GatorDeb

So I go pick up Monster's, Inc. and I was in a great mood. I pick up Changing Lanes and The Rookie - one as the card rental and the other one as the rewards rental. They say "The total's 3.XX." I look at them blankly. They repeat it. I tell them it's one redeemed rental and one Rewards rental - no charge. They say the rewards rental only counts for Favorites. I say ok, let me go get a Favorites one then. They say well the redeemed rental was free so it doesn't count as a paid rental so you don't get a free rental. I tell them other franchise BBs (they are a franchise BB) are honoring them. They say well if they break the rules doesn't mean we will. So I'm there thinking and I look at my receipt and the following conversation ensues (not exact words, but the gist of it):
Me: If my Rewards membership expires the credits expire right?
BB: Yes.
Me: So since that membership expired and this brand new one that I have now started at 0, I would still need 5 rentals for a free one in order to get a free rental right?
BB: Correct.
Me: So why does the receipt show that I need to rent just 4 more to get the free rental? Wouldn't it follow that this in fact counted as a paid rental?
BB: It shows 4 because of the one that you tried to get for free and we had to void.
Me: So let me get this right. If I go to the shelf right now and get 3 DVDs and you scan them and then I say whoops nevermind don't want them and you void them, I will have three credits? Doesn't the computer cancel them?
BB: You are not getting the free rental.

Earlier on this conversation had taken place:
Me: So what did I pay the $25 for.
BB: For the rental.
Me: So, they are paid rentals.
BB: No, they are free rentals that you get with the card. You paid for the card.
Me: So I in fact paid for the rentals.
BB: No, the rentals are free.
Me: So I paid for Monster's Inc then?
BB: No, you paid for the rental card.

I read some more and aha, the back of the card says "Redeemed rentals will count as paid rentals towards Rewards benefits." I'm glad the argument is over. I make the line again and show them the card. She looks at it, highlight where the card says "Not valid with other promotions or discounts." I try to explain to her that it's not talking about the Rewards program in that particular line. She says I will not get a free rental. I ask for the corporate phone number. They don't have it. I look at the Rewards card and there's a number and ask if I can call the Rewards line to straighten this out. She says "sure if you have a phone. You are not using the store phone." I go across the street and use a pay phone. Rewards rep says yes it counts. Customer complaint line rep says yes it counts. The district leader will be contacting me in regards to this. I went back to the store to get their names and told them "Well, Rewards line says it counts, Customer complaint line says it counts. The District Leader is calling me and I'll just need your names so that I have the complete story." She says well I'm [ ] and she is [ ]." I say "Ok thanks. Let me repeat that you are [ ] and she is [ ] right?" And I leave with "Hopefully it'll all straighten out so we don't have to go through this next week."

I am so freaking fuming. Both reps said they didn't know why they didn't let me use the store phone. I don't want a store manager, I'll take the district manager, thank you very much.

Ok, play by your rules, but that doesn't mean make up your own rules to scam me out of 10 rentals. In 24 years (well, 6 as a bona fide adult consumer ) I've filed two complaints: Once when a Citibank rep hung up on me and now this. I will overlook bad service left and right, but not someone being so against customer service that it's their way and there's no way they can be wrong.

Rypro 525

effing idiots. the deal is, the free card also gets you the monsters inc. movie.

GatorDeb

Erm, this is not about the Monster's, Inc movie but about the one Rent 1 movie Monday-Wednesday and get another rental for free for Rewards members

Rypro 525

i was talking about the bottom part. but this is why you shouldnt hire kids for this since sometimes we know more than they do and they always think they are right. refuse bb from now on.

Heat

Let me get this right:

You paid $25 for Monsters Inc. and they gave you a card good for one free rental per week for ten weeks.

Are you saying that each of those ten rentals counts towards the rewards program, so that you are actually getting 12 free movies? I don’t see that as being the intent behind the rewards rentals. Not that I want to be in the awkward position of actually defending Blockbuster, argue away with them, and good luck.

I have a blockbuster card that I got for signing up for DirectTV through them, one free rental per week for a year (starting this past March 1). The back of the card doesn’t say anything about membership rewards. Since I never actually pay them for rentals I haven’t earned any membership reward points (or whatever they call them). If I want to pay for a rental, I’ll go to other video stores. Where I live Blockbuster is a very small player in the rental market, maybe 10% of the market, at the most.

GatorDeb

That is what I'm saying.
Look at your Rental Card, the next to last line "Redeemed Rental count as paid rentals for Rewards membership." That is very specific. Someone thought enough to put that there. I'm not saying just trust me, I'm saying you can take out your card right now and read that.

Call the BB Rewards line - they will confirm it. Two reps from different departments confirmed it.

Heat

Mine doesn't say that, but it does have this interesting clause: "If recipient rents multiple movis (VHS OR DVD)/games when redeeming free rental, credit will be applied to lowest rental price."

Of course, my card is from a different promotion.

GatorDeb

Ok, mine does. Are you trying to make a point? Anyone with a Monster's, Inc card can corroborate this.

Abob Teff

You made one fatal mistake in all of this: YOU WENT TO BLOCKBUSTER! What the hell did you expect!?

(Yes, you are right . . . but why did you go there in the first place? You lose 2 respect points.)

Heat

Blockbuster does have some interesting movies. The one in Fairhills Mall has the following:

Carnival of Souls - Criterion (which I currently have), Seven Samarai, Chasing Amy, Last Temptation of Christ, also all Criterions. John Woo's The Killer (though not the Criterion version). Sex and the City, Seasons 1 through 3, Sopranos, Seasons one through three, Amores Perros, and a few others.

Actually, the three Hollywood Videos also have a number of Criterions for rent.

But yes, I know, I also hate Blockbuster, and have yet to actually pay for a rental or to return a movie late. The one thing that they do that I like better than Family Video (and the only thing), is that returns are due at noon on the second day after you rent something, rather than midnight the following night. Thus, you can watch it for two nights, then return it on the way to work or whatever. Whenever I pay for rentals, I am either picking up catalog titles from Family Video ($1), or new releases from Shop & Save (also $1).

MrN

I actually tried to get this deal last week and was only partly successful. I notice that when they scan in the Monster's Inc. card it rings up as a 'coupon' on the reciept. I think this is where the confusion comes in and they won't let you have the rewards rental.

In my case, the manager just gave me a free rental because he said he couldn't fix it once he hit 'subtotal' or something...

explorer2000

Well, I when I used my Monsters Inc card from Blockbuster for the first time yesterday that I would get 12 rentals with the Mosnters Inc card & Blockbuster Rewards. (I didn't even ask, the employee just told me as I was checking out.)

Tarantino

I think it's already been said, but...

YOU WENT TO BLOCKBUSTER.

They're the retarded red-headed step child of the rental industry.

They thrive on hiring idiots.

Venom

i got rewards credit for my lord of the rings dvd card, so basicly it was 12 free rentals for me.

however, i went in there to buy two dvd when the had the 2$ off sale, and grabbed a new movie to use the card one and picked up an old dvd for renting on mon-wed with the rewards card. afterwards in the car i looked at the recipt, i was charged the 3 dollars for the old movie. that pissed me off but i wasn't about to go back and deal with them.

another time, still on the LOTR card, i had a coupon, rent 1 get 1 free. since the card is paid as in paid rentals i wanted to use the card to pay for the one and get the other one free. no go. so i said nevermind then i'll just get the one free one, and asked for the coupon back. jump ahead a week and i want to rent eternal darkness to show my gf it, so we head there, but i don't like paying 6 bucks for a game, so i was gonna use the coupon to get two games for 6. well the guy says the coupon is no good, it was already entered into the account, of course it was never used, here the guy never actually removed it from my card. i was pissed but we had our mind set on playing the one game so we rented it anyway i planed on coming back talking to manger and telling her that they owe'd me a free game rental. i never bothered to do it.

lastly, i sent my brother out to rent a movie with my last rental on the LOTR card. he comes back saying that there was no last rental, and the girl looked it up and told him that he missed his first rental becuase he didn't use it when he bought the card. now that pisses me off, becuase the one of the major factors in buying the card was becuase there was something that day that i wanted to rent. they told me that i couldn't buy and use the card in the same transaction, i was thinking what the hell at the time but let it slide thinking i would use it the next day.i ended up paying for that rental i wanted at the time.


these cards suck, they aren't worth all the hassle, not to mention i'm a late fees magnet.

Souljahh

I go the LOTR rental card deal. What's weird is that I looked on the receipt this week and it says I've used up my 10 rentals even though on the same receipt it says I bought the card exactly 8 weeks ago. I'm confused.

Chrisedge

I believe BB has the worst customer service possible. I don't know why people support companies that offer such crap for service and keep going back.

mytzplyx

its weird. I've never had a bad experience at Blockbuster's, not yet at least. Except for high prices they seemed to be fine. I guess incompetence runs rampant elsewhere than the lucky stores I've been to.

Xytraguptorh

I remember when Blockbuster first opened up in my area. I had a late charge which I intended on paying the next time I rent--like I've always done with other video stores. Several weeks after returning the movies I get a letter in the mail from a collection agency regarding the $3 late fee. I was absolutely stunned. It turned out that this happened to several people and there was a class action lawsuit against Blockbuster. I have never rented from Blockbuster again, and that was several years ago. I DESPISE that company.

GatorDeb

Well the district manager called and said that you cannot combine them. I brought up the card and it was the same - no you cannot combine them, and the more that I wanted to go over the back of the card, the more he inched towards being aggravated. He told me 'There are over 6,000 people you are the only one that wants to combine the two. Everyone else is just using them separately. I will call the rewards line and have them call you so that they can explain it to you.'

What would you do in this case? I mean I don't know how more clearly written it can be on the back of the card.

He also said that corporate and two or other three people would be closely monitoring my account.

I called the Rewards line and not they are telling me no they cannot be combined. So now they changed their story to no, they cannot be combined.

Was I wrong in assuming that they can be combined?

GatorDeb

Well the Rewards guy put me on hold and came back and says that it DOES count. I'm on hold now... he's going to call the store. I told him about the district manager's condescending tone and he says they can file a complaint. When he comes back I'm going to tell him I don't want any more complaints, I don't want any more actions, I just want the free rentals.

He said as this is the first program that DOES allow the free rentals, a lot of Blockbuster people are in the mentality that no, cannot be combined and it's hard getting through that.

ajbowling

Not wanting to get into all of this, just to let you know a few things.

If a card/coupon has letters in the code (below the actual bars), the computer will treat it as a coupon, and it will NOT count towards the Rewards program.

But if it's all numbers, it will. The computer will count that as a paid rental.

The SOP for scanning everything at Blockbuster is to scan the movies, then scan any coupons, then hit total. Rewards freebies come off at that point.

If they don't scan the coupons at the right time, then whoever has a manager password can manually take off money, but they can't "undo" the total button if any freebies have been taken off.

Sometimes it's not an idiot employee, it's just them doing the transaction EXACTLY like they were told.

If the Monsters' card is a coupon one (with letters), no wonder they were saying what they did.

-jarrod

GatorDeb

The final word is that this is a one-of-a-kind deal. For the first time -ever-, you CAN combine two "promotions." The thing is that a LOT of employees are misinformed (including Rewards line reps). The rep I talked to talked to the district leader (dl) after the dl talked to me and explained to him that YES, it does count, and the dl told the store (the Rewards rep said it wouldn't do any good for him to call since the store had been told something else already by the Rewards line, his word wouldn't change their actions - that made perfect sense). The rep even said he himself thought it didn't count and if it wasn't for the fact that he went, hey, let me double check on that, he would have told me that it could not be combined. As a result of this, he says he's going to circulate a national memo to all BBs that states that it CAN be combined.


I don't take issue with not knowing... it was the attitude that "No you're wrong that's it we're right" attitude. I mentioned to the rep that maybe the memo could include to listen to the customers because, hey, sometimes we do know what we're talking about and that the customer's not always wrong. That comment from the dl that "Of 6000+ people you're the only one that wants to do it this way" is a) false and b) condescending, as was his comment of "I'll get the rewards line to call you so that they can explain it to you" in a 'I'm talking to a baby" voice. If the store had gone "You know what, we are told you cannot combine, but that wording on the back of the card does make it seem like you can, you can certainly call the Rewards line from here and we'll get to the bottom of this" I would be praising BB up and down the street. I work customer service and that's what I would have done. I make extra calls if the customer states something was done differently before.

I mean someone thought enough to include the line "Redeemed rentals will count as paid rentals towards the Rewards membership." How clearer can that be?

So it wasn't the lack of knowledge. It was the attitude and the service.

J-Dubya

I haven't been back to BB since they tried screwing me on the Shrek deal last year. When you get bad service, the only way to vote is with your pocketbook.

Letterman

During the summer of 2001, I got a 30 DVD rental card for $20 from BBV (a promotion they were running at the time, I'm sure many remember it). Anyway, about midway through the month, they gave me a free trial Rewards membership, I assume to try to get me to join Rewards. I was able to use the DVD rental card as the "paid" rental and get the Rewards movies free Monday-Wednesday - they just scanned the movies and it happened, didn't have to say anything. In fact, it was the BBV employees who told me about it.

So, unless the DVD card is different than the LOTR/Monsters Inc card or BBV has changed their policy since then, I would think you could combine the two.

GatorDeb

Today I picked up the free Favorites that I was owed from Tuesday. Everything's set It DOES count.