I’ve got two words to re-raise your cynic meter:
Eli Manning.
The knob just exploded off and left something similar to a gunshot hole in the window.
Thanks.
Nope. Blockbuster is different in that they charge much more than other video stores.
How am I either:
A. Lazy
or
B. Inconsiderate
For deciding that I want to keep my movie an extra day?
I don’t give a shit what BB assumes. I fail to see why I should care what this corporation thinks about my Friday night plans.
Never have I said that BB should foot the bill for anything. It’s a free country and they can charge whatever they like. (I am also free as a consumer to buy/rent my video’s wherever I like.)
Of course they are. Never would I suggest differently.
Ah! Here is where you really lose me. Of course they should! I’m deciding as a consumer that Blockbuster isn’t meeting my needs as well as other methods of watching movies are. I’m not giving them my business any more as a result. Of course they should lose profits as a result! My $8 per movie isn’t an Og given right of Blockbuster. They need to earn that money by providing a product or service that is competetive with the other options available in the market. You know: capitalism.
Even though you’re being a fucking sarcastic asshole about it, you are right; my first post was carelessly worded. I will attempt to clarify:
Blockbuster has several choices now. They can keep doing what they have been doing in the past, or they can switch to their new plan. Obviously they have chosen the latter. There are other choices too, of course, but these are the ones under consideration.
So there are three levels of income involved here (this is all very general, of course):
[ol]
[li]What Blockbuster was making before Netflix;[/li][li]What Blockbuster will foreseeably make if they continue their current rental practices; and[/li][li]What Blockbuster will foreseeably make if they switch to the new no-late-fee policy.[/li][/ol]
Neither (2) nor (3) is as high as (1); Netflix has, apparently, made a significant cut into Blockbuster’s market. My point, though, is that (3) is almost certainly higher than (2).
Companies don’t get to be as big and dominant as Blockbuster once was by making decisions of this magnitude off-the-cuff. They will have done their homework ahead of time and predicted, probably accurately, that this change will bring in more money than sticking with their old business model and sitting around watching their customers go to Netflix.
Thank you for totally ignoring the rest of my post.
I understand, but in this context “hurt the consumer” means the same thing as “make more money.” That’s all corporations are designed to do; everything they do is either (1) an attempt to make more money now, or (2) an attempt to create goodwill among the public in order to make more money later. And that money comes out of the consumer’s pocket. If they are trying to “make more money,” they are trying to “get more money from the consumer.” That’s why corporations exist.
I really have to run now; I’ll check back in on this later.
No problem. I usually give you credit for being smarter than what you’d posted in this thread.
So why is there so much cynicism? People here the words “Blockbuster” and “late fees”, and automatically their minds jump to “corporate greed.” If it was stated that BB would pay you cash money to take away their videos, most peoples’ knee jerk reactions would still cause them to accuse BB of price gouging. Such is the level of cynicism that we’re accustomed to.
Case in point (and amusing anecdote, all rolled into one):
When I worked at the video store (once again, not BB), we had a “rent 10, get one free” policy. You didn’t need to rent 10 movies all at once, it’s just that every 11th movie was free. This freeby would show up on your account as a “credit.” So went this conversation one night:
“Ma’am, you have four free credits on your account. Would you like to use one?”
“No! I don’t wanna get into that credit shit!”
“Uh, you don’t want free movies?”
“Free? Yeah, right! And then you charge me service fees later? I don’t want credit!”
“That’s not how it works, ma’am. The movies are free, you’ve already earned…”
“Shut up! No credit! I already owe on three credit cards! No more credit!”
“But…”
“Shut up! No credit! No credit!”
She then literally put her fingers in her ears and shouted at me.
This is the part where I always get confused (honestly, I’m not being snide). If I am late returning a movie, it becomes an automatic re-rental. So if I originally had the movie a week, and I am turning it in late, I basically get another week to return it because they just re-charge me the rental rate. The last few mom-and-pop stores I rented from charged me a set amount each day. I’m not complaining about this practice, I completely and fully accept it as necessary and fair, I’m just saying that if I was a week late with Blockbuster, vs. a week late with a mom-and-pop store, I’ll end up paying much more in late fees at the latter.
The WSJ article mentions the average used movie price at Blockbuster was $12, does that jibe with the rest of you? Most of the used ones I see are above $20(CDN)=~$16(US) so I’d say the average was definately above $15. IOW, I’m not sure we should be trusting the initial press release numbers. Though perhaps the American stores let them go for lower…
New movies run between $15-$20. $12 might actually be a little expensive for used, but if it is what Blockbuster would otherwise charge, it’s a fair amount. The fact that a consumer could get a used movie cheaper elsewhere does make the price unfair. Thanks to the internet, Blockbuster is no longer the only show in town.
Wait a minute, wait a friggin’ minute here!
Are you people (specifically the ones who are upset with this new policy) in the habit of keeping your movies for more than 14 days? Because if you are, I was trying to call you for 7 years to tell you your movies were late and you kept ignoring me!
Every morning, the manager (me) prints out a list of late movies. Nowadays I think it might be computer called, but several years ago it was me and a bic pen and a telephone. Every person who had a movie 3 or more days late got to chat with me. Or I got to chat with their machine. Gods, I can still remember the word-for-word nightmare: “Hi, this is WhyNot calling from Blockbuster video. I just wanted to remind you that you’ve got Navy Seals out and it’s currently 4 days late. If you’ve returned it already and we’ve made a mistake, please call me at 123.456.7890. Otherwise, I hope we see you soon! Have a great day, buh-bye.” AND repeat.
I ran a small store, by Blockbuster standards. We’d generally have about 35-40 calls for 3 days late. About 20 for 4 days late, 12 for 5 days late and 2 or 3 each for 6 to 10 days late. Once or twice a week I’d end up with 1 or 2 accounts that had movies more than 10 days late. Once a month it’d go to 15 days, at which point it was checked in and the price of the movie added to your account.** (What a minute! That sounds just like what they’re doing now, doesn’t it? Except in the past we didn’t credit you the rental or late fees! So now even the real deadbeats are getting a break!)**
So, for the vast, vast, vast majority of Blockbuster renters, this new policy is Gold. If you are a renter who keeps movies for two weeks, you are in a very, very, very tiny minority of Blockbuster renters - and you’re benefiting from this new change as well.
Have they said anywhere they’re doing away with their call list? I haven’t seen that. It makes much more sense to assume that they will continue to call on late movies and remind you (given that you have a current phone number on your account) just as they always have. It’s cheaper for them to pay my sorry ass $9 an hour to make phone calls than to deal with chargeback and refund fees on the credit cards. If you return it after 30 days, they charge to $1.25 for restocking and credit the rest back. So you’ve paid $4 for the rental and $1.25 to keep it for a month. How is this unfair? We never, *ever *not issued a refund if a “lost” tape was found at my store.
Oh, and my district (in IL) also made 12% of our revenue on EVF’s. We made a higher percentage on candy and pop sales.
And for those of you complaining about returning movies but them not being checked in on time: we hear ya! And this policy does away with that problem! Shouldn’t you be praising Blockbuster for responding to consumer demand by implementing a rental scheme which gives you every opportunity and every benefit of the doubt and even removes the people from working there of having to be talked to about why you shouldn’t be charged for a late fee when you returned your homemade porn tape in the Lilo and Stitch box?
Because it’s people who keep things out extra days that make that damn Eddie Izzard DVD so unavailable to the rest of us! How is this hard to understand? For every day you keep it, I lose the revenue I could have made renting it to someone else. If you choose to keep it, fine, but I need to recoup some of my loss by charging you at least a portion of what I could have made on it. Except that now, of course, Blockbuster has decided they can’t afford to piss you off, so they’re not even doing that. I’m more worried about what that’s going to do to the Mom and Mom’s who can’t afford to follow suit.
Seriously, what could Blockbuster do to make you folks happy?
Erm, thanks, I think?
I agree with you that not all customers are best suited by Blockbuster’s business model, myself included. It’s been awhile since I was store manager, and even then the only reason I rented there was because it was incredibly convenient for me to drop my movies off. As soon as I quit working there I found other avenues.
But any business (especially a service-oriented business) is going to have their share of poor as well as good employees. Our stores were franchise, so we had a little more leeway. I did have the experience of working for corporate for a period of time, however, and their standards for training and regular employee reviews are pretty thorough. I met very few bad apples in the 5 years I worked for the company. I don’t think the company has a higher percentage of bad employees than any other comparable company.
They do? Around here they charge about $4, same as any other store around here. They might charge a few cents more, but not enough for me to go elsewhere.
You’re not, but you’ve broken the contract you had with BB. If you promised to return it the next day and you don’t, then the onus is on you to make up the difference. I’m sure you signed an agreement to this effect.
Besides, it’s considered responsible to return things when you agreed to. It’s what grown-ups do. Imagine if you took out a bank loan and decided not to repay it because you had a change of plans. I doubt you’d have any cause to complain about how greedy they are.
I’m sure they don’t care what you do with your Friday night. But they do care that you act like a responsible adult and return things when you promise to. For fuck’s sake, take a little responsiblity and keep up your end of the bargain.
Hmm, then maybe they should change their rental policy to be more competitive. Now there’s an idea! Maybe you should write them a letter suggesting this. Go ahead, go to it. I’m betting that they’ll be so moved that they’ll change their policy by, say, January first.
I am, Lawd, I am!
Well, it’d help if you’d tell me who would win which NFL games this weekend. Oh, and return my homemade porn tape.
Oh Gawd, I don’t want it! We got some really, really awful amateur porn in our store. Man, don’t let the suburbs fool you! People are sick, sick sick! And they always seemed to come back in Disney boxes, so these are family folks. (I’m
And, uh, yeah. *Every *employee in the store watched at least 3 minutes of your tape. And we were laughing our asses off. Sorry. Try not to think about it when you go to pick up your tape from the smirking CSR. :eek:
So very true. I’m just glad my CSRs were fairly observant, or else Chocolate Bunnies might have been mistakenly shelved in the kid’s section!
I don’t know anything would. DVR, Netflix Pay per view and simply buying cheap DVD’s from Walmart and Ebay are all superior to what Blockbuster is offering.
WhyNot is so cool.
Regarding the price customers will be charged for not returning movies - from what I’ve heard, it will be full retail price if the title has not yet become available “previously viewed.” If it has become available previously viewed, that is the price the customer will be charged (usually about $12.99 - $14.99).
Also, someone posted something earlier about being charged for the price of the movie vs. being charged late fees for being “honest” and (finally) returning it… - I can’t find that post again for the life of me. The policy since I’ve worked at BB (2 1/2 years) has been that if you don’t return the movie at all (whether you lost it, your dog ate it, or you decided you just wanted to keep it), you’re charged late fees up to a certain cut-off point (which I believe is less than 30 days, but fluctuates), and you’re also charged for the price of the movie - that is, the cost of the movie if it had been a “previously viewed” copy - usually no more than $12.99 for DVDs. If you finally bring the movie back, say, 2 months later - you’re charged only the late fees up to the earlier cutoff point. BB is cutting you a break by not charging late fees for 2 months (or however long you kept the movie) - but only late fees up to that cutoff point… even though BB is losing revenue by not being able to rent that movie out to anyone else… and of course poor employees like us have to deal with customers who are upset because “the case is out there on the shelf, but you’re telling me you don’t have the movie??” or “these are classics! you should carry movies like this!”
Wow, I’m glad Thursday is my last day! No more customers, EVER!!!
I wasn’t being sarcastic. I often find myself agreeing with your posts and simply wanted to exclude you from my “drooling idiot” label.
The Mom and Pop stores in my area have much lower rates than blockbuster. One place has a deal where they do five movies for five nights for five dollars. This is way above anything Blockbuster ever charges.
However, I still wouldn’t even rent movies from them now that I have other options available that are superior.
Aw shucks. Thanks! I was a pretty cool manager back in the day, if I do say so myself. We ordered lots of pizza on slow nights, and I really didn’t care much about how and when stuff got done, as long as we could all leave by 12:15. Even Inventories were sort of fun in a weird way. We had races for scanning and “She-Ra” contests for putting away library tapes. Heck, even most of the customers liked me! :eek: If the pay hadn’t been such a joke, I would have been happy to stay.
And congratulations on your release!
The weird thing is, no matter how much they annoy the crap out of you know, you will end up defending Blockbuster in discussions like this in 5 years. I’m not sure how that happens, exactly.
I answered this in my other post. That hasn’t been my experience.
Of course I will honor that agreement. This is not in dispute. I pay all my late charges. What is in dispute is whether Blockbuster is the best way to view movies based on my viewing habits.
This is silly. You can’t guilt people into returning the movies on time. What am I supposed to do, not go out on a friday night because I can’t break my commitment to Blockbuster?
You analogy is also very bad. I wouldn’t take out a loan from anyone without paying it back. However, if my choice is between two banks I just might choose one of them based on thier fee schedule and how well it meets my needs. If a bank has a stiff penalty for being late and another does not then I might use that to make a decision on which one to use. That’s just being an intelligent consumer.
How am I not taking responsibility? If I refused to pay the late fee, or kept the movie without paying then I could see you calling me irresponsible. But, if I decide I want to keep my movie longer this is not being irresponsible.
I’m simply telling you what my movie watching habits are. It’s just silly for you to suggest that I should change my habits to make Blockbuster happy. I’m not going to. I will seek out other ways to watch movies that do meet my needs. I never even gave it any thought until this thread, because I honestly don’t care.
What is this, an entry for the Snarkiest Post of the Year contest?
Why is it my responsibility to tell Blockbuster how to run their company? They want to overcharge for a service that is so outdated that I don’t even really want it anymore. I’m just not going to continue being a customer there. It’s not my job to keep Blockbuster, Inc in business.