don't know if Frys will honor the price in store or not but I for one am going to try and do this tomorrow.
 

Peter Kim

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Josh,

Fry's / Outpost.com is selling the widescreen version of A.I. for $16.99. Scroll down to the bottom of the page in the 'features' section of this dvd. I don't see that they'll even carry the p&s version.
 

GlennH

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Here's a strategy I'm thinking may work:

Go to BestBuy and pick up the widescreen A.I. DVD. Ask them to pricematch Circuit City, whom you hear is selling it for $17.99. They may call CC to verify, but there's a good chance CC will tell them that $17.99 is the price, without getting into details about which version if there is in fact a price difference.
 

Cary T

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I was at CC today and they have A.I. listed as $14.99. It'll be placed on shelves Tuesday for sell. No indication of which version.
 

Jacques C

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The CC price must have been an oversight (i.e. the web guy changed one price without realizing he had to change two).

Both prices on the CC website are now $17.99.

Please resume your normal Bose bashing and drooling over the forthcoming 4 disc set of LOTR.
 

David Lambert

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Good.
I wonder if it was really correcting a typo, or was there a definately plan to charge the different amounts until they got steamrolled by the backlash?
Perhaps a junior exec thought it was a worthwhile plan, and then a senior exec saw the feedback and told him, "Uh-uh!". :)
Good outcome, anyway.
 

Craig S

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There's an awful lot of angst & conspiracy theories going on in this thread for what is more than likely a clerical error.
I believe I was actually correct on this one. No conspiracy - as usual, the simplest explanation is the correct one. Occam rules!! :D
 

Rob Tomlin

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I like Dreamworks as a studio. They make good DVD's. But I am very disappointed that they even feel the need to release a Pan and Scan version of this movie!
:thumbsdown:
I saw the Sunday ad for Best Buy. They say "Widescreen Version Also Available". As if to say "for those of you in the minority who want those black bars, we have a widescreen version available for you". :rolleyes
 

Matt Wallace

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Dave F- I'm with you!!! I'll be enjoying A.I. today with great sound from my Onkyo 696, as well, that was listed wrong on the web for over a week(!) this past summer/early fall. Some of us jumped on the $350 error :)
My point is that Circuit City makes mistakes regularly on their website. I believe it's inferior web design and not anything intentional. NO WAY they meant to sell a $799 reciever for $549 for when they were showing it "on sale" in their stores the same week for $729! I scout their website regularly since picking up my reciever for deals like this. SOooooo... to all of you - SHHH!!!
BTW- I work for a video store and the cost on both editions is exactly the same. Not one penny difference, like most dual releases. The only thing that bears mentioning is that the packaging for P&S and Widescreen is strikingly similar. There is a band across the bottom that tells you. The Widescreen one is grey. The Pan and ... aww who cares. Be careful, though!
Matt
 

Bryant Frazer

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BTW- I work for a video store and the cost on both editions is exactly the same. Not one penny difference, like most dual releases.

Sure, but don't you think that if your video store bought in the kind of quantities that Circuit City buys in, you might get a few extra points of discount?

This is the only justification for differential pricing on widescreen and pan-and-scan releases that I can think of. If Circuit City decides to order more P&S copies, it's possible they would be able to negotiate a volume discount with the supplier that would allow them to charge less for the P&S version.

But since the price now seems to be the same on both versions, this is a moot point anyway.

-bf-
 

Malcolm R

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If Circuit City decides to order more P&S copies, it's possible they would be able to negotiate a volume discount with the supplier that would allow them to charge less for the P&S version.
I've been wondering if this is the same model followed by Costco. That if they were to split their order between the two versions, they'd not get as low a price on either. But Wal-Mart seems to stock both versions most of the time, and they're always looking for the rock bottom on prices. So if they can do it, I'd think Costco can too. Besides, Costco offers the widescreen versions on their website at the same price as the P&S version in their warehouses, so that seems to put that logic out the window.
 

David Lambert

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If Circuit City decides to order more P&S copies, it's possible they would be able to negotiate a volume discount with the supplier that would allow them to charge less for the P&S version.
Having come from the retail world (management for over a decade), I can tell you that it would be a pretty picky seller who would split the order by the two different versions in order to "break up the discount". It's not unheard of, mind you, but it's not the norm in my experience.
For example: Computer chain buys 1000 copies of Doom - PC and gets, say, a 50% discount on the price. Same one buys, two months later, 200 copies of Doom - Macintosh, and gets only, say, a 35% break (not meant to represent real numbers, by-the-way!).
Same chain orders 800 PC copies of Doom and 200 Mac copies, will probably get the 50% break on the entire order. AS LONG AS THE ORDER IS PLACED AT THE SAME TIME, FOR TWO VARIATIONS OF THE EXACT SAME PRODUCT, AND THE ORDER IS PLACED WITH THE "MANUFACTURER" (wholesalers are more likely to split the discount in the same situation, because they probably didn't get the same volume discount on both SKUs).
In my experience, the split-discount theory for A.I. just would not wash. As you can see, the price was adjusted to $17.99, so if they're losing money on the deal, they seem to be alright with it! :)
 

DaveF

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Well, this pricing discrepancy was a moot point at my local CC. They had no Widescreen copies of A.I. -- only fullscreen (as of 11:30am). So, across to the street to Best Buy, where I bought one of the many copies they had.
 

Steve Tannehill

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Well, Best Buy seemed to have more copies of widescreen over full-frame, and at the same price.
But since I already had a widescreen copy of the movie that I got last week from a street-date breaker, and since that disc did not have the collector's cards, I bought a full-frame version at Best Buy. I figured I did not need two copies of the widescreen version, but I did need the collector's cards.
The collector's cards are widescreen, by the way. :)
- Steve
 

chris c

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Interestingly, last month I posted a kudos to DeepDiscountDVD regarding the fact that they were (are) selling the widescreen A.I. for less money than the pan and scan version despite an identical listed M.S.R.P. Now if they would hurry up and send the damn thing...
 

Peter Kim

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Prior to the apparent correction on CC's website, I sent off 4 messages to customer support. 3 were sent to the same customer support address / person (he inadvertantly provided me his personal email address).

Upon receiving baffling NONSENSE for responses, I ratcheted up the intensity of the complaint by addressing my 4th message as an Executive Complaint. The following is the response I received:

Dear Peter Kim,

Thanks for contacting Circuit City for your suggestions and concerns, we appreciate the feed back. We would like to first apologize on the pricing issue regarding the "A.I" movie. As you know, our Movies and CDs are handled by an outside company who holds price of their own, and Circuit City do not make any profit out of them. They do their own pricing and they normally price them right. However after doing some research after receiving your email, we realized that their pricing on the movie "A.I" was incorrect and unfair to our customers, we immediately took action, and now

if you go back to our website you will see both P.S and W.S disks are shown $17.99. At no point what so ever Circuit City was trying to take advantage of this to gain a profit, it was a pure mistake made by our outside contractor and we sincerely apologize about that. Circuit City appreciate you taking time to let us know that we made a mistake and we truly wish you will continue shopping at our stores or online. Circuit City will always be on the look out for more customer suggestions and feedback from our loyal customers and we are dedicated to serve our customers better.

Thanks again for contacting Circuit City.

Sincerely,
Lesson learned...perhaps the little guy does have a voice that can be heard. Voice your complaints and concerns to big, bad corporate America. As long as it's done courteously and eloquently, they actually pay attention.

Also, after the first 3 responses from 'lower-level' customer support, don't lay down and die - don't accept nonsense. Based on this success, I'll skip the frontline and address all of my concerns as an 'Executive Complaint'.

I've learned, at least in this experience, that if there is any variance in the normal concerns addressed to entry-level customer support, they don't know how to respond. Either they're puking back stock answers or are really too brainless to digest the concerns and think things through.
 

Richard_D_Ramirez

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CC knows "A.I" is a "J6P unfriendly" film, which will mean more sales of the WS version of the film. At $7.00 extra per sale, it'll help CC recoup some of their DIVX losses... :D
8^B
 

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