Is Blockbuster serious???

[budbeerlady]

I love Netflix, we have been with them for years now without issue. If I have a free code I let Dd grab something from Redbox.

 

[DISdreamin']

Last year we had started to use BB occassionally for kids movies -they were cheap and it gave the kids an opportunity to browse through movies. When I went in a few weeks ago only to find the $5 for all pricing structure, I had them close my account. I also contacted corporate and shared why I was doing this.

IMHO, BB is not long for this world, as others have said. We now have Netflix and we also "rent" kids movies from the local library. FREE is good! I put in online requests and get emailed when they come in. It's awesome...and did I mention FREE?!?!

 

[krcit]

I agree that it is only a matter of time before BB goes out of business. We don't watch a ton of movies, maybe1-2 a month and I just order them on demand. It's $4.99 for new releases and it just gets added to my bill.

 

[hffmnheidi]

The popcorn they used to sell/give away was old and stale. There were plenty of customers who refused to take it. The employees could and would steal so much stuff it was unreal. I never did because I was worried about getting caught.

 

[luvmy3]

I thought Blockbuster was completely out of business ours has been closed for awhile. I used to do Netflix but with FiOS we just rent directly from them.

 

[maleficentmom]

Food City Grocery Stores in our area have all rentals for $1 right now,plus after so many rentals you get 1 free.Food cities are located mainly in TN<VA>and Ky, i believe.

 

[teddygurlkeekee]

My husband and I use Netflix right now and LOVE it! We especially love that awe can do seasons on there too! We are probably going to have to give up though in the coming months because the military is sending us overseas

 

[andrews_dad]

Family Video is a great place to get kids' movies. They are free! Then they have older dvds for $1 and it goes up a little from there. And there's different fees for how many nights you want them instead of paying $5 for one night or five.

Is that a store or an online site? Never heard of it.

 

[scrapquitler]

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

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

That is why all the blockbusters in my area are going out of business. Between Nextflix and Redbox, why would I want to rent from Blockbuster?

 

[HolliePoppins]

Food City Grocery Stores in our area have all rentals for $1 right now,plus after so many rentals you get 1 free.Food cities are located mainly in TN<VA>and Ky, i believe.

There is at least one Food City in Maine that I know of.

 

[Swimalie]

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.

That happened to me. I dropped off a movie in the drop box (external one near the store) and it never got checked in. My card was charged $360 for the 2 movies. I fought with the store and used my credit card and won. I only had to pay the late fees of $60, I think. Of course back then I was a college student and that was even a lot. But the kid I was baby sitting and I had rented for paid for half. I stopped renting from Blockbuster after that.

 

[Irin997]

The two BB in my area are closed. There is still one near me, but I do believe it won't be long before they are gone. Within 5 minutes of my house, I have 3 Redbox and 1 DVD Express kiosks. DVD Express is exactly like Redbox, just a different name.

I also have been a faithful Netflix subscriber for many years. Now that I have streaming for the Wii I will probably downgrade my subscription to 3 at a time to 1 or 2. I'm not sure yet, but I find myself watching more TV or Wii/Netflix movies than DVD's. Could be cause season premiers aren't over yet!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We just received our streaming disc for Wii from Netflix. I was surprised by their children's selection, it's pretty good. I think we get two discs at a time for $16ish per month and between DH and DD it's well worth it.

Woo-hoo I just requested mine. I wasn't aware this was happening, my brother has it for his PS3. Thanks so much!

 

[wshupnastar]

Like many others, I gave up on Blockbuster years ago. Basically, for me, it was customer service. The manager of the nearest Blockbuster to us allows his employees (because, I guess, he himself does it) to smoke right in front of the entry door. Oh, and they would do this while on the clock. Not on break. More times than one I would have to wait to pay for the employee to see me from their cigarette break outside. And I would have to walk through a cloud to get in the door. I got tired of it (and I am used to smokers, my Mom is one and I spend tons of time with her, but the amount of smoke was ridiculous.) and contacted Blockbuster's corporate office. They just had the manager of that store (again, part of the problem!) call me. He explained to me that there was no where else for the employees to smoke. If they smoke out the back door, they can't see the customers. Seriously. Apparently waiting to smoke while off the clock was just too much for them!

I live in a small town. No Redbox. Local library only offers a few DVDs. Netflix is great. I love always having something to watch and the streaming from the Wii is a great addition!

 

[Sleepy]

I worked for BB from 92-95. The prices you describe are not far off from what they were then. Actually, the late fee is cheaper now. At least now the length of rental is several days longer.

 

[Sleepy]

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.

Stuff like that never happened at the stores I worked in.

 

[WendyisDarling]

I had an experience like OP last week.
Not long before DS could choose a kids movie for $1 or $2 and keep it for 5 days plus a few days grace period on returns. A decent deal.
Going in I expected the same, but was told $5 for 5 days and no grace period. This was for some old kids video that I could probably buy for $5 in a bargain bin.
Somehow I had a coupon on my account and got it for free for 1 day. Kind of a pain to return in time --making a special trip.

Exactly what I said...are they trying to go out of business?

We use Netflix and got the Wii disk. DS likes to physically look at the movies, though, so I think we'll be hitting the library in combination with Netflix.

 

[Folklore]

Stuff like that never happened at the stores I worked in.

Same here. At our store the policy was that in the mornings we would use the previous date to check in all the movies in the drop-off box to avoid customers getting late fees.

 

[hffmnheidi]

I think it probably depended on the managers in each store and the regional manager. Ours were slimy, so not everyone has the same experiences. Found out from a friend who still works there who is now a manager, that the regional manager was replaced after there were like 300 customer complaints about the late fees and the staff. She said that she's really cleaned up the place, but too little too late in this case. Jenn told me that in two weeks, she only had 70 customers(including 2 weekends) and she's been told to expect a closing date soon.

 

[Planogirl]

Is that a store or an online site? Never heard of it.

It's a chain but I don't think that it's everywhere yet. Ours even has all movies for $1 for five nights now and you can't beat that!

I'm puzzled by the love for Redbox. I'd much rather deal with real people when it costs me about the same. Family Video's service is always quick and friendly and they usually have what we want on the shelves. It just seems so unfriendly to deal with a vending machine but to each their own.