Damfino

A technical problem at CDNow has resulted in a lot of canceled pre-orders. Tech support will restore any affected orders if you contact them. (Edited 2/19 to insert this paragraph. I have left my original post intact)

CDNow has changed its pre-order policy so that you can no longer stack multiple pre-orders with multiple release dates.

When an item is ready to ship, any other title that has been on pre-order for more than a month will now be canceled.

For example:

If you had ordered 5 DVDs on January 22 with release dates of Feb 19, Feb 26, March 5, March 12, and March 19, the Feb 19 release will ship right away and the rest of your order will be canceled because the remaining titles have release dates more than a month from your order date. This is a change from the previous policy of holding the order until the March 19 release arrives.

Needless to say this really sucks. I have 3 orders out with various release dates extending into May!

I am communicating with them by Email and hoping that they will reverse this policy, otherwise it could be bye bye CDNow for me.

swfan27

omg, that sucks. i can't believe they'd just change the policy like that because that really screws the customer over. if they try to do that to be on my order of a ton of stuff that is supposed to ship february 26th i'll definitely be protesting... I mean how in good faith can you accept preorders and then have a bizarre policy that cancels them... do they not like having customers or something, it boggles the mind.

samuelowens

Is CDNow actually in the business of selling stuff? I would have thought that customers placing big orders would have been desirable because it meant you sold more stuff to them. Evidently I was wrong on this score.

I have watched CDNow deteriorate over the past six months from being the best US etailer in my opinion (with split orders, 15% coupons, 20% and 30% discounts for everything, a loyalty program and cheap shipping - plus ****** for you lucky Yanks) to being one of the worst (10% discounts, if that except on, you guessed it, preorders that now get cancelled, no loyalty program, cancelling stuff you don't want cancelled, not cancelling stuff you do, expensive shipping, misfiling items such as the Hitchcock box and Heist... etc etc).

Robbert

They cancelled my orders for "O" & T.P. Fire Walk With Me!

Damfino

I just received this email from CDNow:


Thank you for contacting CDNOW regarding your order number 3XXXXXX0.

Please accept our apologies for the cancelation of your three advanced
ordered DVDs. Unfortunately, they were cancelled due to a technical
problem.

However, I have submitted a new order to our warehouse. Your new order
number is 3XXXXXX1. To check your order status online, 24 hours a day,
7 days a week:

Click on "Account" at the top of our home page, login to your CDNOW
account (if you are not already logged in) and then access the "Order
Status" section of your Account Summary. You can also click on the
following link (or copy and paste it into your Web browser):

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

While we make every effort to answer customer inquiries within 24 hours,
most people find that they can access the account information they need
in just a few minutes.

If there is anything else that I can do for you, please let me know.

Sincerely,

April R.
Customer Service
CDNOW, Inc. Never miss a beat.



The good news is this problem should be fixed soon. The bad news is my replacement order doesn't reflect the Wish List sale discount I used. I hope they fix that as well.

swfan27

I got a similar response from a CSR, so hopefully it all works out

Jericho

Same here. They delievered that mystery Heist DVD and cancelled Jay and Silent Bob and Fire Walk with Me....

dvd2001

They seem to be getting the problem about shipping/ cancelling pre-orders with different dates straightened out.

Yesterday I responded to their 20%-off emai, and pre-ordered 3 titles, 1 due 2/19, and the other 2 on 3/12. These were less than a month apart, so I figured that it might get past the 30-day cancellation some people talked about.

I got an email this morning telling me that the 2/19 title had shipped, even though I had expected them to all ship together when the 3/12 titles were in.

At the bottom of the email was this message about the 3/12 pre-orders:

"The following items are not included and will be sent at a later date:
Candace Evanofsky : George Washington (DVD)
Ben Kingsley : Sexy Beast (DVD)
For more information about when these items will ship, visit your
online Order History using the following link:"

I just hope that it turns out this way, and that the billing total is right. The billing amount for the first title did reflect the 20% discount.

GatorOne

Today CDNow cancelled my "Training Day" pre-order DVD.

Then, I cancelled the rest of the order. I hope they don't ship anything. What happens if they have already shipped the rest of the order? If I don't accept the delivery, do they still charge for the shipping?

ellone

Did anything the status of anything in the order say "processing"? If it did, there is a good chance they will ship something out.

Damfino

CDNow has fixed my pre-orders and it looks like they have fixed the problem.

All you need to do is call or email tech support and they should fix everything within 2 business days.

hardtack

Well, CDNow most definitely have a problem (at least, I hope that is what it is) with their International shipping calculation.

I wanted to place an order (using the 25% discount) for 7 DVDs and they wanted to charge me $62.02 for Standard (Mail) shipping - this just happened to be the same amount it would cost to use the Upgrade (Parcel) shipping option. This led me to investigate further, so...

Firstly I created an order with 3 DVDs... shipping $11.46
Then 4 DVDs... shipping... wait for it... $46.15
Then 7 DVDs... shipping $62.02

At one point when I hit 9 DVDs the shipping dropped back down to the low $20's, but it now seems to be just accumulating on top of the $62.02.

My guess is that they are either actively trying to discourage larger International orders or that they have a glitch in their software. I am certainly hoping it is the latter.

regards, Tim...

GatorOne

Thanks Damfino. CDNow corrected their mistake after I called them. I was very surprized when they were so helpful solving the problem.

uteotw

This relates to CDNow and a preorder but not precisely to the issue at hand. However, instead of starting an entirely new thread, I'll just post it here:

I preordered The Sopranos Season Three several weeks ago and lo & behold it arrived today, ON the release date! Nice work, CDNow!!!

bdots48

I usually get new releases on or before the release date - ironically, my Sopranos 3 set is a little late - just got shipping confirm today.