ADV Films?

[hsapiens]

Has anyone ordered DVDs before from ADV Films? They've got this unbelievable sale on Farscape, Andromeda, and Mutant X. (Thanks for the heads up, rydra_wong!) I'd loaded up my cart with 4 seasons of Farscape and 2 of Andromeda when I see this at checkout:

All Sales are Final. Unless otherwise noted, defective products may be returned within 14 days of purchase, for EXCHANGE or IN STORE-CREDIT ONLY. NO REFUNDS. A 10% restocking fee may apply. Shipping charges are NOT refundable.

Products offered through this sale are clearance and close-out items. As such, product bar codes will be reconfigured, replaced or physically altered (including by means of cutting, punching or drilling). Some products may be open box. Some products may be delivered without full retail packaging. Except as expressly provided otherwise, products are sold as-is.
...
1. ALL SALE ITEMS. Please allow 1 - 4 weeks for processing and shipping due to high sales volumes.

At these prices, I can accept that I won't have a bar code on the sets and I don't really care that it might come minus an insert...but those return policies make me leery of getting scratched, "as is" discs delivered a couple of weeks past the time when they'll even reluctantly consider accepting an exchange where I pay shipping and possibly a restocking fee. :|

**~~**

That flu that's rampaging through Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas right now? It sucks. Big, big time.

Comments

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

ADV Films is in Houston, just off Harwin between Fondren and Hillcroft. see if you can pick up.

If any of your friends are anime people, they may know them. They're big in Anime.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Really??? Hummm... I like Harwin. Love the mid-east bakeries. Love the cool import shops... gonna be on that side of town tomorrow...hummm....

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I do not know if they have a retail presence here, it's the corporate HQ.

They used to be on Westpark and did voiceover work/subtitling there for their anime business, but Westpark isn't what it used to be.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Ah. Gotcha. Maybe I'll drive by tomorrow on my way to pick up the kid's friend (three or four teen girls and the Galleria - if no one hears from me by 6 tomorrow night, please send reinforcements ;-).

I miss the old Westpark. I remember when it was completed all the way to Kirby... I could drive from where I lived then (what's now the parking lot of a Super Kroger) to where I worked then (Dunvale and Westheimer) and see nary a car. No one had discovered it yet. 'Twas a lovely thing.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

It really stinks that so many yuppies have discovered the Inner Loop, doesn't it? I might have complained about all the yuppies willing to buy McMansions out in the sticks and the incredible commutes they'd make each day polluting our air -- but the ability to zip around inside the Loop was a lovely thing.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Ain't that the truth? I used to sometimes come home from work by driving through downtown. It was great. The city would be deserted and that was always a fairly magical thing. Then, after a few years of not doing it for some reason or other, I tried again. AAAHAHHH!!!! Where the hell did all those *PEOPLE* come from! OMG they LIVE there!!!! NOOOOOOO! I 'popped' down to Spec's downtown earlier this evening in search of one of the large tubs of Roast Garlic Hummus (Kroger only carries the little ones). Talk about *traffic*! It was insane.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I really wish I worked along the rail line. It's so convenient to my house (10 minute drive to the Park & Ride lot). It actually makes jury duty enjoyable. Hey! How did your jury duty go?

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

I live just too far from the rail head to walk to it. There was a time when I could have, but my hips won't let me any more. Now, when they *extend* it, I might be able to take it to work. That would be great.

Jury duty was a breeze. They let most of us go mid-morning since they purposely don't schedule that many trials that close to the holidays. It's the first time I haven't been assigned to a panel in years.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

True -- but Marini's Empanadas is still over on...whatever street it's on. I haven't ventured in to see if they have the same great veggie & cheese empanadas but now I've succeeded in making myself hungry for them. :)

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Marini's? I thought they moved to Westheimer after the old place burned down. Then it was gone. Did they move again? ARE THEY STILL AROUND???? Damn, I miss those empanadas!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

This is the one over on the SW side near Harwin, which is the original location that I knew as a college student. I haven't been inside but at some point a few weeks ago we drove by and I was surprised to see it was still there. I've been meaning to go and check it out...

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Damn! Is that open???? I thought it closed down years ago. I am SO there! But it's been so long, I don't know if I could find it again. *sigh* Such fond memories of that place.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

It's my understanding that there was some sort of ownership dispute between two branches of the family, and that two separate restaurants opened up, Marini's and Marini's, and after some more quality time with lawyers, one called itself Marine's (pronounced Marini's).

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

ARGH! I'm *so* outta the loop. :-)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I saw that they were HQ'ed here in Houston - my cheap side was cursing that I'd have to pay sales tax - but it didn't even occur to me that they might have a retail outlet. Hmmm.

The sale is unbeatable -- $32 for a complete collection of Farscape S1 with all the extra extras rather $114 at Amazon for S1 that's missing a lot of the extras -- but unviewable DVDs aren't a bargain at all.

I did Google them before asking and saw that they seem to be awfully big in the anime world. I'm probably being overly cautious but my "too good to be true" alarms are going.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I think this is where I ordered my Farscape DVDs. I think.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

:) And you're satisfied, I'm assuming. This is what I wanted to hear. Thank you. I've been jonesing to own Farscape but the usual prices are prohibitive.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I purchased it from some place that sells lots of anime and was in TX. So this must be it.

The DVDs I've watched so far have been fine, but the DVDs can get dislodged and the plastic things broken. This is not just a problem with ADV--it happens with just about everyone, it seems. But so far I haven't had a problem and I was very pleased with their service.

And while Farscape will never be my fave show ever, it's quite good. I'd love to hear your thoughts if/when you see it :)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

You're right. I've had the broken jewel case problem from Amazon and Deep Discount. I'd prefer that the cases arrive intact but I can live with replacing slip covers. It's the DVDs themselves that I'm worried about.

I've seen the first few episodes of Farscape, which I quite enjoyed, and the Peacekeeper Wars. I'd really like to see the middle bits. :)

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your flu. I've been trying to get it, I think. I'm hoping I can manage to avoid really getting it instead of just kinda feeling almost but not quite sick.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Do *anything* you can to keep it at bay. I fought off a nasty round of something earlier this winter using Zicam. Don't know *why* I didn't use it when this crud started.

The first week I was sick it felt like I was fighting off a cold. Not really sick but at the edges. The next week, I thought I had finally come down with a cold, then I thought I had laryngitis, then I thought I had bronchitis -- finally I figured it was probably a particularly aggressive flu. I saw on CNN today that the flu is raging in this area.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Loverly. I think mine might have just been the delights of menopause. :-) Fever and chills or just hot flashes and night sweats?

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Full blown fever and chills, aching joints, hypersensitive skin, burning off medication too early, hacking cough (I still sound like early emphysema), and no voice for most of this week. I can talk again for short periods of time today. :) And sit upright at the computer. It's a glorious thing.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Upright is a goodness.

[hands Mish some nice chicken broth]

Feel better soon.

[nialla]

We get our sampler discs for the library's Anime Club from ADV. I've never ordered anything directly from them, but they run sales pretty regularly.

I do remember someone on my flist ordering and it took a while, but I haven't heard of anyone receiving damaged discs. I figure the "as is" relates to the packaging -- overstocked items often have marked or drilled barcodes, but they're usually otherwise unopened unless it was returned to a store after someone opened it.

My only caveat on Farscape is whether it's the old editions versus the "Starburst" editions. They had a really bad habit of putting only a few episodes per disc with little in the way of extras on the original version. They made a slight improvement in the Starburst editions by having more extras and selling two-disc packs, but they still didn't have the number of episodes you'd expect, IIRC.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I actually heard about it from you, I think. It took longer than say ordering for Amazon, but the wait was worth the price. So far, no damaged disks but I haven't watched them all yet. (And I see one disc got dislodged and possible scratched, but that's one out of 3 seasons.) I got the Starburst editions which are nice. I'd very glad that I bought them through ADV.

To be honest, I don't quite remember that disclaimer when I bought them, though.

[nialla]

I've been very tempted to buy some of the anime discs for the library collection, but I haven't yet. However, I just had a huge stack donated by a teen, but they're ones she found used at various shops and doesn't have a complete run of anything. Maybe I can find some titles at ADV's sale to fill in the blanks.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

They've certainly got a banner sale going. Their site is a bit basic but those prices are just phenomenal. Makes me wish I knew which anime my brother likes so much because I'd pick some up for Christmas for him. Good thing I don't know, I guess, since I'd never be able to find it again come December. :)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you for the info. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. The thing says I'll have to wait 1-4 weeks for sale items to arrive, which stinks, but it'll take longer than that before I could get a price like that from Amazon, so in the grand scheme it seems like a fair trade-off.

The ones I'm looking at buying are the Starburst editions. I priced it by a adding together the 3 Starburst editions necessary to make a full season and came up with...

S1 = $32 (8+8+16)
S2 = $39 (13+13+13)
S3 = $39 (13+13+13)
S4 = $60 (20+20+20)

All in all, a very good deal since S1 of Farscape without as many extras is $115 at Amazon. The Starburst packs *are* 2 discs but the descriptions say they're double-sided (not my fave) and seem to have around 6-7 episodes per pack. Which was what set off my "too good" bells but I now think this is legit.

[rydra_wong]

The Starburst packs *are* 2 discs but the descriptions say they're double-sided (not my fave) and seem to have around 6-7 episodes per pack. Which was what set off my "too good" bells but I now think this is legit.

Yeah, that really is the format for the Starburst editions, AFAIK. And they have more commentaries and extras, so if you can live with the double-sidedness, I'd say they're the way to go - the Farscape lot give great commentary :).