Likewise...

Crap! They pushed it back just far enough to not be in the 20% off sales.

My local Best Buy had a copy of this out early today.

If it wasn't for the way they spider-tag/wrap things, I would've bought it.

DeepDiscount actually never changed from the original release date so although its not officially released until tomorrow, it was at "Back Order" status instead of Pre-order. I should be receiving mine tomorrow. It ended up being around $87.00

Mine shipped from DVD Planet yesterday, so I'll finally have this sucker soon.

I just noticed the post of mine a couple posts up. I'm glad that both DD and DVD Planet forgot to update their release date once it was changed.

Available for $67.99 @ Amazon now:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-bargain...99-amazon.html

At that price I might have to order one for myself and one for my girlfriend (for X-Mas)

She already has the standard release, but the yearbook is just too nice.

Anyone know if the 2 bonus discs from this set have been added to Netflix? My account is dormant but I'll reinstate to check this and a few other things out.

Not yet, just discs 1-6.

I received my yearbook today. This isn't good. As soon as I saw the discs, I figured there would be a problem. I have seen pics of the previous limited edition, and it looked like the discs were in sleeves and THEN inserted into carboard slots in the yearbook. That is not the case this time. The discs are in cardboard slots without any protection. Most of my discs are scratched. I'm trying to decide whether to contact Amazon, or Shout Factory. I am NOT happy.

I'd contact both. No excuse at all for that these days.

I checked all of mine and 7 of them are fine but disc two has a sizable gash in it. Is there a number to Shout factory? Getting them to replace one disc sounds a lot more reasonable than sending the whole thing back to Amazon and taking a chance on a different set.

At anyrate I put all mine in an 8 disc case with a custom cover so there is no more risk of scratching.

I emailed Shout at [email protected]. They have a few email addresses listed on the contact us page and that one had what seemed to be the most pertinent descriptive purpose in this case.

There was a customer service email that I tried first, but I got a delivery failure.

I'll wait and see what Shout says and then contact Amazon if necessary.

I checked mine. A couple had scuff marks, but nothing too serious. I've ordered some paper sleeves and will put them in those to prevent further damage.

I have not seen anyone yet who's posted a review of their set who didn't have anything from minor to major problems with their set.

I would probably have to conclude that it's widespread because of the way it was packaged.

All 8 of my discs were damaged. Some minor, some major.

I called Shout! Factory to let them know. I remember back when Heathers came out from Anchor Bay and there was a pressing problem, they were VERY nice, helpful, and grateful for me calling. I was one of the first who got them looking into it, eventually many people contacted them, they went through quality control and realized they had to repress the disc.

Well, the people at Shout! were HORRIBLE. The staff was abusive to me as I tried to tell them the problem and has ZERO interest in listening or helping. I am at work within earshot of many employees and in no position to be yelling and they played the old, "stop raising your voice with us or you'll get nowhere" threat. I offered to put my boss on with theirs to say that I was talking quietly and politely (I had no reason to be rude and was only trying to help) and when called on it, they just hung up on me.

I called back and eventually talked to the COO. His name is Bob Emmer, I believe. Also, not a friendly man. Dismissed everything that had happened before, talked over me, was very loud, and sarcastically said something like "we'll look into it" and told me to return it to Amazon for an exchange.

I had told him that I'd seem several people list problems and that there were probably going to be more people calling and I just wanted to give them a heads up and see what would happen if I received a replacement set from amazon with the same problems. He loudly replied, "I don't think that will happen, but call me again (long distance...he didn't want my name or number or to thank me for letting them know there might be a problem) and he actually didn't say what he'd do and then said something sarcastically about not being able to fly me out a new set. Which, of course, shows he wasn't even listening, because, playing his game, if there are problems with large scale scratching and scuffing of the discs from the packaging, the set he "would fly to me" would likely need to be replaced too.

You know, I was very nice, I only wanted to let them know there was a problem and for them to give me some idea of what to do if it turns out this is a big problem (and I bet it will be...I only wonder how many people will NOT check their discs) if they'd be replacing individual discs or not.

I was expecting they'd take my name or e-mail or give me a contact to keep in touch with and I got the cold shoulder and that's being kind to them.

I am never buying a thing from them again. You just don't treat people and your customers that way. I spent a lot of money on their product, it's not my fault they thought it was a good idea to slip dvds into stiff cardboard without putting something over them.

If anyone sees any other message boards where people are noticing the same problems with their discs, would you please provide a link?

I got the SATC pink book with the whole series and not one disc was scratched or scuffed. Neither was one in the GG complete series. I don't like that kind of packaging, but there has to be something that was done differently (the kind of paper used or they way the discs were put in...I also noticed there was no give with the Freaks and Geeks set, so you couldn't gently slip them out, so that may be it too) to this set to have made it so different from the others.

Anyway, congrats to the few who get one with only minor damage. Personally, I didn't spend that kind of money for any damage and I sure didn't expect a company would treat its customers like shit.

Makes me want to call Anchor Bay just to get cheered up for the rest of the day.

Finally, the more e-mails they get, the more likely they'll do something, so I hope as many people that get this set and visit places like dvdtalk contact them. Based on the conversation, only a large number of complaints will probably get any action. They really didn't seem to care at all and just wanted me to deal with amazon and leave them alone.

Crappy company in my opinion.

Assuming I ever get 8 good discs, would you please let me know where you ordered paper sleeves from and what kind (never seen them or had the need to look for them before)? I'm assuming you know that they'll fit inside the cardboard sleeves with the paper ones over the disc, right?

Thanks.

I'm sure you can get paper sleeves at any office store or even Wal-Mart.

Here's the Shout reply to my email:

Some grammar issues there. I'm a bit disappointed with the reply.

A bit?

BTW, that response came from Tampa Bay, I think, far, far away from anyone that had anything to do with this set or cares about your problems. They farm out their customer service and Shout! Factory has no customer service people at all on staff to help with ANY problems like this.

Not that they care in Los Angeles either where they are headquartered...but possibly a bit more than the people who you got the reply from.

I hope they get a boat load of returns because that hits them in their pocket books and that's all they seem to be interested in.

Their reply to me was reprehensible and that e-mail reply from their customer service was embarrassing.

Wow, I just read your post about your dealings with them.

They have message boards on the Shout website. Hopefully it will come to light on there.

I suppose it's possible that each of my discs will play just fine, but I can't devote the hours right now to find out.

Stupid company.

Yeah, the slots where the discs are held look wide enough to hold a paper sleeve. Like Michael Corvin suggested, you can probably get it at Wal Mart (I did a quick search and they had 4-5 options, though it says none of them are available in story). I got mine from Amazon. 50 sleeves (I don't think they come in smaller packs) for $6.xx and free shipping.

I think if you did go to an office store, you could probably find them there cheaper, so check first.

Same here. Not really scratched so I think they will play fine. Looks like the brownish material rubbed off on the discs. Shout should have thought wisely and made the upper part of the cardboard sleeves smoother like the white holder/bottom part. How can they assume the discs weren't going to rub off each other.

Only had some minor marks on my discs. I slid them out very carefully. Picked them up from the center and the edge and gently pulled them out without letting the surface touch or scrape as I went. I've had a lot worse looking discs in other packages with discs just sitting there on plastic spindles. Deep concentric scrapes or broken plastic. Foggy discs, etc...

The problem is that with all of these huge TV sets, there's simply no time to watch all of them with potential disc errors. I may find a bad disc years from now but I'll be screwed, of course.

You can always pop them in and just fast forward through the discs and see if they get hung up anywhere. If there are any major problems, you should notice them pretty quickly and it's faster than watching everything at normal speed.

How long before you slip up and accidentally pull one out a bit too hard and it leaves a bigger gash, mark or scratch? Like you said, at the end of the day, you could likely find problems long after you have the ability to return them and long after Shout! will replace your disc or not blame you for not being careful enough.

I too have had damaged discs before even with much better packaging, but never to the point where it wasn't really just a case of bad luck or where I was pretty confident that the replacement set was also going to have either minor or major scratches or that over the years, the design was going to put me at risk.

I, personally, think if you get a set that you feel isn't terribly marked up and you want to keep, that you'd be crazy not to follow the lead of several of the other posters here who are putting the discs in sleeves or separate cases. The design was poor. There was not a single mark on, what 7 seasons worth of discs in a similar but better design of the Gilmore Girls set. Same with the Sex and the City set. Not even a nick on one disc and those sets had a lot of discs to check. The design of the set is the sole reason.

It's just my personal feeling that ANY dvd you receive should be pristine and if you keep something that isn't, you should be prepared to replace it. I'd do that with a minor nick on a single SD dvd that played fine the first time through. But it's just not the same thing on a set that runs over hundred dollars and will go OOP.

I'm still pretty unhappy about the whole thing, but will wait to see what the replacement set looks like before I make any final decisions about risking having minor scratches that could affect playback or just going back to the 6 disc set which will come to me in pristine condition, as it should, and I will know that I can at least watch this classic show whenever I want to and not worry about damage, ending up with a worthless set (if I keep it even with minor scratches or scuffs and playback issues occur, i won't be able to trade it or sell it), and being out a lot of money.