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Topic: Used DVDs sold as new

Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 04-21-2004 04:46 PM

I never saw "MASTER AND COMMANDER-The Far Side of The World" in a theatre and was looking forward to the deluxe edition of the movie on DVD which has a lot of extra stuff regarding the production of the film. I bought my copy from Sam's Club because they had the best price in town. The package is beautiful and I was looking forward to watching it last night but when I checked the discs after I had opened the package, the second disc with all the supplements had finger prints all over the surface and a very deep scratch that would have affected the playback. Even all the DVDsI have rented so far was not as filthy as that disc. I was very upset and immediately returned the disc for another copy which turned out to be good. Sad to say, this was the 2nd time this had happened to me. The season One copy of "WEST WING" I bought from Costco when it was first released was also used and littered with finger prints and scratches. At least with the "MASTER & COMMANDER" copy, the 2nd one I checked was flawless. All of the WEST WING copies at Costco had fingerprints on them and decided to get my money back and buy it at Sam's. The copy I bought from the other store was flawless.
I wonder what is happening to quality control these days when DVDs with defects after being played would be sold as new ?

-Claude

[ 04-21-2004, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 04-21-2004 06:13 PM

Did the DVD cases have intact "security seals"?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 04-21-2004 06:33 PM

Yes, it did , John

The bad disc was packaged at the manufacturing plant when a used copy was placed into a stack of new discs. I do not know if it was an accident or it was deliberate but I did not appreciate it at all. The package with the bad disc looked like all others at the store and there were no broken seal (s).

-Claude

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 04-21-2004 06:55 PM

I used to work at a VHS/DVD duplicating plant. I used to see people picking up discs with their bare hands often.

These companies pay their people as little as possible, and have them packaging the DVD's as fast as possible. They get alot of them back as defective.

I did high-speed VHS duplication. I never heard of a problem with any of my jobs other than the wrong show titles being applied to the cassette shells, and that was nothing to do with me.

I bought a disc of "Cant Stop The Music" with the Village People that had a big fingerprint on it. Luckily, it came right off.

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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-22-2004 09:29 AM

I've taken several new DVDs out of fully sealed packages with security seals in place to find fingerprints. All I can figure is that at some of the plants where DVDs are put in cases, people sometimes have to manually put the discs in [as Bruce said above], and they haven't been trained in proper DVD handling. It's actually easier to pick up a disc properly, with the index finger placed in the center hole and the thumb on the outside rim, than it is to handle the disc the wrong way. Fortunately, I've been able to clean most such prints off.

What really infuriates me is finding radial scratches on discs, meaning the disc touched something that was spinning, or the disc rotated on something that touched the data surface. It happens more in box sets than anything else. The majority of my defects I've had to return have been box sets.

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Jeremy Fuentes
Mmmm, Dr. Pepper!

Posts: 1168
From: Corpus Christi, TX United States
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 05-03-2004 09:51 AM

I dont know if it was a used DVD, but I was looking a the DVD's at Circuit City, and one of them still had wrapping paper stuck to it, like someone returned a Christmas gift. This was in April, by the way.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 05-03-2004 02:39 PM

Jeremy,

I have no problem if a store sells a DVD that was previously sold and returned unopened with the security tape still intact on the cover. I do have a problem if it was opened, played, resealed and resold as new. The DVD I had complained about was used as a demo when the discs were being manufactured and instead of being discarded, it was mixed in with the batch of new discs during packaging.

-Claude

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-03-2004 07:04 PM

You mean DVDs aren't packaged automatically? Amazing, considering what's possible with automation.

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