All of these are Doctor Who titles. The first price is from the June sale. The second price is of the last Sunday in October. The last price is today. Since every price is either the same or higher than it was during the June sale, and in all but once case is higher than it was two weeks ago, I can only conclude that yes, they are raising prices for the so-called "sale". There is only ONE on this list (Planet of Evil for 18.86) that is cheaper with the 25% off than it was two weeks ago. How is this a bargain? How can they possibly call this a "sale"?

Title Released Jun-08 10/26 11/05
The Web Planet 5-Sep-06 14.75 11.69 14.75
The Mind Robber 6-Sep-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
The Invasion 6-Mar-07 25.14 21.53 26.89
The Seeds of Death 2-Mar-04 23.97 19.07 23.97
Inferno 5-Sep-06 23.97 19.07 23.97
The Claws of Axos 8-Nov-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
Carnival of Monsters 1-Jul-03 13.79 11.69 14.75
The Green Death 1-Mar-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
Genesis of the Daleks 6-Jun-06 23.97 19.07 23.97
Planet of Evil 4-Mar-08 18.86 18.86 18.86
The Hand of Fear 7-Nov-06 14.75 11.69 14.75
Talons of Weng-Chiang 7-Oct-03 22.41 19.07 23.97
Horror of Fang Rock 6-Sep-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
Destiny of the Daleks 4-Mar-08 18.86 18.86 18.86
City of Death 8-Nov-05 23.97 19.07 23.97
The Leisure Hive 7-Jun-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
The Visitation 1-Mar-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
Earthshock 7-Sep-04 14.75 11.69 14.75
Time-Flight 6-Nov-07 19.79 15.38 19.20
Resur. of the Daleks 1-Jul-03 13.79 11.69 14.75
Ghost Light 7-Jun-05 14.75 11.69 14.75
The Curse of Fenric 1-Jun-04 26.27 19.07 26.89

Some Criterions i've seen have increased, thought most have been high since the B1G1F sale. The increase I've noticed over the last two days is:

SILENT OZU (ECLIPSE)

It was listed at Just under $27, and has increased in the last day or so to:

$37.88

There have been Criterion sales galore in recent months, so most die-hard collectors will have bought up big from their backlist. (As an aside, let's hope this means a 'cashed up' Criterion will release plenty of new titles in '09, instead of a rush of Blue-Ray backlist releases)

I'll probably sit this one out, as the Australian dollar has also plummeted.

Over the past hour Mad Men S1 (Blu-ray) went up by $5+.

All mine are holding steady or going down since the other day. They even have the Planet of the Apes BD set in stock now.

I'm guessing most of those are Horror titles. Didn't DDD do a horror movie sale at the end of the month in October? I know it doesn't make sense to have a Halloween sale at the end of the month, but I thought they did.

Interesting. Grindhouse Experience and some other Grindhouse movies/sets are unavailable on DD now. Still listed on DVD PLanet though.

And what's with the damn House of the Dead listings? Both versions have exact same info, picture, etc. The release dates aren't even right. The only things that don't match are the price and the UPC. I'm going to attempt order the Director's Cut, but I'm worried the idiots will send me the wrong one.

Can anyone confirm if Uncle Sam was listed at either site before? It's not there now, despite being available on Amazon.

There are several companies that do not allow their titles to be sold during a sale like this. DDD therefore removes them from their website during the sale and adds them back after the sale.

This is a strange way to do it. It means no one will buy those DVDs from DD for 2 to 3 weeks and may buy them somewhere else instead. Lost sales.

Wouldn't a better way be to just increase the prices of those DVDs that those companies don't want on sale by the percentage of the sale (in this case - 25%)?

James

Please read the very first line in my post, where I say that they're all Doctor Who titles. Doctor Who is not horror.

My bad!

I guess my point was - looking at the fact that many of them are the same price as they were in the previous sale, I would imagine there was some kind of sale on these titles when you captured those costs. That would seem the most logical to me.

I have no clue what just happened, but the total in my cart fell from $715 to $695.

Hello everyone,

We are very excited about the start of our biggest DVD sale ever. As you have already heard the coupon discount for this sale has increased to 25%, so there are even more great deals than before!

I have responded in threads like this before and thought that I should do it one more time to address the suggestion that we raised our prices strictly in anticipation of this sale. The answer is simply that we did not.

Our prices change every day. They change for many reasons, such as when special sales (like the horror sales, recent BBC sales, box set sales, or other category sales) begin or end, they change in response to competition, or because special rebate and promotional programs from suppliers begin or end. The examples of price changes posted in this thread are examples of changes that happen every week, all year round. Some prices certainly did go up this week as special promotional sales ended or competition changed their prices (as happens every week) but thousands of titles also dropped in price for the same reasons. However, the vast majority of our titles did not change in price at all.

I’m really not trying to engage in a debate, so I won’t respond any further. I just thought that I should take the time to let you know that we did not increase prices in anticipation of this sale. Our pricing strategy was the same this week as it is every other week of the year. We do our best to bring you the best DVD deals on the web and we’re still shipping for free!

I want to thank you all for your business. For those of you who for some reason we let down in the past I hope that you’ll give us another chance to earn your business.

Thanks again and happy shopping.

All the best,

Dave

bah! Searched for the Faculty on DVD Planet. Comes up 8.21. Click to put it in my cart and the cart shows it 10.47.

WTF!? First Kid does the same exact thing! It's one thing to jack prices before a sale. It's another thing to say 1 price on the item page and another in the cart and just hope nobody notices. Bastards

^^Thanks for contributing to the thread. I didn't intend this thread to be any kind of mass criticism of DD. I like the company, I don't feel entitled to anything beyond the prices you offer, and I compare when I shop, so I'm an informed consumer, and I never feel that I have been unfairly taken advantage of or dealt with. I have put in an average of more than one order a month for the past two years. I have continually defended DD by reporting the truth about price changes when I have observed them.

As you said, you're not going to engage in debate or respond further, but provide any information that can show reasonable reasons for particular price changes and I will remove them from my list. However, it is no coincidence that the Prisoner, UFO, and many other British series went up by 20% immediately at the start of the B1G1 sale, stayed at the higher prices, and then dropped back down right after the sale was over. Regardless of how you justify it with "promotional prices" or "competition", it's dirty pool.


Actually, though, my biggest complaint with DD is the max volume "Thank you...!" message that blares out of my speakers after placing an order unless I can hit the "No thanks" button fast enough. Unbelievably obnoxious! And considering the number of orders I place, it really kind of pisses me off that its still there and there's no obvious way to say "no thanks, I NEVER want this offer, and I'm not eligible anyway, since I don't even live on the same continent!"

My second biggest one is the stupid way that B1G1 sales are applied. I know you're following the same method used by just about everybody, but since you can submit unlimited orders for a B1G1 sale, it just means that I (and every other shopper out there with an IQ above 50) has to group together all similarly-priced items and submit 2, 3, 4, 5, or maybe even 6 or 7 different orders. It's an unnecessary irritation and a big waste of time. Have a smarter system that automatically discounts like-priced items and doesn't insult us or try to take advantage of the unwary shopper who makes a simple mistake. There's a lot to be said for treating your customers with respect instead of having them jump through hoops to get the appropriate discounts. That last sentence is what keeps me recommending DD at about 3 stars, instead of 5.

Dave,

Thanks for the note. However, I don't remember you ever responding specifically to this question before. Obviously there are hundreds...thousands of posts for each one of these sales, so there stands a decent chance that you have and I just didn't see it.

For the record, I have been a part of every single 20% off sale and for all the price changes, I have never seen anything other that what you have described.

Actually when I just looked, then item page for Faculty was also $10.47, it's the search listing page that had the $8.21 price. Perhaps it's a search result database caching issue.

I suppose so. Either way, it's irritating.

Since yesterday Disney's Robin Hood got a bump from $16.99 to $22.13...

Here are the titles from Dvd Planet that went up in my cart from late last night.

1. Starship Troopers - In Stock - $20.26 - $21.71
2. Hunt for Red October - In Stock - $20.97 - $22.46
3. Elton John - Elton 60 Live At Madison Square Garden - In Stock - $17.47 - $18.71
4. Dirty Harry Series - In Stock - $90.96 - $97.46
5. Pale Rider - In Stock - $20.27 - $21.71
6. In the Line of Fire - In Stock - $20.26 - $21.71
7. Counterfeiters - In Stock - $27.27 - $29.21
8. Point Break - In Stock - $27.97 - $29.96
9. Bank Job - In Stock - $27.97 - $29.96

Hmm given the title of this thread you really think that the best option to raise prices. Just be even more complaints by people that this not a real sale.

thanks for the time deepdiscount dave!

hey... thats ddd for short

please feel free to continue the welcome interaction with us as time permits. i know there are many here that appreciate the dialogue and commitment!

Just for the record, I have seen this posted before in past sales in response to the same complaints.

I have purchased in severals of these sales in the past and throughout the year in other sales. I also price compare with other sites as well as match up prices in my want list that have been collected from DDD, as well as other sites, before the sale. While some go up, others may go down, but in my experience most stay about the same.

From my experiences what Dave stated above about the flexibility in pricing based on the many factors involved makes more sense then the accusations being levied. However, like anything else if you are truly out for bargains you wouldn't just assume one single site will always have the very best price. Like going to Costco or any other discount place, some of their prices are great and some could be gotten cheaper elsewhere.

I find it interesting some times when I read of complaints that a price went up 5-10% since the last time they priced it so they won't buy it in the sale because of the increase. Even if after you take off the 20-25% discount you only net a 10-15% disount but it still cheaper then everyone else, what is there to complain about?

I agree about shopping around, comparing prices, and being an informed consumer.

However, if a price stays relatively the same for months and months, and then jumps up immediately at the start of a sale, then THAT is something to complain about, even if the sale price was better than the non-sale price. And if that sale price then goes back down immediately after the end of the sale, the customer feels as though he/she was ripped off. If something is simply at a new, higher price, then that's life, you missed out on the lower price. But if something is at a temporary higher price so the company can effectively decrease the effect of the sale, then that is deceptive. I can't see how anyone can argue against this. You're living in a fantasy world if you think that DD NEVER does this. It's even taken into account with the careful language that DD Dave used in his post.

Customer satisfaction has to come into play when running a business, and customer satisfaction is based in part on meeting customers' expectations. If I have something in mind that I want to buy, and put off buying it until an impending sale, and have the price in my head of what it "should" be, based on its consistent selling price, if that price is not met by the sale, I am dissatisfied. That is a natural reaction for many people.

I have said repeatedly that DD needs to change how it does these sales to avoid pissing people off and creating discussion along these lines--and to squash the consipracy theories out there. The "site-wide" sale idea has to go out the window. Advertising 99% of your products are on sale isn't as attractive from a marketing standpoint, but at least it's honest. Suspending the low price guarantee for the length of the sale (or just having an exception in the terms of the guarantee) and fixing prices so they don't fluctuate up and down during the sale (except in actual pricing mistakes) seem necessary. And keeping some kind of a base "DD price" that people can see would be nice, too, but I doubt that would happen. After all, fewer people will want to buy something that says "Retail $99.95, DD Reg. Price $59.92, Current Price $68.91, After 25%-off Price $51.69."

Look, I regularly defend DD's pricing and their sales, and I appreciate DD Dave's time for posting in here, AND this thread is about price CHANGES, not just price increases. However, with all due respect to his position and his resultant responsibilities, DD Dave's blanket statement had quite a bit of cover-your-ass language in it.

I had 0/93 DVDs and Blu-Rays change price (up or down) from last night to tonight. This is at DDD only. I didn't get a chance to track the DVD Planet prices.

Dave or "DeepDiscount" ... I've read your post, and am rather confused by it. You specifically state that prices change all the time. Why, then, were the Doctor Who titles I quoted the same price for over three months? There are higher "sale" prices during the 20% off sale in June and November, then a month or so later, they slowly went down, when nobody was paying attention - except me.

And they stayed there until just before the sale, when they skyrocketed. Except for one, which hasn't changed prices since I started keeping track in June.

Since you were unable to have one post be truthful, why then should we believe anything you say?