Blockbusted
Last Saturday night, I felt like watching a movie, and since Blockbuster is the only movie rental place within walking distance of my apartment, I figured I’d ignore my long-standing dislike of the company just this once. So I went down, picked out my movies, and went up to the counter.
I had never rented at this particular Blockbuster before (see above about “long-standing dislike”), so I needed to establish a membership. The guy at the counter told me that I had to show a driver’s license and major credit card (perfectly reasonable), pay a $10 dollar fee (a bit much, but acceptable) and sign up for their Netflix ripoff, Blockbuster Online. Wait, what? I told him that I didn’t want to sign up for Blockbuster Online, and he refused to let me start a membership without signing up. And of course I couldn’t rent movies without a membership, so I was forced to leave without my movies.
I don’t want to sign up for Blockbuster Online. I know I wouldn’t use the service enough to justify the monthly fee. I know that canceling is likely to be difficult–if the company’s this obnoxious about forcing you to sign up, they’ll be at least as obnoxious about trying to keep you from leaving. And it boggles my mind that they’ll turn away a paying customer because he doesn’t want to sign up for this unnecessary service.
I e-mailed Blockbuster Corporate that night to ask if this was company policy, or just a single rogue manager. They claim that they answer e-mails in one business day, and I haven’t heard back, so I’m assuming that it’s company policy and they don’t want to admit it–if it were just one rogue manager, surely they’d be falling over themselves to apologize and make amends, right?
Screw Blockbuster. If they abuse their customers like this, I hope that Netflix and the rise of digital distribution drive them out of business.
Update: I talked to Blockbuster corporate, and to the manager of my local store. More details here.
Rant |9 Responses to “Blockbusted”
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First off they were already ripping you off with the $10 fee. A membership at blockbuster is free, however right now they are pushing their $10 rewards membership as well as Total Access.
Secondly, although you can look at this as a lone bad employee, unfortunatly this comes down from above. It’s one of those situations where they don’t tell the employees to do this, however they strongly suggust that every new customer sign up for rewards and blockbuster online. They then follow this up with reports that tell them how many new members signed up for them. Poor numbers = getting bitched at.
About the service, it is oddly quite easy to close your account, just click the button then deny their offer to stay for a lower price.
[...] Update on the Blockbusted story:I just called Blockbuster’s corporate office. The woman I spoke to said that Blockbuster’s corporate policy is that you should be able to sign up for just a membership, with no fee and no requirement to sign up for Blockbuster Online. She said that franchise stores have the choice to set their own policies, but that all corporate-owned stores should be following that rule. She also confirmed that my local store is corporate-owned, not a franchise, and should therefore be following the rules.I then called my local store and spoke to the manager there. He confirmed that his store’s policy is to require Blockbuster Online signup. I told him that Blockbuster corporate policy was not to require Blockbuster Online signup, and he didn’t care. He said that “all the stores are doing it”. I reiterated that his policy was in violation of Blockbuster’s policy, and he refused to change his tune. Eventually I hung up in frustration.I ended my last post with “Screw Blockbuster”, but I can’t go that far this time, since there seems to be a different policy at the corporate level. I can, however, urge everyone to avoid the Blockbuster store at 31st St and Ditmars in Astoria, NY. They are abusing their customers, in violation of their own company’s rules. [...]
DO NOT ORDER BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE
It has been six months and I have not been able to cancel my online membership. My credit card diputed it and they just kept on charging. I have waited on hold for hours when I called their customer service number and no answer. My credit card company said even if I cancel my card blockbuster can still request payment and if my card has not been closed for 30 days before the request comes in, my credit card company will reopen my card and send me a bill. The only way to stop blockbuster from charging my account is to go through my states attorney gernerals office. I have now done that but, they say they can not guarantee they will stop. What they do is call the corporate office and request that they cancel my account and refund my money. All this technology and no customer service I am so tired of waiting and not getting anywhere I think living in omish country would be a breath of fresh air
It’s simple, if it’s free it’s free, Blockbuster shouldn’t need a credit card #. And in a perfect world online businesses should issue an email invoice (like iTunes already does each time you purchase a 99 cent song file).
My experience was similar to yours, Tracy, though thankfully the credit card number I gave them only held fifty or so dollars (in that I primarily use it for online purchases). Had it been the card in which I entrust to reputable businesses, Blockbuster — the quintessence of unethical capitalists — would still sidling up to the trough for their monthy feeding.
In our personal relationships, if we cloud the truth it is lying. In business if they cloud the truth it is called advertising.
I also tried repeatedly to cancel my Blockbuster Online account six months ago without success. My credit card company has yet to resolve the situation for me. I just received my latest credit card bill with another monthly charge for Blockbuster Online service that I haven’t used in over seven months. I am now going to contact the Attorney General’s Office and Blockbuster’s Chief Executive Officer. I can’t believe this is so difficult to resolve. I will never buy anything from Blockbuster ever again, and I want to warn everyone not to do business with Blockbuster.
I was told by a local Blockbuster that I had to have my cell phone bill with me to open an account if I didn’t have a landline that they could call and confirm was mine!!!! I found that to be outrageous, so went to the next town over to open my account, which I can use at the obnoxious store if I want. They only wanted a credit card number if I was going to rent video games. I found that reasonable. But, the first obnoxious store, which didn’t have the movie I wanted available, as did none of the area rental stores, said it was available at Blockbuster Online and gave me a promo # for 2 weeks free.
Well, it didn’t come in the 2 free weeks, so I signed up for the cheapest Total Access - $9.99 a month. We watched some good movies waiting for the one that was at the top of our queue, that we really wanted to see and was the only reason we signed up. Well, 2 months later it still hadn’t shipped to us. So, I started contacting customer service online, who just kept saying that they ship from the nearest distribution centers to keep a constant flow, and to keep my cue full. I asked to be forwarded to a manager - which never happened. I was never told that trying to force ship the movie by deleting all from my cue wouldn’t work, or that they wouldn’t ship the movie to a distribution center that they would ship to me from. Just, keep your cue full for a constant supply of movies. Also, they sent me 6 free movie coupons and extended my membership by a week. But, never did they say that even though the movie showed as available in my cue they would NEVER ship it.
I finally found the phone number hidden on the webpage and called. I got a very good CSA who admitted it couldn’t even be force shipped, acknowledged she wasn’t God, and escalated my case so I could talk to management. She was good, the system sucks. I won’t be renewing, and I will be adding a very loud voice to the Blockbuster opponents.
NEVER, not even ONCE with Netflix, was I told a movie was available and it didn’t ship. If the movie was available and at the top of my list, it came. I guess I’ll be checking out Netflix again. I love that Blockbuster lets you use your online movie return envelopes to rent movies in the store, but if they aren’t going to send the movies you want, and they are not available in the stores, and they won’t just answer a question in the first place, what good are they? I never had any problems talking to Netflix or getting the movies I wanted. I didn’t get a zillion free coupons because they had bad customer service . . . but, I kind of prefer the customer service to free coupons.
What was the number you used, Linda? I think my sister may need it……..
I have been ripped off by Blockbuster. This is not the first time. Many years ago I was overcharged due to a store employee using my account - they credited the overcharge back to me, but how was I to know? Then last year, I rented several movies from a different Blockbuster than I normally go to. It was in Temecula, CA. No big deal, promotions on t.v. and my local Ramona store only charging a restocking fee. I was late in returning the DVD’s to the Temecula store, which I had been many times with the Ramona store, only to pay a restocking fee.
Then I learned that the Temecula store was independently owned and did not have the same promotions as other Blockbuster stores. At no time, did any of the employees share this with me. It was the typical, these need to be back in two days. I was then alerted that I had an $89 bill!!!! I would have never gone to the Temecula store, as this was out of my way, and required a 45 minute trip from my home. We normally go to church in Temecula, but did not go that week, so we returned all the DVD’s late. Nothing was stated to me that this store has a separate policy. The manager has been nasty about the bill.
Yesterday, on July 3rd, I went to the Ramona store, it was packed. Only to be humiliated by the “NEW” store manager. She stated she was new and didn’t want to get written up by renting to me. Then her co-worker got on the phone with Temecula grilling me regarding my birthday and driver’s license, loudly, while there were at least 15 people standing in line. Only to be treated like a dog and told “Nope, can’t rent to you, until you pay the Temecula bill.”
I am so disgusted, that I am going to find someone at Blockbuster to take care of this. They won’t give out employees last names, or at least that what “Jamie - the new manager” said last night.
I can’t get a district manager to call me back, or even a contact number for someone above the manager in Temecula. Very very bad business. I am done with Blockbuster.
I have been a customer for more than a decade and never been treated like this. I will be cancelling all my services, both Rewards and my Blockbuster online. I see on the consumer complaints website that I should only expect a canned response. I don’t have any hopes of getting this resolved, as I have been trying for months.
Of course, I tried to submit through Blockbuster’s contact form, only to receive errors - guess there are so many complaints you fill out their form and it doesn’t process. Now, I see through this blog that I may have problems with cancelling my online account.
Pays to be big and not give a ___.
Cherie Young
On 06/27/07 I received an email from BlockBuster On-Line saying that my account has been suspended because “there have been a large number of customer service issues reported for my online subscription service over the past few months.” Two days later I received a hostile email telling me that my membership has been cancelled “because of problems with my account.” I also found out that I was blocked from logging on. After what seemed like an eternal wait, I was finally able to speak with a customer service rep, who, upon looking up my account, bluntly said that I had been “expelled” from membership. “I cannot give you any more information,” she said, “I was not the one who cancelled your membership.” I find this kind of comment from a customer service rep, who is supposed to represent the business and not herself, unacceptable. Then I sent an email inquiring about the reason for the cancellation of my membership, and received a boilerplate reply repeating what was sent to me on 06/27/07. Yes, boilerplate replies are the routine; they never address the specific issue.
I have never been given an explanation why I was “expelled” as a customer. It seems like my membership was cancelled because I filed an excessive number of complaints (??) Certainly I have reported problems with their service, problems that are caused at their end, such as shipping the wrong dvd’s, putting disks in mismatched jackets, shipping damaged disks, and delays in shipments causing a lapse in my queue. Examples of these problems include: the same incorrect disk being sent to me FOUR times; an identical damaged disk sent to me THREE times. Movies were never shipped in queue order (which I can live with). Surely I reported these problem issues, and expected their service to improve. They would usually (not every time) send me an e-coupon as compensation for my inconvenience, and that’s a nice gesture. And now I’m told that because of the “unusual number of my reports” I am expelled from membership !!! I find BlockBuster On-Line’s action callous and disgusting, as if I have committed some gross crime?!
On 7/3/07 I sent a letter of complaint to the BB Corporate Office at 1200 Elm Street, Dallas, TX 75270 with these demands: (1) a satisfactory explanation of why BlockBuster cancelled my membership; and (2) their offer to reinstate my membership, which I reserve the option to accept or reject. I also thanked them on behalf of Netflix for giving my business to Netflix. Of course I never heard back from BlockBuster, as if they would really care ???