Ironchefjebus

I'll stop buying from them the first time they attempt to stick me with any charges. It's scary the amount of money I've spent there.

I really, really wish they'd update the interface of their site. They need to filter out of stock items and make it easier to search and distinguish between qualifying "sale" titles.

PhantomStranger

It's possible the change in the return policy hasn't gone into effect yet. I've seen it discussed on other boards as likely to happen.

DVD Polizei

Abuse a system long enough, and it will bite back.

ProfessorEcho

Uh, what system and what abuse?

You mean where they send the wrong and/or heavily damaged item and a customer requests a refund?

That's abuse?

conscience

Exactly. I guess I can go with a blu have a slit cover, sure, but getting the wrong item or - heck - someone else's item does not sit well with me.

The more you buy from them the higher the number of errors you are likely to receive. I found that out when I went on a binge at their site and ordered around 20 items and about six or seven of them were either the wrong item, missing an advertised disc or I received somebody elses stuff.

Ironchefjebus

You have some really bad luck. Since April (furthest back the history shows), I've received 254 items in 16 orders. I've had to contact them regarding 1 DVD and 1 Blu Ray. I had one unplayable CD that I didn't bother to return since it was $1.

My luck is rather good considering that most of those items shipped individually. I've probably jinxed myself for the latest order. :/

conscience

Nothing about bad luck. Just lazy employees/incorrect inventory processes.

I've also gotten alot of PV discs when I bought used.

DVD Polizei

So, gohastings just randomly came up with this idea after several years of doing business, and said, "Hey, let's piss off our customers". Yeah, ok.

I've ordered about 100 movies from them so far, and only a few have been PV when they were actual movies being ordered. But I didn't call them and raise a stink. I think there are those who have been calling them, taking advantage of the fact they would be refunded money while keeping whatever movies they said were "damaged".

conscience

I have no idea what you are referring to, but if is about sending wrong items and such - cop out comment and makes no sense.

Good for you, I guess.

But me? I want what I pay for and many times a used item is several dollars more than the PV one. Why should I be okay with throwing my money away?



Well that is on those people. But it seems like it would be the employee that is also taking part in abusing the system then. With ever damaged/wrong/misrepresented item that I've received, I have always asked if I need to send it back and not once has an employee hesitated for a second before saying - no: keep it.

ProfessorEcho

GoHastings THEMSELVES has been the one to instruct customers NOT to send the wrong items back, it is not some grand scheme each and every customer has perpetrated for their own nefarious gain.

It should also be noted that GoHastings keeps a record of each refund request and after a certain quota is met from a single individual they will almost always ask for the items to be sent back. It is not as if they are an innocent little company that consistently has their good graces maligned and taken advantage of.

Conscience is right, the argument defending GoHastings and laying blame for an alleged change in policy on customer abuse makes absolutely no sense. ???

xfilekr

"Occassionally customers do sell us their PV products. In this case, they are put in our used inventory. We definitely are not replacing items with something else to save money. Please contact our Customer Service Department and you will be able to send these items back to us and buy them at double the price. Call: 1-877-HASTINGS (877-427-8464) or Email: [email protected]."

laidbacklarkin

this is a classic case of abuse of retailer policies by customers. There's few other places where you consistently find good prices on used and PV BD's so often and more often than not, accompanied by sweet deals to double dip on the already good prices. And yeah, when you deal with such a lot of orders or inventories, there's bound to be mixups. Given that you are only charged $0.96 shipping per title, most times you can make a reasonable judgment call on whether you want to send it back just because of a minor scratch or a smudge or a PV sticker on the disc while expecting a used one or vice versa. Have you ever tried shipping a title with USPS yourself ? The minimum you pay is about $2.50 appr and with delivery confirmation is an additional $0.85. Add that up and many a time that's the price you are paying for a cheap BD with shipping. With such an agreeable policy, I just can't fathom people abusing such a system while destroying policies in good faith and worse, destroying the set up for others that are content to build their collection on a dime. Its mind boggling how cheap people can get and worse, how they resort to cheating. At the end of the day, you may saved a buck or two while nickel and diming or cheating...is it worth it to live with that on your conscience ?

Recently I took advantage of their 30% off with free shipping offer - while placing an order for a title, the order system bungled at the time of placing the order and it went thru fine the 3rd time. Turns out all three orders had been registered in the system, so I ended up receiving 3 of the same titles. And one of the cases was shattered pretty badly perhaps in shipment. I did call them - they apologized and sent me a return postage label. I considered it and then thought - its costing me $6 to keep them. It costs them money to ship them back and reinventory it while they shipped it free for me in the first place. So I decided to keep them - I will give them to a couple of friends. Ultimately you win some, you lose some - you make a sound judgment call on what is fair in the transaction. In this case, I would continue to shop with them due to the goodwill generated by them accepting their error and attempting to make good on it. Except that, I will probably lose out on future deals thanks to other imbeciles exploiting a good thing while it lasts.

izatright

Laidbacklarkin, I think both things are happening: people are gaming the system, and lazy kids and cost-cutting methods are employed that ensure a good portion of items shipped are damaged in transit. At least in my home, Hastings has brought on a 5-10% return rate with poor packaging and hawking unsatisfactory goods. I have no doubt the blame is a 50/50 split.

laidbacklarkin

I agree. I have had things go bad for me in shipment and in the condition itself and have had very fair resolutions to everyone of those issues that I am willing to put up with a certain level of inconvenience only because its doing exactly what I intend to do - build a collection on a dime where you win some and lose some without significantly affecting the bottomline. Its the ones that are abusing it that spoil it for others. Unfortunately its a part of the system that will affect genuine parties.

ProfessorEcho

The notion of a conspiratorial mass abuse of their policies is wildly exaggerated here, but the bottom line is that any company who charges customers for their own mistakes is doomed to failure. I personally do not believe the rumors of this change, but if it does indeed come to pass they will have lost me as a customer and many others as well. I can think of no other company that utilizes such a policy outside of the "we can do whatever we want" airline industry.

laidbacklarkin

and my good run with gohastings continues - received my order of used 'Resident Evil Apocalypse' for $4.45...and guess what I received - a new Steel Book of the same !!

EDIT: a little too early to celebrate, wasn't I ? they had of course tossed it into a plastic envelope and so the back side of the steel book was dented at three different places :-(

gp1086

My only real issue with them so far is that it seems many of their used titles are quite often out of stock.

In terms of quality, I've probably received ~20 titles from them over the past month and always fast shipping with no problems.

terrycloth

i got all my titles 3 were damaged to the point they wont play. Im gonna call and see if i can get a replacement or refund if they want me to pay for returning them ill just use them in best buys U+S

Ironchefjebus

I knew I spoke too soon. My latest order from gohastings is really bad. All of the box sets are chewed up. One of the box sets is pretty much destroyed. They also sent me the wrong item for the first time (3-disc full screen set instead of 6-disc WS LE set).

/sigh

Schloob1

New code is up, 1492 is good on used AND new movies.

5 off 25
10 off 40

rbrown498

ICJ,

You ordered that Saw Triple Feature, didn't you? I ordered the same thing (the 6-disc WS LE set) and got the 3-disc, FS set. I sent them an email about it, saying that I had received the wrong item, blah blah blah, and that, although I really wanted the item, I was afraid that if I reordered, I would receive the exact same wrong item again. Here's what they said back to me:

We are very sorry that you did not receive the item you had expected to receive. It is difficult to know if this was simply a packaging error, or if there is a data error on this particular item. I am refunding the full purchase price (with shipping to your original method of payment. You will receive this refund in 2-10 business days. Please understand that all of our used items were purchased from our customers. It is possible that a mistake was made somewhere in the buy-back process. In our 145 stores we have over 65 copies available, so you are welcome to reorder if you'd like to do so. I'm sorry that I can't see the actual item to tell you exactly what it looks like, but our items come from our stores and I am in the corporate office.
I apologize for the inconvenience and hope that you will give us another chance.

So I figured, what the hell, I'm not out any money. So I re-ordered. And I got the same 3-disc FS set again. This pissed me off, so I did a little investigating. I typed in the UPC number from the sticker on the back of the DVD I had now twice received in both Amazon and Swap-a-DVD, and nothing came up at either site. This sticker was on the plastic on the case, not printed on the cover...but underneath this sticker WAS the one printed on the cover. I typed that UPC number into both sites...and both sites pulled up the 6-disc WS LE set. So, the problem lies with Lionsgate having the UPC number linked to the wrong product.

To make a long story short, re-ordering isn't going to solve your problem on this one. You'll keep getting that same 3-disc set. I sent GoHastings an email explaining all this, and this is the new response they sent:

Thank you for your email. I apologize for any confusion. According to our system, this order has been refunded so a new order will have to be placed if you are still interested in the item. I do apologize for any inconvenience.
If you need anything further please don't hesitate to contact us. Otherwise, no response is needed.

Of course, the replacement item had NOT been refunded, but I decided to cut my losses and step away slowly. Lesson learned.

Ironchefjebus

Yep, that's it. :/

Schloob1

Oh boy, here we go again. On Facebook Hastings posted the following:

Have you noticed that we are getting close to 250,000 Facebook likes!?! We have a SPECIAL celebration sale planned for online & in-store customers after we hit 250,000! We will also be giving away a big prize! Spread the word - let’s make this happen soon!

Currently they are at 248,906 so should be interesting to see how "SPECIAL" of a sale it is. In the past their milestone sales have been crap to say the least.

Schloob1

per Facebook:

WE DID IT!!! We hit 250,000 fans! Thank you all for liking our page! We will be having a 1 day online celebration sale tomorrow and we will also post a special 1 day in-store coupon tomorrow! Check back in the morning for sale & coupon details and for info on how to enter our gift card sweepstakes! Thanks for being so great!

junglalien

25% off and free shipping. code = 250K