And that about wraps it up for Alpha. I never bought any of their disks and now have no reason to start. I do get catalogs from oldies.com and noticed they are very good at marking the big studio MOD films as DVD-R, but a cursory site search shows they don't hold their own products to the same standard. Yes, I'll send them an email, as that practice needs to change.

Well, that's a sad turn of events for Alpha, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised given the enormous success of the MOD programs and the greed it is generating. At least Alpha should keep the price down to what I consider a MOD to be worth, but it's still a slap in the face that their generally lackluster transfers now won't even have the added benefit of being pressed. Here's hoping Mill Creek keeps releasing the same titles in low end collections where you get bigger bang for your buck. That is until Mill Creek goes the MOD route too.

Just got this email:

I really don't have the $'s, but the 3 Forgotten Noir boxes at $12 ea are awfully tempting. Does anyone know if they are factory pressed or mods?

http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/noir/557
http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/noir/511
http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/noir/564

I added several titles to my cart and am getting a discount, but it's not 50%. The discounts are all over the place, but none add up to 50%. ???

The wording on the sale confuses me, is it 50% off the retail price or the web discount price that they normally sell these titles for?

^50% off MSRP.

Considering my finances, that makes it more marginal for me, though I really do want those Noir boxes.

Agreed, Geff, it's not as tempting this way, though there are some good buys. I'm always interested in the Kit Parker collection of titles and some of the British stuff. I highly recommend both the Forgotten and Hammer Noir sets. These movies will never see the light of day in Region 1 anymore, so seizing a deal when you can is advisable.

VCI site is very glitchy and won't let me check out, just keep getting an error page that says BAD GATEWAY. This happens on both Firefox and IE. Will have to place my order by phone.

^I experienced the same thing. That was when the thread was first posted and haven't checked back.

I just placed an order and was getting the Bad Gateway error. After I selected a shipping method it went right through. Not sure if that was it or it just happened to go through.

I got:
BRITISH CINEMA RENOWN PICTURES CRIME & NOIR
BRITISH CINEMA COLLECTION
BRITISH NOIR DOUBLE FEATURE
NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL
PSYCHOTRONICA COLLECTION

I had to call to place my order and Penny, the CSR, was very nice, as are all the employees I've ever had contact with at VCI. She did say they were having issues on the site and said anytime there is a glitch to call and they will honor the online sale price over the phone. She also gave me an additional discount on a couple of sale titles, THE BLACK TENT and BRITISH CINEMA COLLECTION: DRAMAS VOL. 3.

I ordered some stuff that has been nagging at me for quite awhile, but could never find decent prices. The 50% off worked out to be just OK for most of these, not great, but still cheaper than I could find anywhere else. I decided to pile it up for free shipping and just get most of my want list out of the way so that now I can pretty much skip VCI for Black Friday, barring an incredible sale.

In addition to the two posted above, I also ordered:

DARN GOOD WESTERNS (Vol. 2)
EURO FANTASTICO
RENOWN PICTURES CRIME THRILLERS COLLECTION
SABU DOUBLE FEATURE
WESTERN FILM NOIR DOUBLE FEATURE

Does VCI send an email when they ship your order?

It's been so long since I ordered from them directly that I can't honestly remember. My guess is no.

My order showed up today, so they do not email upon shipping. No floaters either.

If you had trouble ordering from VCI during their recent 50% off sale, they have now sent out an E mail to customers of that sale informing them they can pick out one DVD for free, including shipping. So if you bought then and haven't gotten the E mail, you might want to contact them. It's certainly a wonderful gesture on their part as the technical glitches during the sale were very frustrating and this is nice compensation.

VCI "Annual Holiday Sale" has started. 50% off everything on the site, but off the SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE and not the web discounted price.

Enter code: BFWEEK

I'm having the same problem with trying to use BFWEEK code.

I checked $50 Order FREE SHIPPING,still not working.

The VCI site is the worst. I tried placing an order a few weeks back, but I couldn't check out because the coupon from the summer sale had expired. You know, the coupon I couldn't use because the site was crashing then, too? There was no option to remove the coupon, and clearing my cache did no good as the coupon seemed to be tied to my ID. I'm not surprised the site is acting up again.

Can't believe they still haven't fixed their site! Last time they had the 50% off sale I had to phone my order in. Then they sent an e mail apology with the offer of any title in their collection for free. I chose HONEY WEST. So it turned out ok, but I doubt they will do that free offer again. I really thought their site would be fixed by now.

Just tried placing an order, but the site is still down. I'm glad we have until the 26th...hoping they get this fixed in time!

Received an email from VCI with code CYBEREXT good until 12/5 for 50% off. Filled a cart and using the code and it says the code is INVALID. Do not think I will go back again. Had trouble with the last one around labor day, I think, but I never did get a free dvd.

I ended up having to place my order over the phone. They asked all kinds of questions about the server problems; I think they're overwhelmed at this point.

I agree! I tried a couple of times to place a ~$100 order but gave up and will probably not try again, given the possibility of MOD and their ultra-crappy web site.

(Adam, sent you a PM)

There are some bargain bin VCI titles I want at 50% off, but I think I'll just phone my order in. That way I can also tell them not to send any MODs.