Block’s Busted!
I was an issues reporter way back in the day (did Guerilla Consumer segments for Marketplace on Public Radio for seven years) so nothing gets me going as much as deception by major corporations.
Blockbuster Inc. takes the icing AND the cake, and in Punk we talk about their “end of late fees” debacle from a few years back after the micro-print (smallest disclaimers on consumer offerings) told us, well, you do get charged a restocking fee and etc. etc. They got sued by Attorneys General and the hoopla plus the offer came to a crashing end.
Now, however, they are getting away with a lot more, and the NY Times reports they even gained just shy of a million new members due their home-delivery service Total Access and the unearthed-till-now fact, ta da!, that they are lying again. Here’s the poop.
The whole NEVER BE WITHOUT A MOVIE campaign says you can rent a flick, have it sent to your home and with no due dates or no late fees, return it in the mail (free), or bring it to the store and return (no problem) for an exchange of your next chosen movie. Sounds cool. And a fantastically devised to stick it to Netflix, the killer competitor.
That’s not how it works, I found out harshly. During a conversation reminiscent of the time I asked the Starbucks counter person if she could “restart the modem for my Starbucks T-Mobile access” and I got stared down at my two heads….I tried the offer of free exchange at a Blockbuster on way home from a bar one night. I was carrying a copy of Take The Money and Run (vintage, hilarious Allen) in the BB sleeve it arrived in , and walked over to the Blockbuster to ask the man at the desk to take it back.
Oh no, he said, looking at me with the guile of a deer and his headlights. I can’t do that.
Oy, I decided. Here we go. And we did:
Turns out Blockbuster only allows us to return a movie in person if we have a separate “in store” account at that very locale. Now, how likely is that if you get discs in the mail? And if you should have an account, as was explained by the dude in the blue smock, you have to bring with you the postage-paid return envelope the DVD showed up in. Because, said he, the people at the store need to mail them back just like we do. Huh? Yes, he swore, they have no interoffice mail at Blockbuster.
Ok, sure, I brought the envelope it came with ….it’s right in my….
What the?
Anyway, a short while after the daily Times crowed about the new success in rental programs, Blockbuster’s CEO was profiled in the Sunday Times for his decision to advertise that offer proudly and loudly. Today I wonder why Netflix doesn’t just go all nuts proclaiming how easy it is to get a movie from them—with the added bonus of absolutely no free bullshit sold to their loyal customers.
Me, I’m doing nothing but Pay Per View now. At least I can hit the delete button without having to deal with a clerk whose actual job, I’m starting to imagine, is to disappoint me.
For more on this deception go to the following and especially the bottom where the asterisks are: Blockbuster’s been busted!
