Scratched Movies

Ben writes:

I've been with Netflix for about a year now and I've noticed that I'm getting quite a lot of damaged discs lately. My player is pretty good about fingerprints and the like, but the discs I've been getting are all gouged and scratched. I wasn't sure if others are starting to notice a decline in quality there too? It's especially bad with movies that have been out for a couple years. I live in Phoenix, so I go through the Phoenix distribution center. Maybe it's just a problem there? I've emailed Netflix about this and they didn't seem to concerned. I'm sure it's expensive to take a disc out of the rotation, but how many damaged discs until I cancel my service?

How many movies have you received that have been so scratched that they are unplayable? What's the best DVD player for handling scratches? Any tricks for getting seriously scratched movies to play?

Is this a serious problem for Netflix as their collection ages?

Comments

[jab1981]

I live near Detroit, MI so perhaps my situation is different then Ben's. I've received maybe three or four scratched discs that were unplayable and a few that had some minor playback problems. About 4-5 movies were unplayable and had to be replaced. This is after receiving over 100 rentals from them... so their success, imo, is surprisingly high considering. Definately of, or above, the level that all local video rentals had when I still shopped at them.

I also should mention the replacements from Netflix have always been prompt. I do not see this as a problem yet, though it does not surprise me that it pops up. People can be very careless with DVD's, especially when they don't actually own them.

[Topmounter]

Every once in a while I receive a severely scratched DVD from Netflix.

I have found that one of the newer style CD/DVD cleaners usually fixes the problem.

I believe the model that I own is made by Allsop and cost on the order of $15 or $20 at my local BB/Compusa/CC.

[Catana]

I check the discs before playing, so I know if there's light or serious damage. I haven't seen any increase in unplayable discs, but there do seem to be more with surface damage. Major problems probably get reported and replaced, but surface damage that doesn't mess with viewing probably just accumulates until it reaches a point where someone's player can't handle it. A friend has had good luck with cleaning them up, so I'll probably be getting one of those kits soon.

[rob]

ditto- have received multiple broken dvds within a few weeks of each other. my copy of deer hunter meant to replace a scratched copy, didn't work either!

[Morgan]

In approximately 15 months of service, Netflix has sent me one unplayable DVD.

[Curt Hibbs]

Over several years of Netflix service I received about 5 broken discs and maybe 10 unplayable discs. This is out of about 700 total received. I'd say that this is a good track record.

[Steve A.]

After two years, I received my first cracked/unplayable disc ... just this weekend! Napoleon Dynamite. They sent out a replacement today.

Not a good thing, but not something any of the services are immune to. Heck, I've even had unplayable discs from BB and Movie Gallery stores before...

I've only had 2 cracked DVD's in 4 years of service. If you have a DVD that skips or doesn't want to play (but is not cracked), try washing it with soaping water. Dry it thoroughly and then give it another try.

[G Collins]

The very first DVD I received, "Metropolis," had a significant crack that ran from the center of the disc almost to the edge. It took me all of about 15 seconds to find the link for reporting the damage on the website and a replacement was sent right away. It did, however, teach me to carefully examine the playing surface before putting the disc into my player. (I hadn't with that first one, but luckily it didn't cause any damage.)

[Jack]

I have had to clean about 8 discs to get them to play and return a couple broken discs.
I dont like the fact that i have to clean these discs, I think netflix can have an idustrial version of a cleaner all discs should go through when returned. This would make a lot more happier customers, every disc is showing up very dirty and scratched now, it seems.

"I dont like the fact that i have to clean these discs, I think netflix can have an idustrial version of a cleaner all discs should go through when returned.

8 discs out of how many? Do you know of any DVD rental business that clean all discs when they are returned? You people are bitching about throttling, return times, prices, etc and now you want Netflix to clean each DVD as its returned?? What do you think that will do to cost and turn around time??

[Ben]

I wrote that email after recieving a scratched replacement to a cracked Sopranos Season 2, Disk 1. A couple days before I had a Freaks and Geeks disc 1 that stopped and skipped. The day after I wrote Mike, I recieved a copy of Veronica Guerin that skipped and stopped too. In the past 20 disks, I've reported 5 damaged. Like I said though, maybe this is something local to Phoenix?

[CP]

I've received DVD that was tagged with a Sharpie marker on the label side of the DVD. It was like mini graffiti. It was a pretty cool idea I thought.

[J]

"I've received DVD that was tagged with a Sharpie marker on the label side of the DVD. It was like mini graffiti. It was a pretty cool idea I thought."

What kind of person would think it is a "pretty cool idea" to f*** over something belonging to someone else?

[J]

"I've received DVD that was tagged with a Sharpie marker on the label side of the DVD. It was like mini graffiti. It was a pretty cool idea I thought."

What kind of person would think it is a "pretty cool idea" to f*** over something belonging to someone else?

"What kind of person would think it is a "pretty cool idea" to f*** over something belonging to someone else?"

I was kinda wondering the same thing.

It's gotten much worse lately in my opinion. I'd say one out of every four disks now skip chapters or stutter throughout the film. =(

[jojoware]

Anyone complaining about scratched Netflix discs should go back to the video store and see how they fare there. I've received 2 unplayable discs in 3 years with Netflix. But every time i get 5 movies at a video store, at least 1 of them is damaged. I love the mom & pop stores, but they don't have the great deals with the studios so they're much more likely to hang on to slightly damaged discs, while Netflix just trashes em.

[D]

I'm also a Phoenix area Netflix subscriber and I'd say that about 1 in 5 discs I receive are scratched, damaged, or generally unplayable. It has become such a problem that I am canceling my subscription at the end of this billing period.

[Sonja]

No it's not just a Phoenix issue. I've had the same problem with some movies as well. Those scratch cleaners don't really help. I can't help but wonder if folks are tossing the DVD's around their homes like a frisbee. I live Georgia. I usually just request a replacement be sent and report the damaged disc.

[Bogus Crap]

I get movies from Blockbuster from their Atlanta DC. After only being with them for about 7 months, these past couple of months I swear they are targeting me. I've been on the 3, 5, and 8 at a time; getting 13, 20, and 30 dvds a month.

Month 6 I was on the 8 and it seemed EVERY disc, even discs that were BRAND NEW had one long scratch on them, or it looked like someone melted salt or poured oil all over the disc, it could not be removed through any means.

Luckily my player still played these discs (don't ask me how) but it seems to me like they see me as not being "profitable" so they want me to switch somewhere else.

I don't think getting 150 dvds in 7 months is an outrageous number, and thats with BBO sending me on average 6-10 extra dvds a month (I don't know why, but I just get extra dvds, if I'm on the 3 at a time, I'll see 6 dvds shipped, etc).

It's probably not a "conspiracy" but I agree with the person above that said these companies should have an industrial cleaner that every disc goes through before it's shipped out, at least for ones that look like they need it.

[Jeff]

I have been a member of Netflix for almost three years. A couple years ago I had several discs come with bad scratches, the great part was I would just go to Netflix website, and let them know in the morning, and I would get a new copy the next day. Then I got a new DVD player and haven't had any problems. I think I have had about 5 unplayable DVDs, out of close to 200, I think they are doing pretty good.

[Thomas]

Since signing up with Intelliflix I have not had any scratched DVDs! With blockbuster I only received two that would not play.

[phineas]

I restarted my Netflix subscription a month ago, and have gotten 2 defective DVD's already, including the very first disc they sent me. In addition, one DVD was the wrong movie. (Word to the wise- if they send you the wrong movie, just report it as damaged- if you tell them it wasn't what you ordered, they don't do anything until they get the disc back. With damaged discs, they send a replacement out right away.)

That's 3 bad discs out of 13- pretty poor if you ask me. When I was last a Netflix,

['Dacker]

My discs come out of the Salem, Oregon distribution center. In the 8+ months I've had NetFlix, I've had about an 8% bad disc rate. IMHO, this is too high. For some reason, many of them came last spring within perhaps a 2 month time frame. Not all were scratches though; I specifically recall one which appeared to have been damaged by one, large drop of some kind of solvent which removed the top-most layer of the data side of the disc.

[Robert]

I am in the military and have been recieving netflix for a little over two years now. I have started to have problems since last year but only with a few movies. I live in North Carolina but am activated here in Iowa right now. I have recieved one bad movie within a two month time getting the standard 3 at a time. And I dont believe Ive recieved more then 10 bad movies the rest of the time in NC. So yes I would like to see some improvement but It is not so bad yet that I would think about going for block buster or another competitor.

Robert

Been a member of Netflix for 8 months and got my second unplayable disc from them just last week.

The first one was a month or two ago. It was the movie "The incredibly strange creatures that stopped living and became mixed up zombies"

That one I put in my player, and it didnt play. I took it out and noticed that the disc had a straight crack right from the center all the ways to the edge. So I told Netflix and sent the damaged disc back.

Last week they sent me disc number 2 of the joey bishop show (season 2). It just wouldnt play. I looked at the disc and couldnt see and noticeable scratches that would prevent the disc from palying, but I cleaned it as best I could and it still wouldnt play, so I sent that back.

[Bryan]

I'm a Washington DC subscriber and noticed an significant increase in scratched DVD in the past couple of months. I have returned 3 DVD in the past six weeks because of deep scratches in the disks.

[CJ]

I'm a longtime (year 2000) high volume (8 at a time) renter whose service center is Santa Ana CA. I figure I've rented probably 1,000 DVDs over the years.

I've had exactly 2 broken disks - my guess is the postman stuffing magazines in the mailbox after the Netflix envelope. I've only had 4 disks that I ultimately couldn't get to play - I use good old Windex and papertowel to clean dirty arrivals. I haven't noticed any recent rash of broken or unplayable disks either.

I'm either extremely lucky or I'm renting titles nobody else cares to rent...

[Dave]

I think probably >50% of the movies I get from Netflix have visable surface scratches, and about 25% skip or studder at different places in the movie. Probably only 1% or so of the hundreds of movies I've rented were unplayable.

I don't think the brick-and-mortar rental stores are much better. I just don't see why people take such bad care of DVDs. It's not that hard to take a movie out of a sleeve, put it in a DVD player, and then put it back in the sleeve. It's a miracle we survived the phonograph age.

I laugh that Netflix is selling previous viewed discs. I might tolerate some skipping on a rental, but there's no way I would buy something from their used stock.

[Joe Shriver]

I have been receiving netflix for about two months now and recieved only 3 damaged disks. I'm accualy supprised that not all of them come damaged in the pathetic envelops they come in. I'm a former postal worker, and the dvd's do not come in the perscribed padded envelope. so quit complaining. by the way, i recieve about 3 movies a week, that would make it about 1 out of 8 dvd's. that is dang good.

[JG]

I've had two discs in the last two weeks show up completely cracked in two. Both were 2004 releases. I'm in the St. Louis distribution area.

I don't get too many badly scratch discs. That's happened once in the past couple of months.

Thing is with me, it seems I get more mislabled disc. I rent a lot of TV DVDs and I'll get disc one of season three, when I wanted disc one of season one. That sort of thing happens a lot with me.

[thattherepaul]

Living in Boston, I've been enjoying Netflix's three-out plan for 23 months now. The number of unplayable disks I've received differs significantly from the complainers posting to this thread.

One of the wonders of Netflix is that you can track for yourself exactly how many movies you rented and when by going to your account details under rental history, and requesting them to e-mail you your complete rental history. Embedded in this rental history is each broken disk you receive: assuming you, as I, request Netflix to re-send an intact disk each time you receive a broken one, that movie title will appear twice in short succession on the list.

Looking at my rental history of 99 weeks, I see that I have rented 157 movies, an average of 1.59 movies per week. Out of those 157 movies, only two have arrived as broken or unplayable, both, interestingly during a two-month period last year: "Evil Under The Sun" (1982) in August, 2004, and "Passage to India" (1984), in September, 2004. The other 155 titles arrived on time, unbroken, and playable.

According to these statistics, any disk shipped from Netflix suffers a 1.27% chance of arriving unplayable. This is a statistic that contrasts sharply with the "reports" of Manuel and others, who I suspect of exaggerating their numbers or simply being deranged people.

Perhaps posters like Manuel could seek more challenging leisure pursuits than moaning about their rental service.

[Mike M]

What people do w/ the broken disks is this

Report a broken disk, mark on the sleve a sharpie X and write broken disk

mark the disk itself w/ a sharpie

If you get a cracked disk w/ the x's you know they knowingly got a cracked unplayable disk and sent it back out. It's a great idea, and shows when Netflix sends out a broken disk.

For all of you delusional conspiracy enthusiasts, why don't you actually go out and do some investigative work?? Go get a job at a Netflix distribution center (or send an unemployed friend, relative, whatever) and find out firsthand. Instead of posting wild accusations with nothing but opinion and hearsay evidence, why not go out and get proof if you're so sure you "know" what is "really" going on at Netflix. Bring back an employee training manual or recording of a Netflix supervisor telling you to throttle a heavy users DVD's. Lets see some written or spoken proof that Netflix tells its employees to knowingly send out unplayable DVD's to heavy renters. Show us a copy of an internal memo that specifically states that return envelopes with addresses for distant distribution centers should be used for heavy renters. If you're going to continue to post such accusations, then lets see some evidence that backs any of it up.

You can actually put toothpaste on your disk, and then wipe it with a paper towel fro the middle to the outside, and then rinse it off with water and it it fixes lots of real bad scratches

[noiseuse]

"(Word to the wise- if they send you the wrong movie, just report it as damaged- if you tell them it wasn't what you ordered, they don't do anything until they get the disc back. With damaged discs, they send a replacement out right away.)"

Don't you think it's kind of pathetic that you have to lie to get decent service when BB will send replacements the same day if the disc was not what you asked for???

"Manuel and others, who I suspect of exaggerating their numbers or simply being deranged people."

I don't think they are exaggerating at all. The difference is that Netflix deliberately sends broken and damaged discs to the heavy users. Since you are not a heavy user (1.59 DVDs a week), you wouldn't know. But it's a pretty good bet that you will get bad DVDs if you're sending everything back same day or next day.

And it has nothing to with wearing tin foil hats. We've just noticed a pattern that NFLX sends broken discs while BB doesn't. Or they send broken discs much more often. You can't blame it all on the post office either.

Once again... where is your proof that they knowlingly send out unplayable DVD's? Show me a memo, a report, an email message, a training manual or ANYTHING that proves that Netflix instructs their employees to send out unplayable DVD's as method to throttle the "heavy renters".

[noiseuse]

"where is your proof that they knowlingly send out unplayable DVD's?"

Where is your proof that the earth is round? You've never seen it from space. Maybe the photos you've seen by astronauts/satellites are fakes... Your question has been asked and answered. The proof is that people get more broken discs from Netflix and significantly less or none at all from Blockbuster. It's a deduction based on available facts, Sherlock.