J&R World thread
 

continue discussion here (instead of the bargains forum):

To Start This Thread Off
 

I received my email for 16 different CC's, and my Credit Card was shows a temp charge of the correct amount, although it still does not seem like I will definately receive my order.

Kiss my grits,

What?

I would suspect a temp charge is just a normal practice for them to authorize that the card has enough credit on it. I guess no new info in the last few days. I'd normally think that's a good sign, but not in this case

I agree with you there. People have no right to complain about getting screwed out of a misprice but there is nothing wrong with telling someone that contacting a CSR is the kiss of death for a "deal" such as this.

Oh, the days of getting the James Bond Collections for $18 or getting The Insider for $0.00 (obvious misprices) are long gone but picking up a Criterion for 65% off is far from being an obvious misprice.

Has anyone who ordered gotten a call or email regarding these "misprices"? I haven't and I ordered the upgraded shipping. I hope they tell me before they send my stuff if they're going to chage 3 times the amount it was advertised for.

I'm glad to see see this move over to the store forum. If these prices are not honored it should reflect negatively on J&R and for all to see. How is it that these are "obvious misprises" when there are sooo many studio MSRP price reductions these days? I feel they need to handle it on their end by honoring these borderline deals (compared to some such as Mad Max) and not screw with all are credit card transactions.

Just curious, but how much would a store like this pay for a disc? I assume it varies per title. I mean most Criterions retail for $40 (or at least MSRP of $40) while most major studios only have MSRPs of $25-$30 for most discs. Take a $30 disc for example, if they can buy them at $15 or $16 dollars, then selling a few at $12 is so meaningless (as long as they don't do it a thousand times). Criterions I assume are somewhat different in that they would cost more. But take a movie like the Grand Illusion. Even if they have to pay $20-$22 a disc, that's not bad to lose $10 bucks on a sale. They can probably make up a little of it with shipping too. And I'm guessing even with this misprice, they weren't exactly fielding that many orders for them. And without the misprice I wonder how many copies they even sell in a month.

But I guess it doesn't matter what I think :)

To add to what Jericho has said, it seemed to me that this was some sort of a publicity stunt when I first ran across this deal. I mean come on, how many of us outside of the NYC area knew about this site before the posting a couple days ago? I had no reason to believe they had mispriced half their dvds when I ordered from them and if they don't honor these prices, or at least cut me some sort of a deal, that's pretty messed up.

the wholesale price for Criterions are debatable. Spies are currently working 'round the clock to find this secret information out. Once its known, read about it here! ;)

Not honoring a deal such as this is bad e-tailing, and reflects poorly for all e-tailers. When you make a purchase at a B&M the deal is done as soon as they run your credit card. The same should apply on the web. As far as I am concerned as soon as I punch in my C.C #s on the web, than the deal is DONE! This is why many people are skepticle about web deals. With DVDs as low as 14.43 for 2-packs at Walmart now for Major Titles why is this such a major prob for them as well as the fact that many people I am sure are not aware that Criterion means a Darn thing. How does J&R explain to some guy that is new to DVDs that an OLD MOVIE he ordered is special because its a Criterion?

Perhaps if everyone who has their orders cancelled tells them he / she will contact the BBB, they will decide to honor their mistake?

Has anyone had their order cancelled/received correspondence regarding the disclaimer on the receipt emails about changing prices after ordering?

I've got to say, I'm surprised it's Wednesday and they haven't called or emailed ANY of us. I too got an email confirmation w/ correct prices listed, so I'm hoping for the best. I live in NYC, so if they ship these, I should be among the first to see them... and will let everyone know if they do actually arrive. Here's to hoping.

Personally, I wouldn't quite say that. I can realize that a single key stroke can mislabel an item, and given the volume of items on the site and human error that is inevitable. And if they somehow labeled a $500 item for say $5, then I wouldn't hold it against the, I think of internet shopping more like buying from a catalog. They have a list of things and I pick them out. It's not until later that a real person looks at them and fills a box. That's the so-called check-out for me.

That being said, I would consider it somewhat poor business to not honor a reasonable misprice. I was in Best Buy a few months back and while getting whatever I went to get, stopped in the DVD section. Not sure why, because I know what's out there. But I saw this new Doors DVD. Now I know they had released a new version of the movie for the Oliver Stone box set, but I had never seen an individual 2-pack, and in a keep case. It had probably been out for many months. Anyways they were all label $27.99, except one which wsa labeled $19.99. I believe the $19.99 label was meant for the older, bare-bones version (both were even called special editions). Anyways I decided to give it a shot and when I brought it up to the check-out, it rang up at $27.99. But the guy saw the label and adjusted the price without me saying a word. I'd have to say I felt pretty good saving $8, even though a price of $19.99 isn't awesome. It's reasonable in that case to loose just $8 bucks. Now to loose, say $15 off of a Criterion is that reasonable? It's all subjective, but I'd say yes. I really don't think that have that many orders.


On the subject of the wait, I'm a little surprised too. They did say they'd contact us by e-mail or phone if they want to change anything on the order. And like I said, there can't be that many orders.

i got an email today about it.

This letter is to inform you that your order has not shipped. The Carl
Theodor Dreyer (4 Pack) DVD was mistakenly underpriced on your invoice due
to a technical glitch. The price as shown on the website is supposed to be
$69.99, not the mistaken price of $12.99 shown on your order. Please reply
and let us know that we can continue processing the order with this
condition.

For further information please contact our Customer Service department at
800-426-6027 or 718 507 3500. Customer Service is open on weekdays from 9AM
to 6PM and Saturdays from 9AM to 5PM.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for shopping with us at jandr.com.


so there is a no for that one.

My opinion
 

I spent over four hours browsing this site on Sunday, and it never occured to me this might be a bunch of pricing errors and not a legitimate sale. First of all, I have been getting catalogs from this company for YEARS, and sometimes they have some outrageously low prices on certain items. second, they have a wide but limited selection. I have always assumed this company bought and sold a lot of overstocks as well as regular merchandise. Third, the low prices were listed accurately insofar as the list price and the cost/ amount saved ratio on every item. If someone made a mistake they at least got the math right. Fourth, the low prices were not limited to Criterions or to new releases, and there were too many of them for it to be the result of isolated pricing errors. If ONE Criterion had been $11.99 or if ALL Criterions had been $11.99 I could believe it was a mistake - but these were random titles/spine numbers. And it wasn't limited to Criterions, and it wasn't a case of $19.99 showing up as $1.99 (or the equivalent.) And $11.99 -$12.99 may be low, but is not totally ridiculous. The only price that DID seem ridiculous was $12.99 for the Dreyer set. But I also remember huge lots of VHS tapes and CDs (THOUSANDS) showing up at the local Auchan in the heydey of VHS that included regularly priced VHS $19.99 NEW RELEASES for $2.50 and new CD releases for $2.99. And it wasn't a MISTAKE. So it DOES happen, usually when a company buys a huge lot of items from another company at a bankruptcy sale.

As for the low prices possibly being the result of a virus or worm, the only way a virus or worm could have caused all these "pricing errors" is if it was written by someone within the company who had server access and had a working knowledge of the code underlying their inventory/pricing system. If that is the case, then I will understand if my order is cancelled, as long as I get an email stating that a disgruntled employee sabotaged their pricing system and an an apology for having wasted my time. Although I think that under THOSE circumstances they should honor the pricing errors. The idea that an individual with no affiliation to the company and no knowlege of the system could infect their entire system with a virus or worm that not only alters listed prices, but also performs the math correctly for the "you save" blurbs is both ludicrous and impossible.

Hey, even if these were errors, in the state of TX, if you print the wrong price in the newspaper and do not issue a disclaimer prior to the sale you are legally bound to honor the sale price until a disclaimer is issued publicly, even in the case of misprints. It is the responsibility of the company to verify that the advertised prices are correct.

This is not like the dvdlair sale, where some people submitted coupon codes without playing the game. I and others who ordered from this site made no attempt to cheat anyone, to circumvent the advertised prices, or to take advantage of glaring errors like a $19.99 title listed at $1.99 or $0.00. I spent considerable time browsing what I thought were legitimate sale prices, and made what I considered to be a a legitimate purchase. At the present time, I have received no notification that J and R will NOT honor these prices, although the fact that at least one customer was told their order did not ship due to pricing errors indicates the company may refuse to ship other orders as well. If my order does not ship and J and R does not issue an apology and provide a VERY good explanation why they will not honor these prices I intend to file a complaint with the BBB and any federal agency that regulates interstate internet trade. (There must be one somewhere.) I hope others will do the same. Internet customers should not have to call a company and verify prices are correct before placing an order.

Personally, I believe etailers should be required to monitor their own pricing systems and carry some type of insurance to cover losses in the event of pricing errors that are not glaring and obvious, rather than simply refusing to ship the items. No, I would not feel cheated if a company refused to ship an item listed at $0.00. (I would not even bother to order the item.) However, if a company lists a $29.99 or $39.99 item for $11.99, they should be legally bound to honor the listed price until that price is changed or retracted. It would not require too much extra code for a company to track and flag items that suddenly receive a high volume of orders, and to fix pricing errors before too many copies or ordered. Yes, the company should have the right to limit quantities - but should be required to sell the customer at least one copy of each item at the advertised price. At least, that's how it normally works in my state, and etailers who do business here should either have to abide by those rules or else not do business here.

But hopefully where J and R is concerned, all this is moot and orders will arive as expected.

I hate to preach, but after reading through this entire thread I am surprised no one has brought up the fact that J&R was badly affected by September 11th. They are still suffering heavily from the lack of shoppers in the area. Maybe some mistakes and confusion are forgivable in this case. I really don't think they can afford to lose money on many sales right now.

That would be all the more reason to honor the pricing. I live about 2 miles from J&R, yet shop online because (mostly) the pricing is better with the coupons, savings codes, etc. If J&R can provide good products at similar prices, maybe I'll start stopping by there more often. If they can't, though, I'll still shop online. DVD's and electronics are commodity products, so service is where a company can actually stand out from the pack.

Can't this be said about any retailer regardless of geography at this time? Isnt the automobile and airline industry offering some of the best deals ever at this time? Is it unreasonable to think that maybe these sale titles were loss leaders?

I'm sure they had some sort of business interruption insurance.

FYI - They utilized their down time pretty well. They reorganized their stores, installed new registers/inventory systems.

Sure they lost thousands of customers in the immediate vicinity along with many $$$sales. But you should have seen the place when they reopened. There were huge lines at the registers. I'm sure they recovered just fine.

How about a $79.99 item at $11.99 (or better yet $7.99, an actual example from this "sale")? A $179.99 item at $11.99? What should the legal allowable "mistake ratio" be? What twisted form of logic are you using here? A mighty convenient one, it would seem.

A typo is a typo, whether it's in the ballpark or not, which is why I'm sure J&R puts this disclaimer in their confirmation e-mails:
Look, I'm all for great *legitimate* deals, but as the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true...

The moral indignation being levelled at J&R in this thread doesn't pass the laugh test.

IMHO

Tufnel

I agree completely. Knowningly placing an order for an (obviously) screwed up price and expecting to be able to bitch and moan about J&Rs policies until they own up and ship the DVDs at the lower price is laughable.

And this kind of thing happens on a daily basis on this site.

Hmmm, $79.99 at $11.99, that would be 85% off. Yeah your right, that's too much of a mistake to be considered a legit deal.

I can't speak for anybody elses, but my twisted form of logic would consider anything equal to or less than 75% off as potential bargins. They may in fact be misprices, but why should I have scrutinize each purchase I make to see if it fits my mistake ratio?

The fact of the matter is I purchased 2 criterions at $12.99 each that normally retail for no more than $35.99. Was it so inconceivable for me to believe that I was potentially getting 65% off??? Yeah sure it use to be some what common place 2 years ago and I shouldn't expect it today, but if I see a deal like this I'm gonna jump on it and hope for the best. I'm not gonna waste time trying to determine if this is a misprice or a deal while the inventory gets depleted. To each his own I guess.

Again, I feel there is nothing wrong with trying to get in on a great deal, just don't whine if it turns out to be a misprice and they don't honor it.

But to add to what has ben said, is there any correlation to mislabeled pricing and September 11th? I don't see one. Just because they made a mistake, I would think using September 11th as an excuse is very weak. There's no correlation. And lots have people have suffered from it

Personally, I'm not trying to force J&R to do anything. I'm just giving a positive outlook and trying to rationalize the whole thing. I actually thought these prices were legit for the Grand Illusion and Hamlet 2000, but then as I saw more and more low prices I became skeptical. Still, I bought Last of the Mohicans DTS for $5 in a blow-out sale. I know many got the Mummy:UE for $9.99 at K-Mart. Snow White was just selling for $12.99 locally. And its the time of year when sales are everywhere. It's not that far fetched to believe these were deals.

But now it's obvious that they weren't. Still I would appreciate it if companies, like people, would own up for their mistakes. These misprices won't bankrupt them. It appears to be a very small dent in the wallet. Save a couple of bucks on advertising and honor these misprices to get free advertising :) . Okay that was a joke. But it does leave a bad taste in my mouth if a company makes a mistake, and then ignores what they had done. That's all I'm saying

Curious, did you e-mail them first, or was this sent by them independently?

I am wondering the same thing. I have not heard anything from J & R aside from my order confirmation on Monday morning. I have yet to call or e-mail.

REPLY
 

My logic is simple, and I do not think it is at all "twisted.": If a company listed a $79.99 item at $7.99, I probably would not even KNOW about the mistake unless I read about it here, because I do not spend my time scouring through price lists looking for pricing errors. If I DID order the item, the company could argue this was a legitimate misprint, and that a digit was missing. If it was an ISOLATED incident and they issued an apology, I would accept the explanation and the apology with no ill will and go about my business, although I would feel that the company should have sold the item at the advertised price anyway. I would be less inclined to accept this argument for a $79.99 item listed at $11.99.

According to the laws in Texas, where I live, a company must honor advertised prices, even if those prices are due to a typographical error, until such time the company issues a retraction of the printed price or posts a notice of the error in visible sight in the store. This law was enacted to combat intentionally false and careless advertising practices, and has served to keep retailers honest and to reduce the number of erroneous ads. It places the responsibility for representing prices accurately on the retailer, which is where it should be. And once in a while a store gets beat on a pricing mistake, although if the store opens at 10:00 AM you can bet the mistake is corrected by 10:05.

You seem to be of the opinion that etailers bear no responsibility for pricing errors, but consider the following scenario: Gimme Shelter recently sold (legitimately, and in very in limited quantity) for $12.50 or thereabouts. This is a $39.99 disc, and the price of $12.50 is actually cheaper than the recent price on some similar items at J and R. For the sake of argument, let's say there are two etailers selling Gimme Shelter at the same time. One is selling the disc on close-out at $12.50, and the other is selling the disc at $12.99, although this $12.99 price is actually a pricing error. As a consumer, I stumble on the $12.99 pricing error and order the disc. A few minutes later I find the same disc on the other site at $12.50. Since I don't want to bother cancelling my original order over $0.50, I let the original order stand. A few days later I receive an email informing me that the price of the disc I ordered for $12.99 was a mistake, and that if I want the disc, the correct price is $32.99. In the meantime, all of the copies that were $12.50 at the other site have been sold. According to your logic, since the price of $12.99 was a mistake, the company should not have to honor the price, even though their mistake has cost me the opportunity to buy the same disc at a cheaper price from another etailer. According to my logic, the company should be required to sell me the disc for $12.99, since the prices they advertise are THEIR responsibility, and not mine.

My point is that the consequences, if any, of pricing errors should fall on the retailer who made the error in the first place, and NOT on the consumer. And if etailers were REQUIRED to honor listed prices there would be a LOT fewer pricing errors. As it stands, as long as etailers are not required to stand behind pricing errors, the only motivation for maintaining the correct prices is to keep the good will of the customer. Which may or may not matter to a particular etailer.

According to your logic, I can NEVER know if items ordered on the internet will be shipped at the advertised price, because I can never know if those prices are correct. It should not be my responsibility to have to determine what is a typo and what is not, and in Texas it is NOT my responsibility. If you own a store and advertise a $259.00 box set for $0.59 and do not post a disclaimer, I have the legal right to buy at least ONE copy of that box set for $0.59, no matter how absurd the price may seem to YOU. Then, after you sell me that box set for $2.59, YOU have the legal right to post a disclaimer and refuse the price to later customers. After you sell a couple of $259.00 box sets for $2.59, you'll be a lot more inclined to make sure it doesn't happen again. Did the purchaser take avantage of you? Yes. Was it your own fault? Yes again.

I had NO idea this was not some huge blow-out sale. do I feel sympathy for the company if these were privcing errors? Yes. does that sympathy make up for all the time I spent browsing the site looking for what I THOUGH wwere legitimate bargains? NO.

By the way, do you work for an etailer?

I'm just a poor college student trying to get in on the deals that are out there. I missed out on the dvdlair.com deal and on the dtsonline.com gimme shelter deal. For once I got my order through for one of these deals and I come to find that this one might not go through after all.

NONE of the items I ordered were "obviously mispriced" I ordered 4 criterion disks at $11.99-$12.99. If anything I thought this was some sort of a deal based on losing business to 9-11.

I feel for you :) It's tough being a film-fan on a budget. I just graduated recently myself. I guess I've gotten repetitive, but it just seems like so few people ordered these things and at not unreasonable prices. I don't see any logic behing not honoring these, though I'm wondering why J&R has taken so long to say something officially

I received the email out of the blue. I never called or emailed about the order. i did make the order with 2 day delivery so maybe they saw that first. I am pretty disapointed that the order did not go through as i did get the conformation email. Them message was from Michael Bennet and not [email protected]r.... like the conformation email. I will be even more upset if no one else get this email.

So, you want all of us to suffer the same fate as you.-wink-I don't think that this deal is going to happen, but if they are going to cancel, I hope that they do it soon. I ordered 'The Stunt Man Limited Edition' from them for $12.99. I bought this title last week at Best Buy for $19.99 and was going to return it, but if J&R cancels, then I'll break the seal and watch it ASAP.

I don't think anyones that upset or really is bitching about it, just healthy debate.
You say its obvious, while some others disagree. The stones DTS site deal did nothing more than "Prostitute the price" of criterion dvds. Why if they can do it can't J&R? And with other studios dropping prices (lets remember too its Christmas time) why is it not reasonable to think that maybe Criterion did the same or is about to and a large E-tailer such as J&R is reflecting such a thing by having a sale? Just because a Criterion is priced a 12.99 Im not going to asume anymore in this DVD market that its anything but legitimate. Besides Criterion does need to consider lowering their prices to keep me interested in in adding to my 50+ collection of their product.

maybe you are their 'test' customer -- they want to see how you react & how mad you get before they spring this email on all the rest of us! :)

I'm curious - was your order only for the Dreyer box? Or did you have other items in the order? Thx.

ok/ my turn to get everyone pissed!!!

CD's cost 27 cents to stamp in color+printed material and case extra

DVD's 33 cents

This is a direct quote from a stamping plant that I do buisness with. Small quantities for 10,000 to 1,000,000.
All the rest is royalties, shipping, promotion, and profit.

The cheapest media ever invented.

Those might be manufacturing costs but do those costs include development, marketing, licencing, etc.???

Got this today:

We’re very sorry to inform you that that the following item(s) you
ordered,

Order # SKU Product Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2160789 03742912192.DV GRAND ILLUSION (SPECIAL EDITION) / SUBTITLED -
GRAND ILLUSION (SPECIAL EDITION)


have been cancelled.

If this was cancelled at your request, please consider this email a
confirmation. We are sorry if we were not able to meet your needs at this
time.

If this cancellation was due to difficulties processing your order, we
apologize.

If this cancellation was due to the product being unavailable, we again
apologize. Very often we are promised shipments by manufacturers that
do not arrive in a timely fashion. Please be aware that every effort
possible was made to obtain these items for you. If your product was a
Music item (CD or cassette), please be aware it is our policy to cancel
that portion of the order that we cannot obtain in a short period of
time. If we do not have a music title in our vast inventory, we order it
from a distributor (who delivers it to us on a next-day basis). If our
distributor is out of stock, we then order it from a back-up
distributor (again, for next day shipment). If all sources are out of stock, we
cancel the order as a convenience to you. This is so that you are free
to look elsewhere for it, without unreasonable delay.

Your credit card was not charged for any items we did not ship to you.
We again apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We
thank you for shopping at J&R, and we hope that you will consider J&R
for your future shopping needs. Should you wish to contact us about
this order, please use the information below.

This email is automatically generated, so please do not use the reply
option in your email program; we will not receive it that way.


So I guess that's ano go on that one as well. This is the first order I made with them, and was only for this item

Where's the.... "If this was cancelled due to a misprice" paragraph? :lol:

Yeah, maybe I should write them, to let them know my cancelation was not done at my request :)