Blockbuster is Worst Video Chain Ever

[hershon]

I urge all of you to avoid getting DVD's from Blockbuster and Blockbuster online if you can avoid it. Let me tell you about my wonderful experience with both. I just signed up for Blockbuster Online (cancelled it yesterday) mainly because there were some rock DVD's I wanted to see and to be honest was planning to cancel when my free trial ended anyway. So I requested the 4 1/2 hour Complete Monterey Pop DVD. First these numbskulls send me Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop which is not what I requested, then after I alerted them to the error, they send me the standard 2 hour Monterey Pop DVD not the 4 1/2 version. In regards to Blockbuster the store, I went to the one in Chatsworth, CA, 91311 because the online membership gives you two free DVD store rentals each month that you can rents at the same time as they're 2 different coupons with your name on them. I planned to rent some more music DVD's. This moronic store which was fairly large had no music section, which to me is unheard of, then to cap it off, they say they scatter their music videos in the Comedy Section, which makes sense if you're a retard.
I then tried to use my 2 ecoupons to rent 2 DVD's and they incorrectly insisted I could only use 1 coupon at a time (ie. I couldn't use 2 coupons to rent 2 different DVD's even though it clearly says so on the coupons). Well I learned a long time ago, if you're getting screwed make a scene, I did, and the manager, made an "exception". To top off Blockbuster's stupidity, there are 2 other DVD rental places within 5 minutes of it and they rent new DVD's for 2 Days at $3 after tax. Blockbuster charges about $4.60 after tax per DVD. I am never going to Blockbuster again and can't figure out how they remain successful.

[kexodusc]

Funny, I was in a Blockbuster last week, and the poor lady in front of me had lost or damaged the "Matrix 3" DVD she rented...The cashier person there wanted to charge her $120 to replace it. I repeat: The cashier person there wanted to charge her $120 to replace it!!!

Being impatient, and next in line, I even got involved and said for $120 she could buy 12 of the "Previously Viewed" DVD's they had on the rack right beside the checkout counter!!!

The manager came out and wasn't budging, and she said "We will get this money from you, attacking your credit through our collection agency" and "It will get paid, OUR WAY"!!! Oh, the arrogance!!!
I don't have anything against Blockbuster, but perhaps a course in customer service should be mandatory for managers...finally after 10 minutes she bartered the lady down to $60 to replace the DVD. Still a rip-off.
Glad it wasn't me.

[sy_lu]

Yeh, I also had bad experiences with them when it comes to using coupon or those prepaid cards. Very unfriendly services. I don't go there any more. Little wonder their sotck price dropped from $20+ from Jan. to $8+ today.

[hershon]

Maybe the Melendez brothers weren't so crazy after all. I think Popa Melendez was a big honcho with Blockbuster!

Yeh, I also had bad experiences with them when it comes to using coupon or those prepaid cards. Very unfriendly services. I don't go there any more. Little wonder their sotck price dropped from $20+ from Jan. to $8+ today.

[This Guy]

I too hate them. I returned a dvd literally 5 minutes late. They charged me TWO weeks of having it, even though I had it for one week and 5 minutes. They wouldn't let me keep it for the second week after I returned it and they charged me two weeks for it...Bull****

[kpzbee]

Yep, good old Blockheads that need busted! We hate them too. They kept insisting we were always late on returning a movie. My Wife would fight with them & not let them charge us. Finally there was a class action suite about the overcharges. We haven't been there in years. We plan on signing up for Netflix this fall. Our friends have it & they love it.

[grampi]

I've never had problems with BB, but I have with Hollywood Video. I used to rent movies from them, then I'd return them using their drive through drop off box. Not once, but two times they claimed I hadn't returned a particular movie, when I knew for a fact I had. Both times I was able to convince them not to make me pay for the movies, but at that point, I had had enough of them and I stopped going there. Somehow, they were losing movies when they were bringing them into the store from the drop box. Idiots!

[kexodusc]

I don't think this is unique to BB by any means...the problem is they goofs these movie places hire to work there...I suppose when you pay kids $4.20/hour ya gets what ya pays for.

[progfan]

Yeah, I've had similar experiences in video stores, not just Blockbuster-though I refuse to go there anymore.

What I hate about the changeover from VHS to DVD is that it seems like most people who rent videos don't even know how to handle a DVD. For example, I rented "Bowling for Columbine" a few weeks ago. It's a double sided disc and when I took it home, it looked like it had been used as a frisbee. Luckily, it played ok, but a couple of times the disc skipped and an error "clean me" message came up on my player. I never mentioned the problem to anyone when I returned the disc because I didn't want to be charged $120 like the person above. Of course, since they have my account on file, they could still come after me I suppose.

My point is, I wanted to be honest with them and tell them they're offering a nearly defective disc but I know how these idiots can be and since I've never had a problem at this store before, I decided not to say anything.

[hifimaster]

The one good thing about BB is they are getting more widescreen versions of new movies. For a while a year or two ago, most of the new movies were only available in full frame (butcher mode). Now, pretty much every new movie is widescreen. I've even seen a few where both were available.

James

[eisforelectronic]

I have the bb movie pass. For $30 a month I can have up to three movies out at a time with no late fees and unlimited rentals. So far it's been well worth it, I easily rent between 6 and 12 movies a week.

Ok, now it sounds like I don't have a life.

[Geoffcin]

I urge all of you to avoid getting DVD's from Blockbuster and Blockbuster online if you can avoid it. Let me tell you about my wonderful experience with both. I just signed up for Blockbuster Online (cancelled it yesterday) mainly because there were some rock DVD's I wanted to see and to be honest was planning to cancel when my free trial ended anyway. So I requested the 4 1/2 hour Complete Monterey Pop DVD. First these numbskulls send me Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop which is not what I requested, then after I alerted them to the error, they send me the standard 2 hour Monterey Pop DVD not the 4 1/2 version. In regards to Blockbuster the store, I went to the one in Chatsworth, CA, 91311 because the online membership gives you two free DVD store rentals each month that you can rents at the same time as they're 2 different coupons with your name on them. I planned to rent some more music DVD's. This moronic store which was fairly large had no music section, which to me is unheard of, then to cap it off, they say they scatter their music videos in the Comedy Section, which makes sense if you're a retard.
I then tried to use my 2 ecoupons to rent 2 DVD's and they incorrectly insisted I could only use 1 coupon at a time (ie. I couldn't use 2 coupons to rent 2 different DVD's even though it clearly says so on the coupons). Well I learned a long time ago, if you're getting screwed make a scene, I did, and the manager, made an "exception". To top off Blockbuster's stupidity, there are 2 other DVD rental places within 5 minutes of it and they rent new DVD's for 2 Days at $3 after tax. Blockbuster charges about $4.60 after tax per DVD. I am never going to Blockbuster again and can't figure out how they remain successful.

Several states because of their business model. It had a good proportion of their profits coming from late fees, and overcharges. I used them for a time, but since getting digital cable I've had no use for them. I also pay an extra $5 a month for HBO on demand. If there a movie I have to see as soon as it comes out I BUY it, and never regret it.

[woodman]

What has happened to this once great and proud nation - where "fair play" was once considered to be a principle to be followed ... not ignored?

I've never dealt with Blockbuster personally, but after reading all of these horror stories, I have but one thing to say to them: "Eat sh!t and die - you gravy-sucking PIGS" This country has no use for the likes of you and the way you choose to participate in business ... period!

[hershon]

The only thing I can't figure out is how they can charge about $1.50 more a rental from 2 stores within 5 minutes of their Chatsworth CA store and stay in business. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all. At least I have better insight into the Meledez brothers who's dad was a big honcho for Blockbuster.

I used to belong to Netflix and got excellent service not like the Blockbuster knuckleheads. I basically cancelled my subscription to Netflix because there is a very cheap ($2.30 after taxes) DVD place within a 10 minute walk from me that actually gets new releases in a week before all the other stores do.

What has happened to this once great and proud nation - where "fair play" was once considered to be a principle to be followed ... not ignored?

I've never dealt with Blockbuster personally, but after reading all of these horror stories, I have but one thing to say to them: "Eat sh!t and die - you gravy-sucking PIGS" This country has no use for the likes of you and the way you choose to participate in business ... period!

[Woochifer]

I pretty much avoid Blockbuster because they dragged their tails before embracing DVD, and even when they finally stocked DVDs, they went exclusively with P&S versions whenever a dual release with widescreen was available. They finally woke up after getting complaints, but even now they don't train their employees about the difference between the aspect ratios. My wife overheard some clerk a while ago telling a customer that without a widescreen TV, a widescreen DVD was cutting off the image. I couldn't believe it when she told me this.

Even with those big stores, it's not like they have a huge selection of movies, especially offbeat titles and foreign films. And I don't know about you, but I find it annoying that they keep the box cover on the shelves even after the movie's been rented out. When I lived close to a Tower Video, I appreciated that what you saw on the shelves was what they actually had available for rental. Without all those box covers jamming up the shelves, that Tower location stocked so many more videos than Blockbuster in a much smaller space.

Plus, Blockbuster would cut all kinds of monopolistic deals with the studios in order to squeeze the independents out. My uncle used to own a video store and with first releases on new VHS titles, he had to pay the full "rental pricing" for his titles (which used to be $90 MSRP per tape during the initial release period, and the price would get knocked down to about $20 MSRP after a few months; this was the studios' revenue model, which is why most of them were so reluctant to support DVD at first). So, whenever a new release came out, he could only afford to stock a few copies at a time (or get his hands on a few black market copies).

However, Blockbuster made revenue sharing arrangements with the major studios, who would supply them with all the copies that they needed in exchange for sharing the rental revenue. Why do you think Blockbuster could "guarantee" that certain titles would be in stock? Blockbuster tried to get the studios to introduce "rental pricing" on DVDs because they saw that the tumbling prices on DVDs were driving customers away from renting movies altogether and more towards buying them instead. The studios also keep threatening to start introducing rental pricing, but nobody wants to be the first one to shoot themselves.

If Blockbuster really wanted to put the independents out of business, they just needed to start stocking porn, but their "family friendly" business plan always kept that (along with a lot of "unrated" versions) out of their stores. It's sad, but the porn industry has been friendlier to the mom-and-pop video stores than the major studios, and it's the one money making avenue that Blockbuster did not try to completely squeeze off. Porn never had rental pricing, so the independent stores could make a decent profit off of a popular title. At least with DVDs, independent video stores are now on some degree of cost parity with Blockbuster, since they no longer have to pay the outrageous rental pricing costs with new release VHS tapes.

[hershon]

As I said, most of the people working in the Blockbuster Store I mentioned were morons and there is no worse feeling in the world than having one of the morons tell you that music DVD's are mixed in the Comedy Section and replying why and having the moron give you a look like you're the moron! I realize these people aren't getting great money but they seem to be the stupidist people on the planet and there is nothing worse than a stupid person who doesn' know he's stupid- no snide remarks, please!

I pretty much avoid Blockbuster because they dragged their tails before embracing DVD, and even when they finally stocked DVDs, they went exclusively with P&S versions whenever a dual release with widescreen was available. They finally woke up after getting complaints, but even now they don't train their employees about the difference between the aspect ratios. My wife overheard some clerk a while ago telling a customer that without a widescreen TV, a widescreen DVD was cutting off the image. I couldn't believe it when she told me this.

Even with those big stores, it's not like they have a huge selection of movies, especially offbeat titles and foreign films. And I don't know about you, but I find it annoying that they keep the box cover on the shelves even after the movie's been rented out. When I lived close to a Tower Video, I appreciated that what you saw on the shelves was what they actually had available for rental. Without all those box covers jamming up the shelves, that Tower location stocked so many more videos than Blockbuster in a much smaller space.

Plus, Blockbuster would cut all kinds of monopolistic deals with the studios in order to squeeze the independents out. My uncle used to own a video store and with first releases on new VHS titles, he had to pay the full "rental pricing" for his titles (which used to be $90 MSRP per tape during the initial release period, and the price would get knocked down to about $20 MSRP after a few months; this was the studios' revenue model, which is why most of them were so reluctant to support DVD at first). So, whenever a new release came out, he could only afford to stock a few copies at a time (or get his hands on a few black market copies).

However, Blockbuster made revenue sharing arrangements with the major studios, who would supply them with all the copies that they needed in exchange for sharing the rental revenue. Why do you think Blockbuster could "guarantee" that certain titles would be in stock? Blockbuster tried to get the studios to introduce "rental pricing" on DVDs because they saw that the tumbling prices on DVDs were driving customers away from renting movies altogether and more towards buying them instead. The studios also keep threatening to start introducing rental pricing, but nobody wants to be the first one to shoot themselves.

If Blockbuster really wanted to put the independents out of business, they just needed to start stocking porn, but their "family friendly" business plan always kept that (along with a lot of "unrated" versions) out of their stores. It's sad, but the porn industry has been friendlier to the mom-and-pop video stores than the major studios, and it's the one money making avenue that Blockbuster did not try to completely squeeze off. Porn never had rental pricing, so the independent stores could make a decent profit off of a popular title. At least with DVDs, independent video stores are now on some degree of cost parity with Blockbuster, since they no longer have to pay the outrageous rental pricing costs with new release VHS tapes.