The purpose of this thread is for Digital Home members to review and relay their experience buying consumers electronics at HMV

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What product or service you purchased.
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HMV has turned into a DVD clearing house.

I used to be able to get some hard-to-find music titles right off the shelf, but no more.

I agree, HMV used to have a lot of hard-to-find classical and electronic music. But that is no more as HMV puts more emphasis on DVDs and game consoles. Some locations I used to shop also closed. In addition the staff is getting dumber. Six or seven years ago I was truly surprised to find how informative a lot of the staff was about a whole array of music. These days beyond the mainstream crap they really know nothing.

I know this post will seem out of place, but I didn't seen HMV in the online section, so I'll post it here. This year, I had two orders with HMV Japan and they were very fast, very courteous, and decently priced.

Both orders were the new Genesis SACD/DVD box sets. I pre-ordered the first one back in January, and the newer one in August. The prices were just okay, but HMV Japan has this multi-buy discount that rocks. If you buy 3 or more "import" titles (imported for Japan), you get 25% off your total bill. Plus, with every order, you accumulate HMV Points, which can be accumulated, and used as a discount towards a future purchase. I ended up getting a fairly good price for my box sets, so I'm very happy.

Their speed is good too. I received an e-mail from them on Friday, telling me the order was ready to be shipped. And on Tuesday, it was in my hot little hands.

The only negative experience with them was that both times, the final shipping was higher than their initial estimate. Kind've a downer, but what can you do? But this negative was far overshadowed by their decent pricing and their fast delivery.

cheers,
supervij

I went back to return headphones that were sold broken to me..
they didn't want to return them.. They said that once you open it you can't return anything...
WTH
so who's problem is it that they were broken
I vented my anger on the girl working there.
Its just a shame Music World closed down :(
Because Wal-Mart is the only place left, and they don't have the best selection of non-billboard top 10 music..

I just hope they are happy because I have spent lots of money there over the years, and they have lost a very good customer and with the rise of Illegal Downloading they sure need good customer

Enough said..
I am tired of wasting my time on them!

Well I have found that HMV has a great selection of titles whether it be CD, DVD Video, DVD Audio, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (yes they still have them on the shelves).

I always seemed to attribute HMV to mean Highpriced Music & Video instead of Hit Music and Video (if that's what it stands for). They were always at least $3-4 more (sometimes $7-10) for DVDs or CDs when I would walk around the one at the Scarborough Town Centre.... so I started going mostly to Futureshop or BestBuy.


I hadn't gone to HMV for a while but then decided to pop into the one at First Canadian Place downtown near where I work and browse to see what they had and their pricing (didn't cost me anything to have to drive there, etc). I saw some BluRay deals that were 2 for $50, so you save up to $5-6 or more on some titles so I would pick up the occasional set.

I then decided to return two BluRays and exchange one the other day and it was such a frustrating experience. The "manager" was so confused as to what I was trying to do that I had to say fine just give me my money back for all 4 BluRays (I had two 2 for $50 sets).

I was so confused as to whether I got my $50+tax back or not that I had to call Visa to make sure that there was some record of this dispute until it was posted. Luckily everything went through okay in the end, but geesh you shouldn't have to go through all that hassle.

I don't know why they would have to call a manager over to return something, especially when it was within the 21 day billing period. They always seem to give a hassle when returning things and I am beginning to see why I started to go to other stores.

I think their service has really suffered .. well it sucks. Hassles over returning stuff leads to customer dissatisfaction and ultimately lost future business.

It's too bad that MusicWorld (was also high priced compared to others - probably why they closed up shop (along with digital downloads of music)), Sunrise and Sam the Record man seemed to have gone away for their great selection for hard to find items. I guess that's what internet stores like Amazon are for now. IIRC, HMV tried to band up with amazon.ca at one point but that relationship died.


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I always seemed to attribute HMV to mean Highpriced Music & Video instead of Hit Music and Video (if that's what it stands for).

I always thought the name derived from "His Master's Voice" record label with Nipper dog sitting by a gramophone ;)

I checked on the HMV website for the HD deals and went to the Burlington store. Prices were not the same on the DVD's in the store. Asked them about matching the prices on their website and they did without hesitation.

Wanted some other titles that were in stock at the Hamilton HMV Store but they would not sell them to me at the prices on the website. They said they do not price match.....and I pointed out that this was their own website and it indicated they had stock. Checked with the manager......no way, even when I told him the Burlington store did honour the prices. I wasn't too happy after making a trip from Burlington.

they don't price match other stores like FS, BB or Walmart at least the last time I tried so I most stop going to them unless they have something specific I can't find elsewhere

I work in downtown Toronto, and within one block is Futureship, Best Buy and HMV.
HMV seems to be wanting to sell more movies than CDs, but they aren't off to a good start, at least with blu rays. There is nothing in there cheaper than their competitors, and most movies are more expensive (e.g. two for $50 or two for $60).
Meanwhile next door at Futureshop, you can get some big name titles like Kill Bill, Pan's Labyrinth, Blackhawk Down, Flags of our Fathers, etc all for $19.99 or less.
I'm suprised that a big chain like HMV can't compete with FS or Best Buy on blu ray prices. Or maybe its that they are selling their standard DVDs for dirt cheap and recouping the money elsewhere.

It never fails that anything I see that I would consider buying is always $10 or more dollars less at Amazon.ca so I tend to window shop at HMV and order online, just for instance, go check out how much the new Beatles stereo/mono boxsets are on pre-order then check Amazon, just crazy stuff

I've found a few good deals at the HMV in the Avalon Mall in St. John's.

Sorry to bring back a year old thread, but I went to purchase a video game (UFC 2010) for PS3 from HMV in Windsor, Ontario and I decided not to purchase from HMV after seeing how when you buy a new game, you bring them the empty case from the shelf, then they go into a drawer behind the counter and pull out the game tucked inside the instruction book and place it in the case and sell it as new. It reminded me to much of going to a video rental store and questioned whether or not the game was actually new or if the staff had "borrowed" the games first to play then re-sell them as new.

Most likely not the case, but if I am going to spend $50 on a "NEW" game disc, I want it in the original shrink wrap from the factory it was made in.

They have a lot of blu-ray titles under the "2 for $20" campaign