Netflix: Actually, We Mailed Reader Three Different DVDs, And They All Broke

Image courtesy of It didn't buff out.

It didn't buff out.

It didn’t buff out.

Last week, we published the story of Michael, who ordered a documentary from Netflix and wasn’t able to get a non-broken copy. The two relevant parties, Netflix and the band that was the subject of the documentary, saw our post and reached out to Michael through Consumerist.

Shortly after the post went up, we heard from one of the members of the Cork ‘n Bottle String Band offering to send Michael his own copy of the DVD. Yay! A happy ending!

An alert today took me to the story of your recent Netflix dilemma regarding the Ken’s Bar Story. We would very much like for Michael (whoever he is) to see this film and since we have copies remaining and have passed the “break even” point of this project, we will send you/him a copy. Just let us know where to send it. I suppose we should give Netflix a new copy as well but I’m not sure if we even know how they received the first one.

Or how they received all three copies!

We heard from Netflix yesterday:

We are able to verify through shipping records that Michael was sent three different copies of “Cork n’ Bottle String Band: The Ken’s Bar Story.” He reported the first two copies he received as damaged on the Netflix website. When we received those copies back, they were removed from circulation. The third copy which he received broken in two pieces was not reported, but it also was obviously removed from circulation.

As it turns out, the problem that Michael experienced appears to be with fragility of the discs he rented. Very often, concert discs, like “Cork n’ Bottle String Band: The Ken’s Bar Story,” are manufactured with the expectation that a fan of the music will purchase the title for their personal film library. I’ve found that because of this, they tend to be more fragile than some of our other rental titles which were manufactured with the expectation that the discs will be handled by multiple users and shipped repeatedly through the mail. When possible, we work with manufacturers to purchase rental copies that will be sturdier for our uses.

Again, we are sorry for the experience that Michael had, especially as he was unable to view the film. We do have customer service available to all of our members 24 hours a day, seven days a week by phone if they have questions or concerns with their account.

Please know we appreciate both yours and Michael’s feedback regarding the service and have forwarded these comments to the appropriate department for review.

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