No Replacement/Refund on faulty DVD

C

Colster

Guest
I bought a DVD on Play.com in January this year as a gift for my brother, the DVD is approx 6 hours long and my brother has only recently decided to watch it. As he watched it the first disk froze as one of the new scenes was about to start. I contacted Play and they sent me back the following mail saying they would not replace the disk, can anyone tell me if I have any comeback on them at all.

<MAIL FROM PLAY.COM>
We are sorry to hear that you have been experiencing problems with your order.
Unfortunately as it has been over 35 days from the receipt of this item, we are unable to offer you a refund or a replacement. More information on our Returns Policy can be found here:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=about&page=ret
We are sorry that we are unable to assist you further in this matter.
Kind Regards
Play
 
They must offer you a replacement, a refund, or a repair at their discretion. They dont seem to have mentioned this.. if you look on oasis.ie they have info on consumer rights.
Good luck
 
Note that Play are located in Jersey and your consumer rights may not be the same as those that apply to Irish retaliers.

Check out for more info on EU consumer rights.
 
Unfortunately there are specific exclusions for audio/video items & computer software that have their seals broken - specific info on Oasis and
 
Those exclusions only cover distance selling rights
(such as the cooling off period), not the more general
consumer right that goods be of merchantable quality.

EHIC are your best bet as suggested earlier.
It's reasonable to expect a DVD to last 5 months,
and you are only looking for a replacement,
so I expect you are entitled to it.

I think it would be unreasonable to look for
a refund, given the time that has elapsed,
and that you could have watched the DVD
multiple times or copied it in the interim.
I accept that it probably never worked,
but the retalier has no reason to and
probably sees false returns all the time.
 
Spock said:
Unfortunately there are specific exclusions for audio/video items & computer software that have their seals broken - specific info on Oasis and
Click to expand...

The first link there refers to seals in the context of a cooling off period not defective goods. Since there is no way to tell if goods are defective without breaking the seal it would seem unreasonable to disallow return of defective goods based on a seal being broken.
 
Colster said:
I bought a DVD on Play.com in January this year as a gift for my brother, the DVD is approx 6 hours long and my brother has only recently decided to watch it. As he watched it the first disk froze as one of the new scenes was about to start. I contacted Play and they sent me back the following mail saying they would not replace the disk, can anyone tell me if I have any comeback on them at all.

<MAIL FROM PLAY.COM>
We are sorry to hear that you have been experiencing problems with your order.
Unfortunately as it has been over 35 days from the receipt of this item, we are unable to offer you a refund or a replacement. More information on our Returns Policy can be found here:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=about&page=ret
We are sorry that we are unable to assist you further in this matter.
Kind Regards
Play
Click to expand...

Have you tried playing the disc on another DVD player? In other words, are you certain the problem is with the disc?

Unfortunately, I agree with other posters here, that looking for a replacement 5 months after the fact does not give you a strong case.

Nonetheless, if you can prove that the DVD is faulty, and if you can manage to get Play on the phone, they might be more willing to listen to you.

I have found them more reasonable to deal with on the phone and they might oblige once they determine that you are a genuine customer with an
honest complaint.

However, it is very difficult to get them on the phone, and they are very slow at answering emails.
 
I'd also think there a good chance the problem is with the DVD player, mainly because it was mentioned the disk is 6 hrs long, so it's a dual layer dvd which tend to be more troublesome.

Wonder did the freeze occur around the 3 hr mark when the player should be switching from one layer to the next.
 
It is much more likely to be the dvd player that is at fault here.
 
Thanks for all the help on this, I had tried it on a couple of DVD players and was getting the same problem, I even checked it on a multi region player and it still didn't work. I have however recently sourced a new version on Ebay for around €10, so I don't think that it is worth the hassle trying to chase Play.com down. (especially when I don't think that I have much of a case tp start with:) )

Thanks again to everyone that posted.
Colster
 
Colster said:
Thanks for all the help on this, I had tried it on a couple of DVD players and was getting the same problem, I even checked it on a multi region player and it still didn't work. I have however recently sourced a new version on Ebay for around €10, so I don't think that it is worth the hassle trying to chase Play.com down. (especially when I don't think that I have much of a case tp start with:) )

Thanks again to everyone that posted.
Colster
Click to expand...

On the subject of customer service with Play.com et al, I have found Play impossible to get on the phone (as I probably mentioned below) and slow to answer emails.

However, I had occasion to ring CD Wow re an order where I had ordered the wrong item accidentally (there were two very similar listings). Their return policy states that they will take back a CD or DVD for whatever reason if you change your mind, once it is saleable and well packed. Obviously you pay the postage back. The site says they will charge £1.50 for handling and restocking. However, when I rang them in this instance, I got through straight away and they agreed to waive the restocking fee, even though it was my mistake.

I have been using CD Wow (usually the Norwegian www.cd-wow.fm site) in preference to Play for the last few months, and given this experience and the lack of customer service from Play, I will be giving them all business from now on.

While I am digressing from the subject of the thread, I must say that I find the worst problem with buying CDs online is the multitude of different versions - UK Special Edition, US Edition, Import with Bonus tracks - there were 4 different versions of Coldplay's new album available for example - and the lack of clear info on the online sites. It can be very tricky to determine which version you are getting. At least around town, you can compare them in the flesh - pity the prices are too expensive to actually buy them in town, though.
 
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