Do you like to rent from Blockbuster Video?

[TubStain]

Netflix is definitely a much better deal.

I kidna ignored my Fair warning letter deal that I got for a comcast cable box that I retured to them, but they cant find in their inventory. I called 2 times, was told that they would track it and let me know...no news....just kept ignoring the stupid warning letters...I'm not about to pay $250 on a cable box that they have. Should have gotten a recept.. I'm an idiot too...

My credit is stellar, so I wonder how much it will affect it. I'm guessing for 3 years or so, no biggie tho since I'm not making any major purchases during that time frame.

go with netflix and make sure that the distribution center is close to you. Mine is the next town over!

 

[BuMMiE]

Same thing happened to me too...except it was for a game. They called me and said they didn't receive the game back, but my friend was the one who returned it. So I call him, and he talks to the manager. After a while they stopped harrassing me, and I called them and asked them what happened. Apparantley they found it...what a hassle! But anyways, I suggest you have them scan every single copy of Monsters Inc. to make sure that they don't have it in stock. Even if they don't have it in, I suggest you fight this to the bitter end...because there is no reason you should pay for something in which they are at fault. But I feel for you...I'm sure it's a huge headache, but when you win, you might be able to get something out of it (a free rental maybe? ) Good luck, and I hope you win this one.

 

[Mill]

Any movies that are late or reported returned are looked for in Daily FOS reports. Collection boxes are actually emptied more often than a hour. The only possible thing that could have happened was the DVD was stolen by an employee or not checked in and then stolen off of the shelf. If an employee tried to check the movie out to another customer without checking it in first it automatically checks it in for you.

Just dispute the collection attempt. Leave message on the DM's voice mail and when all that fails(it will) call Corporate(if the store is corporate and not franchise) and tell them your story. I stopped receiving notices after I called corporate.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

What Millenium said. Raise hell

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
What Millenium said. Raise hell

That will get them off your back

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: Dacalo
BB pulled similar thing on me too.

Same here. I called them, they asked me if I may have returned it to the wrong store and a few other things stupid people do. (Not saying I couldn't have done 'em... ) So, after the interrogation, and my insistence I returned it... they said they would check the shelves. Sure enough I got a call back about 15min later that they had found it.

Another time they said I owed them $4.24 for a late fee. I was pissed because I had returned the movie at very close to but not after 12pm on the day it was due. The mgr had the nerve to tell me it wasn't checked in until 4pm and that's when it was returned. I calmly explained that I was sure I had returned it at 12PM, by my watch it was 5minutes to 12 and if they wanted to charge me a late fee for being 5minutes late I'd pay it, but, that it was not 4hrs late.

She ended up not charging me the late fee but said I had to get a receipt from now on. Which sucks because you have to go inside and hand it to a cashier and they have to scan it and print it out and it takes about 2min longer.

Anyway, if you go to the store and raise a complained most likely they'll drop it. I really hate blockbuster but they have a monopoly on video stores so there's not much other choice. I looked into opening my own video store but it's a tough business to make money in,at least based on my limited research.

 

[kami]

I dont' rent from them simply because they are Anti - OAR

(OAR = original aspect ratio)

They usually carry fullscreen releases, their staff is not knowledgable about such things. If you ask if they have a widescreen version they say something like "oh no, don't worry...we don't carry any widescreen"

 

[Spac3d]

I hate Blockbuster.

If I have to rent, I do it through Netflix.

Spac3d

 

[rh71]

Last time I was at Blockbuster to rent an XBOX game, they told me I had an outstanding charge of $11+ for an un-returned movie. Some comedy flick that I can't recall at the moment. Anyway, I know it wasn't me because:

1) I hate comedies
2) I'm the only one with my blockbuster card (they had to write in my acct number since the card generator was broken that day I signed up)

Without even going into those 2 reasons, I simply said "no, I never borrowed that"... just waiting to prove myself, and the guy said, "ok, no problem" and took the charge off.

WHAT are they trying to pull ?!

 

[Amused]

I've had nearly every problem renting movies listed in this thread and more... way back when VHS was the norm.

Am I the only one who has stopped renting altogether? I just buy movies now. If I end up not liking them very much, I just give them to someone I think might like them.

 

[LethalWolfe]

don't fight it at the store level (it sounds like the manager is burn-out). Fight it at a corporate level. at least around here corporate always kisses the customer's @ss. We had a guy yelling profane words on a friday night and personally insult each staff member about the charges he got for movies he admited were turned in late. He then called the store back to yell some more. He then called corporate. Corporate called our store to get our side of the story. Corporate then cancelled his debt and sent him some f'ing coupons.

And no offense but anytime someone says "I know for a fact taht I did return it" it's just asking for trouble. Anytime you take the "I'm know I'm right, which means you're wrong" attitude it's a CS nightmare. I'm not saying you didn't return it, I'm just saying anytime you deal w/people who work w/the public all day the nicer/less aggresive you are the more likely you are to get yer way and get free sh*t and/or preferd treatment in the future (at least that's been my experience).

If you were being civil and the manager was rude make sure, as I'm sure you have, that his/her bosses know it.

And yes I'm playing Devil's advocate here 'cause the customer base of the store I worked out were stuck-up snobs and yuppies who never did anything wrong. Even though for everyone one movie that wasn't checked in right we had 9 or 10 that were returned to the wrong Blockbuster or Hollywood video, or the public library, or some local chain, or the grocery store, or the kids didn't drop it off, or it was left in the car, or they loaned it to someone else who swore they would get it back on time and everyone of those customers screamed at the top of their lungs that they turned it in to our store on time. And as a last ditch scream fit they'd yell how "dumb" it was to have to return the movie to the same store you rented it at... Of course, now I'm just ranting.

Vic, if you did turn it in and you really wanna have some fun ask to see the security tape from the day you dropped it off. I dunno if all BB are like this but my store had the drop box on camera (not it's own camera, but you could see it from one looking at the registars).


Lethal

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Blockbuster is evil. It's been asserted that their R-rating only policy has been responsible for "forcing" edits to be made in movies (like the digitally inserted characters in Eyes Wide Shut) to comply with MPAA guidelines (or give up any hope of being able to get your film into the rental market).

Of course, I think the MPAA rating system is a joke, too, but Blockbuster is the means by which the stupidity has weight.

 

[CraigRT]

OMG this happens to me all the time!
late charges I NEVER RING UP..
I hate that store, and I will never go in there ever again... HELLHOLE!!!

if I rent anything, it's from Rogers video.

 

[Vic]

Thanks everyone for their help and input.

Hollywood was always my favorite place to rent in the past and I'm simply never going to rent from Blockbuster again. They have lost me as a customer. Period.

LethalWolfe, I appreciate your help but (in a way) your advice is just further proof to me as to how bad customer service has slipped in corporate America. No one from Blockbuster called me about the missing movie, no letters were sent, nothing... until I got a collection notice. Blockbuster had my current phone number and address, they have no excuse. Had it not been for the fact that the CC info they had on me was 8 years old, I am certain that they would have made an unauthorized charge to my credit card for this already.

This is unacceptable customer service under any circumstances. What troubles me most is that the average consumer is getting used to this kind of treatment. They're getting used to being treated like a potential thief. They're getting used to snot-nosed minimum-wage clerks treating them like dirt. Consumer payback is coming someday for this, mark my words.

On a brighter note.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Amused
I've had nearly every problem renting movies listed in this thread and more... way back when VHS was the norm.

Am I the only one who has stopped renting altogether? I just buy movies now. If I end up not liking them very much, I just give them to someone I think might like them.

I was going to say the same thing. I've had so many problems renting from Blockbuster, I stopped renting altogether. Like you, I purchase all my DVDs...sometimes even at Blockbuster when I can pick up previewed DVDs for cheap.

 

[911paramedic]

Top Of The News: Bogus Blockbuster Settlement

That Blockbuster is continuing to charge the same fees the same way would seem to prove the point. But it has been sued over late fees before, and it changed its policy so that a customer will not ordinarily be charged more than twice the original rental fee. Late fees--or what Blockbuster calls its "extended-view policy"--have accounted for 19% of the company's revenue in the past.

...and that was back in 6/2001, I read a more recent article about it but really dont want to go looking for it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Amused
I've had nearly every problem renting movies listed in this thread and more... way back when VHS was the norm.

Am I the only one who has stopped renting altogether? I just buy movies now. If I end up not liking them very much, I just give them to someone I think might like them.

Try netflix -- no late fees, no time limits at all, very good selection and several levels for how many movies you can have rented out at once (2 to 8 discs).

It's a great way to see things you're pretty sure you don't want to own, or to try before you buy on expensive items like box sets, foreign and anime. Buying 1 less disc a month would get you the 2-disc membership.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: Vic
Thanks everyone for their help and input.

Hollywood was always my favorite place to rent in the past and I'm simply never going to rent from Blockbuster again. They have lost me as a customer. Period.

LethalWolfe, I appreciate your help but (in a way) your advice is just further proof to me as to how bad customer service has slipped in corporate America. No one from Blockbuster called me about the missing movie, no letters were sent, nothing... until I got a collection notice. Blockbuster had my current phone number and address, they have no excuse. Had it not been for the fact that the CC info they had on me was 8 years old, I am certain that they would have made an unauthorized charge to my credit card for this already.

This is unacceptable customer service under any circumstances. What troubles me most is that the average consumer is getting used to this kind of treatment. They're getting used to being treated like a potential thief. They're getting used to snot-nosed minimum-wage clerks treating them like dirt. Consumer payback is coming someday for this, mark my words.

On a brighter note.

Vic, even though I don't work for BB anymore I am sorry you had such a bad experience at BB. I've worked retail/CS for almost 10 years and I always tried my best to please my customers and I hate hearing about such blatantly bad CS.

It sounds like the manager there is burned out and needs to be fired. Unfortunetly it is a PITA to fire someone for being a moron. We had a manager that, oh, was the cause of 90% of the complaints at our store but she didn't get fired until a CSR confirmed that the manager called a customer a b*tch. In our sue happy society companies are afraid to fire people unless they have an air-tight justification (even though everyone at BB signs paperwork saying they can be fired any time for any reason).

And don't even get me started on the "chicken or the egg" problems surounding CS in America....:|


Lethal