I'm thinking this deal ended because they sold out their stock, but not just because of that. They advertised 8 dvds with the unit, 5 of those being through the mail in offer from toshiba, the issue is IMO is that they realized after running out of stock, even with restocking, they wouldn't make the sept 30th deadline for customers for the 5 free deal.

I might run into a problem along those lines.

Although I got my order in before the deal changed, they are listing my A2 as shipping in late October. If it doesn't come by mid September I'll have to cancel I imagine. but by then the 3 movies will have arrived, and I'll have a headache straightening it out.

my player shipped yesterday

I missed out on the deal, but I'm thinking of going to costco later today. It seems they started stocking the A2 with an HDMI cable for 239.99 according to my friend who works there. On there website they list it as 249.99. With the 90 return peroid in effect, I would still have time to see what happens price wise with the A3 or any other holiday deals. Not to mention coscto's excellent added warrenty.

What was the predicted ship date that amazon originally gave you? Or did you have 2 day shipping?

I had regular free shipping..estimated delivery date was sept. 11 - sept. 18 i think.

it shipped from cincinnati and scheduled to arrive today!! sweetness.

That might work for me while I wait. Gives me access to a box upc for the 5 free movies form......

Cool. That was my estimated ship date as well. They always predict a week or more but than the product usually ships out a few days after I ordered if it was labeled in stock. Hopefully I will get a shipped email soon as well.

UPDATE: Customer Service replied

Sounds like the promotion is "officially" expired. I appreciate them taking care of my issue though.

i really didn't expect the B2G1 additional discount glitch to last very long, but i'm surprised that the 3 Free w/ the A2 deal went away so quickly. i'm a bit remorseful that i didn't jump on that in time.

It wasn't a glitch, it was a promotion that was announced on their HD-DVD page.

It was a glitch in that it wasn't meant to stack with the "Buy a player, get 3 HD-DVDs for free" deal.

The glitch was that you were getting a player and 2 free movies and 1 movie at negative cost.

OK, here's the deal:

I called Amazon.com customer service this morning and spoke to a real person....in the U.S.! I learned two things:

1. It was never their intent to stack the B2G3 deal with the 3 free DVDs with player purchase deal. The net effect of this was to reduce the price of the player by the amount of the cheapest DVD. This was a programming mistake, and I don't begrudge them for addressing the issue.

2. The response to both the B2G3 deal and the 3 free with player purchase was both unforeseen and overwhelming. Although most hardware and most titles are indeed still “in stock”, they only allocated a certain quota of each HD DVD title to go at the “sale price”. Once they were gone, they pulled the plug on the sale, (this occurred around 5:00 PM Eastern, 8/29). This is similar to what airlines do with SuperSaver seats: there are only a limited number of seats reserved at the sale price, and once they're gone, the other remaining seats (although ostensibly the same) are sold at the “regular” price.

While I certainly understand that it is a company's prerogative to change or end special offers, I feel that Amazon breached the trust with their customers by advertising this sale as continuing through 9/23, and ending it only two days into its run, and more than three weeks early.

It would have been a much better business practice to post no end date at all with the sale, thus retaining plausible deniability through the time honored legal precedent, “you snooze, you lose”.

Or conversely, once they assessed that the situation was going to be untenable through the advertised end date, they should have modified the main HD web page banner by announcing a new end date, (a day or two later), thus allowing the remaining interested customers the chance to place their planned orders.

Again, Amazon.com had every legal right to act as they did, although I personally feel this was an egregious breach of trust with a heretofore loyal customer base. Just my two “sense”....

ahhh...ok. I never paid attention to the buying a player part of the sale as I already have one that works fine.

thanks for the info, Buck. i tend to agree with you that initially, they should have either not given an end date or given one with the caveat of "while supplies last."

i guess i'll go ahead and order an A2 sans free DVDs from amazon.

I don't understand how they could advertise a month-long sale and not have the stock to last two days. I don't care how big of a demand there was, that's a major miscalculation any way you slice it.

How in the hell did you get all that info from Amazon? Most of the time I call them (or they call me) it takes me 3 transfers just to get someone that speaks quasi-English.

picked this up as well..

I have a pany 50" 720p/1080i plasma... figured i would use this with that, and get the hd-30 for my soon to be in my hands optoma hd-80 projector....

I think i have like 6 dvd players now in the house... argh...

I don't know what you saw, but when I was ordering the B2G1 free, I saw something on the page (the Searchers) that stated clearly that quantities were limited and there was a limit of 2 titles per person.

maybe i didn't look close enough, but all i saw on the "3 DVDs when you buy the HD-A2" deal was that it expired in late September.

Actually to be accurate, I didn't call Amazon. They called me.

I sent an e-mail requesting the discounts be reapplied to my cart. I got a curt response from some guy named "Divya".

The exact text was, "I'm sorry but we are unable to reinstate these promitions to your cart at this time. Please visit our website for the current promotional offer on the item."

Nothing like an empowered employee!!!

Anyway, at the bottom of the e-mail it said, "Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:If yes, click here:.....If not, click here:" Of course I clicked "NOT", and it opened up a web page where one could request a call-back or send another e-mail. I requested call-back, and a cogent, intelligent person actually called me back.

amazing!

So I got my shipping notices on the player & dvds.

Next question: I bought the A2. Do I need to do a firmware update on the player before I even hook it up (and how do I check to see if it needs one)? What's the best way to go about that if necessary?

I haven't done it yet, but when you open the box, there's instructions on how to update the firmware. waiting on my discs and an hdmi cable to arrive before I hook it up, but I would recommend following the instructions.