Rant: Stupid Blockbuster! RipOff!!!!!

Brookstone

Active member
Sep 11, 2004
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not the first time i've been put in this type of situation. Maybe its just my luck or something, idk.

Just got back from blockbuster and the guy tells me i had a bal of 2.50 for a restocking fee of a movie back in June. I was like What????
He ends up waiving the fee cuz he checked the computer and finds that it was later found.
So basically i returned a movie and they know i returned it, but because for some reason they misplaced it after it was returned, i was charged for it. And when they do find it they charge me a restocking fee!! Wtf is that !!!
Funny thing is this is 2 months after, i had gone to other blockbusteres numerous times in between these months, and nothing.

I was in another similiar incident as well couple years back, where they said i never returned something, but i knew for a fact i did cuz i dropped by there at 6:30am to return it before i went to work. When i first talked to 1 of the guys on the phone, he was very rude and he made it seem like they were perfect , telling me that they dont make mistakes and its definitely me that didnt return it. Which i thought was very odd and very very rude to talk to a customer like that.
When i finally talked to the manager it was the total opposite. I told her i know for a fact i returned it , she was like ok , and that was it.
But after that incident, i stopped going there for about a year.

When i finally did return, last summer, there was a hold on my account that just never went away. They keep telling me oh i've taken it off now but next time i go back its on there again. there was no reasons for any holds either.

I should've never went back. But i did cuz there were some hotties at the store i like going to at the time, which is the same store i just went to. This is 1 of the better looking and bigger stores in my area but i'd have to say i've also had the most unpleasant times at this store.

Now i've finally had it, I am not going thru this kinda shit again. I dont understand things like this can happen , how these guys can Lose a dvd.

I drop off a dvd in the drop box, you pick it up and scan it to mark that its been returned and you put it back onto the cart/shelve or whatever else.
How fricking hard is that???????!!!!!!!!!

I am never going back there again. I can just go to pacific mall every so often and stock up my movies there. I've decided. It would be even cheaper than renting. And i wont be getting charged for others mistakes!!
 
Think that is something...

When I lived it Ottawa loaned my Blockbuster card to a LF of mine. Never did get it back. Moved to Toronto some months later. Went to Blockbuster here in Toronto to join up again. They try to hit me up for two movies never returned in Ottawa. I just walked out of the store and have never been back since. True story.
 
Yea well, that's corporate canada for you but I've never had a problem with them. It sounds very typical of big business, if they make a mistake it is up to YOU to proove THEM wrong...not the other way around.
 
Whati dont get with BB is why they dont have a system where they can just look up things at other stores.....they always have to call....why not just use an intranet or the net itself like chapters does....
 
fantasiafan said:
Whati dont get with BB is why they dont have a system where they can just look up things at other stores.....they always have to call....why not just use an intranet or the net itself like chapters does....

cuz that would be too easy......
 
thought of this last night. They should have a self scanner things or whatever you call it right by the counter where you walk in. Customer can just scan the dvd as they are walking in to record that it has been returned. If theres any late fees or whatever then they will know soon as they rent another when they walk out. There would be no dispute as to whether or not the customer has returned the dvd.
I think this would be good, cuz apparantly them doing it themselves is too hard. I still dont understand how they can Lose a dvd inside the store. Ridiculous. On top of that, the movie i rented last night, the ringer, wasnt even that good/funny.

Ya i've also thought of investing in a dvd burner and just dl and burn them. 1 thing i would miss about blockbuster is renting xbox games. I dont do it that often but still its nice to play out a game before deciding to buy it. Esp if the game sux.
 
Without buying bootleg copies from street vendors or dealing with long and questionable downloads, you can also buy DVDs used on Amazon or Ebay. It can actually cost about the same as a Blockbuster rental.

Or, Walmart or Blockbuster themselves often have bargain bins, where you can just buy the DVD for about the same as a rental.

And in my area, there are Redbox vending machines at McDonald's and grocery stores where you can rent a DVD for $1/night.
 
TheNiteHwk said:
They try to hit me up for two movies never returned in Ottawa.

I would too. You were in the wrong. If you lent your card (which you're not supposed to do, btw), you're responsible for when your friend misuses it. It's called responsibility.

Now what you should have done, and what I would have done, is pay the late fee or penalty or whatever (b/c it's my responsibility to do so since I was the one who inappropriately lent my card out to someone else) and then taken it up with my so-called friend. But then, it's much easier to just blame BB now isn't it? :rolleyes:
 
While I agree that BB makes mistakes and even I've been burned by them in the past, for every mistake BB makes there are 10 jokers out there who return movies late or lose them and then claim they returned them on time. If everyone who actually claimed to be in the right actually were, then BB wouldn't be such a-holes when it comes to their policies.
 
milhouse said:
Just got back from blockbuster and the guy tells me i had a bal of 2.50 for a restocking fee of a movie back in June. I was like What????
He ends up waiving the fee cuz he checked the computer and finds that it was later found.

Yes, it can be fucking annoying.

It happened to me twice already at my local BB in the past 2 years. The funny thing was that the store knew me , and that I rarely over held my rentals, always paid my late fee ( back then ) the same day I returned. The staff cleared that for me of course, and said it must have been just a "computer thing".

This year I started doing my rentals at Roger's and haven't had this problem so far. BB lost my business alright.
 
ya i agree NH, in that case i guess it would've been your friends fault. Thats why i dont share/lend my any cards or similar to anyone. Learned my lesson from borrowing books from library when i was a kid.

MO, i feel for you, that was brutal. good thing you cleared it up, but its ridiculous how rude they can get, cant believe the guy actual told you to go to the store. Thats what i dont get, they make themselves sound like the perfect person that they dont ever make any mistakes, when clearly they easily make the simples mistakes, such as typing a # on a keyboard. You would think that being a major part of their job, they would be extra careful or double checking it twice when manually entering it. Should've complained to the CS about the whoe situation and the rudeness of the ppl you encountered.
I too am polite all the time but if i was you at that time, I would've been too pissed to even ask them about the cameras and such.

Like i said the first time the guy tried to tell me they dont make mistakes. When they tried to call me, they had the wrong # down. My # ended with a 89, and they entered 98, that was the first mistake already, dumbasses!!

I even talked to CS telling them about i want to cancel my account and they tell me that they cant do it from their system, i have to go to my local branch.:confused:
I talked to them again about the no reason hold that keeps showing up on my account and they tell me from their system everythign was fine and there was no hold. But different story when i try to rent from any BB.
Seriously, what use is the HO for when you can do anything and not even see same info as the local branches below you??

When i moved i never gave them new info incl. my new visa #. Just in case of situations like this, i didnt care to update them. They do have my right address now but dont have my current visa# or phone #.

This no late fee thing IMO is pretty good, but situations like this it what will really piss ppl off. Sad thing is, the ppl in higher ups who are really in charge will probably never know about things like this. As most time you're dealing with these dumbass who think they are perfect. Most times i dont even see any managers and such. These dumbasses can easily get away with being rude with customers and such.
I went in another place couple weeks ago, and this 1 guy was sitting on the counter talking on the phone to his friends.

Oh ya, whatever happened to the HIs and nice greetings when you walk in the store?
 
Blockbusters here are a real rip off, they are always charging phony late fees either because the goofy kids who work in the places are too lazy to scan in the movies, or because it is company policy to rip off the customers. From the frequency of the problems I am starting to believe it is company policy In the last year five out of five movies I rented were supposedly not returned. When I complained they found the movie on the shelves every single time. They lost my business as I go elsewhere now.
Oh yeah, they hired my nephew to work in one, and I have never met anyone dumber or with a worse work ethic.
 
Keebler Elf said:
While I agree that BB makes mistakes and even I've been burned by them in the past, for every mistake BB makes there are 10 jokers out there who return movies late or lose them and then claim they returned them on time. If everyone who actually claimed to be in the right actually were, then BB wouldn't be such a-holes when it comes to their policies.

I do agree with you on that part, but in my cases and what few others have mentioned, it was clearly their fault in losing dvds AFTER it was returned, and punching in wrong keys on the computer. Its not right to punish the customers for them losing a dvd when even in the records it shows it has been returned.

Anyways BB has just also lost my business.

Berlin, what is the diff between BB and Rogers, i've always wondered?
Anything good at rogers, like pricess etc?

P.S: knew i should've made my return to the SC/escort scene last night, was debating. Now i'm still little frustated And horny. damn!!
 
I think BB has better deals than Rogers (which has its cable business to fall back on).

Undoubtedly BB makes mistakes, but I guarantee you that at least 90% of the people who claim BB screwed up were actually to blame themselves.
 
I always take my moies back to BB a few days late...

I never rush to take them back because there is no late charges

Lately though, I have been using Video on Demand and PPV on cable... it is basically the same price as renting, or less and I don't have to leave the house.
 
tboy said:
cuz that would be too easy......
opposite.
How many chapters do you think there is versus blockbusters? I would venture a guess and say not even half. To support an infrastructure that would house the names of every member (plus info), every movie for rent, every movie for sale, regional promotions, area promotions, district promotions, national promotions, what's been rented, what is in, what is late, what is coming back, what is due. There are far too many variables to create an efficient intranet or extranet, to support such a huge chain. It can be done, no questions asked. However, I think it's more about money, not feasibility.

Also, what do you do when your database goes down? Are you expecting them to incorporate huge redundancy servers to do realtime backups? Sure they make good cash but they are not even on the same level as banks. I mention banks because I know they have this kind of server but they also have that kind of cash. ;)
 
Done!
just went to return my last movie at BB and close my account. I even give them my card back.
Apparantly they dont actually 'delete' anything, just on hold perm. So if they ever come and say i have some bogus charges in the future i'm gonna go in and cause a ruckus.
Seriously thought, feels like everytime i go in there now its worst.
You dont get the warm friendly feeling you used to get even a few years ago. I used to enjoy going in there.