ps3

Just not my day today…after a lovely day at work which will end up with me working all night because a customer decided at the last second they don’t want to do any of the work, I come home to an envelope from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the Disney arm that puts out DVD and Blu-Ray discs, and was offering 5 free BD discs (from a limited selection – only one of which I would have actually purchased, mind you) for buying a qualifying Blu-Ray player (like the Playstation 3). My 5 free Blu-Ray discs I’m supposed to get for buying my PS3 has been rejected because they claim I didn’t include the UPC symbol. I most definitely DID – I checked several times before sealing the envelope that it was in there, and all I have now is a hole in the box where it was. So what am I supposed to now? They are asking me to send them the UPC code, which I already did, and THEY lost. Sigh…

Update [2/5]: I e-mailed. They said to call. I called. They said to fax…we’ll see…

Update [2/23]: Called again today…they apparently “received my request into the system” last week. Only took them 10 days from when I faxed. Supposedly I’m qualified now, but it can be another 5 weeks to receive the discs. We’ll see…

Update [3/30]: 5 weeks TO THE DAY of my phone call, the movies arrived – even though a few days ago the web site still listed me as unqualified. At least now I have a couple movies I actually want to watch…

There was a lot of hype when the Playstation 3 was released…along with a lot of media coverage of shootings and near riots outside stores with people in long lines waiting for a shot at one. Few made it to U.S. shores (some say it was an intentional shortage). A second shipment close to Christmas sold out pretty quickly. Today I was at the local Big Electronics Store. I had noticed in the morning in their advertisement that they were to have at least 25 PS3s per store in stock today, and would give out tickets an hour before the store opened. I didn’t go to get one (needed some parts to hack a DirecTiVo), but I looked for one and didn’t see them. I did see someone at the register purchasing one. When I commented to the saleskid, he said it was “one of fourteen”. I said, “is that all you got?” His response? “No, we got fourty. We only sold 14.” This was about 3 hours after opening. So, if you want one, go out and get one. They shouldn’t be hard to find. Why? The buzz has died down (partially stolen by the quite interesting Wii) and the cost is high. However, if you want a Blu-Ray disc player, its $400 less than the Sony Blu-Ray disc player, and it plays games too. Not sure why you’d get the player at all…

Now BVHE won’t honor 5 free Blu-Ray offer due to “missing” UPC code

Sony misses the boat with the Playstation 3