SUBMITTED: Monday, November 26, 2007
POSTED: Monday, November 26, 2007
I worked for Blockbuster in Woodstock for five years ('97-'02) as CSR and assistant manager, rented before working there, and recently returned to be a customer again. This is my story/take on the company. This is in response to several of the comments in this post, but also addresses others I've seen in more recent complaints.
1) In regards to $100 movies, while I don't work at Blockbuster anymore and don't know how much it costs for specific movies, when I worked there, videocassettes frequently came out for rental only for several months. These would cost Blockbuster (and other rental companies) $75-100 each, and if not returned, resulted in a substantial financial loss. Even with Blockbuster's revenue share program, our instructions stated that lost tapes would cost the company full price. After a couple months, the prices were reduced by movie distributors and that's when you saw them sell for reasonable prices. Most Disney movies and major purchasable movies were available at sell-through prices at first release. Titanic was the most notable of these. DVD was designed as a sell-through medium, not really priced for rental.
As DVDs replaced VHS, the days of $100 rental copies were gone - except perhaps for "exclusive" titles (which, as far as I can tell in Blockbuster's case, just have extra features). When I rent at a Blockbuster store, my receipt tells me the new selling price of the movie, which ranges from $10-$25. This is what I'll be charged if I don't bring the movie back at all. I've never kept movies late enough for this, but it is printed now on the receipt so you know exactly what it would cost. (It wasn't when I left in 2002.)
2) late fees: when I worked at Blockbuster, the whole big lawsuit deal was in full swing, with people throwing hissy fits over valid late fees, which for most of the time I was there, was essentially re-renting each movie for another period. The computer was very specific on late fees, and it would start tacking them on for movies two or more hours late. It's important to realize not every Blockbuster store is the same, and there are certainly locations out there where employees are lazy, inefficient, etc. However, we made sure that we checked the boxes multiple times through the day, especially when getting close to that two hour deadline with the noon return time. Yes, late fees bring good revenue into the store, but the philosophy at our store was to keep customers happy. We became the best store in the district because of that philosophy and it ultimately led in my manager's firing because the district manager didn't agree with this philosophy. In accordance with this policy, even before the automated system began calling people to tell them their movie was late, we called every day to remind people who were a certain number of days late by hand, and notated this (I think it was 5, 8, and 10 days, but I'm not sure). This was in addition to the automated mailings that went home. (And by the way, as a current customer, I know I don't always get a letter and/or a call when I'm really late, and haven't figured out exactly how that system determines to perform either).
3) charging off accounts: company policy was to attempt to charge off accounts at certain points. We would attempt late fee charge offs starting at two months, and there were certain other numbers of days to attempt the charge off, up until it went to collections/bad debt, which was 3 or 4 months. We were also to charge movie price and late fees for any non-returned movie after 10 or 15 days (can't remember exactly). This is somewhat similar to the current policy.
Again, in *our store's* effort to provide excellent customer service, we wouldn't charge every single account - customers with a history of renting were probably just out of town or forgot or had a special circumstance. However, an account with perhaps only 5 rentals, and 3 of them weren't returned, would be attempted to be charged. It was our protection against fraud from the consumer side. I'm not sure exactly the policy now, but based on the company's terms with the "no late fees" it is essentially the same.
4) "I returned the movie and you never checked it in": I can't speak for every store. I know there are bad people out there who would (and I'm sure do) steal movies from the box. After working there five years, I know there are better ways of internal theft that doesn't harm a consumer. Movies would get checked for proper tape/DVD enclosed, scanned in for check in, and returned to the shelf in one process. Even with the literally hundreds of tapes that would be in the box on a Monday morning from the weekend, we made sure that each movie was checked and scanned.
After checking in a stack of say 40 movies, we could verify that 40 movies were scanned, and find the problems. The company's policy on wrong-store, wrong-tape, and empty-box returns changed, but when I left it involved a wrong-tape (and I think wrong-store) account that would check in the movie and identify it on the customer's account as wrong-tape. We made sure we called (and documented) the customer so they could bring back the tapes. Wrong store tapes were called in to the other store (they would put it in their wrong-store account) and we would hand-deliver or in some distant store cases (hey, that store's in California and we're in Georgia! - it happened more than once) mail them via UPS or FedEx or whatever we used at the time. If it happened your movie made it to the shelf, we ran a report of 2+ day late movies and checked every morning to see if they made it to the shelf. The day manager would complete this task (I enjoyed doing it myself) and any movies found on the shelf would be put in as "Found On Shelf" which took off 2 days of lateness (if the report was run daily and done properly any shelved movies should be found within 1 day). And if your movie was on the shelf and someone brought it up to rent it, the computer automatically told us it was checked out to another customer. A good employee would make note of it and handle the situation if late fees were put on the account. Again, I can't talk for current policy, internal theft and employee behavior at your store, but that was corporate policy when I was there. Customers who didn't believe us were told to bring their movies in by hand - they could verify in any way possible (receipt, screen verification, watch us scan, whatever) that their movies were returned.
5)"I keep getting charged for xxxx fee when I never signed up": sounds like credit card fraud. Why don't you call your credit card company, dispute the fees, and get a new card number. It's not Blockbuster's fault someone else stole your credit card and entered it online. Again, I could think of better things to do with stolen credit card numbers, but I wouldn't hold Blockbuster responsible and be all pissed off at them for the situation.
6) "They charged me after xxx free xxx": Be very cautious from anyone who says free trial, anywhere, any way. It doesn't matter who you sign up with. Comcast does this with "get three months of service for cheap" deals (other companies too but I usually notice the Comcast ads), Netflix does this with it's free online trial, Gametap, you name it. Every free trial service I've seen involves giving the credit card number and you cancel within the set limit online. With the ability to return online rentals in the store, there shouldn't be an issue with lost-in-the-mail comments. And if I got an email telling me to set up a queue for something I remember signing up for, I'd at least investigate it. The Dish Network promo sounds like a reverse version of a DirectTV promo we had, and an AOL program we had - sign up for a free trial of the program, and get some free item. As an employee, I made very sure I told the customer that if they didn't want to continue whatever service it was they had to cancel in the allowed time or they would be charged. In fact, we even told the customers at times to sign up, use it for a week or two, and cancel it, and take the free item for their trouble. You got to be careful of free trial offers anywhere, because they always involve some continued service after the trial unless you cancel. (Read the fine print on the Girls Gone Wild commercials instead of staring at the girls. You will continue to receive movies at the full price every month... And the same situation for all the CD and DVD by mail services like BMG and Columbia. Get 12 CDs for the price of 1, but then you have to buy so much after that.)
7) "Blockbuster Online is a Ripoff because they changed fees", etc: I signed up for the Online program about a month before they started in-store exchange to compare it to Netflix. After quitting Blockbuster, I stopped renting in-store ($4-5 a movie? no thanks) and signed up for Netflix. I like Netflix, regardless of any mailing issues they have. I've accepted that "unlimited" doesn't really mean unlimited. . Man oh man, did I ever rent a lot of movies. I'm the kind of customer these programs hate. On the 8-at-a-time program through Netflix, I saw 40 or more movies a month. And with Blockbuster's Total Access and returning in store, I could turn around my 3-at-a-time in about 3 days, and thus get 6 movies per week from the online program - and add on another 6 rentals in store. For $17, through Total Access, I got about 50 rentals between in-store and online. I *knew* this couldn't last too long.
When they figured out the program and changed it to the current system ($25 for their "unlimited") I jumped on it, because I knew that I got 50 movies for $25, which is an awesome deal. And hey, if you don't watch a ton of movies a month, the $17 program is fine. Blockbuster realized their program didn't work as was, and changed it. I'm happy with 50 cent movie rentals. I'll have 23-26 exchanges in store this month, which is about the same as last month.
8) Suspended Online Accounts: others have addressed this already, but if an email from Blockbuster tells you to pick a plan because they are making a change, then pick a plan and quit complaining. You had the chance and threw it away.
9) sexual harassment: someone recently posted a comment on sexual harassment as an employee. It sounds to me like you have a sleazeball of a manager. I totally sympathize with your problems, even though I don't know the details. But, if it was your store manager making those comments, why didn't you contact HR or the District Manager?
Summary: I've said it several times and I'll say it again: I worked at a great store, with a great manager and a great crew. We did things right. I know there are stores that don't - stores with bad or no managers, bad or no employees, etc. This is just like any other business. There are good McDonalds and bad McDonalds. There are grocery stores on a chain worth shopping at, and there are stores to avoid. Same goes for this company. Your experience at one store is not the same as it would be at another. But when things go wrong, from a lot of the complaints posted on this website, it seems that the consumers let things go from bad to worse. The instant I see something wrong, I make sure it gets fixed. And if I didn't get a call from the District Manager, I would keep calling his number (myself, not having a store employee doing it) until I got a response. DMs are there to make sure situations don't go beyond them - and if there's a problem at a store the DM does what they need to so they don't get complaint calls any more (would you want constant calls about one of your stores doing things wrong?). Reverse charges through credit card companies if you think you're in the right and the business does nothing, and read and follow through with instructions and terms of service carefully.
I can't say it enough, take responsibility for your actions and welfare. Let me give you this story: there was a customer that rented occasionally at our location, and was always late. He always complained about the fees not being valid (the receipt said a different date, he returned them on time and we didn't check them in, etc.). He started turning it into a race issue ("it's because I'm black, isn't it?) and everyone at the store knew he was a problem customer. We had credited enough late fees off his account and refused to do anymore. I was a manager at the time, and there was a point where he returned movies in the inside drop box and went to look for more rentals. We checked in his movies and notated that the late fees from those movies were valid fees - he had just put them in the box (to negate his "you didn't check them in when I returned them" excuse). When he came up to check out, another employee informed him of his fees, and he began getting upset again. He told me his receipt proved that the movies were due back in a couple days and we just put the fees on there for no reason. I told him to get his receipt and prove it - when he returned with his receipt, the due dates were for other movies he still had out.
All he had to do, was take responsibility for his actions and stop blaming everyone else for his ineptitude. Pay attention. It's your biggest weapon.
I don't "love" Blockbuster (though I'm really happy with my current service). I don't stand up for them for any other reason than I know the story from both sides. Bad stores do not make a company, and customers informing the company about bad stores/employees is the first step in fixing a situation. "I hate xxx" websites/postings frequently are passive-agressive attempts at making someone mad and the persons involved tend to not do anything about the situation, just complain about it. (Not always, and certainly not always here.)