RETURN TO SENDER: LIVING WITH DIVX by Keith Taylor

The following report is a one reader's testimonial about the trials and tribulations of living with DIVX. We hope you enjoy it.

First of all, let me say that my decision to return my DIVX player was not in any way influenced by recent posters calling for the "badgering" of "anti-Divx zealots." It was due to difficulties with equipment, technical/service support from the Divx people themselves, and the lack of new software in the format.

I used the RCA Divx machine for two weeks as both a DVD and Divx player with few or no real equipment related problems. I had bought about 10 Divx discs that I had planned to watch over the next few weeks--none of which were available on DVD--and was generally pleased with the performance, etc. of the discs and the machine in general. Then, two interesting developments occurred. The first: my Divx player couldn't "phone home." Remember when I mentioned that I'd had some trouble with the modem in the player on the hookup? Apparently, it happened again. On Thursday of last week, I checked my voice mail and had no less than 8 consecutive "messages" from an "unavailable source" (according to my caller ID--this usually means that the call is coming from a network) and, when I checked the messages, it was clearly a computer dialing into my phone line. I can't be sure if this is the case, but it seems as if Divx central actually called my machine rather than they other way around.

At any rate, later that evening, when Ireturned home, the computer wouldn't play any more Divx discs. I called in and, sure enough, the Divx people had told me that they had not been able to communicate with my machine. I'm not sure whether the problem was actually modem related because, after I spoke with Divx, it occurred to me that my Divx player was plugged into a "switched" outled that I had inadvertently switched off. Whether all those calls came from Divx central or whether the machine tried to dial out and couldn't for lack of power, the machine immediately disabled its ability to play the discs. A phone call to the Divx people fixed this problem; they just sent out a command for the machine to "phone home" and it did. But, remember, this is the third modem-related problem I'd had with the player, and I really didn't relish the idea of having to call Divx every two weeks in the event that such problems were to continue. But, I still liked the player and decided to continue to use itdespite these difficulties.

Secondly, I had a "customer service" problem with Divx. Now, before I talk about this problem, I have to explain that what happened was really my fault and that Divx really did not HAVE to do anything to resolve this problem, but the way they handled this situation really bothered me. At my wife's request, I bought the Divx disc of "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"--you may remember that I mentioned this in an earlier post. I had watched it myself and the disc had worked just fine. Well, as I was briefing my wife on how to work the machine, I inadvertently purchased the "silver" option for that disc. I got buried in a set of menus and rather than pushing "exit," I pushed "confirm."

Well, I called Divx to explain what I had done and asked them to reset the disc and erase its "silver status." The Divx folks said that this was possible, but they never could figure out exactly how to do it. To make a long story short, we worked on the problem for quite some time on the phone with people ranging from customer services "specialists" to "senior technicians" and never did get the problem resolved. Finally disgusted with the entire process, I became, I suppose, irate and asked the person I was dealing with why it was that nobody at Divx seemed to be able to fix a relatively "minor" problem. At that point they reminded me that it was I who had caused the problem, not them. Although I suppose this was true, I thought this was pretty rude of them, particularly considering their own obvious incompetence.

I cannot abide any level of incompetence, and this was a big strike against Divx in my mind. But, the more I thought about this situation, the more I realied that I had given these folks access to my credit card and the authorization to charge on it. Normally, I don't have a problem with this; I do have a problem with this, however, if the company in question shows itself to be unwilling --or worse, unable--to fix what is bound to be the occasional billing error. Because the credit card I use draws from my checking account, I simply cannot afford a large mistake--or even the potential for one--if the company I'm dealing with does not have the will or, more appropriately, the capability to fix the problem. This situation is what caused me to start thinking about returning the player altogether.

But, the last straw for me was when I went to CC on the 16th to pick up the "X-Files" on Divx. My wife had not gotten to see the X-Files in the theater, and she is probably one of the series' biggest fans (I'd never watched X-Files until just prior to the film's release.) Simply put, my CC store didn't have the disc and could give me no indication of when they might get the disc in. As I looked at the Divx display, I realized that, in fact, my CC had gotten in perhaps 10 of what are supposed to be the plethora of new Divx releases weekly--and they weren't restocking the titles that they had sold. Why not? The answer to me was obvious--CC itself has no confidence in this product and are not adequately supporting it--and if CC doesn't support its own product, it's definitely not going to survive far into the new year. If they aren't going to support Divx, then why should I--how could I--support it? Really, there was no way for me to reasonably justify keeping the machine. I went to Best Buy, picked up a sell-through, P&S copy of the X-Files on VHS for my better half ($14.95--unlimited viewings) and went home to disconnect the machine.

The actual return process for me turned out to be easy as far as the CC people were concerned. They took back the machine no questions asked, just as they had promised they would. They also took back all of the unopened Divx discs and told me that I could just as well have returned the open Divx discs. Well, I didn't bring those discs back; since they've been watched, anyone who watched them after me would have been charged a subsequent viewing fee. That wouldn't have been fair, but CC didn't seem to think that was a problem.

"Decomissioning" the player though Divx, though, was, as usual, a hassle. After I'd returned the player successfully to CC, I called the Divx folks to tell them that I returned my player and asked them to deactivate my account. They told me that, in order to do so, they'd have to have my machine call in. I told them that I no longer had the player; they told me I needed to get it back in order to close my account. I asked them why this was the case, and they asked me if I had read the customer service agreement. I said that I had, and they said that they service agreement clearly stated that I had to notify Divx before I disposed of my machine. Indeed, the customer service agreement says very clearly that an owner must notify Divx within 24 hours AFTER a machine has been sold, returned, or otherwise transferred. After debating this point for a few moments with another customer service "specialist," I was transferred to a supervisor, who proceeded to read the Divx customer service agreement with me. Of course, he was embarrassed when he got to the part which said that Divx had to be notified AFTER the player was returned/sold rather than before--he apologized and said he had immediately deactivated my account. I asked him what would happen when the player was purchased by someone else, and he told me that the new owner would have to "decomission" the player before they set up an account with Divx or watch any Divx discs. Though he assured me that I would not be charged for anything that the new owners watched, I have already notified my bank that they are to decline any charges from Divx, and they have assured me that they will. But, the people who I feel the most sorry for are the people who purchase the machine as an "open box buy." They'll get a nice DVD player, but setting up for Divx will be twice as frustrating for them as it was for me.

In short, it turned out that Divx was too much of a hassle without enough benefits to compensate for the difficulties in using either the equipment or the "service" (I use that term loosely at this point.) Of course, setting up DSS is a hassle too, but the benefits are great enough to outweight the difficulties involved in setting up the player. As long as DVD and LD thrive, I don't mind renting a DVD--or a VHS--to watch a film, and its certainly a lot less trouble to do so. So, in short, Divx's equipment problems and shoddy customer service caused me to decide that the sole benefit which Divx provided for me--the ability to rent a film not available on DVD and listent to it in 5.1 audio--just wasn't worth the trouble or expense.

(Editor's Note: This story is the account of one consumer's experience with dealing with DIVX, and is not intended to speak for all DIVX consumers.)

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