| rev:text
| - I don't shop at Blockbuster but someone gave me a gift card. What can you do?
They play movie trailers at ear-splitting volume. A friendly attendant asked if I needed help with anything. "It would help if you could turn down the volume a little," I said, shouting to be heard over an action-movie preview. "It's giving me a headache." She took my request to the manager, who came over. Nothing doing she said. Loud volume is dictated by the corporate office. She could lose her job if she cut the volume. OK, thanks anyway.
The video I rented was Little Miss Sunshine. Only a few minutes from the end, the DVD locked. When I returned it, the attendant (a different one) offered to let me take another copy of the same movie.
How about giving me a free rental for a different movie? I had no further interest in Little Miss Sunshine. The bad experience soured me on the movie. The attendant refused to issue a credit.
I suggested that it was in Blockbuster's interest to make customers happy. "If we give customers whatever they want we'll go out of business," he said. "I'm not saying give customers whatever they want. I'm just asking for a credit for my inconvenience."
He never said "sorry for the inconvenience." This is what they don't grasp. When your DVD locks it's a major inconvenience. What makes them think you'd be happy taking the DVD back home to finish watching it? It's corporate arrogance at its worst. The attitude is, We're doing you a favor to allow you to rent DVDs from us.
I called the corporate office. The service rep agreed and promised to mail me a coupon. It never came. I sent an email. After about 6 months, I received two coupons. It remains to be seen whether there will be a problem redeeming them. I can imagine the manager scrutinizing them with great suspicion, holding them up to a light to see if they're fake. (That happened to me once at KFC.)
Blockbuster is probably better than a lot of businesses. Many businesses--even most--don't hesitate to dig in their heels and fight customers. They have lost sight of the concept that customers make business possible. I suspect it's because customers aren't assertive.
Or, maybe they're smart and understand that all these hassles just aren't worth it. This isn't a good example of picking your battles. The belligerent attendant got to me.
All the talk about valuing customers is just BS. You could avoid every business that mistreats you, but before long you'd have to just stay home. In the dark. With all your utilities cut off and no groceries.
Price: Yeah a $4.29 rental is pricey when it doesn't play.
Update: Sure enough, my coupons from the Blockbuster corporate office were no good. When I showed them to Tyra the attendant, she said "We get a lot of fake coupons." It doesn't seem like the best customer relations to suggest that I was trying to run a scam.
When they indeed failed to scan, Tyra gave me a look like "I've dealt with your kind before."
The store reeks of acrid chemicals. The volume on the trailers was much lower this time. Maybe it was giving them headaches too.
I give up. I sure hope I never get any more Blockbuster gift cards.
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