squaredeals

I was wondering, when you pre order DVDs, when do they ship? Do they ship OUT on release day, so therefore you don't get them until a few days later?

Or do they ship out before release day, so that you actually recieve them by release day?

wewantflair

Different sites do different things.

renaldow

Even the same site will do different things. It varies.

SINGLE104

I usually don't like to preorder DVDs, or any other merchandise. If the item(s) is not in stock at the time of purchasing, then I won't order it, and I'll just wait until it arrives, because shipments are not always guaranteed delivery to the merchant at the alloted time. Sometimes, release dates are postponed, and rescheduled for a later date, and I most certainly don't want to wait a long period of time for my order to be shipped.

Greg00

Sometimes, but not always, the price will go down as the release date approaches. If you pre-order before the price goes down, you will end up paying the higher price. Deep Discount DVD did this when I pre-ordered a DVD not too long ago, so I don't pe-order anymore. The only thing good about pre-ordering, if the price thing doesn't bother you, is that you may get the item on (or even a few days before) the release date. However, this depends on when the vendor gets the DVD. If they get it before the release date, they will usually ship it out. I have received DVD's as much as 3 or 4 days before the release date, but I have also received them several days after the release date.

Abe.

Amazon guarantees that you'll always get the cheaper price on a pre-order. I was given a refund when they increased the price of a DVD after it was shipped.

thomkai

Don't you need to contact them though? There is a site (www.refundplease.com) which helps keep track of these things for you though.

And I don't think I'll be pre-ordering anymore. I pre-ordered The Little Mermaid from Overstock for $17. I thought surely no one will have it under $20! And then, lo and behold, wal-mart and their $14 price. And Overstock won't let you cancel an order, and to return it would have cost me shipping + $5. So not only will I not pre-order, I think I'll not order there period.

leestoo

I have never had to contact Amazon about lowering the price. I just get an email that the price has been lowered.

nemein

Since this is more of a store related question I'm moving it to the appropriate forum...

thomkai

Probably for pre-orders, but you can also get the refund afgter the fact, which I don't think they do automatically.

Greg00

When pre-ordering, you can't just look at one vendor, especially if you want to get the lowest price. Amazon may not necessarily have the lowest price at the time a person pre-orders a specific DVD. Also, as thomkai pointed out, other vendors may offer an even lower price at a later point in time. Therefore, because of these considerations, I will not pre-order anymore, since getting the best price is a big thing for me. However, if the price thing does not bother you, and you are more concerned about getting a specific title as early as possible, then you need to consider which vendor is going to get it first. Some vendors, such as Deep Discount DVD, get certain titles way in advance of other vendors, and they will ship them as soon as they get those titles, even if it's before the release date.

SINGLE104

If receiving your DVDs early is not important when preordering, the local B&M stores such as: Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart, etc, offer even lower competitive prices on their DVDs, during it's initial week of release.

Sean O'Hara

I check the circulars for BB and CC every weekend, and I rarely see them offer a lower price than Amazon or DDD -- and if they do, the difference is negligible once you factor in tax. Wal-Mart and Target do sometimes have really good prices (and they keep them lower longer), but the selection is pretty limited.

Plus, for those of us into classic films, CC and BB often miss the release date on catalog titles, either putting them out a week early or a week late.