The Trouble with a DVD
Player
By Mark Stevens
Okay, so I lied. Two years after The Minidisc Incident, I returned to Dixons and bought a DVD player. I know, I know -- I shouldn't have. I could have bought it 30 quid cheaper on the net, but being the impatient bugger I am, I decided to pay a premium and buy it on the high street. And given that there were no other hifi stores in town with the model I wanted, I decided to buy from Dixons. Aaaargh, big mistake!
So I bought my shiny new Toshiba SD100E DVD player, took it home and discovered that there was nothing particularly shiny or new about it. My suspicions were first aroused by the fact that the box itself had been sealed with some dodgy gaffer tape, upon which was written "ex display model, pristine condition!"
After taking it out of the box, I discovered that the top of the unit had scratches on it (ooh, a wave of deja vu just came over me) and there were numerous sticky/dirty patches on all four corners, almost as if another piece of hifi/video equipment had been sitting on top of it for about four months! Hmm, surely not!
I turned on the player, expecting to see the "first time initialisation" screen, but it didn't appear. I tried a few discs out and noticed that the player was clicking an awful lot. Hmmmph!
So, the next day I took the player back. I had to queue up this time though. There was a woman in front of me trying to return a faulty mobile phone she'd bought the previous day. She was detailing a whole catalogue of faults to the sales assistant, even showing him herself. But the sales assistant simply tried to fob her off, saying that she couldn't exchange it for a new one and had to fill in a form and send off the faulty item herself to be repaired. She had a right old moan for about five minutes before the sales assistant finally crumbled, disappeared "round the back" to get a new phone and explained that she'd been accidentally sold an ex display model by accident(!).
It was my turn. I plonked the DVD player down on the counter and said, "I was under the impression that I was buying a brand new DVD player, not a second hand one." I then explained the faults and then the sales assistant tried to get me to fill out the same form, expecting me to arrange for someone to pick up the faulty DVD player from my house and take it away for repair. I was having none of that and explained that I was sold a model that was clearly second hand. I didn't want that model taken away for repair. I wanted a brand new one -- if that developed a fault at some point, then I'd be only too happy to have it repaired -- but there was no way I was accepting a second hand model and having *that* repaired.
After much huffing and puffing, the sales assistant eventually crumbled and agreed to exchange it for a brand new one, mumbling some apology to the effect of, "You must have been sold an ex display mode by accident!". Too right I was. I asked him if it was standard Dixons policy to attempt to sell ex display models to unsuspecting customers? He said it wasn't. I pointed out that I'd been sold an ex-display DVD player, that the customer before me had been sold an ex-display mobile phone, that a few years previously I'd been sold an ex-display MD player, that a few weeks previously a fellow work colleague of mine had been sold an ex-display hifi system and that on the net I'd exchanged stories with folk who revealed that they too had been "accidentally" sold ex-display models by Dixons.
I also told him about an email I received from someone who claimed they were an ex-Dixons employee. He told me that Dixons staff were given nice juicy discounts on ex display models. But why make do with an ex display model when you can have a brand new one? He went on to explain that at his store, they'd deliberately sell ex-display models to customers and keep the brand new models for members of staff to purchase with their staff discount. In other words, customers would be sold a second-hand DVD player for 280 quid, whilst the staff get to buy a brand new one for about 100 quid. The sales assistant went bright red and stuttered some sort of denial that this unofficial policy existed.
Anyway, eventually he made to grab my DVD player off the counter to take it "round the back". I told him that I'd rather hold onto it until he brings me a brand new one, just in case he took it round the back, "accidentally" scrubbed the dirty marks off and "accidentally" put it back in a different box.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, a got a new model. Not a scratch on it, properly sealed in its original box, no clicking and I got the initialisation screen first time I powered the unit up. I've had it for two months now and it works fine.
But this time, I *REALLY* mean it -- I'll *NEVER* shop in
Dixons (or affiliates) ever again. HONEST!