dsa_shea

First I received a gift card for Wal-Mart which promptly burnt a hole in my pocket sending me out to spend it that very night. I used it (and some of my own cash) for a copy of Serenity. We watched about half of this movie and then it froze at about the 1:09 mark and finally skipped ahead to around the 1:13 mark or so. I decided to just pull the movie and wait until I had a decent copy before finishing it. I exchanged it the next day for what was fortunately for me a fully functioning copy (at least I hope all of the special features play fine - damn Universal and their shitty discs.)

Next came Christmas day and I received a set I had been waiting to finally get for some time now. My brother bought me the 4 disc Ben Hur set. Lo and behold I open her up and the damn packaging isn't even completely put together. The pocket that is there to hold the booklet wasn't folded together at all and needed to be glued as well. I had to tear off a perforated part of the pocket and then fold it myself. I checked the discs and of course disc number 4 had to be scratched to hell and back. For the love of dvds can't they get it right? So the wife, child and I make our trek to Best Buy today to do an exchange. Fortunately they game my wife a Best Buy card with credit on it to purchase another set. Reason I say this is that I was able to put the purchase on my Reward Zone card (another 30 towards a certificate ). So we pick up another set and I decided to grab a copy of the new Cinderella Man 2 disc set (36.99 is too high in my opinion for this set but I really wanted it). We pay for the dvds and Star Wars Battlefront II and head out to the car. I just have to check my dvds before we leave and I'm glad I did. When I opened up the Ben Hur set it looked like it had traveled from Mexico on the Pony Express. Its packaging on the inside was worse for wear. The pocket in this one wasn't put together either and to make matters worse the piece of cardboard had totally annihilated the spine, creasing it all to hell. The discs themselves were very clean but the packaging just wasn't going to do. I went back in and explained to the lady at the exchange table and she let me put the new discs in my old packaging (I guess I need to get the glue ready). That switch went rather fast and I was headed out the door.

While I was in the store my wife had opened the Cinderella Man set and told me/showed me the bad news. There were a few deep scratches on one side of the double sided disc as well as some fingerprints on the extra disc. I wonder how that happens? Universal are you listening? So now I'm pissed seeing that I paid almost 40 bucks for a set and I can't get it without fingerprints and scratches. So I decide to take it to the other Best Buy as we were going to be close by. My wife wasn't about to wait in the car for another half hour with my daughter in the back crying to leave.

We head on our way and have a nice lunch and then decide to head back in to the war zone known as Best Buy to do the other exchange. Does dvd buying have to be this complicated? I do the smart thing and pick up a replacement copy of the dvd before I even get in the exchange line. After about a 25-30 minute wait in line I finally get to the exchange table. I tell her what is wrong with my set and she fills out some slip, hands me the copy and tells me to follow the line to the next stop. Another 10 minutes or so and I finally make it to the counter where the young lady tells me it is ok to open the new set and check it before I leave. Well, hello Mr. scratched up disc (of course it is the double sided disc). I even had a nice fingerprint that I could have ran through AFIS on the front of the Special Features disc. So now I'm really frustrated with this whole ordeal. I ask the young lady if she could bring me the other set that I had returned so I could get the better looking second disc from the returned package. I told her that I was going to test the first disc at home and if it didn't work I would bring it back another day. I was not about to waste another moment of my time today returning discs. Three movies, three returns and one dvd fan that is getting pissed out at how shoddy things have gotten. Please share your stories and have a nice day!

veritas878

well the first two dvds i have watched from christmas have been scratched and unwatchable. incidentally both universals....schindler's list and cinderella man ce...i hate universal

dsa_shea

Two of my three were Universal discs as well. They really need to get it together will this whole dvd business. I just had to request a replacement copy from CH for my Casino (Universal of course) because it skips over about 30 minutes of the movie. Perfect looking disc thats plays like shite.

cinephan

Stories like this make me happy that I'm not a fan of many Universal movies.

Joe Molotov

More like "Paragraph Hell!!!", am I right guys? Some DVD Talkers (read: me) have short attention spans, you might want to bust that up a little and maybe put some bolding in there.

mndtrp

Yeah, lack of paragraphs suck.

It's interesting. I've only had maybe one disc that has been scratched in all of the movies I have bought. Renting from Hollywood, I've only had a couple. Netflix there has only been 5 or 6 that have skipped.

I figure if the movie plays, I'm not going to bother myself with getting it replaced. Especially for something like a fingerprint.

spinning plates

tldr.

shacmasta

Ugh...that doesn't sound fun.

dsa_shea

I just wanted to get that off my chest as it made me feel a tad better sharing it with others. Sorry that I didn't break it up into a few paragraphs. Thanks for reading and sharing!

Damn I suck at trying to break stuff up into paragraphs.

marcellusk

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

I like the paragraphs now!

RonMexico

Alot of work for some dvds dude. You need a hobby. LOL

Mok

My cinderella man disc crapped out on me half way through the movie had to return it 2 times before I finally gave up, to bad looked like a good movie.

dsa_shea

Then what are you here for?

Drexl

A bad Universal DVD-18: what a shock!

Mr. Cinema

When I read the thread title, I thought someone was trying to exchange something at Best Buy.

flixtime

My "Cinderella Man - Collector's Edition" arrived with two nasty looking scratches as well - and of course the scratches were on disc 1, side A (the movie side). Thankfully - at least for now - I didn't have any playback issues. I am going to be extremely selective fron now on when it comes to any future purchases of Universal product.

Darknite39

I bought all 4 seasons of Smallville from DDD during their sale ($100 total). They were opened today by my brother, who got them for Christmas, and of course several discs from seasons 1 and 3 are scratched (somewhat deeply). I just sent an email to see about replacements; hopefully DDD will help me out.

Sigh.

SlingshotBandit

Cue the whaaaaaaambulaaaaaance!

Trout

I got Tales from the crypt S.2 and the second disc kept screwing up...turns out there was a large fingerprint on the back.

dsa_shea

Did you ever find a mint copy of this? I'll probaly take mine back to Best Buy (again) and see if I can get a "new" set.

flixtime

It was an online purchase for me and since I did not have any playback issues (at least for now), I just kept the scratched one that I received. As much as I would like to have a pristine copy, I try to be a little more reasonable when it comes to online purchases. By "reasonable", I mean if I receive a floater in the mail, as long as it plays okay I tend to keep it.....the rationale being that I appreciate the low prices offered online and accept that sometimes the product I receive - due to transport issues - might be less than perfect. It is not really the sellers fault and exchanging things is somewhat of a nuisance. If I and everyone else who received an imperfect disc due to it coming loose in transport kept on returning things over and over then it would become more difficult for online sellers to remain competitive in their pricing (at least that's the way I see it). Sometimes it is simpler to just "bend with the breeze". You'd think however that after all this time, someone would be able to come up with a center hub that holds a DVD securely while still allowing for easy removal of the DVD.

That being said, I am none too pleased with Universal. My "Cinderella Man" disc did not come loose in transport. The scratches (and they are significant) are clearly a result of gross mishandling at Universal's manufacturing/packaging facility. Given the comments in this discussion, even if I had exchanged my copy of "Cinderella Man" it is likely I would have received a similarly scratched (or worse, non-working) copy in return. Anyway, like I said, I am going to be more selective when it comes to future purchases of Universal product. I'd prefer that someone who cares about their customers benefit from my spending rather than an outfit like Universal.

C_Fletch

"By "reasonable", I mean if I receive a floater in the mail, as long as it plays okay I tend to keep it.....the rationale being that I appreciate the low prices offered online and accept that sometimes the product I receive - due to transport issues - might be less than perfect."

And unfortunately it is a dOuble edged sword. By you not sending it back to the retailer, the studios have no idea there is a problem. But if everyone who had a problem with the DVDs getting scratched, due to the hub being junk that it is, would send it back to the retailer the studios would eventually get a clue.

Or do the studios not take back defective merchandise? Do the retailers have to eat the loss of revenue from the returned DVD?

I would assume that all retailers would be able to return defective merchandise to the stuidio for credit to their account. But like I said......I assume this. Am I correct in this assumption?

Darknite39

Update: The CS responed in a few days with two pre-paid shipping labels (the damaged seasons were from different orders). Now all I have to do is wait for the swap to take place. DDD!