Bandai Recalls DVD's / Allows Us To Handle Customer Exchanges

In yet another new update today, Bandai did a 180 degree turn on how they want to handle exchanges for the defective DVD's out of their Jan 8th release batch.

Originally Bandai had wanted customers who already had a defective DVD to contact them and they would handle the exchanges, but the problems are far to widespread for that. Since many customers have expressed their desire for us to handle the exchanges directly, I have been strenuously arguing with Bandai for a full recall that would give us the ability to exchange these DVD's directly for our customers, not to mention preventing more bad DVD's getting put into new customers hands.

I think Bandai management was initially resistant to do this for two reasons:

-They would have to admit the full scope of the problems.
-Many other retailers, seeing the scope of the issues, wanted to pass the buck onto Bandai and not incur the extra cost associated with handling exchanges in house.

We'll, I didn't let the issue go and today Bandai relented and formally announced a full recall of all retailer stock on the effected DVD's and a replacement program that will be put into effect shortly.

Here is a summary of what's going to happen:

1) As of 4PM today we have suspended shipments and pulled ALL inventory on the following effected DVD's:

Eureka Seven, Vol #11 DVD
Flag, Vol #2 DVD
My-Otome, Vol #4 DVD
Gundam Seed Destiny, Vol #12 DVD
Gundam Seed Destiny, Vol #12 DVD Limited Edition

Bandai will be replacing these DVD's with fixed disks that are expected to ship to us sometime around the end of January. We are putting these DVD's back on pre-order status and I'll probably set a new street date for the corrected disks around February 5th. If we get them in sooner then all the better.

2) You have two choices for replacement of your defective DVD's:

• RACS Direct: If you purchased your DVD from us, you can have us replace your bad disks directly. Just let us know and we will setup an in house replacement ticket that will be held pending new good stock from Bandai. Do not return the DVD's to us, we will provide a postage pre-paid mailer for you to return your bad disks to us in the package that contains your replacement disk. All existing replacement tickets that have already been setup will remain in force unless you tell us differently.
• From Bandai: If you would prefer to deal directly with Bandai, they will be setting up a special exchange request page out at the Bandai Entertainment site that you use to request replacements for your bad disks. This page will be setup and available to customers by January 17th. I have no idea why it will take that long for them to set it up, so don't ask me.

If you do want to deal with Bandai directly on these and already have a replacement ticket setup with us, just let us know and we'll cancel it. Otherwise, we're going to assume that you want us to handle the replacements for you directly. If you've been fence sitting and need us to setup a replacement ticket for you, just e-mail me directly and I'll take care of it for you.

I'm very happy about this because it will allow us to take care of our customers directly as soon as good disks are available and you will not have to wait weeks to get your disks exchanged with Bandai. Thanks to everyone who wrote in and pressed this issue, I forwarded several of your e-mails to Bandai to help drive the point home.

Bandai's official press release regarding the recall can be found here.