“Take the DVD back to the store.
Go to the customer service counter.
You: “This DVD doesn’t work in my DVD player, and I’d like to exchange it for another copy.”
Her: “Sure thing! Let me grab you another!”
Hand her the old DVD.
Take the new DVD.
Hand her the new DVD.
You: “I’d like to return this DVD.””

lol, you absolutely made my day :)

@ZeHa: Or as a blog post title… ;)

@Tuna: yeh… but how many manufacturers sells DVDs directly anyway?

Had to laugh on this one :D ‘standard customers’, that’s a cool phrase ;) could be actually used as a song title or something ;)

Take the DVD back to the store.
Go to the customer service counter.
You: “This DVD doesn’t work in my DVD player, and I’d like to exchange it for another copy.”
Her: “Sure thing! Let me grab you another!”
Hand her the old DVD.
Take the new DVD.
Hand her the new DVD.
You: “I’d like to return this DVD.”

Believe it or not, it works.

That said, it’s not their responsibility that DVDs work on your player. It’s your DVD player’s manufacturer’s responsibility that DVDs work on it. But be warned, most don’t warrant perfect service. However, making an official complaint with the manufacturer is likely to win you some positive attention anyway, as it seems a great number of these huge companies really do want to make their customers satisfied. Give it a shot. You might get a new DVD player with an updated firmware or even a newer model! It’s happened to me!

See what Otávio commented: “There is a pizza delivery place (Dominos actually) which we used to order from weekly. Once we stopped making orders, we received a letter with discount cupouns, the letter clearly stating they did not want to lose customers and all.”

This is exactly what I’m talking about. I mean, how difficult would it be them to implement a system where they could see what I have purchased, and how many returns I’ve had! Besides – I already had replaced the disc to a new disc (but SAME movie). How many people would really do that if they wanted to get an illegal copy? Anyway – the point is: they were looking at the $5 – not the $1000 I’ve spent there, and that caused they loss. They can have “standard policy”, and they will end up having “standard customers”.

@Tuna: “I see your point of view but its a two way street. You have to understand that the employee your speaking to probably doesn’t care and isn’t going to go outside the policy, they’ll always be trying to protect their job. I would probably have asked to speak with a manager before storming out.”
Yes, I thought about that – but there was another problem… how much time would that have taken? The last week when I got the DVD replaced it took half an hour or something, and I really don’t have time to fight over $5 movie. In the end it would probably costs me more to get manager there than to switch a store :) Besides, it was stylish to leave that DVD there and left the building ;)

There is a pizza delivery place (Dominos actually) which we used to order from weekly. Once we stopped making orders, we received a letter with discount cupouns, the letter clearly stating they did not want to lose customers and all.

I like having companies go that extra mile, it helps them get my trust and it helps me knowing that I will get a quality service.

I have to disagree with that, maybe a couple will but basically the first rule of marketing is sell to your existing customers as it’s way cheaper than finding new ones plus super customers become “evangelists”.