A few weeks ago we posted about how instead of throwing out broken gear, try mailing it back to the manufacturer with a nice note, and they may just very well send you a new one.

A reader is happy to report he did just that, and it worked!

Erik has had a Polaroid DVD player for three years. One day, he noticed its battery was boasting strange little bulges.

Dangling the device over the garbage disposal, about to flick the switch to ON, he recalled our post and decided to send the device back to Polaroid.

“Three weeks later, they delivered! Brand new battery, no weird bulges. Customer Service++! Thanks Consumerist!” writes Steve.

Thumbs up, Polaroid! And thumbs up, Steve, partially for getting proactive, but mainly for obeying our edicts.

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