Check this out. i sent the following e-mail to Warner Customer Service:

Date : 9/21/03 8:32:42 AM
To whom it may concern,
I recently bought the Friends 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Complete Season DVD sets through Amazon.com. I am an American, but I live in Tokyo, Japan.

Right now I am playing Friends Season 2 - Disc #4 and starting in
Episode #3, I am having several major pixellation problems with the DVD. In addition it is stuttering and stopping and it appears that I am not going to be able to watch the remainder of the DVD. I have a Region 1 DVD Player - in fact a Sony DVP-NS715P.

I have well over 400 DVDs and of course MANY of them are Warner Products. This is the first time I have ever had a problem.
I am requesting that you agree to replace the #4 Disc in this set
(Friends - The Complete 2nd Season) for me. I can e-mail you a Digital Photo of the original Amazon.com Receipt. I suggest that you allow me to destroy the Disc itself (cheaper than returning it) and just send me the replacement disc.

My mailing address is:
(Name deleted for this post)
2-40-33 Jindaiji (#205)
Mitaka-shi, Tokyo-to 181-0016
Japan.

I will be waiting for your further instructions.

Sincerely,
(Name deleted)

Got this response back:

Thank you for contacting Online Customer Service.

Unfortunately we are unable to exchange or replace any product not purchased directly through our catalog department.

Thanks again for contacting us.

Regards,
Online Customer Service

Then I sent them this response:

Customer Service,
So, are you telling me that if I buy a defective Warner Product that Warner will not fix or replace it if I do not buy it directly through Warner?? WOW! The people at www.DVDtalk are going to be excited to have a copy of this e-mail! I assume you have heard of that online forum. I'll give you 24 hours to take care of this problem before I post a copy of this message online.

Regards,
(name deleted for post)

Now it has been about 26 hours with no response back from them. Amazon.com will replace it, but they want me to send back the entire set (FOUR SEASONS worth of Friends) - return 4 seasons - 16 discs - to get a replacement for 23 minutes of defect on one disc. Grrr! Is this a sign of the stupid times we live in or what? Anybody got any ideas other than just saying "forget it, I'll live with the freezes and stutters in one episode!"???

Thanks!
danwiz

That's pretty standard. Its up to Amazon to take care of your problem not Warner. I had a problem with a brand new Criterion disc once and Jon M. told me he couldn't help me out. Unfortunately, the place I purchased it from was going out of business and I couldn't return it.

Well, can't really say that I'm "excited" to have a copy of the email.

Point One: As has been suggested by others, standard policy for anything is that returns go to the point of purchase. Even theater or concert tickets for cancelled performances will not be refunded by the box office if you bought them at Ticketmater.

Point Two: The I'll give you 24 hours approach rarely gets results, especially when they know you don't have a valid complaint against them. Probably wouldn't have made much difference, but perhaps a "can you please make an exception in this case" attitude might have been more effective.

Yeah, you really don't have a leg to stand on here. Anytime that I have ever had defective merchandise I take it back to where I purchased it. They are usually happy to take care of it for you. Going after the manufacturer is a complete waste of time, especially with a "demanding" attitude. I doubt you will hear back from them at all.

Cat

I have to agree with Marty here, danwiz. Ever hear of the expression, you attract more flies with sugar than with vinegar? You were certainly more than a little demanding in your messages:

Telling them how YOU want them to resolve the problem doesn't inspire anyone to "assist" you.

You already told them what to do!

Relatively impotent threats but threats none the less. Do you think a stoolie who replies to relatively anonymous emails to WHV really cares that you're ooooh going to start a nasty thread about this issue on a bulletin board?

This response is not surprising in general. However, I'm sure you would have gotten a DIFFERENT response if you'd asked them what could be done to resolve the issue. Most likely they would have said that only TITLE WIDE flaws in authoring are replaced by WHV directly (e.g. missing audio, missing scene - like in Never Say Never Again) while individual flaws like you have are handled by the company from whom you purchased the title. The REAL beef you should have is with Amazon for making you send all FOUR season sets back when only the fourth disc in Season 2 is flawed.

If you intend to contact Amazon about this matter, I would highly recommend taking a different, more gentle approach than you did with WHV if you expect any sort of satisfactory resolution.

I had a bad 3rd disc in the Sopranos 3rd Season. I emailed Amazon.ca about it and they said they'd send me a new one and it wouldnt be worth sending back so i got to keep it. Very nice.

amazon wants you to send back all 4 seasons?? Are you sure? I'd assume they'd just want you to send back the complete second season...so 4 discs, not all 4 seasons.

Too bad you're having this trouble...but that 24 hour ultimatium seemed a little harsh...especially since you're in no position to be making threats, what with the defective product in YOUR hands... I'd try amazon again to see what they can do.

good luck with it

MATT

I wish more studios were like Disney (gasp) with replacing faulty discs.

Reread your email from Amazon. It's unlikely that they want you to return your entire order.

Also, take a chill pill.

i agree sounds like they mean the whole set of the one having the bad disc.. not all 4 seasons...


an its amaozns prob to fix. not warner.. you didnt buy it from warner them selves.. so you cant really blame warner for this...

I told FOX video I was giving them 24 hours once, and they told me they were turning my problem over to their "Jack Bauer Department".

I had a problem with Sopranos Season 3 Disc 2...called up WHV, sent the whole set in (I would have preferred just sending the one disc, but oh well), got a new set back in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I did have to pay to ship it to them, but I just did media mail with delivery confirmation, and also the case I got back wasnt as nice as the one I had originally (had one of those small slices in the spine where some idiot used a knife to open up a crate of them somewhere).

Thanks for all your replies.

Amazon is going to send me a complete new set - that is "Friends - The COMPLETE FIRST FOUR SEASONS". Seems weird to me, but who am I to argue?! And in addition, like one person said earlier, they also indicated:

As the cost of return shipping is prohibitively expensive in this
case, you do not need to return the original item.

WOW! Amazon.com is great.

So, I will have 2 sets of all 4 seasons which have so far been released. I can give them to a friend!

Hey Damwiz. How come you deleted your real name from the e-mail you quoted us but are quite happy to let everyone here read your address?

I figured "what are the chances that somebody is going to put me on a junk mailing list and mail junk mail to Japan"? Okay?