Bad Form, Disney, Bad Form!
Nov. 3rd, 2008 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteSo I got my hands on the 2-Disc Premiere Edition Soundtrack of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." (It's my guilty pleasure, okay?) The elevated price is supposedly for all these bonus features (a DVD with the "making of" and a music video, along with the trailer... why companies think a "trailer" constitutes "extra" material is beyond me; a "mobile superpack" for cell phones), but to be honest, it doesn't seem worth it.
(1) DVD's only redeeming feature was the "Making Of" video, and I'm sure that'll end up on the DVD of the movie when it comes out, too. The "digital downloadables" were just links to a website, and they were paltry offerings at best: some wallpapers of the cast, some AIM/MSN icons, and a screensaver. None of which caught my eye enough for me to download.
(2) The "mobile superpack" is what's got my ire, 'cause it's advertised as a "$13.95 value," which may be true, but only if you can download them! Apparently other T-Mobile customers and even people on other services (I've seen Verizon named so far) have been having trouble.
Here's how it works:
Text HSM3FRT1 for "Now Or Never" ringtone to "347-639" (DISNEY)
Text HSM3FRT2 for "Night to Remember" ringtone to the same number...
Text HSM3FRT3 for "Last Chance" ringtone (it's the excerpt of "Now or Never" featured in the song "Senior Year Spring Musical") to the same number...
The included slip mentions "Right Here, Right Now" and "Just Wanna Be With You," but the response from Disney when I first texted "SUPERPACK" to "DISNEY" was for to go to the website and get the codes I listed above (and below). The only way I can think of to supposedly get these songs from Disney is to pay for them; there are different codes for the other songs, listed here:
HSM3A3 - I Want It All
HSM3A4 - Can I Have This Dance
HSM3A5 - A Night To Remember (? - remember, this is one of the freebies from above... supposedly)
HSM3A7 - The Boys Are Back (why'd they skip 6? Maybe it's a typo?)
HSM3A8 - Walk Away
HSM3A9 - We're All in This Together (Graduation Mix)
HSM3A10 - High School Musical
Text HSM3FVT1 for a "Whoa-ho Wildcat!" voicetone
Text HSM3FVWP1 for a Chad wallpaper
Text HSM3 to "DISNEY" to check out the site and "play games, sign the Wildcats' yearbook, and vote for the 'Most Likely To...' categories!"
Even though I don't want all of these, I tried for all of them at various times. Disney responded by sending me a text saying "Rply K to get ur content, Rply X to cancel" (among other things), but when I replied "K", nothing came. And I waited and waited. And waited. I looked for a Browser Message vs. a regular text message, but still nothing. I tried to reply again, but it said there was nothing waiting for me.
And of course, none of these mobile superpack downloads are accessible on the digital downloads section of Disc 1. I tried going to the mobile site on my laptop, but there's no difference. It's "text to get your stuff," but I never have gotten the response to actually GET the damn content! And presumably your phone number only stays in their queue for a limited time, looking for some sort of response that isn't "K" or "Ok" (when I sent "ok," it said my response wasn't recognized), because that whole replying-later didn't work, either.
There's no way to contact Disney Records or whomever for help. When you text "HELP" it just tells you the prices for the different ringtones. That's it. Doesn't say anything about what to do or who to call if you can't download FREE ringtones/voicetones/wallpaper.
I guess it's not really worth it if the ringtones would basically be MP3s, 'cause I can easily rip the songs from the soundtrack and edit them myself in my cell phone program in Windows, or download FREE ready-made ringtones from Ventones.com.
If anyone does discover a solution for texting the "right" response, let me know. (Also: need HSM icons. Why didn't Disney think of "avatars" of more sizes/styles than just clips of the stupid poster? MORE CREATIVE, PLZ!)
(1) DVD's only redeeming feature was the "Making Of" video, and I'm sure that'll end up on the DVD of the movie when it comes out, too. The "digital downloadables" were just links to a website, and they were paltry offerings at best: some wallpapers of the cast, some AIM/MSN icons, and a screensaver. None of which caught my eye enough for me to download.
(2) The "mobile superpack" is what's got my ire, 'cause it's advertised as a "$13.95 value," which may be true, but only if you can download them! Apparently other T-Mobile customers and even people on other services (I've seen Verizon named so far) have been having trouble.
Here's how it works:
Text HSM3FRT1 for "Now Or Never" ringtone to "347-639" (DISNEY)
Text HSM3FRT2 for "Night to Remember" ringtone to the same number...
Text HSM3FRT3 for "Last Chance" ringtone (it's the excerpt of "Now or Never" featured in the song "Senior Year Spring Musical") to the same number...
The included slip mentions "Right Here, Right Now" and "Just Wanna Be With You," but the response from Disney when I first texted "SUPERPACK" to "DISNEY" was for to go to the website and get the codes I listed above (and below). The only way I can think of to supposedly get these songs from Disney is to pay for them; there are different codes for the other songs, listed here:
HSM3A3 - I Want It All
HSM3A4 - Can I Have This Dance
HSM3A5 - A Night To Remember (? - remember, this is one of the freebies from above... supposedly)
HSM3A7 - The Boys Are Back (why'd they skip 6? Maybe it's a typo?)
HSM3A8 - Walk Away
HSM3A9 - We're All in This Together (Graduation Mix)
HSM3A10 - High School Musical
Text HSM3FVT1 for a "Whoa-ho Wildcat!" voicetone
Text HSM3FVWP1 for a Chad wallpaper
Text HSM3 to "DISNEY" to check out the site and "play games, sign the Wildcats' yearbook, and vote for the 'Most Likely To...' categories!"
Even though I don't want all of these, I tried for all of them at various times. Disney responded by sending me a text saying "Rply K to get ur content, Rply X to cancel" (among other things), but when I replied "K", nothing came. And I waited and waited. And waited. I looked for a Browser Message vs. a regular text message, but still nothing. I tried to reply again, but it said there was nothing waiting for me.
And of course, none of these mobile superpack downloads are accessible on the digital downloads section of Disc 1. I tried going to the mobile site on my laptop, but there's no difference. It's "text to get your stuff," but I never have gotten the response to actually GET the damn content! And presumably your phone number only stays in their queue for a limited time, looking for some sort of response that isn't "K" or "Ok" (when I sent "ok," it said my response wasn't recognized), because that whole replying-later didn't work, either.
There's no way to contact Disney Records or whomever for help. When you text "HELP" it just tells you the prices for the different ringtones. That's it. Doesn't say anything about what to do or who to call if you can't download FREE ringtones/voicetones/wallpaper.
I guess it's not really worth it if the ringtones would basically be MP3s, 'cause I can easily rip the songs from the soundtrack and edit them myself in my cell phone program in Windows, or download FREE ready-made ringtones from Ventones.com.
If anyone does discover a solution for texting the "right" response, let me know. (Also: need HSM icons. Why didn't Disney think of "avatars" of more sizes/styles than just clips of the stupid poster? MORE CREATIVE, PLZ!)
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-03 05:46 pm (UTC)Sigh...I don't think it's really bad form, they really have no obligation to release anything decent for a higher price. If consumers buy things just because they say "premiere" on them, and are willing to spend the extra money...most of those consumers will eat it up because they blindly follow the franchise, and informed consumers like you and me get the short end of the stick. If we don't end up buying future products, Disney doesn't really care...the extra revenue they receive from people blindly buying collector's editions far more than makes up the revenue they lose from the small amount of informed customers.
The only situation where this doesn't work out is the games industry, since gamers are some of the most well informed people in the world, always spending time on news sites and blogs, but even now that trend is shifting, as more and more "casual" gamers buy the Wii and DS as gateway consoles and buy garbage just because it looks cool or cute. Good quality stuff just doesn't generate as much revenue per investment anymore...it's sad.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-04 08:46 pm (UTC)This probably deserves the snide Kaiba icon, but Dean's f. off and die seemed more fitting. Sometimes you don't want to wither them, you just want to flip them off and tell them where to shove it; which is far more of a Joey response than a Kaiba one, but I only have Joey looking puzzled, so you get Dean instead...