Munich, The Andromeda Strain, Sneakers - 2/17 (1 Viewer)

[Raul Marquez]

Just arrived from my local Best Buy store who said they have 3 copies of The Andromeda Strain (Blu-ray) in stock.... but no one seems to know where they are. Incredible.

 

[Patrick Mason]

My pre-order for Munich got backordered until April. The Best Buy website said a couple stores in my area had it in stock, but wouldn't let me purchase them online for store pickup (???). I went to the stores, they could not find any copies. Truly sad that this is the last big electronics and media retailer we have left, every interaction with this company is nothing but frustrating.


I have seen posts by a few people in other forums who managed to snag copies. So they are out there, in very very limited numbers.


Can't see why they bother making these exclusivity deals if they have no intention of actually selling them.


I've cancelled my pre-order and submitted a new one through Amazon for May. Even if I might still have gotten it earlier if I kept the Best Buy order, I'm just too frustrated with them to give them any more of my money. Same story every time with these "exclusives", not falling for this again.

 

[TravisR]

Can't see why they bother making these exclusivity deals if they have no intention of actually selling them.

Yeah, Best Buy paid money to be the exclusive place to buy these movies so you'd think that their stores would be fairly well stocked with them. Even taking into account that none of these movies are THAT popular, you'd think they'd have a place on an endcap or a small cardboard aisle display for the two or so months of exclusivity. As it stands, it seems like most people can not find and the employees are totally clueless about a product that Best Buy has paid to have on their shelves. What sense is there in that?

 

[atfree]

I tried at the 3 Best Buys in my city and the surrounding area. None had any of these and the sales people were absolutely clueless (I was looking for Munich and The Andromeda Strain, already have the UK Sneakers) and online is showing out of stock/waiting list. So, basically Best Buy has screwed the pooch on this "Exclusive" release. I've went ahead and pre-ordered Munich from Amazon and will order The Andromeda Strain from them once the pre-order is available; I'll wait until the May "non-exclusive" release as I really don't want to support a company (Best Buy) that can royally screw up such a simple thing as this.

 

[Mark-P]

My pre-order for Andromeda and Munich are stuck in "preparing order." They definitely missed the release date. I'm just waiting to see if they actually ship or not.

 

[Jeff F.]

I've had Andromeda Strain pre-ordered since day one, and I just checked the order status, which states that it's backordered. What a joke! Bye bye Best Buy.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Stopped by Best Buy today. I ended up picking up Munich and Sneakers...the only copies of each on the shelf.

 

[Mark-P]

...and now I got an email from Best Buy stating that my order has been delayed until March 20th. No problem, because my credit card bill is enormous this month as I have really overspent.

 

[Raul Marquez]

Stopped by Best Buy today. I ended up picking up Munich and Sneakers...the only copies of each on the shelf. I could not find Andromeda Strain but according to their inventory system they had 3 of them somewhere in the store. A few things I was told about these releases. They only received 3 copies of each of these exclusives. These may not show up on their online inventory system because they actually started with such low stock.


For example, before I went to Best Buy I checked to see which stores near me had these in stock. Basically, it showed nobody had Munich or Sneakers but 2 stores had The Andromeda Strain in stock and available for pick-up today. So, I thought I would stop in to one of the stores that had Andromeda and grab one of those.


In a very odd switch the store I went to ended up not having Andromeda (which they were supposed to have) but did have Munich and Sneakers, which according to their online system were not supposed to be there. The explanation for this goes as follows:


Andromeda could have been in stock when I looked online but the three copies they had may have sold within an hour of when I had seen that it was in stock and the inventory system just had not caught up with that yet. I was told that if people had ordered and paid for the three copies online for in store pick-up today they could all be sitting over at the pick-up counter. Or the three copies could be in the store just mixed in where they should not be and that "customers move, hide, and misplace stock all the time" so no way to know where they really were.


So how was it they had copies of the other releases that their online system said they did not have? If the inventory drops to only 1 or 2 copies "sometimes" their website will show the item is out of stock because the inventory is so low.


So if they only had 3 copies of each title per store and they sold 1 or 2 of these copies their online system is likely to show these blu-rays are not in stock...even though the store may have a copy or two on the shelf.

My local Best Buy also listed 3 copies of The Andromeda Strain on their in-store inventory, but no one could find them...... Strange

 

[Persianimmortal]

I've run into the same issue here in Australia with a best buy-like franchise called JB Hifi. Their online inventory system shows stock, their in-store inventory shows stock, but a search of the store reveals no stock at all, even with the store manager's assistance. It's happened several times now, and I've reached the point where I don't bother going into their stores to look for a copy of a recently released classic movie on Blu-ray. I order online, even though one of their stores is 5 minutes from my place.


Anyway sorry to hear you guys have had so much trouble finding a copy of The Andromeda Strain, but you're in the same boat as those of us overseas who are waiting for the general release. I held off on buying the German version, so here's hoping the US version is a better transfer.

 

[TonyD]

Best BUy removed Munich from my cart with a note saying it's sold out.

 

[Craig S]

Best BUy removed Munich from my cart with a note saying it's sold out.

What? You mean BOTH of their "exclusive" copies are sold already?? Who would have thought anyone would want to buy an Oscar-nominated Spielberg flick??

 

[Dr Griffin]

Best BUy removed Munich from my cart with a note saying it's sold out.

Scalpers!?

 

[TravisR]

I currently see 3 copies on eBay but surprisingly and happily, they're not going for that much. One auction has under 12 hours and is 'only' at $21. I hate scalpers so I hope that everyone exercises common sense and realizes that either Best Buy will get it together & have these on shelves at some point in the near future or that in about 10 weeks, it'll be readily available from all retailers.

 

[McCrutchy]

Just arrived from my local Best Buy store who said they have 3 copies of The Andromeda Strain (Blu-ray) in stock.... but no one seems to know where they are. Incredible.

My local Best Buy had two copies of Munich and Sneakers out, so I grabbed one of each.

Unfortunately, they apparently never received any of The Andromeda Strain, but they were able to tell me that another store fifteen minutes away had two copies.

When I got to this second, much smaller store, I looked around. An associate happened to be stocking the section, and she very nicely asked if I needed help, so I told her what I was trying to find.

She went off and looked, and came back perhaps two minutes later with both copies.

"They were in a box for next week" she said.

To her credit, she did place the other copy on the side of the new release display (they had no tag for it out), so hopefully, another person will be able to get the last copy easily.


Keep in mind, too that the consumer web site was telling me neither of these stores had any stock of all three releases.

 

[TonyD]

Web site and in store kiosk will show zero stock if there is 3 or less in store.
Need to use the employee look up to see actual stock.

 

[Jeff F.]

Finally some good news. I just received an email from Best Buy notifying me that "Andromeda Strain" just shipped. I was about to cancel the order.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Found ANDROMEDA STRAIN at the Hollywood Best Buy (which has some of the saddest, most-haphazardly stocked shelves in the history of retail), but only after asking a clerk — who seemed particularly exasperated at having to help me — to check in the back. I was afraid to ask for MUNICH out of fear of this guy breaking down and crying in front of me.

 

[David Norman]

Next week's BBY ad are starting to show up and prices for all the Exclusive were going to be back to their Pre-order levels 11.99/14.99.

That would also sort of explain why the folks who did find them in the storeroom said they were in boxes marked for next week -- not sure if they were slated to be put out on 2/22 or 2/24.

I guess the folks that found them this week can go back for price corrections next

 

[Raul Marquez]

Found MUNICH today at my local Best Buy and grabbed it. Only had one copy. ANDROMEDA STRAIN is still MIA, even though their system shows that they have 3 copies, but no one is able to locate them.