Answering questions you might have.

[Jason R]

I figured that with some of the confusion on this board, and the large number of recent posts, that I should offer to answer any questions that you might have about recent events (i.e. the discs selling elsewhere for substantially less than AU's price, and the supposed exclusive nature of the set).

If I come across something that I cannot answer, I will forward the question to a representative at BMG or AU. Likewise, if they disagree with an answer that I provide, they can respond here.

Jason Rosenfeld

[fnordboy]

Well i am just asking this because even though it was said elsewhere buried deep in the threads, it needs to be heard before people jump ship.

Are you personally affected, Jason, if people DO NOT buy from AU, ie cut in profit? I think there is a large portion of us here that would rather see you get some change out of this than save.

(maybe if this thread works out make this the FAQ, since the other one doesnt really say anything that is up to date, atleast not in any depth that it should be)

[Jason R]

You should not consider me.

I'm afraid that AU has not shown me any more respect than they have shown their customers. There is little relation between what they sell and what I will be successful in collecting from them.

In other words: You do what is right for you.

I can show my clients where the target lies. I can point the gun and place the target in the crosshairs for them. However, I cannot be responsible if my clients decide instead to shoot themselves in the foot.

I made good on my promise of helping to get BMG to agree to release the DVDs. I made good on my promises to AU. Now it is time for them to make good on their promise to their customers and vendors.

They have competition now. Competition is supposed to be good for business, isn't it?

[angelgirl]

i have a few. when are we actually going to get this set? any time soon? is amazon's set really going to come out in november? if so is au going to do anyhing to make the offer a bit better since many people are going to move on the amazon thing instead? i have to say that i feel that we true fans are sort of being punished for trying to jump at an opportunity that we thought was the only chance we had, as it had been told to us. i hope that au will sweeten the deal for us fanatics. i don't blame you jason, don't think i am attacking i am just frustrated and i am looking for some asnswers and some justification for spending that extra money. i don't want to have to go elsewhere, and i hope au will make it so that i don't.

[phelix]

Can AU reduce the size of their order from BMG, or ship back unsold product?

[Richie]

Hi Jason

I emailed the following questions to Mike at Another Universe on Saturday. Hopefully I will get answers from him but thought I'd post the same here seeing as you've started a thread for just such a thing!

So here it is (just remember the questions were aimed directly at AU!):
----------------

I am worried about the shipping of the dvd set.

I am in the UK and have had to contact my credit card company regarding several overcharges I have had from Another Universe. The charges were put into dispute and my cc company are (I assume) dealing with your company as I got fed up waiting for a refund.

I need to know the following:

1) a) Are you going to cover all shipping costs as a "goodwill gesture" after all the hassle your customers have had to endure over the last 8 months?
b) If not, how are you going to collect the shipping costs as my credit card will most likely not allow another charge from your company as I have payments in dispute with you?

2) a) As I am overseas will you be shipping the WHOLE set ( that's the series dvds, the 'extras' dvd and the lunchbox) together?
b) I am still unclear as to what is happening with regard to this. Please explain exactly what will be shipped and when.

3) a) How are you shipping to countries outside the US?
b) What guarantees will we have that the sets will actually arrive?
c) Will the packages be insured?
d) Will you mark the packages as a "gift" on the green customs form so that they get through local customs without adding yet more cost to your customers? This is a very simple, helpful thing you could do for your international customers!
d) How protective will the shipping containers be? (I will be furious if, after all this, I receive damaged goods)

4) Do you have a time-frame for shipping yet? (a real one!)

5) a) What exactly is the deal with amazon.com also selling the series dvds?
b) How long was AU's "exclusive" license? (start and end dates)

I would really appreciate a reply to each question, point by point as soon as possible please.

-----------------------
so there you go! Dunno if you'll be able to answer any of these but these are the questions I have for AU!
Depending on what the replies entail will determine whether I cancel or not.
I am VERY worried though about getting a refund if I do cancel and also that my credit card company won't help as the charge was taken SO long ago and may fall outside the 'dispute' remit (I have read the other threads about cancellations and refunds - especially from that lawyer)
Also I am VERY worried (as you can see from my questions above) about the fact that I am an overseas customer.

Anyway, thanks Jason for all your help over all these months!
cheers
Richie

[Concettina]

I just wanted to mention (if that's OK - don't want to butt in - all good questions that I'd like to know the answers too as well!), that the customs are outside of AU's hands. Even if they're marked 'gift' you'll still pay customs (anything above GB£18/US$27 is at risk of being hit - no matter if it's a gift or merchandise), as AU are legally bound to put the value of the discs on the customs form. Aside from the legal aspect, if they weren't to put the full value and something happened to the parcel, then if they'd only marked the parcel as being worth, say $20, they wouldn't be able to claim anything more than that on the insurance.

If you buy from Amazon you're also likely to pay customs - there is unfortunately no way to avoid it. I had a parcel from the US come in last week via Global Express (which is similar to Global Priority which is what I believe AU are going to use for international customers?) valued at $150 and had to pay GB£40 on it! So that will give you a rough idea.

If you order anything above £18 from outside the EC then you've really got to take the customs charge into consideration in the price.

Having said that, you're not always 'hit' - I usually am about 1/3 of the time. BUT, in my experience, anything being sent by Global Express/Priority (which really is the safest, fastest and most secure way to send anything from the US - and fully insured), is normally always 'caught'. So in actual fact, you'd have more chance of being lucky with Amazon (regarding the customs charges) than with AU, as Amazon don't use Global Priority...

Concetta

P.S. Hi Richie! (from the DVD Forums, yes?!)

[Jason R]

Angelgirl, I am going to break your questions down into bite-sized pieces.

when are we actually going to get this set? any time soon?

*BMG is supposed to finish packaging the discs this week, then they are sending them off to AU. So if AU gets its act together it could have these shipped within 2 weeks or so.

is amazon's set really going to come out in november?

*Yes, among a number of other online retailers.

if so is au going to do anyhing to make the offer a bit better since many people are going to move on the amazon thing instead?

*I'd say they'd better, wouldn't you?

i have to say that i feel that we true fans are sort of being punished for trying to jump at an opportunity that we thought was the only chance we had, as it had been told to us.

*I've addressed this before. Here, to BMG and to AU. I agree with your assessment.

i hope that au will sweeten the deal for us fanatics. i don't blame you jason, don't think i am attacking i am just frustrated and i am looking for some asnswers and some justification for spending that extra money. i don't want to have to go elsewhere, and i hope au will make it so that i don't.

I don't blame myself either. I blame Ross and his organization.

[Jason R]

Can AU reduce the size of their order from BMG, or ship back unsold product?

No. In fact, they took about a thousand more than they needed to take. I advised them against this. They cannot return unsold portions to BMG.

[Jason R]

Understand that I cannot answer for Mike at AnotherUniverse, although sometimes I would love to know what goes through his head, besides cash flow.

1) I'd say that they should strongly consider giving free shipping to everyone.

2) The lunchboxes are still in a state of semi-completion in Hong Kong (ask AU why, I'd rather not delve into this). The bonus disc is not completed, and I understand that work is underway on it. I don't know when those items would ship, but it won't be with the intial shipment of the 5 DVD set.

3) Ross told me that he plans on sending them US Postal Service. He did mention sending with insurance and confirmation, but I cannot confirm if they will really do this.

4) I once projected that it would take 2.5 days to send out 3600 sets if you sent one every minute around-the-clock without stopping. I couldn't see it taking them more than a week or less than 3 days.

5) BMG is now selling the discs to Ventura Distribution. Ironically, I introduced BMG to Ventura. They assumed that AU would have shipped the disc already and wanted to have it in stores for Xmas (the rights expire in under a year, and there is only one Xmas season in which to sell the set, before it disappears). BMG would not have moved forward with the arrangement without the approval of Ross at AU.com. I tried to advise him against this. (Again, Gord can vouch for me that I went to BMG to strongly advise against not waiting for fans to get it first, and trying to have a higher suggested retail price. Gord was with me there).

If AU.com did not sign off on the deal, they would have still had an exclusive today They would have had the set exclusively until the rights expired. This is what I was told by BMG. AU shaved several dollars per set off of their price by opening it up to Ventura. They also opened themselves up to formidable competition, as you can see today. This is one of the many things that AU did that I simply cannot understand.

Hi Jason

I emailed the following questions to Mike at Another Universe on Saturday. Hopefully I will get answers from him but thought I'd post the same here seeing as you've started a thread for just such a thing!

So here it is (just remember the questions were aimed directly at AU!):
----------------

I am worried about the shipping of the dvd set.

I am in the UK and have had to contact my credit card company regarding several overcharges I have had from Another Universe. The charges were put into dispute and my cc company are (I assume) dealing with your company as I got fed up waiting for a refund.

I need to know the following:

1) a) Are you going to cover all shipping costs as a "goodwill gesture" after all the hassle your customers have had to endure over the last 8 months?
b) If not, how are you going to collect the shipping costs as my credit card will most likely not allow another charge from your company as I have payments in dispute with you?

2) a) As I am overseas will you be shipping the WHOLE set ( that's the series dvds, the 'extras' dvd and the lunchbox) together?
b) I am still unclear as to what is happening with regard to this. Please explain exactly what will be shipped and when.

3) a) How are you shipping to countries outside the US?
b) What guarantees will we have that the sets will actually arrive?
c) Will the packages be insured?
d) Will you mark the packages as a "gift" on the green customs form so that they get through local customs without adding yet more cost to your customers? This is a very simple, helpful thing you could do for your international customers!
d) How protective will the shipping containers be? (I will be furious if, after all this, I receive damaged goods)

4) Do you have a time-frame for shipping yet? (a real one!)

5) a) What exactly is the deal with amazon.com also selling the series dvds?
b) How long was AU's "exclusive" license? (start and end dates)

I would really appreciate a reply to each question, point by point as soon as possible please.

-----------------------
so there you go! Dunno if you'll be able to answer any of these but these are the questions I have for AU!
Depending on what the replies entail will determine whether I cancel or not.
I am VERY worried though about getting a refund if I do cancel and also that my credit card company won't help as the charge was taken SO long ago and may fall outside the 'dispute' remit (I have read the other threads about cancellations and refunds - especially from that lawyer)
Also I am VERY worried (as you can see from my questions above) about the fact that I am an overseas customer.

Anyway, thanks Jason for all your help over all these months!
cheers
Richie

[Richie]

Thanks for the reply Jason.
One other question I just though of!

In your opinion, do you think that there is a possibility that we will never actually see the lunchboxes or the extras disc? (sorry if that sounds paranoid of me but it's a real concern!)

and hi Concetta!
Yes, it is Richie from dvdforums!
I totally understand what you say about the customs thing! Just thought I'd try and impress upon AU that marking the overseas packages as "gifts" just might help them get through customs without charge! (not that they even care about what charges their customers may face I'm sure!)
I absolutely agree though that they should declare the full value, I wasn't suggesting they mark it down at all. The reason I raised this point was because I had a dvd package worth $60 shipped from Canada to the UK last week. The company sending it marked it as a "gift" and it got through customs fine! It was insured Global Priority mail and the value was fully declared too - so I thought that AU could do the same for their overseas customers!

[Jason R]

I can't see into the future. All I know is that neither the bonus disc nor the lunchbox are done. There is no time to waste, IMHO. Rather than farting around trying to get more stuff for a bonus disc, they should just use what they have.

They know what they have to do to get the lunchboxes finished.

[Lancen]

Jason, jumped on here after seeing your post in my HTF thread.

AU has only responded to one email from me, and that was only after posting to HTF, emailing you, and calling them.

I hope that they get this out the door Monday (Friday will be the latest I can stomach,) and I hope that AU gives us some positive feedback on the status of the bonus disc, and the lunch boxes. You mention that they STILL have not been completed? Why? Yes, I know that you asked us to ask them, but they are very non-responsive.

I seriously consider the details of the transaction AU has done to be fraudulent. This is NOT an exlusive deal, I have not been shipped any product, even well past the stated shipping date of 17 September 2002, and have discoverd that 2/3rds of the product has not even been finished. That is, the bonus disc, and lunchbox have not been finished. This being MONTHS after final approval for the lunchbox design... Pure, criminal Fraud, based on the national, and international nature of this, I suspect wire fraud. Federal offence in the US, isn't it?

[Jason R]

The collector's set is exclusive to them, but it is not as exclusive as it was originally meant to be (i.e. there is a much cheaper stripped-down version at other sites). I wouldn't say fraud, but a very bad example from a retailer that actually intended to do more "exclusive" DVD products. I can't see how that will happen now.

PS: It cannot possibly ship Monday. I'd say no chance of this week either. It is still being assembled in Raleigh by BMG.

[hollis27]

Jason - What does "stripped-down" mean?