HMV are crafty

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  • Jamesollier18Jamesollier18 Posts: 1,831
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    web sites gone offline big message on it;)
  • Nick_DKNick_DK Posts: 1,590
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    CJClarke wrote: »
    Considering that i got an e-mail just a couple of hours ago from HMV advertising their range of forthcoming steelbooks, i'd imagine that they'll still be selling it, at least online. I hope so anyway because i have it pre-ordered.

    HMV site just gone down which isn't a good sign. What happens to exclusive rights to steelbooks/extra discs? Will the Skyfall steelbook just not sell or go to Amazon.
  • Nick_DKNick_DK Posts: 1,590
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    The owner of Amazon uk must be loving this, Play and HMV going in the same month.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,305
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    Nick_DK wrote: »
    HMV site just gone down which isn't a good sign. What happens to exclusive rights to steelbooks/extra discs? Will the Skyfall steelbook just not sell or go to Amazon.

    Just seen its offline now too. I suppose it depends on what the administrators decide to do with the company and whether they reach this decision before the release date.

    GAME was in a similar situation last March where they couldn't stock the Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition (which was GAME exclusive at the time) they just cancelled everyone's orders a couple of days before release date and the Collectors Editions all went to Amazon which were all snapped up very quickly, needless to say there were a lot of pissed off GAME customers (me being one of them...), hopefully the same thing doesn't happen here and they at least notify us one way or the other.

    Supposedly HMV have confirmed that they are stocking this weeks new game release Devil May Cry, but can't comment on any other future releases, so signs are probably not good.

    Got to admit that I'm mildly annoyed that I can't even cancel my Skyfall order due to the site being down, I guess we're in limbo until they reach a decision on the future of the company...
  • blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,118
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    Nick_DK wrote: »
    The owner of Amazon uk must be loving this, Play and HMV going in the same month.

    Wow, i've only just seen the Play.com news. Must have been living in a hole the last few days.

    How Play managed to mess that one up is almost unbelievable. Ok, they lost the VAT benefit thing but still, they were once the go to guys for online sales of dvds/cds. We can't all buy everything from Amazon!
  • NirvanaGirlNirvanaGirl Posts: 2,511
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    As others have said, HMV really didn't help themselves with regards to their pricing. I was looking for all the seasons of a tv programme & my local HMV were selling all 6 seasons on DVD separately at a cost of £20 per season, £120 total. I eventually bought from Play for £36.99 the complete boxed set of all 6 seasons. An £83 saving is not to be sniffed at, even though I understand that they have overheads that online stores don't have.

    I think they've only been able to carry on trading for so long with their mostly horrendous prices because going in to HMV & being able to buy a cd or DVD immediately gives instant gratification rather than having to order online & wait 3-5 days. Especially on older products.
  • SXTonySXTony Posts: 2,907
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    The internet?

    It's an exclusive to HMV as far as I'm aware.
  • GARETH197901GARETH197901 Posts: 22,291
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    Play down for the count and HMV on the canvas and the ref is counting

    More Tax for Amazon to avoid i guess if they both go,so its a win win for them

    i hope that someone does buy HMV and makes it a going concern again,stuff like the Click and Collect in 2 hours was a very good step in the right direction(as it meant you paid the online price,not the in-store price)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,772
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    My understand is that when you purchase a gift voucher you become a creditor to HMV. Creditors should always be paid from largest value of money owed to the smallest. By temporarily refusing gift cards HMV are simply restoring the correct creditor order, so that the creditor with most to lose doesn't do so at the expense of other creditors

    You can sue them, but try seeing how much money you'll get....

    They know it's illegal, but also know they can get away with it.

    This happens every time a company goes under. Instead of blaming them, blame the prat who bought you a gift voucher instead of just giving you the cash!
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    Nick_DK wrote: »
    The owner of Amazon uk must be loving this, Play and HMV going in the same month.

    Play gone as well?
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    You can sue them, but try seeing how much money you'll get....

    They know it's illegal, but also know they can get away with it.

    This happens every time a company goes under. Instead of blaming them, blame the prat who bought you a gift voucher instead of just giving you the cash!

    I've always hated it when people bought me gift vouchers, never saw the point. Nothing's wrong with cash.

    No wonder that grandfather walked out without paying for those games. Technically he wasn't stealing because he tried to offer a form of payment which was refused, that wasn't his fault!
  • GARETH197901GARETH197901 Posts: 22,291
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    Play gone as well?

    They are becoming a marketplace like ebay and not selling things themselves anymore
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    As others have said, HMV really didn't help themselves with regards to their pricing. I was looking for all the seasons of a tv programme & my local HMV were selling all 6 seasons on DVD separately at a cost of £20 per season, £120 total. I eventually bought from Play for £36.99 the complete boxed set of all 6 seasons. An £83 saving is not to be sniffed at, even though I understand that they have overheads that online stores don't have.

    I think they've only been able to carry on trading for so long with their mostly horrendous prices because going in to HMV & being able to buy a cd or DVD immediately gives instant gratification rather than having to order online & wait 3-5 days. Especially on older products.

    I went into HMV and saw the Blackadder boxset pricetage saying Was £70, now £20.

    I can get it from Sainsury's for £18. £70 to start with? Were they serious? Sometimes I think they inflate the start price to say it was that to make it sound like a better deal when it isn't.
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    web sites gone offline big message on it;)

    Have you ever bought anything from the HMV website and tried to take it back to a store? They refuse saying the website is a different company to them.

    Well call in a solicitor because it looks like another company is using their name and logo! :eek:

    Seriously though how can they say that and why has the website gone down too if they are not connected?
  • PandakooPandakoo Posts: 5,414
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    I have no sympathy for HMV, their prices are just ridiculous. They were selling all 6 seasons of Desperate Housewives separately for £27.99 and on amazon they are £9.99. With those pricing differences it's no wonder people are turning to online shopping now.

    I don't mind paying the extra bit of money for in store items because sometimes i like going out shopping and being able to come straight home and watch a new dvd/listen to a new album etc over waiting 3-5 days for it to be delivered.. But when i can save nearly £20, online shopping will always get my money.
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,550
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    Have you ever bought anything from the HMV website and tried to take it back to a store? They refuse saying the website is a different company to them.

    Well call in a solicitor because it looks like another company is using their name and logo! :eek:

    Seriously though how can they say that and why has the website gone down too if they are not connected?

    They are different companies. Try returning an Amazon.com item to Amazon.co.uk and see what kind of response you get.
    I went into HMV and saw the Blackadder boxset pricetage saying Was £70, now £20.

    I can get it from Sainsury's for £18.

    Wow - A MASSIVE £2 premium so you can take it home there and then. Those profiteering bastards! :rolleyes: It’s not as if HMV have sky-high rents to cover, counter-staff to pay, TV advertising costs, UK tax.......oh, hang on a sec - They do!
  • linkinpark875linkinpark875 Posts: 29,686
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    If you go on there website at the moment, they've got this blue cross sale where anything with a blue cross next to it has 25% off the price

    The prices however are ridiculous, how are they still open????/

    Do you expect companies to sell DVD's at a loss? Maybe you can get somebody on eBay to take a hit on a second hand DVD they don't want but retailers don't operate that way. :rolleyes:
  • Nick_DKNick_DK Posts: 1,590
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    The Looper steelbook is now on Amazon at the price HMV were selling it £18. I see the same happening to Skyfall steelbook.
  • KodazKodaz Posts: 1,018
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    CJClarke wrote: »
    I can see HMV going the way of Zavvi and being purely online once they've closed their stores.

    Not the best example- Zavvi didn't even "save" itself by becoming a purely online store- it went bust and shut down. :(

    The only connection the "new" Zavvi website has with it is the name, bought by an otherwise unrelated company. (*)

    Even in a worst-case (liquidation) scenario, the HMV name will "survive" in this way. Question is whether that means much...

    (*) Ironically, the first time I heard of "Zavvi", I thought the name sounded *exactly* like a web retailer. As Zavvi was only around for a year after the rebrand and is associated with the failure of the stores, I'd have thought that the old "Virgin Megastores" name was much more valuable- but Virgin (presumably) own the rights to that.

    In fact, it's been said that- rather then having sold the chain at a profit before they went under- Branson actually gave it away for sod all (making them change the name), in order to avoid his brand being associated with its inevitable failure.
  • KodazKodaz Posts: 1,018
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    No wonder that grandfather walked out without paying for those games. Technically he wasn't stealing because he tried to offer a form of payment which was refused, that wasn't his fault!

    One might- or might not- argue that what he did wasn't "morally" stealing, but I'm pretty sure that "technically" this *would* count as stealing in the eyes of the law. :eek:
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    Straker wrote: »
    They are different companies. Try returning an Amazon.com item to Amazon.co.uk and see what kind of response you get.

    You are either misunderstanding me or just trying to be funny.

    If I bought something online and was going to return it online, no problem. Why is there such an issue taking back online goods to a store if they are the same company? And yes, some branches of shops even get funny if you take stuff from another branch back but they will accept them if you make enough fuss. I thought the idea of having different branches and online services was to make the overall service more accessible? Obviously not!
    Wow - A MASSIVE £2 premium so you can take it home there and then. Those profiteering bastards! :rolleyes: It’s not as if HMV have sky-high rents to cover, counter-staff to pay, TV advertising costs, UK tax.......oh, hang on a sec - They do!

    I was talking about Sainsburys shop where you could buy it and take it home, not Sainsbury's online and the point I was trying to make was that for a company which is on its knees trying to sell of its stuff, the are not really trying too hard are they? Last time I checked Sainsbury's were not going under and they have the same costs as HMV only morso as they have more branches!
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,550
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    You are either misunderstanding me or just trying to be funny.

    If I bought something online and was going to return it online, no problem. Why is there such an issue taking back online goods to a store if they are the same company?

    But they’re not. To all intents and purposes they are entirely different trading companies. Why don’t you get that? HMV online might as well be called something entirely different and I wish it was if only so that people like you wouldn’t keep confusing the two.
    I was talking about Sainsburys shop where you could buy it and take it home, not Sainsbury's online and the point I was trying to make was that for a company which is on its knees trying to sell of its stuff, the are not really trying too hard are they?

    As has been pointed out ad infinitum, DVD and CDs for supermarkets are loss leaders. They’re lures to get you into stores where then the expectation is you’ll buy other stuff having been enticed in by a low price on a new release DVD. They want you to do your weekly shop there and losing a few pence on a DVD is a small price to pay to get you to drop £50-£100 on groceries. Obviously HMV does not have that option.

    And HMV isn’t having a liquidation sale. They want to sell the stock they have for a price on which they can still make an operating profit. The expectation and hope is that they can trade their way out of administration. These are not like the last days of Comet where a firesale resulted in prices dropping through the floor.
  • linkinpark875linkinpark875 Posts: 29,686
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    Straker wrote: »
    And HMV isn’t having a liquidation sale. They want to sell the stock they have for a price on which they can still make an operating profit. The expectation and hope is that they can trade their way out of administration. These are not like the last days of Comet where a firesale resulted in prices dropping through the floor.

    Most of it would go back to the supplier anyway.

    25% will be the best it gets and 50% off the juice and sweets maybe then the doors shut and HMV would be no more.

    Best out come is a new buyer.
  • Simon RodgersSimon Rodgers Posts: 4,693
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    Straker wrote: »
    But they’re not. To all intents and purposes they are entirely different trading companies. Why don’t you get that? HMV online might as well be called something entirely different and I wish it was if only so that people like you wouldn’t keep confusing the two.

    What are you talking about? If they are different companies then they should have different names. Simple. I don't confuse the two as such, they must have some sort of connection otherwise the same name use (and logo) would just not be allowed!

    But when you have trouble online, the stores just don't want to know. Clever little get out clause but I think that's just downright sneaky. NOT customer friendly in the least. Why don't YOU get that?
    As has been pointed out ad infinitum, DVD and CDs for supermarkets are loss leaders.

    Could have fooled me. I've seen supermarkets seldom sell stuff cheap to entice me to be honest. And if they want GOOD loss leaders, why not do it on bread and milk? Would work on me.
  • GARETH197901GARETH197901 Posts: 22,291
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    What are you talking about? If they are different companies then they should have different names. Simple. I don't confuse the two as such, they must have some sort of connection otherwise the same name use (and logo) would just not be allowed!

    But when you have trouble online, the stores just don't want to know. Clever little get out clause but I think that's just downright sneaky. NOT customer friendly in the least. Why don't YOU get that?



    Could have fooled me. I've seen supermarkets seldom sell stuff cheap to entice me to be honest. And if they want GOOD loss leaders, why not do it on bread and milk? Would work on me.

    Because they dont,it tends to be DVD's,Blu Ray's,Games,Drink etc because those are the type of things that draw people in

    saying that there always seems to be an offer on Milk at one supermarket or another most of the time
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