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I just opened my sealed copy of Battle of Algiers. I bought it at the B&N Sale in Union Square NYC last year. The packaging was Blu-ray, the item was sealed. The book was in fine shape. But disc 2 was completely missing (just an empty tray) and disc 1 was not the blu-ray but the DVD of the original release's disc 1 (the old logo and all). The back of the disc looked lightly warn, so I speculated that this may have been a trade-in program scenario gone awry.

The item was purchased "new" from B&N and I was shocked to see what was inside. Has anyone else ever had this happen? I'm not even sure what to go about doing as I bought it a year ago. I saved the shrink-wrap/barcode.

If you don't have a receipt, you're probably shit outta luck. Even with a receipt you'd probably be shit outta luck. Just curious... why'd you wait so long to open it? First thing I do when I get a new DVD/Blu is rip off the shrinkwrap and make sure everything's okay in there.

Actually, I'd say that if you email Jon Mulvaney about it ([email protected]), there's a good chance that they'll fix this for you.

This happened to me with Mutiny On The Bounty at Barnes and Noble. Opened it up and nothing inside. They said it was no big deal and happens from time to time. Do you still have the B&N shrinkwrap so you can at least prove you opened it there?

I once had an absolutely clear plastic disc instead of the DVD. God knows what happened, but it was easy enough to get replaced.

I once ordered a rather rare Songs: Ohia album that Secretly Canadian got back in stock briefly (years ago) and while the disc looked normal, instead of containing the album the CD was full of fifteen and thirty second radio ads! Luckily the label gave me another copy from their personal stash, but that was by far the weirdest plant error I've ever encountered

When I got the first Rage Against the Machine album on cassette (I had yet to get my first CD player), the entire tape was backwards.

I also had that exact same situation happen back in 2004 when I opened a shrinkwrapped case and found no discs at all inside the theatrical two disc DVD of the first Lord of the Rings film. I didn't realise such events were that common!

My favourite of these situations though was whilst on a shopping trip buying the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair back when it was newly released from a shop that kept the discs separate from their cases, and finding out just before leaving for home that they'd put the 1968 version inside the case instead! It might just be because I buy more online these days, so it might still be going on, but I'm glad that shops seem to just sell sealed DVDs now, which should help to minimise those kinds of mistakes!

med wrote:When I got the first Rage Against the Machine album on cassette (I had yet to get my first CD player), the entire tape was backwards.

Did listening to it make you want to obey authority figures?

Never happened to me but a friend once bought a sealed CD from Best Buy I believe, and it had a burned CD of something totally unrelated inside. He had some trouble convincing the store of his situation but eventually was able to exchange it.

Empty cases are easy to understand, but heck if I know how that can occur.

med wrote:When I got the first Rage Against the Machine album on cassette (I had yet to get my first CD player), the entire tape was backwards.

Were the lyrics pro-Capitalstic readings on the Protestant Work Ethic?

Edit: Just realized Gregory beat me to it.

Gregory wrote:

med wrote:When I got the first Rage Against the Machine album on cassette (I had yet to get my first CD player), the entire tape was backwards.

Did listening to it make you want to obey authority figures?

!em llet uoy tahw od t'now I ,uoy kcuF

Stuff like that happens,
I've gotten records that had side A on both sides of the record, I once got an Aphex Twin CD, but when played back, it was some 90's R&B singer.
Once my Dad bought a Celine Dion album, and it was missing one song entirely, "My Heart Will Go On", which he was pissed about. I think it was a sign that he should buy something better...

In my experience, this sort of thing is handled much better by websites than by actual stores. The first copy of Life Aquatic that came in the mail had a defective disc. I filed a complaint to the website, mailed it back and I was (I suppose accidentally) sent two copies of it. So not only did I get one without a wonky disc, I was able to recoup the money I got for it in the first place by selling off the other copy.

I had a Kino DVD where the cover and the film on the disc were Murnau's Faust, but the printing on the disc was for Švankmajer's Faust. No need for replacement, just a strange curiosity.

Speaking of Kino, when I purchased THE ART OF BUSTER KEATON box set on VHS, the cassette for THE THREE AGES, while labeled accurately, actually contained several W.C. Fields shorts.

By far the weirdest I ever encountered was a friend who purchased a sealed copy of Goldeneye for Nintendo 64 on release day. Instead of a game cartridge there was a piece of wood in the tray.

Some of the bizarre incidents (such as the piece of wood mentioned in the previous post) are the results of minor acts of workplace sabotage. I've read a number of anecdotes about bored or disgruntled workers in factories/assembly lines messing with machines in ways that affect a small portion of what is produced, or inserting strange objects such as notes inside packaging. One story involved a worker at a major fortune cookie factory who changed the fortunes to obscene and negative fortunes like "You deserve to die and soon you will!" These went out to restaurants all over the U.S., leading to a huge recall, but if a worker only intentionally messes up a few items, they can usually never trace it back.

It happened to me with a copy of Two-Lane Blacktop. Unfortunately, I didn't open it until I was home and it was weeks later. Wasn't even 100% sure where I bought it, and I definitely didn't have the receipt. I ended up ordering a new one and using the case as a spare.

Gregory wrote:One story involved a worker at a major fortune cookie factory who changed the fortunes to obscene and negative fortunes like "You deserve to die and soon you will!" These went out to restaurants all over the U.S., leading to a huge recall, but if a worker only intentionally messes up a few items, they can usually never trace it back.

That sounds like an urban legend or the plot of a Twilight Zone episode. Couldn't find any reference to it on Snopes, but I did find a weird fortune cookie lottery coincidence. And this horrific fortune cookie factory death, which is even more disturbing and Final Destination-esque.

warren oates wrote:

Gregory wrote:One story involved a worker at a major fortune cookie factory who changed the fortunes to obscene and negative fortunes like "You deserve to die and soon you will!" These went out to restaurants all over the U.S., leading to a huge recall, but if a worker only intentionally messes up a few items, they can usually never trace it back.

That sounds like an urban legend or the plot of a Twilight Zone episode. Couldn't find any reference to it on Snopes, but I did find a weird fortune cookie lottery coincidence. And this horrific fortune cookie factory death, which is even more disturbing and Final Destination-esque.

I read the fortune cookie story in an old interview with Jello Biafra, who has so many stories of pranks that he doesn't really need to make them up, and he's a voracious reader of strange news stories and has an amazing memory, though occasionally he may accidentally mix something up or embellish a little. There's also a whole book of firsthand stories like the ones I was talking about (titled Sabotage in the American Workplace), and sure a certain number may be embellished or even apocryphal, but most are true. I've known people who did things like this at jobs they hated. And of course there's an immense history on sabotage, some of which is designed only to cause very small problems on an assembly line or other workplace, to slow things down slightly, or just to blow off a little steam, such as indulging in a prank.

Oh, I don't doubt that clever sabotage happens. And I'm huge fan of both RE/Search Pranks! volumes too. Just that this one felt a little too good to be true. And that these kinds of stories -- even in the age of the Internet but certainly before -- often got reported as legitimate news. A tendency which pranksters like the Yes Men also use to their advantage.

One that may seem minor, but in fact ruined a viewing experience was my Artificial Eye "Apu Trilogy" DVD set.

The first time to watch the trilogy, I started with disc 1 "Pather Panchali", and while watching, I thought "Apu looks quite old, I thought the trilogy would start at a younger age..."

Ends up I had watched part 2, "Aparajito". AE screwed up and mislabeled discs 1 and 2. At least disc 2 had "Pather Panchali" and disc 3 was "World", so I had all 3 movies. Just strange to watch the trilogy in the order of "2, 1, 3" for the first time...