"The Case of the Scratched Steelbooks"
. . . and as Sherlock Holmes said in "The Sign of Four" (and probably elsewhere) "Once you've eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".
So who caused the scratches?
- THE IMPOSSIBLE: some will say it happened during the manufacturing process at the Scanavo plant or at Eureka HQ . . . I personally wouldn't go along with that view.
- THE IMPROBABLE: some will say it happened somewhere between the manufacturing and retail stages and would point the finger squarely at the Sony DADC plant or to put it another way they would say that the scratches were not made at Eureka or at Scanavo but at Sony DADC (and it should be remembered, based on their reply to my recent email, that Scanavo had no knowledge of any issues regarding this steelbook at the time).
Why Sony DADC?: Sony DADC is responsible for the replication and printing work for many of the small independent labels such as Arrow, Eureka, BFI or Criterion UK so I feel on balance of probability that the scratches occurred post manufacturing just prior to affixing j-cards and factory seals at one of the Sony DADC plants.
. . . and I remember reading that individual labels don't physically pack their discs and booklets in the cases themselves or affix the j-cards so I feel confident that the scratched backs won't have been caused by anyone who works directly for Eureka unless they took each steel out of its factory seal, played a few games of Curling with them and the re-sealed them (No, I don't think so).
That being said the customer's contract is with Zavvi so Zavvi is liable for replacements / refunds . . . it's been good to read that Eureka have been obliging enough to help customers directly by sending out replacements - something that they are not obliged to do - credit to them
