I went out on my lunchbreak yesterday to pick up a few new items that I mentioned the other day. While I was at the local Best Buy, I saw a copy of Bad Religion’s Along the Way DVD, and figured I’d pick that up as well.
Got home, unwrapped and opened the DVD case… and it was empty. The proverbial cupboard was, as they say, bare. I showed it to Laura and chuckled, neither of us had ever seen anything quite so odd.
Of course, now the problem became filling the blank that should be the DVD I bought. I figured that if I walked back into the store today and said the case I bought was empty, they’d call me a thief and ask that I leave. So, I tried calling the store. Lots of ringing, not so much answering.
Tried the main Best Buy customer service number, where after much waiting on hold, a friendly guy named Omar gave me some interesting news. He told me that since the DVD was shrinkwrapped and had the “security” sticker on the top of the case, it wasn’t Best Buy’s fault that the product wasn’t in there. Instead, he claimed that it was a manufacturer’s defect, and insisted that I contact them to get what I thought I already had.
Seeing Omar as the dead end he was, I hung up and emailed the folks over at Epitaph Records. Told them the story, and asked what I should do next. As of this writing, I haven’t heard a response, but they’re on the West Coast, and aren’t in the office yet.
In the meantime, I figure I’ll go back to the Best Buy where I bought this barren piece of protective plastic and see if I can get either a replacement or a refund. I’m curious to see what they’ll say. I know they have another copy on the shelves, so I’m even more curious to see if there’s anything to be found there either.
Update: Went to the store again today, and although they had me wait for about five minutes while managers were checked with, I was able to walk out of there with the only other copy they had.
And yes, this one actually contained what I was looking for. Can you believe it!?
So, I suppose all is well after all, and the lesson learned is that calling Best Buy is far more of a hassle than it’s worth. Oh, and I’ll be shaking all of my DVD purchases and listening for evidence of anything inside before hitting the checkout from now on.
Peter August 14th, 2006 at 9:52 am
A friend of mine had the original Alien boxset (not the Quadrilogy) and I remember one time we went to go watch Alien:Resurrection and the disc started playing Last of the Mohichans. We thought it was a trailer at first, but nope. The entire disc - extras and everything - was Last of the Mohichans, but the physical disc itself still had the Resurrection image etc imprinted on it.
John August 14th, 2006 at 9:54 am
That is so weird. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of either of these things happening before. Guess I’ve just been lucky.