Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Why Doesn't Warners Archive want my money?

I earned some extra money at the BangPop show last weekend selling some of my books, so I decided to finally order the Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World and Captain Sindbad MOD (Manufactured On Demand) discs from Warners Archive. Unfortunately, I discovered that the WB online store won't accept debit cards or Paypal, and since I won't use a credit card anymore in protest of the banks' extortionate practices (and don't even have one at the moment), it appears that I won't be getting any of the Warner Archives stuff for the foreseeable future.

Which really fuckin' sucks, because they're about to release the complete Thundarr The Barbarian series through the Archive, as well as some 60's sci-fi flicks that I've been wanting to get my hands on for some time, including The Green Slime, Wild, Wild Planet and War of the Planets.

Considering all the other stuff they have that I want - like the Tarzan films, The Bermuda Depths, the Man From Atlantis pilot film, etc. - I'm really pissed that they won't accept my debit card. I looked up some of those WB Archive discs on Amazon, but they were way more expensive.

10 comments:

Britt Reid said...

Go to deepdiscount.com
They have the Warner Archive stuff for $19.39 each, free shipping, and they take debit cards.

Christopher Mills said...

Thanks for the tip, and I may try it. I stopped using them a few years ago because their free shipping was so damned slow.

I also notice that they don't have all of the WB Archive stuff....

Britt Reid said...

Since the Warner Archive stuff is "print on demand", it's not "in stock" until you order it, but all three of the Roddenberry pilots, most of the Tarzans, Doc Savage, etc. are available to order!
I note also that they've modified the cover designs, perhaps in anticipation of a regular DVD release?

And, as long as shipping's free, a couple of days longer than normal is worth it, IMHO.

Christopher Mills said...

There were four titles I looked for that they did not have listings for.

As for the shipping - yeah, it's free, and maybe you have had better experiences with them than I have, but the last few discs I ordered from them took over a month to arrive.

Since I have a store nearby that stocks most of the mainstream stuff I want at a discount (and allows trade-ins), I haven't had much need to use Deep Discount. Oh,and their search function sucks. ;)

Complaints aside - if I get another small windfall, I may try to order some of those WB Archive titles from Deep Discount and see if the service has improved.

Britt Reid said...

Things like the Gamma 1 flicks, Green Slime and Thundarr haven't been released yet.
The Warner Archive site doesn't even have art up for those titles, yet.

Don't know where you're located (big city, suburbs, out in the country, etc.), but I've received deliveries in the city from DD less than a week after ordering.
More likely, it's your local UPS or FedEx delivery center, than DeepDiscount.

Janus said...

What about a prepaid debit card? Will they take that?

Christopher Mills said...

Geez, Britt. Do ya got stock in DD? :)

Actually, the title I couldn't find on DD was CAPTAIN SINDBAD, one of the first Warner Archive releases. If it's there, it's well hidden, or maybe their clunky search feature just couldn't find it.

As for shipping; I live in the country, but usually things show up here pretty promptly, since I'm not far from the state capital.

I haven't ordered anything from DD since August of '08. (According to my Order History, I placed over 20 orders with DD over the previous year.) One reason I stopped is because my last few orders from DD took a month or more to get here. I don't know if it was DD or UPS or USPS, but that was the case.

Also, that's about the time I started shopping at Bull Moose Music locally and/or ordering used stuff through Amazon's second-party dealers. Even with shipping, most of that stuff is as cheap or cheaper than DD.


Janus: According to their FAQ, the WB Shop does not accept debit cards or prepaid "gift" cards.

Britt Reid said...

Nope, don't own stock, just like their work. Good prices (especially sales), and for me, fast delivery.
Capt. Sindbad: http://www.deepdiscount.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/productID/54DA995A-C74B-4D15-8314-5154D34AE613/

And I agree, the "revamped" interface suxx! ;-)

Christopher Mills said...

I see - I typed in the proper spelling, "Sindbad" with a "d" and the search came up negative.

Sigh.

Unknown said...

I broke down and got a bunch of stuff from the WB shop several months ago and just recently picked up the Thundarr set that you mentioned.