My BLOCKBUSTER torment

[Brad Slager]

Last Fri. evening the wife was ill and wanted to forget so I was off to BLOCKBUSTER video for an 11th hour diversion. I picked up "Anger Management" as requested and absorbed the drill about it being a 2-day rental. I returned home and tried to forget that Adam Sandler was on my television.

By halftime on Sunday I realized I still had to get the movie back before getting sucked into the late fee spiral. Returning I dumped the disc and toured the shop, nabbing a clutch of those dreadful direct-to-rental titled I can't resist. As I handed the 250 lb. wiccan at the register my 5 movies she stated that I still had "Anger Management" out.

"No," I informed, "I just returned it." Using the enthusiasm of a government worker she checked the return bin and came back.

"You have a $3.99 late fee."

"How can that be, I just rented it Friday."

"It was due back at noon."

With futility on my side I reasoned that I had the movie for barely a day-and-a-half, and then I tried arguing that since I rented after midnight it was technically due on Monday. She looked at me with the all the charm of a bovine that discovered a lemon wedge in the cud.

"Fine, I'll pay the late fee," and I handed her $4.

"Your total comes to $31.49, sir."

"No, I said I'm paying the late fee."

"What about these?" she asked of my pile of rentals she had already scanned.

"I'll either rent those or pay a late fee, your choice." Her sigh could have shifted the Blarney Stone.

"This will take a moment."

"No, it won't." I dropped the four singles, the penny being hers for all the charm.
Sometimes NetFlix can be its own reward

[Rory L. Aronsky]

Damn straight. Blockbuster's a worthless piece of crap video store and despite where I live where video choices aren't many at this moment (being that I can't always get to Los Angeles as often as I want), I refuse to deal with the rejects of society that disguise themselves as "employees" at that chain. It's just not worth wasting my time there and your tale of woe definitely proves that.

[mruzick3]

...And what about the carefully edited movies that make it in there. I have made the mistake of renting there many times when nothing else was available to me and get contiously pissed off about how much editing/censoring goes on there. I mean, is a family of four going to sit down and watch 'The Piano Teacher' or 'Storytelling?' They've been doing this for years and I just don't get it. I'm doing Netflix religously now and finally breathing a sigh of relief if I find the DVD laying on the coffee table after 2pm on a Sunday.

_________________
Mike Ruzicka

[KevinCarr]

I once borrowed a movie from my sister who had rented it at Blockbuster. I ended up keeping it late, so I had a late fee on it. I went in and returned it, wanting to pay the late fee so she didn't get pissed at me for putting a fee on her account.

They wouldn't let me do it.

The girl at the counter said I couldn't pay a late fee on someone else's account. I argued with her for about five minutes saying I didn't need to rent anything and was just returning a movie for my sister. But she still wouldn't let me return the movie and pay the charge.

That was just stupid.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Blockbuster workplace policies do appear to enforce and foster a linnear service industry drone mentality. I once had a weedy little fiteen year old get all bugged out at me because I was renting a movie from a Ballbuster that was not the Ballbuster that I originally got my membership at even though the one membership good at all BB's had been in place for over a year. I don't know, I guess the little weed wanted to ensure that I was aware of which store to return the video to.

And for reasons like that and the BallBuster editing policy I will always be thankful for places like Black Dog Video (http://blackdogvideo.bc.ca/). Saving my sanity one movie at a time, they are.

[Ricky Retardo]

Years ago I used to work for Cocksucker Video. But it was cool for me because I worked within a franchised region (South Central Florida) and we delivered from our own warehouse to about 18 stores throughout the area. I used to pull orders and drive the delivery van. HA! I had free reign over that thing and I exploited the hell out of it! For two years I was taking the thing home, driving from Tampa to Orlando or Gainesville to go see punk bands. Taking the gang and shit. On the job I was always smoking weed in it. Hitting thrift stores and book shops that were on my route. Hell, I even got a couple of bj's in while I was on the clock. And on top of that, everybody that I delivered to LOVED me (well, I AM a sweetheart) and I always got great evaluations. The only reason the job went south is because the guy finally sold his franchise to corporate Cocksucker and corporate turned around and closed the warehouse for a central delivery platform out of Texas. Damn! It was the best slacker job I ever had.

[Eric Campos]

I only rent from mom and pop places. Fuck Blockbuster.

[AmaiStina]

it depends on which blockbuster it is (this could go down to the state level).

im in ga..atlanta to be exact. there are about four blockbusters within reasonable driving distance from my house. i go to two of them more often.

ive somehow or another gotten to be "friends" with the staff at the blockbuster i go to most often. some of the employees i knew from hs & b/c i go there all the time & will reciprocate casual chatting, ive been given free rentals. and wasnt charged this one time the dvd wasnt in the box.

this blockbuster carries your usual mainstream lot, but then it has stuff like I Spit On Your Grave.

the key is to get employees to like you (as a person). i seem to have that effect on employees of certain types of merchant/service shops. it's odd.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Originally posted by AmaiStina

the key is to get employers to like you (as a person).

As a child I was called maladjusted, as an adult I've been called a misanthrope. The last one was as a result of my Christmas day movie fest viewing list.
Anyhow, since BlockBuster has been entered into my blacklist I probably don't have to worry too much about overcoming my misanthropic ways and making friends with the staff.
;)

[AmaiStina]

Originally posted by The Dude
since BlockBuster has been entered into my blacklist I probably don't have to worry too much about overcoming my misanthropic ways and making friends with the staff.
;)

it goes beyond blockbuster, though. for whatever reason (unintentional or deliberate on your part), if an employee or manager of a merchant/service shop finds you pleasant, you can well imagine the rules that they will bend for you.

not to say that we should all become best buds with the guy at the deli or anything. ;)

[El Duderino Diablo]

Well, I must be doing something right with all the free coffee I've been given at the local coffee shop lately though I 'm not super comfortable with the male staff members flirting with me. Flattered none the less, but not super comfortable with the attention. And hey, the Subway staff have taken to giving me extra cookies (albeit broken ones) two days in a row now.
Broken chocolate chip cookies taste pretty yummy, too.
:)

[2biggie]

Not only is Blockbuster horrible w/ the late fees, but they're just overpriced in the first place. What, it's like 5 or 6 bucks for a 2-day rental!? Ridiculous! At my local grocery store I get all the newest movies for 1.50 or so. And they're not due until 10pm! And I also just discovered the magic of the public library. As many DVDs as you want for a week for...FREEE!!!!

DIE BLOCKBUSTER DIE!

[Rory L. Aronsky]

Same here, 2biggie. The only thing about the library in Valencia, California (the only one close to me and the only one where I choose to get everything, either in the library or stuff put on hold and sent to that library branch), is that I have to watch out constantly for scratched DVDs. The people at the library put a protective covering on the top of the DVD and I don't know if they think that's where the data is held, but some bottoms of DVDs tend to be quite scratched up. And I thought I'd have gotten rid of this problem once I moved from South Florida to here in California. Oh well.

Anyway, I've started using the library more and more for VHS tapes of older films, mainly 1940s film noir as that is what I have a heavy interest in and not surprisingly, it has been a very useful resource.

[Carl]

Even the most grimey, ghetto video pit is better than that place.