Update: Now Amazon says they will be shipping the Doctor Strange Blu-ray within 1 – 2 months.
If you recently tried to pre-order Disney titles on Blu-ray such as Doctor Strange, Moana and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story through Amazon, you were out of luck. Unfortunately, you have to look elsewhere because those titles are not available for purchase on Amazon.
What’s unusual about all of this, is that you can still purchase the movies digitally and on DVD through Amazon, just not on Blu-ray.
It appears that Disney and Amazon are in some kind of stand off. Whatever agreement they had previously has fallen apart. If I had to guess, I would say it is Disney that is trying to get Amazon to crack by not allowing their most recent popular movies available for purchase on their site. But it could also be Amazon wanting a larger piece of the profit and refusing to allow Disney Blu-rays to be sold on their site.
By not allowing consumers to purchase the Doctor Strange Blu-ray through Amazon, it seems to have created a demand at brick and mortar stores but there is not enough supply to meet the demand.
I had a difficult time finding a Doctor Strange Blu-ray on release day. I also spoke to friends around the country that were having the same problem. Since I couldn’t purchase the disk through Amazon, I decided to stop by my local Wal-Mart. When I got there, there was a huge display dedicated to Doctor Strange, but there were no discs in the display. I asked one of the employees if they had any in the back and he said that they were all sold out. They only had DVD’s available. I’ve never seen that happen before. I finally was lucky enough to find one at Target, but they were in short supply.
I did check Amazon recently and you can now purchase the Doctor Strange Blu-ray, but there is a catch. If you add the item to your cart, you receive a message saying that the item is temporarily out of stock and that you will be notified when they have more information. That may be Amazon’s way of trying to cover things up with their customers, trying to reassure them that there is no problem. You still can not preorder the Moana and the Rogue One Blu-rays.
I’m sure both sides are working to resolve this issue because in the end it not only hurts the consumer but it has to hurt both companies revenue stream.
You can preorder all through the Disney Movie Club! Every once in a while you even get the movie a day early ????
Is it possible that Disney is just trying to get more people to order movies through the Disney Movie Club? I would think this option would be more profitable for Disney
In this case it is Amazon not allowing the order. Amazon did this with Disney in 2014 as well as Warner.
They don’t sell the 3D bluray through the club and the club is overpriced at times. I wouldn’t buy any thing through there unless there was a sale.
With Amazon’s long history of shoddy customer service, this latest bit of news should come as a shock to no one.
With Progressive Music Lover’s long history of negatively aggressive blog comments, this latest post should come as a shock to nobody.
Is this a joke? Amazon’s customer service is quite possibly the best in the business. They bend over backward to make sure you’re taken care of. I swear you and Disney Pete are in a battle to the death to see who can rattle off the most negative comments on this site… and you’re both winning.
I’m not joking. This article supports my statement!! I could not possibly be the only one on this site that has multiple bad experiences with Amazon. Poor streaming services, intolerably long delivery times, and argumentative customer service operators are unfortunately commonplace when doing business with that company.
Seriously, are we talking about the same company? Streaming has always been fine for me and prime two day delivery is spot on. And if they miss any two day delivery window they give you a free month of prime! I have literally never had a problem with customer service once with Amazon.
However, they do say that you get what you give, and considering your automatic negativity towards pretty much everything, have you ever thought that you are the problem?
I Agree. Amazon’s customer service is great
I used to have some technical issues with the streaming service until I got a new TV. Now it comes in HD immediately from the start of the program and never goes back to SD during the program.
To the OP, if you are having issues with their streaming service, it’s more likely your equipment, not amazon’s, that is at fault. You need to check into that.
From time to time I may get a customer service rep on the phone that is not good at their job, but it’s rare and far between. Most of the time I get through to them in the matter of under 30 seconds wait time and they are empowered to take care of my issue no matter what. I do not have to be transferred around to take care of multiple issues, either. An Echo rep can also take care of my questions about my physical orders and vice versa.
The reason I prefer to shop at amazon is because I know they have fantastic service.
You want bad customer service? Try contacting Ikea.com if you have an issue with an order from them. You will find a new layer of Hell. The first time I contacted them, they actually left me on hold for more than 3 hours and I just gave up when I realized they left me on hold until they closed their customer service center and went home. That is IF you can get anything other than an “all circuits are busy” message or a message that they have too many calls coming in and to try your call again later.
If amazon is your worst experience with customer service, you live a privileged life.
I noticed this as well. Imagine the shortages if this is. It cleared up by rogue ones release.
Yes it’s such a shame that Disney movies are only available at Walmart, Target, and the Disney Movie club. If only there was some sort of other stores that could sell Blu-Rays to help ensure that customers can make the Best Buy possible. Or maybe that could make other websites that allow you to purchase Blu-Rays, maybe even Walmart or Targt could try doing this. Alas, these 3 places are the only ways to get our precious Disney movies. We must persist and help this Barnes and Noble cause.
This also happened with the Moana Soundtrack. It listed a 1-2 month ship date back in December but wound up shipping in 2 weeks after I ordered it.
This is only happening in North America. Amazon in the UK has the DVD/BluRay available to pre-order. I suspect Amazon is trying to focus on digital sales and will probably make the physical copies available for pre order a day or two after the digital release.
When this sort of thing happens, it’s best to get to a brick and mortar store on Day One (typically a Tuesday) to buy a copy of the Blu-ray/DVD at issue. Quantities are limited and they sell out fast. I find that DVDs are easy to find at stores, days after release. However, 2D Blu-rays can get scarce after a few days at places like Target, and 3D Blu-rays can disappear by the end of Day One at Target and Best Buy. For the “Doctor Strange” 3D Blu-ray, I first found one at the second local Target I visited on the Tuesday release date. Best Buy had some in stock, but they all had (hard to peel off) store stickers affixed to the outer sleeves.
I forgot to mention that the reason I posted that comment was that Amazon currently has the “Doctor Strange” 3D Blu-ray available for purchase only from a few third party sellers, for prices ranging from $62.68 to $79.95. The 3D Blu-ray was selling for $27.99 plus tax at Target when I bought it on February 28.
“Moana” was never available as a blu-ray preorder. On release day, it was “temporarily out of stock,” but I ordered it. A few weeks later I gave up, cancelled the order, and picked one up at Best Buy. Now “Rogue One” is looking to be the same thing. Not even going to bother with an Amazon order this time.
I’d love to know what’s going on here. Never had this problem until this year.
For Doctor Strange, I was able to order a copy from Amazon the day it came out in the U.S. No pre-orders. For Rogue One, it still isn’t for sale, though some folks claim to have made orders. Maybe they had a limited supply of dics and it was first come, first serve (or folks were buying them through Amazon, but from 3rd party vendors).
That said, while I know nothing official, most folks I’ve talked to seem to think that Disney is not happy that Amazon is selling Disney products so cheaply. Disney is looking to have increased profits, and apparently Amazon selling so low is hurting that goal. So Disney isn’t shipping to Amazon.
It would be nice to know the actual truth.
It is not just Blu-Ray but also rentals. You can’t stream Moana or Rogue One as a rental on Amazon but you can on Fandango, Vudu and I think Google Play as well.
Here we are 2 months after you wrote this article and still no improvement. Every time I check the Doctor Strange 3D blu-ray on Amazon or at my local stores it’s not available. (I don’t count the $60 copies from 3rd party vendors as an option).
Did they only make a few thousand copies and then stop? How long does it take to make and ship more of them? Crazy.
Does anyone know why you can’t find Doctor Strange 3D DVD anywhere now in the United States. Everywhere is sold out including every single major retailer. You can only find third party sellers at around $65 and up, which is completely ludicrous. I called Amazon and they had no idea and actually pointed me to the 3rd party sellers, which is odd they would even suggest that. Regardless, Target, Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, and any local store I’ve visited, it’s all sold out. So frustrating. If anyone knows what’s going on with this specific 3d dvd, let me know. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Andrew
It’s happening again with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. I really like Amazon, bought the Prime membership and have never had issues with them, but I like to own copies of all comic book-based movies, and this spat between mom and dad (Disney – a brand I really like), plain old sucks.
I used to pre-order all my Disney/Marvel/Star Wars movies through Amazon… Now I go to Target. Amazon had the edge of “Pre Release Price Guarantee” which I’m pretty sure Target doesn’t offer… so that’s annoying. But you do what you gotta do. I also had trouble finding movies on release dates in stores.
I look at Disney, as I look at Amazon, and greed enters my mind! This has nothing to do with the excuses they are giving, it has to do with as I said greed! You Cut Off availability of Blu Ray, and people will buy digital instead! They get the same money, without the cost of making the discs, without having to ship it out. Disney, thinks their movies are gold! Their 70 year old movies selling them at new release prices? Sad! By doing so they cut their own throats, because most, like me won’t pay that price for and antique film! I curse the day Marvel sold out to them, because their digital films will never be any lower priced then $15.99, the same as Star Wars! I won’t pay that much money for a digital copy, for vintage films, and that is what Star Wars is, well what I call Star Wars, the Disney ones in my books was a joke, I just won’t pay that price, not now, not ever, just as many others won’t do. Use to, You would get a DVD with Blu ray at no extra charge When You bought the movie, not any more when You purchase a Disney Movie! Shame on You Disney! You are nothing but crooks! The same with You Amazon, this saves You money with shipping for Prime customers! This is nothing but a sales tactic! but the Lying about why things are the way they are, not everyone is buying it!