folgersnyourcup

I just went to Best Buy and purchased the Babe/Babe: Pig in The City 2-pack boxset among other releases (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA!!!!!!!!) that was released today and was horrified by the results. The Babe dvd was in perfect condition but the Babe: Pig in the City dvd was scratched all over in addition to fingerprints. These are on BOTH the front and back side of the disc. There is NOTHING in the case that could have scratched the disc at all, no loose parts, nothing. Has Best Buy ripped me off and included a used or returned copy of this movie in the boxset and tried to pass it off as new? I am wondering if anyone else purchased this boxset and found this to be the case as well. I would like to not suspect my Best Buy of trying to rip me off but unfortunately I have seen that they have done this before.

In my local Best Buy there were 6 optical audio cables that had been returned and had the sticker on them that had the price reduced by 5 dollars due to them being a returned optical cable. I came by the next day to purchase one of them and found upon closer inspection that they were broken. Not only was the plastic cap on top of them off but the actual tip itself was broken. I decided not to purchase the cable.

Upon my return the following Tuesday to get new dvd's I looked at the audo aisle. These optical cables were now on the rack with the new audio cables instead of down on the bottom of the shelf with the other returns. The stickers had now been removed. You could see clearly where the lower price returned item sticker used to be and all of them were still broken. I was curious and so asked about the pricing. They told me that they were new items.... I explained how I had been there a week earlier and that they had been returned copies with a lower price. He said he did not know what I was talking about. I pointed out the place that the sticker used to be and he said that was just a temporary price drop. I showed him the places on each where the optical cables were broken at the top and was told that this was how the cables are supposed to be. Unfortunately, these were the only optical cables of this brand left so I could not prove to him that these were in fact broken, because all of these were like this. I then realized that some unlucky customer was going to be ripped off.

Unfortunately, it appears that I was unlucky in my dvd purchasing and was ripped off by Best Buy. Great. I have to deal with the half hour wait at the service desk now because they decided they wanted to screw me. Wonderful.

Rogue588

dude, after this DVD and this past experience, I think your best bet is to just avoid any sort of electronics store...

Numanoid

I love how you wrapped that up.

Now, I only wish there were a Store Forum for such rants.

folgersnyourcup

Update: I just called Best Buy. Perhaps this should be moved to the store forum if noone else's Babe: Pig in the City dvd had this problem.

I let them know my situation. I also noticed that the copy of Babe (the original) had marks as if someone had taken the security strips off of it. You know, if you get your fingernail under the ones and scratch the actual packaging? Those were on there like that. My call warranted a bizarre response. I told them my problem and they said to bring back the discs with my receipt and they would replace it. I asked the woman if it was Best Buy's policy to sell used dvd's as new. I was told that they do not do that. She then told me that some CUSTOMERS come into the store with dvd's and seal them themselves. I was totally baffled at this point and said "WHAT??" She told me that customers get a sealing machine and sometimes bring used dvd's into their store and seal them up and then put them on the shelves. I asked her why in the world a customer would ever do something like this and what they would be getting out of it. She said that they are able to get money by doing this somehow. At this point I was about to bust a gut laughing at the response so I told her I would be in the store tomorrow to talk to a manager.

What I was told was absolutely preposterous. A customer coming into the store with an opened dvd in hand, resealing it with a machine, and then putting it back on the shelf???? HAHAHAHA! For some reason I suspect that they got these dvd's a few days early, decided to let employee's families get some of these Babe dvd's to view, and then decided to repackage them and sell them to customers. The marks on the Babe: Pig In The City dvd look like a 4 year old got a hold of it with some coins. This is ridiculous.

folgersnyourcup

Sorry about that, I began writing my post simply wondering if this was some sort of manufacturing problem with the Babe dvd's but then realized that I was relating it to a previous experience at Best Buy. This thread should DEFINITELY be in the store forum.

Is there any way for me to move it or does it have to be done by a mod?

Mr. Salty

Actually this isn't so strange. You can't return opened DVDs for a refund, but you could conceivably pass of a reshrinkwrapped used DVD as a new unopened disc and scam a store out of the money. Shrink wrap isn't expensive and you can use a hair dryer to shrink it. This is assuming the clerk you were talking to meant the DVDs were returned, not just left on the shelf.

As far as the scratches go, I had two or three DVDs awhile back that were badly scratched and they were definitely in factory-sealed packaging. The "Pulp Fiction" SE is one example. I chalk it up to shoddy quality control as some pressing facilities.

Tarnower

Folgers, how long have you been purchasing DVDs? There have been many threads in this forum regarding quality control and packaging of discs. It's not Best Buy's fault. I own close to 500 DVDs. I would say that 1 in every 10 that I purchase has smear marks, tiny scratches and, in two instancs, the security sticker right on the disc itself instead of packaging (figures it would be on the widescreen side). I can't even begin to recall the numerous times I've returned DVDs back to Best Buy, Borders, Circuit City, etc. to exchange for ones that are in better shape. I order a lot online (Deep Discount DVD), and it's the same story. And I return them for exchange as well. In all the years I've bought music CDs, I don't ever remember buying a disc and it looking the way that DVDs do. It's basically poor quality control on the part of the studios. Write them and tell them how you feel. Hopefully if enough people do, then they will put forth a better effort. (although to be fair to the studios, I do feel the problem as gotten a lot better in recent years)

folgersnyourcup

I now own 503 DVD's so I am familiar with quality control. I have had to exchange dvd's in the past for scratches on the back and whatnot but never this severe and NEVER for packaging that has clearly already been opened. I have opened enough dvd's to know that if you use your fingernail to peel off the security stickers you will rip the plastic. That is what is present on the Babe case though the disc is in perfect condition.

On the Babe: Pig in the City case, the scratches and fingerprints are all over both sides of the disc. The Babe disc's street date was today though I believe the Pig in the City disc has been out for some time now though I don't know for sure. I bought the 2 pack the moment it was put on the shelf this morning, there was no way any customer would have already purchased it and returned it to Best Buy after scratching it and resealing it. The 2 cases with no shrink wrap on them or security stickers were inside of the 2-pack box which had shrink wrap around it. I have in the past bought boxsets with the inside dvd's having no shrink wrap on them such as the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy and the Criterion Brazil release. But they have never been sold to me in what appears to clearly be used condition. The dvd's I have purchased in the past that have been scratched were scratched due to the dvd being loose in the case, never have I purchased one NEW where there are marks from where security strips have been ripped off and the disc is scratched up and fingerprinted. This is because when I buy a single dvd I can easily see if a security strip is missing and am able to shake the package to see if the disc is loose.

I just call it how I see it Tarnower. When my local Best Buy wins all these national awards for best store in their region stuff and then I see them trying to pass off broken cables as new it makes me say hmmmm as to what else they may be doing this with. It was not the customer who told them to re-sell their broken cables (perhaps that particular audio cable had a manufacturing problem with these optical cables due to them all being broken in the same place) as new. And when I return these dvd's tomorrow I certainly hope that they are not placed back in the box from my boxset I give to them, re-sealed, and re-sold to someone who may not watch the dvd's till a few months down the line and realize he has been sold broken merchandise.

Cornelius1047

Yeah, I was just thinking that it was released yesterday so it's hardly likely a customer had something to do with this. Especially now that you've stated that you got it first thing in the morning. I highly doubt it had something to do with Best Buy knowingly selling you a used disc cuz they let their employers watch them first. If it somehow did, it's this particular store that lets this happen and not a nationwide thing. I should know. I found a couple of Bandits DVDs on the shelves that still had the security stickers and everything on them, but no actual shrinkwrap. It would've been easy to reseal these. We even have a machine. But they got sent back. Still new. Still got sent back. Maybe the store has an idiot manager or maybe it was a problem that happened before it go to Best Buy, but it's definitely an isolated situation.

Now, I have to go to that Hellhole...

K

rich-y

folgersnyourcup, did you ever think that perhaps the disc was dropped on the factory floor, picked up by an employee and then inserted into a case for shrinkwrapping? It's happened before and there have been previous threads on it.