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Disney DVD - Top Notch Customer Support

Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp courtesy Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

I find it's always easier to complain about a company than to praise it, so tonight, Christmas Eve, I wanted to spread some kind words for the customer support at Disney DVD (Buena Vista Home Entertainment). Disney makes it extremely easy to contact their customer support people by printing the phone numbers on each disc they release. You don't have to hunt for web forms buried deep inside a corporate website, you just have to look at the label on your DVD.

I've had to call them twice in the past month, once to get a scratched Scrubs season 6 DVD replaced, and again as part of the Pirates of the Carribean DVD replacement program, and both times I spoke to a friendly customer service rep. They quickly confirmed some information with me and then said my replacement disc would be on its way. The whole call took less than 5 minutes.

Disney makes it easy to contact them, and then they provide friendly service on the other end of the line. Two thumbs up for their customer support - the other studios could learn a thing or two.

Gord

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Posted by

Gord Lacey

Dec 25, 2007 12:43 AM

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I'm all about good customer service. I hate having to hunt forever to find a number, and then having to negotiate endless computer navigation menus before talking to a live person, if you can even get that far.

Speaking of good customer service, I once e-mailed Big Idea (maker of Veggie Tales) about a DVD that I had bought that was defective. I got a prompt response and was told that many copies of that DVD had problems, and I needed to send in my name and address to receive a free copy on VHS. Before I managed to do that, I had bought a second title with the same problem. When I sent in my address and explained that another DVD was defective, not only did I get VHS copies of both of them, I got a DVD of another title and some stickers.

I'm always appreciative of customer service reps who reply promptly (and at all) and who go that extra step to resolve problems. If only more companies (not just those who make DVDs) would follow suit.

Posted by monkey65

Dec 25, 2007 10:02 PM

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I'm not all that impressed with Disney Customer Service. My only contact with them has been through email via their web pages, but it wasn't much in the way of support.

I had problems with Ratatouille -- after exchanging it at the store where I'd bought it, the second copy had exactly the same problems as the first.

The DVD would freeze during the Main Menu preamble (the moving menu that plays up to the point the selection buttons are displayed) -- I was able to use Skip to get to the menu itself. Once there, the DVD would freeze when selecting Play Movie, and at that point the DVD was so frozen the only thing I could do was Eject. I did find I could select Setup and from that menu I could select Resume Movie to get it to play.

I sent an email to Disney Customer Support via their web, describing each problem as above, and the email I got back in response said (excerpting):

``....press the Next or Skip button on the DVD remote 1 time as soon as the DVD Main Menu starts to appear. This will bring you to the Main Menu and you can select play as you normally would.

If feature will still not load, once you get to the Main Menu using the skip button, select Scene Selection from the Main Menu. Now press Enter when Chapter 1 is highlighted. This will cause the feature to play as normal.''

They pretty much just parroted back to me what I'd already told them. No admission of problems with the pressing. No offers to replace. Nothing really very helpful at all.

So I'm left with a broken disc, but because I can manage to get it to work, it doesn't feel worth wasting time and energy to pursue it further.

I had better luck previously with Universal Studios Customer Support. When I bought Sliders Season 3 from Amazon, it had freeze problems on a couple of the discs, so I ordered a replacement from Amazon but that set also had problems (though not in exactly the same spots). I'd've normally tried to put together a good set from the parts of the two sets, but problems occurred on common disc sides between the two sets, so I ended up sending both back to Amazon and ordering a third from another online site. This third copy also had problems, so I contacted USHE about it.

I had to talk them into sending me a Postage Paid return envelope to return the two bad discs, but they did it, and they replaced both discs with copies that did work. It wasn't seemless working with Universal in this case, but they did work with me and they did solve my problems.

Posted by dbmears

Dec 26, 2007 2:41 PM

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