Has CH done the same thing with Universal titles they did with Columbia Pictures titles? Dawn of The Dead nor Chronicles of Riddick are available for pre-order and have been annonced for a while. Where as Troy and Terminal two title just annonced are already on the site (not to mention troy has a jan release date!)

Any insight would be appreciated. Since I might have to pre-order those titles somewhere else.

Could be that Universal is doing the same thing as Vista and miramax?

You can add Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison, The Thing, and Van Helsing (all set for 10/19), and also Dazed And Confused: Flashback Edition and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (both 11/2) to the missing Universal pre-orders list.

Is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also a Universal? If so, that's another MIA.

it sure is...so it seems that now CH is no longer getting Universal new releases. Add that to now no Buena Vista titles, and longer pre-oreder shipping times, and the hardship in opening an account...and....well time to leave CH for good...was fun while it lasted.

At this pace we can all say bye to CH since it might go out of business.

why do you think it will go out of buisness? Besides their incomptenance (which has been going on forever) is there any indication of this?

I see that Mask, which is a Universal title, is available and was released on 9/7. I believe this was the last Universal title available for Pre-Order. Were there any Universal releases on 9/14 that are not available at CH? I guess we may have to wait until 9/28 to see if Eternal Sunshine shows up. If it does, then it looks like Universal will be like Columbia Tri-Star as far as when titles become available at CH. If not then perhaps they will end up like Buena Vista. If they do end up like Buena Vista then it may be a good idea to keep a fulfilled account open just in case they have a massive blowout sale like they did with the Buena Vista titles earlier this year.

this is interesting...I wrote CH about the universal situation and this is what I received...

Unfortunately, the titles mentioned below are no longer
available. This inventory was withdrawn after
printed materials had been prepared and distributed.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Van Helsing
DAWN OF THE DEAD

Not necessarily, it may only mean that CH is no longer offering Universal titles as pre-orders but will carry them when they are released

this is really bad news, i hope they have them avaliable after they are released

CH is carrying "Law & Order: The Fourteenth Year" which was a Universal release on the 14th - if they were ending their releation with Universal would they still be carrying TV releases?

But, that title was available for pre-order before it came out, so that's no indication of future releases.

The next title to be released, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, is available for pre-order and it comes out on the 28th. Oddly though, that is the same date Eternal Sunshine will be released, yet it has never shown up for pre-order, even though (I believe) it was also announced sooner.

While it certainly does look like there are no more pre-orders, we can't count out the fact they may be available on release day like the Columbia titles.

Looks like we'll have to wait until the 28th to see if Eternal Sunshine shows up. Let's hope so! That is one title I want, and if it becomes available then, it's likely the other titles will follow suit.

Crossing my fingers...losing Universal titles (even though they suck ) , in addition to BV/Miramax would be a big blow to my purchases from them. If that happens, I'm definitely keeping an account open so I can buy a bunch of them when they're clearanced.

I've been waiting for "The Day After Tomorrow" to be added to the site (10/5 is the release date.) This one is a Fox title. Are there any other studio DVDs that are not up for pre-order?
-Mike

The will be carrying "The Day After Tomorrow" or so I was told today. It will be available on the release date.

Hadn't seen this thread or noticed the missing Universal titles. I had Fast Times and Dazed and Confused on my list of titles to buy from them too.

I can't wait for Eternal Sunshine, if I was kid I'd be sleeping out at a Best Buy to get that one. But, thankfully, God invented WalMart and I can sneak out of the house and pick this up at midnight. AWESOME FILM.

It would absolutely suck if they aren't carrying Universal anymore. I wouldn't care so much about disney, Buena Vista, Touchstone, etc if the Disney Movie Club actually had movies other than Flubber and cartoons. What a disappointment that's been.

I spoke with one of the reps and she said she didn’t think that CH lost the contract with Universal. She did see that those titles were no longer available for pre-order, but they were still in her system. That is usually what happens with the titles they get but can’t offer for pre-order, but can only be made available on the date of release. I felt pretty good that they’d be available, but I had her check on Eternal Sunshine, which wasn’t even available for pre-order in the first place, and she DID show not only the title in her system but the specs and everything else. It’s hard to believe they’d have that title in there if they weren’t selling Universal titles anymore.

Fast Times and Dazed and Confused “could” have still be in the system because they had been pre-orders and weren’t completely removed from their databases yet, but Eternal Sunshine was never there and they usually get info on titles not available for pre-order reasonably close to the release date, rather than 5 months in advance like they do on many of the pre-orders.

I wasn’t able to get an 100% info, but also with the fact that this rep said she was almost positive she’d have been made aware of Universal pulling out, that maybe it was just a change and that Eternal Sunshine, Fast Times, and Dazed and Confused would still likely be available through CH.

All 3 were in her system with selection numbers and specs as of today. Hopefully, this is good news.

thank you for the update. That is definetly good news

Excellent.

Thanks for taking on the challenge of communicating with Columbia House.

Thanks Dolphin boy. I can't say that I mind them dropping them as pre-orders, and it may even be an improvement. I'm not someone who has to have the new video releases the first day, and I've found that pre-orders can at times be inconvenient, as they tend to interfere with a rapid cycling of CH accounts. Also, at times, the columbia titles (which are never available as pre-orders), wind up being $19.95 (vs. $21.95) when they hit the website. That works good for me.

Saving $2 or $3 on a pre-order is nice when fufilling. But instead it will lead to more enrollment title options given some patience.

Well, they told me for sure that they WILL NOT carry Eternal Sunshine, Fast Times or Dazed and Confused. A total reversal from last week's news.

The lame answer I got was that they "might" carry them in the future.

I asked if this meant no more new Universal titles and she told me that they didn't go by studios. I said, "Well, then do you have Finding Nemo (already knowing the answer, myself, of course)?" and she told me, "No." So I said, "Why not?" and she then told me, "We don't carry DISNEY films." I said, "Well, then you DO go by studios, so what's the deal with Universal are you going to be carrying their movies or not?"

Total silence and then....

"We don't go by studios."

I ripped out a good chunk of my hair.

If I can't even get a straight answer on this and if they don't have Disney (Miramax, Buena Vista, etc) and now no Universal titles, I might just finish this one up and forget about it. I don't rely on it as much as big collectors here do and it's too much of a hassle to deal with these people. They lie about everything from shipping to what they carry. And everything in between.

I can sympathize. What's so frustrating is (as I said on another thread) that Columbia House almost seems to revel in being an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.

Sometimes the challenge can be amusing (not to mention the savings), but mostly it's just plain aggravating. It's almost as if they want you to earn those savings.

I spoke with a rep today whom I actually trust and she told me that the Universal pre-orders were pulled because the contract between CH and Universal expired recently. She told me that CH had expected things to be resolved before now and she told me the process can take months. She had no idea when they began or when they might end. She did say that they were still working to get things resolved and that no one has been told Universal won't be offering their movies to CH anymore.

I certainly think after losing Disney titles (not that it was their fault) and not carrying some of the bigger name releases like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, that it would be a big blow if CH loses Universal completely.

I'm also praying that they have Gilmore Girls Season 2 from Warner Brothers. Season 1 was a pre-order, but season 2 isn't even in their system yet.

thanks for the updates dolphinboy

Crap !!!

This means no Invisible Man, Mummy or Creature Legacy Collections, in October either. Bad timing on that...