Slightly OT: SuperMediaStore Return Policy - Defective Media

[terryj]

Had to return some TDK's 16x DVD-Rs I bought,
the last seven in the spindle, due to bad spots in the dye.
Rather than send me back seven new discs,
as TDK Corp would have done, they credited me back
the .33¢ per disc to my CC instead.

Which sucks, because i'm still out of media!!!


Just thought I'd pass this along...from now on, I'll just send them back to
TDk Corp USA.

[ybeard]

Heck, how much did it cost you to send back the seven bad discs? Seems to me it would have been close to the value of the replacements themselves. $2.31 for 7 discs?

[hech54]

Which sucks, because i'm still out of media!!!

Technically untrue....you still have seven TDK's 16x DVD-Rs with bad spots in the dye.

[terryj]

Which sucks, because i'm still out of media!!!

Technically untrue....you still have seven TDK's 16x DVD-Rs with bad spots in the dye.

nope, Supermediastore has them[ did you miss that? : ],
I got $2.33 cent for returning them. Next time,
I'll pay the $2.33 towards postage and send them to
TDK Corp direct, which would have sent me back replacement media.

[hech54]

For 7 discs most retailers worth a damn would have taken your word for it and credited you without needing to send them back.
I placed an order last year at a place called Northerner.com for €70(though not for anything video related)...they shipped the wrong thing. They sent the correct items and did not want the wrong ones back since I place an order from them every 6 months.

[lordsmurf]

Back when discs were $1 each, I saved coasters and mailed them back to RIMA or MERITLINE or whoever and got a refund on them. But this is 2006, and discs cost almost nothing. This is penny-ante stuff.

Most media has coasters. Even the very best package of disc has up to 5% allowed, because we don't live in Utopia. When you get a bad disc, put it in the trash and move on. The odds dictate you could see 5 coasters out of a 100-pack of the best discs (TY, MCC, MXL, TDK, etc).

It would be different if it were a huge percentage of the spindle. You fail to mention the spindle size.

Companies are not going to open up a unit to replace faulty pieces. They'll give you a refund on the partial unit. If you want a repair or partial replacements, talk to the manufacturer.

I do sort of agree a company should be willing to take your word on something as chintzy as $2, but then again, I guess I can see things their way too. I would assume they require the faulty media back so they can get reimbursed by the manufacturer. Standard business procedures.

Another thing to consider is user error and hardware/software error play a big part in bad burns, so why should a manufacturer or reseller pay for that? And then, of course, your Chinese/Taiwan crap-o manufacturers won't help you anyway.

[terryj]

smurfy, it was a 25 pack.

and yes, I know all to well from the days of making VCDs
and dealing with cheapo CD-Rs ( Teon/K-Hypermedia,
Optodisc) that YGWYP4, and to EXPECT a ratio of say
1 every 3 or 1 every 5 per 25 spindle.

Hey, they included the *Disc satisfation guarantee" on their
website and on the reciept, why shouldn't I have taken advantage of it?
( if the media burns bad, doesn't work with your burner,
we'll replace it or refund, just fill out the handy online
RMA form)
:
anyhow, depending on price/brand from now on I'll make
a different judgement call...

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, you have to rule out yourself, your software, your burner. See if TDK is disagreeable with the hardware. Finally just consider using something a tad better, like MCC, MXL or TY.

Coasters suck, but it just comes with the territory.

On the upside, at least you were smart enough to try a small pack first, not buy 500 right away.

[Bodysurf]

Most media has coasters. Even the very best package of disc has up to 5% allowed, because we don't live in Utopia. When you get a bad disc, put it in the trash and move on. The odds dictate you could see 5 coasters out of a 100-pack of the best discs (TY, MCC, MXL, TDK, etc).

This is worth emphasizing.

1st Class Media does not mean every blank will work/burn flawlessly. It just means that the media is the generally best available and will (on average) generally produce the fewest bum blanks.

With blanks being as cheap as they are, I just trash them unless I get an unacceptably high failure rate (<10%). To go to Sam's Club (where I get my blanks) and try and get them to deal with a few bum coasters is not worth my time.

This would NOT have been my policy when blank CDRs were $10.00 each and blank DVD-Rs were $5.00 each.