Mislabelled discs?

[gschrock]

Ok, I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one to run into this problem. I've been working on going through the discs to see if the minor scratches that are on them are going to cause problems, and just tonight started to play the second disc. I pop the disc in, and click on the special features link, and see listed the commentary for the Signs and Portents episode commentary. Needless to say, this struck me as being odd, and I go through the menus to get the episode list. Sure enough, there's episodes 13-16, and in the corner is the label Disc 4. So I pull the disc out to check to make sure I put the right one in, thinking maybe in the process of going through stacks of B5 sets that maybe I got them out of order, but there, printed on the front of the disc, is a big fat 2. (And checking, the disc 4 in my set is indeed disc 4).

So, I guess it's going to be back to the store, where I'll have to attempt to find another set that a) has discs that aren't scratched and b) actually has the correct discs.

I've seen an address here for someone to write to to express thanks for this set coming out. Any idea if this is also an appropriate person to write to expressing my displeasure in the quality control that's been exhibited? I'll be nice and polite and say thanks for getting the set out too, but I do feel someone there deserves to hear my displeasure at having to make multiple trips to the store to actually get an intact set (politely of course).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Ok, I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one to run into this problem.

You aren't. This is a fairly common problem, widely discussed around the 'net, including several threads on this very forum.

It isn't even unique to B5. Sometimes people will buy one film, labelled correctly, and pop it in the player only to see another film entirely. It isn't hard to see why. Let's say you're job it to run discs through a silk-screen machine. Somebody brings you a rack of identical, perfectly blank, DVDs. According to the tag they are Babylon 5 disc 2. Your machine is set up for B5 disc 2. You feed the tray of discs into it and continue working. You don't have a DVD player at your station to check these things. At the other end of the machine someone else now takes the discs marked "Disc 2" and feeds them into the #2 hopper on the machine that will insert them into the cases. The cases have their covers attached, get inserted in the slipcases, and the whole bundle gets shrink-wrapped and out the door it goes.

Yes, they do Q.A. checks, but not on every set, much less every disc. The whole process is largely automated. On a run of several hundred thousand sets maybe 200 get pulled and checked. Any really common problems with show up immediately, but a disc labelling error that only affected a few thousand discs won't. And yes, I'm sure Warner Bros. has had words with the company that makes the case. (Warner Bros. own the company that makes the despised cardboard and plastic "snapper" cases, but they had to go to an outside supplier for their boxed sets. They're using the same company that packaged The Civil War for PBS. They may have even had them to the actual assembly, since Warner Bros. own lines are probably not set up for that style of case.)

The problem seems to be unique to the U.S., and probably to a single replication plant, because I have not heard of any similar problems elsewhere. (This also applies to the loose discs. There may just be one production run of defective cases out there and Warner Bros. got it - which would mean the Q.A. breakdown was at the case manufacturer.)

Given that the mislabelled disc problem is as widespread as it is, I'm sure Warner Bros. will have to make good on the problem. Their direct customers - the retailers - are going to be howling about all the returns their getting for mislabelled and scratched discs. This is costing them money and they're going to want to put it behind them as quickly as possible.

As for who to write to at Warner Bros. ... Same guy. I thanked Doug Wadleigh and praised him for what I thought was good about the sets and also ripped him up one side and down the other for the problems all in the same letter. Much more efficient that way. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here's the address:

Mr. Douglas Wadleigh
Vice-President, Marketing and Special Features
Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522

Regards,

Joe

 

[gschrock]

Hmm, I'd seen the reports of the loose discs, but didn't see anything here about people with mislabelled discs. Guess I'm just going blind /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

As for the loose discs being confined to the US, I'm guessing you mean both US and Canada. My first set was from Canada, and definitely had the old loose disc syndrome. (I'd say they come from the same plant, since there isn't any canadian markings on the box).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yes, should have said "North America" or "R1". The fact is that all of these discs are manufactured in plants in the U.S., no matter which country they're being sold in.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Kribu]

Yay... just checked mine, and all's correct, I have the right disc 2. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I suppose that waiting paid off - it took quite a while for Amazon.ca to ship that set, even after the (postponed Canadian) release date. No loose and scratched discs, no mislabelled discs - is it possible that after the initial release, some stores held the sets back for a while to make sure they have "good" sets to send out?

 

[Lyta]

For some reason I cannot find any other threads about this problem. Did anyone have any problems returning/exchanging their mislabeled discs? Did anyone have to contact WB to get it taken care of or did the retailer do it without any problems?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Did anyone have to contact WB to get it taken care of or did the retailer do it without any problems?

I never heard about anyone having a problem exchanging the sets at a retailer - but of course that was six months ago when the discs were just out, and most stores have a "no questions asked" return/exchange policy for the first couple of weeks after a product is sold. If someone tried to exchange a set today there might or might not be a problem. But this is the kind of thing that is normally handled at the retailer level, rather than directly with the studio. (The R2 problem with the actual transfer on the disc is something else entirely.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Lyta]

Great, thanks for the info. This person purchased from an US Army exchange store so I hope they won't have any problems with getting it fixed.

You also said that this problem was limited to NA and probably due to one manufacturing plant? Is that still an accurate assessment?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

You also said that this problem was limited to NA and probably due to one manufacturing plant? Is that still an accurate assessment?

I haven't seen anything to contradict that, and such problems normally get reported pretty far and wide. For all the messages I've seen about the R2 problems with "Sky", for instance, I've never seen one about a mislabelled disc in that region, or in any other.

Hope the PX is reasonable about exchange. If not, I'd be willing to bet that a letter to Warner Home Video in Burbank and an explanation abour just receiving it as a gift and not having a receipt would be enough to solve the problem. I assume this is a set bought months ago, since as far as I know it was only a relatively small batch of the earliest sets shipped that had the problem, and I'd have to think that those were long-since gone from store shelves.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Lyta]

I assume it was an early purchase as well but someone emailed me about it and I wanted to make sure I had the story correct before I tell them what they should do.

You are a huge help as always Joe.