Solving the Non-Problem

Last night The Captain and I thought we'd watch a Netflix movie, but as soon as we slid American Hardcore out of its envelope, we knew it wasn't going to happen. The movie was so scratched and worn there was no way our DVD player would even recognize it. Luckily for us, we had other options; we ended up watching the very weird but strangely captivating Thumbsucker instead. But what of our first choice, which we'd been dying to see since it was released?

Rather than go through an arduous process of filling out a return form, getting authorization, and waiting on a replacement which may or may not suffer the same fate of the first, Netflix has a system that removes all possibility of further disappointment. It's brilliant in its simplicity.

All we did was hop online and indicate the disc was damaged. Today, a replacement is being mailed to us; Netflix doesn't even wait for the damaged disc to be returned. But the crowning glory of their solution to what has to be a common problem is this: the disc they are sending out is brand-spanking new. This means that there is zero chance we'll have the same problem happen twice, a calamity that may not destroy our relationship with the company but would certainly annoy the hell out of us.

Of course, it would be wonderful if quality control at the warehouses were such that they could catch every scratched disc before it ever went out in the first place. But I suspect that checking the playability of each of hundreds of thousands of DVDs before mailing would undermine one of the main draws of Netflix: quick turnaround. Instead, they make damn sure that a minor, once-in-a-while inconvenience never has a chance to blow up into an all-out pain in the butt. They solve the big problem before it ever happens. Smart move.

What can you do to think ahead and make sure the inevitable mistakes that happen to all of us now and then don't come back to haunt you forever?