Is Blockbuster serious???

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

We belonged to Blockbuster online for several years. We have a store within 5 minutes of our home, and LOVED the in-store exchange option! However, the store closed about 6 months ago, which was right around the time we had noticed the dvd shipments were getting slower.

So, we switched over to Netflix and won't be going back. We've been streaming using my macbook for quite some time and can now stream with our Wii. I do miss the in store exchange. There have been a couple movies that never seem to get off of the "extremely long wait" list, so we end up paying to watch them on Demand. But, overall we've been happy and are glad we made the switch.

 

[hffmnheidi]

When I worked there...

The pre-sale movies like Titanic. We were encouraged to get people who couldn't really afford the 24.99 price to put down the 5 dollars so they could count it as a sale and when they didn't pay the rest for the movie, BB got to keep the 5 dollars as free cash. I know three of our managers walked out with 10-15 "free" movies that they passed out to their families.

If someone dropped movies off between 11:45 and 12 midnight, we were "encouraged" to leave those movies in the drop box so when they got checked in the morning, the ridiculous late fee was charged to their account. We had a lot of people dispute this, but the managers never budged and a lot of the accounts went to collections and the customers never came back.

When someone had a LARGE late fee for not returning a movie or lost the movie and was charged full price, we were "encouraged" to continue calling and harassing them for the money. I always had other duties and refused to call since only managers were supposed to do the calling according to the employee handbook.

I once had a woman who lost a movie and came in and let us know because she was honest and a regular every three day customer. The manager at the time actually had the balls to tell her the lost movie charge would be 200 dollars...100 for the movie and 100 for the fees. She told him he was nuts and she'd go to Wal-mart to get a replacement and she actually did. He told her that she was committing a fraud by buying a movie and replacing it. It was the same movie for 19.99. She told him she wasn't paying the fees and he told her that her account was cancelled and she was no longer welcome on any BB facility/property. He was a total *** and ended up getting fired because of sexual harassment and he stole a night's deposit. I was warned to keep my mouth shut while he erased the video tape of the incident. I didn't-I made an anonomous call to the customer hotline. Nothing happened, of course.

We once had a 21 year old manager who had sex with a 17 year old high school student employee in the parking lot in his car and got caught by the boy's mother. He was arrested, but never charged or prosecuted and continued working at BB but the other guy was fired because of the incident.

My favorite thing was when someone returned movies and mixed up by putting them in the wrong cases. We were told to not check them in and continue running up late fees. The movies were thrown in a drawer and then mysteriously found during inventory.

 

[mamaLori05]

When I worked there...

The pre-sale movies like Titanic. We were encouraged to get people who couldn't really afford the 24.99 price to put down the 5 dollars so they could count it as a sale and when they didn't pay the rest for the movie, BB got to keep the 5 dollars as free cash. I know three of our managers walked out with 10-15 "free" movies that they passed out to their families.

If someone dropped movies off between 11:45 and 12 midnight, we were "encouraged" to leave those movies in the drop box so when they got checked in the morning, the ridiculous late fee was charged to their account. We had a lot of people dispute this, but the managers never budged and a lot of the accounts went to collections and the customers never came back.

.

OMG!!!!! This totally happened to me and my dh a couple of times!! The first time I thought okay, maybe the person opening just didn't see it. The second time it happened I got sooooo pissed I went into the store and demanded my "late fee" to be taken off because I wasn't late. They refused to remove it, so I asked them to close my account because I was never coming back, and I never did go back. That was probably 10-15 years ago. I can't believe people could do that on purpose, and sit there and act like it is all your fault.

 

[hffmnheidi]

I can't believe people could do that on purpose, and sit there and act like it is all your fault.

Oh, yeah. Especially on Fridays and Saturdays. We'd have movies spilling out of the drop box onto the floor and just told to leave them. One girl fell over the tape boxes and split her forehead open when she fell.

 

[Planogirl]

That might have been that Blockbuster location but I have to admit that our Blockbuster was always honest and easy to deal with. We quit going because of the prices and because they were always out of stuff.

We go to Family Video now. I prefer to deal with real people rather than a vending machine and we get great deals there. Like already stated, the regular kids' dvd's are free! We also have very poor mail service so Netflix is out.

 

[meghanlea]

one went out of business a few weeks ago by my work

 

[aceys_h0ney]

All of ours went out of business. I can see why though they were horrible. Actually just about every movie rental in my city is gone. Redbox popped up everywhere. We are a Netflix family though. Worth every dime! (well except when I forget to return the movie for weeks on end but hey I am still only paying $10 for it not a huge fee)

 

[EKW]

Blockbuster Lady - "That will be ten dollars, please."
Me -

So I had to have sweet DD pick one, she chose Pooh because we are having breakfast with him in May. Sweet girl, she didn't even fuss about it.

I gave up on Blockbuster 13 years ago. Every time I'd go in they'd charge me late fees for movie's I'd returned on time. I finally started taking them in and making them check them in while I watched.

Even with that, one day I went in and they told me I owed them $85 for a Barney movie!!! I walked to the shelves, found it, and handed it to them. They were stupified as to how it had gotten back on the shelves without being checked in. So was I considering I thought I watched them do just that!

They removed the bill. We never went back again.

I don't rent movies at all anymore...we get them thru our local library system. They have all the Disney classics, and most of the Masterpiece editions (Oswald, Alice movies, etc.) When a movie comes out that I want to see I go online and reserve it...which is usually about 4 to 6 months before it comes out on DVD. I'm not always first in line, but for the price of free, it's worth it to me!

Our library system lets you keep older movies for a week...newer ones for 3 days...at no charge.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

We won't be going back to Blockbuster again until they change their price structure. $5 per movie is way too much for me. I'll pay $1 for Redbox or find it at the library (ours charges $1 per movie for two days).

Bye bye Blockbuster. Unless you change your "same price as Redbox" to be $1 per day like them, you aren't likely to survive long. I would consider paying $2 per day for a better selection. Until then, no thanks.

 

[DaniB]

Wow, what horrible stories!

I have to say our local Blockbusters has never treated us that way. However in the past year we have reduced our renting greatly! Most of our movies come from the library these days. The library finally realized what high demand movies/tv shows are and now we can get almost anything from them.

I have been hearing rumours out here that Blockbusters will be going bankrupt.

 

[Alesia]

We joined Netflix in February of 2002 and haven't been into a blockbuster since. All of the store around here closed about a month ago. I thought the company had gone out of business.

 

[acsprack86]

I never liked Blockbusters - even as a kid I thought there prices were ridiculous. Hearing the story about from the Blockbuster Employee about the late fees for the late night returns explains a lot of the ridiculous fees that my mom was charged. I believe their days are numbered. I went to a Hollywood Video closeout sale nearby last week, and I think that Blockbuster will be headed there shortly as well.

I was living in NYC for the summer last year and did not have a TV. It was then that I discovered Netflix. I got it for the two week trial when I was sick and stuck in my room, fully intending to cancel before I had to pay. I fell in love with the streaming option, and it wasn't even until I moved back home that I started to get DVDs sent. I am in love! I even got rid of the TV in my room and watch streaming movies instead. I haven't run into one movie that I wanted to see that wasn't available and I even found some obscure foreign language and ballet films that I have loved but wouldn't have the chance to see if I relied on Blockbuster.

 

[Jenn4615]

years ago my husband (then boyfriend) rented a video game on my blockbuster card. I returned the game ON TIME, even BROUGHT it in to the inside drop box...not the outdoor one... A few weeks later I started getting annoying phone calls.. that it was late never returned etc... I owed some ridiculous amount of money...more than if I had bought it NEW.... I kept calling and telling them it was returned etc etc...they kept telling me I was lying. FINALLY after months of fighting with me, they told me as a courtesy they would remove it from my account but that I was lying.
My brother had previously worked in the same blockbuster, and I had mentioned to him what was going on, he said that the employees would steal the games and never check them in. NICE... So the same person that was telling me I was lying was prob the one that stole the game! UGH
I stopped using them around that time. For awhile a few years ago we did blockbuster mail...then they started uping their fees even for that. So we Canceled them and went to NETFLIX... We have been with them for years now and LOVE THEM.
I have to say when I started seeing all the blockbusters going out over the last 6 months.. I was very happy! Jerks...

 

[Praying Colonel]

In the last 5 years, Netflix stock has gone up 638%, while Blockbuster stock has gone down 96%. Not hard to see what business model has won.

 

[nunzia]

We usually go to Movie Gallery for rentals, my 3 yr old is really the only one I rent for and their kids movies are a buck or two.

We were in a different part of town today and I had told her we could rent a couple movies for this week since it is sooooo hot.

So she picks out Winnie the Pooh (such a sweet classic) and a Word World DVD (a PBS show).

Blockbuster Lady - "That will be ten dollars, please."
Me -

ALL Blockbuster rentals are now $5.00 for 5 days. Wah!!??

She said it was the "same as the Redbox" prices. Uh, no. Redbox is $1.00 a day, I don't see Blockbuster refunding me $4.00 when I return it tomorrow.

This is crazy!!! I can do Pay Per View for less!

So is Blockbuster just trying to put themselves out of business?

Oh, and late fees are back too. Basically they charge you $1.00 per day after $5.00, "same as Redbox". Late fees in sheep's clothing.

No way in the world I will go to Blockbuster anymore. Their not new releases used to be about $3.50, and it is ridiculous to charge that much for a core kids movie.

So I had to have sweet DD pick one, she chose Pooh because we are having breakfast with him in May. Sweet girl, she didn't even fuss about it.

See...as I said in a previous thread..Blockbuster has always seemed a bit slimey to me and always chasing after a new promotion or other and they always get in trouble for being sneaky, etc. Ours went of business a couple years ago...I work part time at Hastings and our new movies are no more than 4.00 for a week AND you get a 2 dollar credit if you return the next day. Older movies, like the ones you mention are .99 for a week.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

BB lost my business a long time ago!

when I canceled my BB subscription (for the summer - had intended to start back up), they gave me a date to return the three DVDs I had. I thought that was good because I still needed to view them. I took my time. The return date was in writing in an email.

Within a week, they had charged my CC for all three. You would not believe how nasty and uncaring the customer service rep was. She just kept going over the same prepared lines - you could tell this was something they did often!!!! They had a different due date than I was given and they did not care what I was sent in writing.

Luckily, my CC company felt that since I had it in writing, they would take the amount of my CC without my having to file. I was more than happy to make that call to BB customer service!!!

I think BB made their money off "nickle and dime -ing" their customers. Their customer service was the worst I have EVER experienced. They were trained in how to get away with taking peoples' money - and not in best serving the customer.

I am not crazy about Netflix agreeing to get new releases later, but will deal. I have had no problems at all. (I had continuous problems wit BB: unplayable discs, etc) I may down grade my subscription to one a month if I find that we use the Red Box more often (our Redbox's get around this by buying store copies of new releases and putting non-official covers on them.) I have said it before, nothing will get me to sign up with BB, I won't be more likely to buy a DVD I wouldn't normaly - I am sticking to Netflix and Redbox!!!!!

 

[puffkin]

We used to use Blockbuster online (2 out at a time) with unlimited instore exchagnes AND a free coupon once a month that we could use for video games or a movie. All for $14.99/month. We only live 5 minutes from a Blockbuster, so it was great. Plus they would send out your next movie as soon as the disc was scanned in the store.

Well, then they took away the unlimited exchanges. Then they wouldn't send your next movie until you returned the store movie. Then they started taking 5 days to ship out a movie. Then they said if your movie at the top of your list said Short Wait they wouldn't go and send the next available movie on your list. It just goes on and on.....

We got a PS3 for Christmas and switched to Netflix and haven't looked back. We get our movies fast and the streaming is fantastic, especially for DS. Added bonus that we can now stream to the Wii in our other room. All that for $11 a month (we paid for the Blu Ray upgrade). Buh bye Blockbuster! Have fun in bankruptcy.

 

[clh2]

So is Blockbuster just trying to put themselves out of business?

IMHO - yes they are trying to go out of business.

Just a thought - does your library offer movies? That might be a great way to get some at a low cost. OUrs doesn't charge, but I know that some charge a minimal fee.

 

[maggiew]

years ago my husband (then boyfriend) rented a video game on my blockbuster card. I returned the game ON TIME, even BROUGHT it in to the inside drop box...not the outdoor one... A few weeks later I started getting annoying phone calls.. that it was late never returned etc... I owed some ridiculous amount of money...more than if I had bought it NEW.... I kept calling and telling them it was returned etc etc...they kept telling me I was lying. FINALLY after months of fighting with me, they told me as a courtesy they would remove it from my account but that I was lying.
My brother had previously worked in the same blockbuster, and I had mentioned to him what was going on, he said that the employees would steal the games and never check them in. NICE... So the same person that was telling me I was lying was prob the one that stole the game! UGH
I stopped using them around that time. For awhile a few years ago we did blockbuster mail...then they started uping their fees even for that. So we Canceled them and went to NETFLIX... We have been with them for years now and LOVE THEM.
I have to say when I started seeing all the blockbusters going out over the last 6 months.. I was very happy! Jerks...

There was one Blockbuster that this would always happen at. I would bring the movie back on time and then they would say it was late, missing, etc. All the time. I started writing down the time and date that I returned the video on my calendar. I stopped going there because of this. Its too bad because it was convenient.

I do netflix now too.

Maggie

 

[wgwtgb]

I hate blockbuster. closed my acct. there last week! We rarely rent movies, but we are the type of ppl. that drive by 100 times a week and never stop to drop off the overdue movie. So I know we will have to pay the 1.25 re-stocking fee...ok... but last week I got a call saying we never returned 2 movies. I know DH dropped them off and he confirmed. Called the store and they forgot to put it in the computer. We were going to refuse to pay but then they sent a bill from a collection agency. As to not ruin our good credit we paid it (and picked up the 2 movies we never intended to watch again), closed the acct., andcalled the 1-800 number provided to file a complaint... like they really care. Using the red box from now on!!!!