Jeff Ulmer

This I have to agree with. A return is one thing, but defective product replacement is another. If you are buying stacks of discs each week, it is impossible to fully go through them all during a thirty day period. This type of exchange policy discourages mass purchasing. That is a subject that should be explained to the management should a defective disc be discovered outside the normal return period.

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Dick

I guess my question would be: what difference does the 30 days make insofar as illegal copying is concerned? Does that mean a person could rip several hundred copies from a DVD, then return a bogus copy for a refund, if all this occurs within 30 days? Doesn't make a lick of sense to me. Besides, copies are so easily identifiable that the whole argument makes no sense. If they simply said, "No returns after 30 days, period," without offering this lame excuse, it would be much more acceptable.

CraigF

Best Buy won't even take a sealed copy of a disc back after 30 days, usually, so it has nothing to do with copying, strictly a policy that's a byproduct of their inventory and pricing (up and down) policies. Besides, the guy wanted a *straight exchange*, and even more besides, he was returning *two* copies of the movie, you know, that little extra they include in the price.

Wal-Mart, for instance, doesn't really enforce their return policy, I have returned discs after more than a year. No big deal to them, they're so big they probably return more discs than some retailers even purchase.

Anyway, I am terrible and never open a disc until I watch it. I hate myself for that, but it's just what I do, and I know it has potential problems. But, I've never actually had a problem when I've found a defective disc because so far they have been known "manufacturing" etc. defects, and the companies replaced them at essentially no trouble for me. I have got discs in the mail that were damaged, and again no trouble. I highly recommend trying to deal with the customer service people at the respective studio if you can, they are (so far) all very decent. They are flexible, it's their product, whereas salespeople at chain stores are not exactly encouraged to be flexible.

Josh Steinberg

I've found that return policies, and enforcement of said policies, can vary greatly depending on which store, what time of year, and what item. Because of that, whenever I buy a disc, I open it as soon as possible (unless, of course, it's a gift for someone). Most problems can be spotted right away. For instance, my West Wing boxset came with a defective disc four, and the mega-scratching was easily visible.

I don't watch everything right away - who has time? - but I do try to always open up the case and look at the disc carefully for a moment to check it out (if I'm not going to be watching it right then). If something looks suspicious, then I'll throw the disc on to check it out. If it looks OK, it goes on the shelf.

My experiences with chain stores like Best Buy, on the whole, have been very good. As has been pointed out, the guys working the register are given pretty rigid guidelines about what they can and can't do, and having worked that sort of job before, as much as I personally would like to help every person I can to the best of my ability, if I have to choose between doing an exchange or a return that goes against what I've been instructed to do and risk getting in trouble or losing my job, or telling the customer that I'm not allowed to do anything, I'll tell them the latter. In my experience, most clerks are like that, and their managers realize that and are a little more flexible, as is their jobs. Usually, I've found if you're friendly to the clerk, and the clerk can't help you, if you've been nice they'll tell that to their manager, and usually you'll get helped out. If you're a jerk to the clerk, even if you might have been right in principle, a manager might just ignore you or refuse your request because you've bullied his employee.

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Joshua_W

William Waits wrote:


My God, they tried to STEAL your DVD? Are you serious?

I would've called the police if they didn't return it to me.