Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Back to retail, back to rage

I realized that since I quit Chapters, I have not had nearly as many rant-type posts. It is not because I didn't like working there (I really did!), but that retail can often bring out the worst in people.

Case in point: last night at Walmart. To give a little back story, while perusing the store during the (allegedly) amazing anniversary sales at Walmart last week, I stumbled upon selected seasons of "The Gilmore Girls" for $13 each. So...considering that Denise and I were at a loss now that we couldn't watch it on t.v. at 4:00 pm every day and we had developed (or in my case re-visited) a bit of an affection/addiction to the Girls, I gladly scooped Season 4 and 5 up and took them home to join our ever-growing family of TV on DVD.

Cut to me, last night. All was well until I tried to watch a few episodes fro disc 4 of Season 5 and realized that the disc wouldn't play at all. After an embarrassing garbage dive, I found the receipt and hightailed it off to my fave late-night hangout with my trusty roommate in tow. When I went to exchange the DVD, I was informed that the store policy for returning things that were originally wrapped in plastic was that if the plastic was removed, they could not be returned...even if they were defective. The girl told me reluctantly that I could exchange it for anything else in the store, but that I couldn't get cash back.

Does anyone see the flaw in the logic here? As much as it would be convenient, defective items are not labelled as such, and especially not outside the plastic. If something is defective, how is that my problem? Why should I essentially have to pay for something that doesn't work? I don't usually get upset while shopping, but I let my displeasure be known with this "policy". It seems absolutely ridiculous! I was lucky that there was another copy available so that I could exchange it, and I only barely restrained myself from asking the Customer Service girl if she could please tell me if disc 4 in this copy would work.

So, the moral is: don't buy DVDs from Walmart unless you are psychic. That, or find a way to get the discs out without removing the plastic.

Wait...maybe I have figured out why the DVD was on sale...

2 comments:

Laura said...

$13, what a steal!
I myself have taken to watching Gilmore Girls at 12:00, I won't risk the defective discs and I'll stick to the tv syndication.

Jessica said...

Costco had (and possibly still has) seasons of Dawson's Creek for $15. I know this leans more to the guilty side of guilty pleasure, but I thought I'd let you know. Oh, and Costco will take anything back at any time in any condition.