Stupid stupid EROS

[dangermousie]

The unfortunately number 1 producer of Bollywood DVDs has finally gone over the edge. They have started putting in ads DURING the movie. They scroll on top and bottom and make me want to find the CEO of the company and decapitate him. If only I knew which pirates didn't have it, I'd buy it all from them. I am worried because both Paheli and Parineeta are going to be Eros releases. The thought of having ads for ringtones while SRK is sobbing over Rani giving birth or Saif and Vidya consummate their marriage just pisses me off. I wrote them a letter, but doubt it would do any good.

This is what I wrote:
To whom it may concern:

I have been a loyal Eros customer for years, buying many DVDs from your company (at the last count, I own over 150 Eros DVDs). In the past, I have always avoided buying pirates of your films, despite their cheaper price, because I wanted to reward the legitimate producers for their better quality DVDs with my money.

However, this new, inexcusable practice of putting scrolling ads DURING the running time of the movie is quickly losing you this customer (and many others I’ve spoken to). Put as many ads before the movie as necessary to help with the costs. That’s fine. But to have advertisements interrupt the flow of the movie itself is atrocious.

Do you really want to lose paying customers for the rather nebulous increase you might get through scrolling ads? I paid money (quite a lot more than if I had bought a pirate) to see a movie, not your scrolling ringtones ads. It is distracting, it is unprofessional, and if this continues, it will lose you a customer forever. I have bought your original Lucky DVD before I learned of your recent ridiculous practice. I was planning to buy Waqt, but I learned that Lucky was not a fluke and the scrolling ads appear in Waqt as well. As of now, I am staying far away from it because of your pointless ads. In the future, if the scrolling ads persist, I will buy only pirates of Eros movies. At least there is a chance they won’t have the ads to distract me from the movie, and in any event it will be cheaper (why would I reward quality when it does not exist?) and I will not be supporting the unprofessional practices of your company.

Formerly loyal customer,
My Real Name

Comments

[adhuri-roshni.livejournal.com]

I don't believe this!! I've only seen that on cam vcds. You tell 'em GB!

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

I'd heard rumours about this at Bollywhat, and it sounds really horrible! Completely ruins the movie experience :P.

[rajni.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I KNOW. I made a Waqt post about it on BW? and sent them an e-mail. It's bad enough they have that watermark in the corner, but scrolling ringtone ads?! Rage!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've seen your post and that is what got me so mad. Watermark I can deal with. But scrolling ads?????...ugh!

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

Dude!

That's INSANITY!

*boggles*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's pretty bizarre. They cram their DVDs with ads beforethe flick and often you can't forward past these. But I had quite a shock when I started watching a movie, the scene fades into the main character angsting over his unconscious beloved, and all of a sudden there are random scrolling ads on top of screen. Grrr.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The HELL?? That has got to be the stupidest thing I ever heard of. I'm with you - no Eros movies!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The problem is, a lot of pirates pirate it straight from them without removing the ads. The Lucky pirate I bought as an experiment had that problem.

[jonaki.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on this one dangermousie.

If you want to make a petition, you can get a lot of signatures. I know my name will be up there for sure.

It's so friggin annoying to see ads for underwear while you are weeping for the characters in a movie.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The problem is that internet petitions are rarely effective because those it's addressed to assume (perhaps rightly) that you can falsify sigs. I can go there and entre 10000 different names myself. A handwritten petition is much more effective. Individual letters are the most effective of all (used to be active in Farscape fandom where it tried and succeeded to bring the show back.)

[sap71186.livejournal.com]

Have you heard of PetitionOnline.com? Perhaps if you get a rather hefty amount of signatures - my name will probably be there - and send it to Eros they can see how much business they'll be losing.