Filmnight Easter Sale (merged)

angelkez

yes it is the fact it was in picking and packing and not back order thats really irritated me

Locky

Woohoo, my long time 'picking and packing' DVD is no more:

"Your order has been despatched. Please allow 3-5 working days for delivery."

:j

Looks like I was one of the lucky ones! Now I've just got to hope the replacement of my 24 boxset goes smoothly!

Sweetchuck

bob_regis wrote:

I placed an order on Filmnight and a week later still had not received my order. Logged onto the Filmight website and it told me that my order had been cancelled.

I emailed them, and to their credit they replied within hours.

Here is what they said...

Dear Dr ********,
We are very sorry that your order has been cancelled (an E-mail should
have been sent, so our apologies as you obviously did not receive it),
unfortunately all items in our sale were limited stock availability and
had to work on a "first come first served" basis. Due to the huge
unexpected attention our sale has received throughout the U.K and
Ireland, hundreds of customers were ordering the same product at the
same time which unfortunately means that other customers such as
yourself have had to miss out. The reason products were still showing as
"in stock" on the website (even though they are not in the sale anymore)
is because they are in stock at our suppliers who despatch to us every
24 hours, but unfortunately we can not get any special deals on the
prices for these anymore.
We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused, we understand how
frustrating this must be for you and apologise that we were unable to
fulfil your order(s) this time.

Best regards
Filmnight.com customer services

I think we're all aware of the excuses they've given. As they said to you, everybody who had orders cancelled received an explanatory e-mail.

The complaint wasn't the lack of information, it's the fact that they were only offering sale prices whilst it suited them, despite continuing to advertise products at sale prices.

As I said, if they had any decency whatsoever, they'd honour the orders then mark it off as a lesson learned.

As things stand, I'd be willing to bet that exactly the same thing happens next time they have one of their sales, followed by yet another insulting and empty offer of a 25% discount voucher. As Grilli said, whoop-de-doo.

I think I'll pass, as I prefer to spend my cash with a company which knows its **** from its elbow.

Silent_Bob_3

If they honoured all the orders placed they'd go bust. Seems to me people are pee'd off because they didnt get what they had "apparently" had an order for.

All sale items were limited stock, if there were 10 copies of a DVD and your order was placed a second or two after the 10th one you wouldnt get one. It's just tough luck. Its like being in the queue at a shop for an item - if you're 11th and there only 10 available then its tough.

I got loads of stuff delivered and loads of stuff cancelled that may have only had a few copies of each. I was just in the right place at the right time for ordering unlike some of the other bargains I've missed out on this board.

This is why it was a "quick grab it now" thread.

Just let it go and move on to the next bargain.

opaque

Sweetchuck wrote:

I think we're all aware of the excuses they've given. As they said to you, everybody who had orders cancelled received an explanatory e-mail.

They sent out a general email to people who had things cancelled which was the 25% voucher.
What they didn't do was send out individual emails when things were cancelled after that email was sent out.
What they didn't do after the general email was email you if you later on had a cancellation. So whilst you might accept you weren't going to get say, 24 S1-4 and you knew that from the first email you didn't know that you weren't going to get your copy of say, Eastenders in Detention.
Do they not send out cancelation emails normally? If not why not?
This is a general issue and not just about this easter sale fiasco.

Sweetchuck

Silent_Bob wrote:

If they honoured all the orders placed they'd go bust. Seems to me people are pee'd off because they didnt get what they had "apparently" had an order for.

And what's wrong with being annoyed at having an order cancelled? Do you think it's perfectly acceptable for people to renege on agreements?

Silent_Bob wrote:

All sale items were limited stock, if there were 10 copies of a DVD and your order was placed a second or two after the 10th one you wouldnt get one. It's just tough luck. Its like being in the queue at a shop for an item - if you're 11th and there only 10 available then its tough.

The difference is that if a shop continued to advertise at sale prices whilst refusing to actually sell at those prices, they'd be done under the Sale of Goods Act.

FilmNight's approach seems to have been as follows:

1. Sucker people in with false promises of cheap DVDs.
2. Accept orders at prices which you know won't be fulfilled.
3. Cancel orders with apologies and a 25% discount voucher.
4. We now have another name on our mailing list and a potential customer we didn't have before, thanks to the 25% offer. If they're !!!!!! off and choose not to spend the voucher, the fact that nobody had heard of us previously means that they probably weren't a returning customer anyway.
5. Bingo! The world's most cynical marketing ploy?

In relation to point 4, I'd be interested to hear just how many of FilmNight's customers prior to the sale offers had their orders cancelled in comparison with new customers.

Silent_Bob wrote:

I got loads of stuff delivered and loads of stuff cancelled that may have only had a few copies of each. I was just in the right place at the right time for ordering unlike some of the other bargains I've missed out on this board.

This is why it was a "quick grab it now" thread.

I tried to "Grab It Now" early on the first day of the sale. My order was cancelled 4 days later. During most of the interim period, the 2 DVDs I tried to order were showing as in stock at sale prices.

You can only "Grab It Now" if what you want to grab is actually grabbable at the time you want to grab it. If you're being supplied with false or misleading information then that's pretty difficult to ascertain.

Silent_Bob wrote:

Just let it go and move on to the next bargain.

I only had an order for 2 DVDs cancelled, so I'm not overly bothered about missing out on them. As bargains go, they weren't even that great.

My concern is the fact that this seems to have been nothing more than a cynical attempt at building up FilmNight's mailing list. I don't think that's a particularly admirable way of doing business and don't think people should be so accepting of such appallingly bad service.

smashed

I think its a joke. My 24 order was in P&P for 2 WEEKS. I emailed them yesterday, and today they replied to say have a 10% voucher, and we have cancelled your order.

Yet the item is "in stock".

Im sorry, but that is a joke.

Im not somebody who would claim for "legal action", but I also know that people ordered after me and got theirs.

So please dont defend the supplier, because in this instance they are guilty

Sweetchuck

smashed wrote:

I also know that people ordered after me and got theirs.

Ditto. I know of people who ordered one of the same DVDs as me about 18 hours later and received it no problem. Interestingly, they were already a FilmNight customer.

Not that I'm cynical, you realise.

smashed

I was already a filmnight customer too... but I wont be any longer

Silent_Bob_3

Sweetchuck wrote:

And what's wrong with being annoyed at having an order cancelled? Do you think it's perfectly acceptable for people to renege on agreements?

Nothing wrong with being annoyed whatsoever - but people seem to be droning on about it as though its the worst thing in the world thats happened to them. Some you win some you lose.

They haven't actually reneged on any agreements as no money is taken until goods are despatched.

Sweetchuck wrote:

FilmNight's approach seems to have been as follows:

1. Sucker people in with false promises of cheap DVDs.
2. Accept orders at prices which you know won't be fulfilled.
3. Cancel orders with apologies and a 25% discount voucher.
4. We now have another name on our mailing list and a potential customer we didn't have before, thanks to the 25% offer. If they're !!!!!! off and choose not to spend the voucher, the fact that nobody had heard of us previously means that they probably weren't a returning customer anyway.
5. Bingo! The world's most cynical marketing ploy?

1. There were cheap DVDs available therefore no false promise
2. They didnt know they were going to get such a huge response.
3. They could have just cancelled the orders without a voucher - at least theres some recompense there.
4. Errr
5. Or just clever?

Sweetchuck wrote:

In relation to point 4, I'd be interested to hear just how many of FilmNight's customers prior to the sale offers had their orders cancelled in comparison with new customers.

I wasnt a customer before and got about 60% of what I ordered - someone I know who is a previous customer got about 20% of what they ordered. It was a first come first served.

Sweetchuck wrote:

I tried to "Grab It Now" early on the first day of the sale. My order was cancelled 4 days later. During most of the interim period, the 2 DVDs I tried to order were showing as in stock at sale prices.

You can only "Grab It Now" if what you want to grab is actually grabbable at the time you want to grab it. If you're being supplied with false or misleading information then that's pretty difficult to ascertain.

Where was there false of misleading adverstising? They advertised a sale at certain prices and were continually adding or deleting stuff as the stock changed. To get a lot of stuff you had to be sneaky and use the search function rather than the sale pages as stuff was being added to the database before it got added to these pages. I found a Michael Palin boxset and was the first to order it - it got cancelled. No big deal even if it was a major bargain.

Sweetchuck wrote:

I only had an order for 2 DVDs cancelled, so I'm not overly bothered about missing out on them. As bargains go, they weren't even that great.

Hmmmm 24 Season Boxsets at £10 each? Rocky Anthology (5 films) £10? LOTR extended editons £2.95.... They are real bargains.

Sweetchuck wrote:

My concern is the fact that this seems to have been nothing more than a cynical attempt at building up FilmNight's mailing list. I don't think that's a particularly admirable way of doing business and don't think people should be so accepting of such appallingly bad service.

Well thats one less person to battle against in the next sale

To be honest - sometimes this site is its own worst enemy - if people didnt plaster deals/sales/when sites are back up again etc all over it then people would get more bargains. My rule is dont announce anything until you've placed an order yourself. Filmnight were overwhelmed by the huge response to their sale for this reason and weren't prepared for it. Maybe in future they will learn from this and perhaps offer sales to registered members only.

Im sorry people didnt get what they wanted but sometimes thats how the cookie crumbles.