I think it just brought back some bad memories. I’ve waitressed, worked in clothing and grocery stores, and even taken complaint calls at a utility company… at none of those jobs were the customers in general as rude and unreasonable as when I worked at Blockbuster. It’s like just stepping through the doors bring out the worst in people. I’ve had friends who’ve worked at other locations and even other video rental chains, and they say the same thing.

The point is, Blockbuster is running on ancient technology and it’s indicative of how they’ve slept their way to obsolescence.

The fact that you don’t have to carry your card to rent is a convenience if you rent a lot, but after working there I think that it should be mandatory so that it’s not a huge surprise when the staff can’t pull your account up instantly from just your name. There is the ability to pull up accounts from drivers licenses (even from different countries; I was able to access US accounts when I was working at BBV in Canada), but the trick comes in figuring out exactly how it’s been typed in by whoever started the account. That can take time on the part of whoever is helping you, especially when you’re dealing with licenses that are very different than those you see all the time. Sometimes they may not be able to figure it out without taking more time than it would be for you to just give some information and start up a new account.

So many people above have talked about their hissy fits when an employee can’t look up their account. Do you really think the kid being payed minimum wage really care if you think the system is stupid and you aren’t going to rent there anymore? I was glad when people said they weren’t coming back, because I no longer had to deal with being yelled at, swore at, and called an idiot. I knew perfectly well the problems with the system, but I didn’t think they merited the incredibly rude way customers would treat me.

If you have a problem, write a letter or send an email to corporate blockbuster or the manager of your franchise store. Don’t go off on the staff who have to deal with 20 more assholes like you over the rest of the evening.

What you have to remember is that locally, at the store level, we don’t have that much available memory, my store for example has created just under 20,000 accounts in about a 10 year span, with only a fraction of those remaining active for any appreciable amount of time, to store and access all that information is not only a logistical problem but would be a nightmare when searching for an account by name. How many out of that 20,000 have the last name “Smith” I wonder.

The CSR you spoke to was wrong and possibly stupid and there are plenty of things you can get angry at BBV for but this ain’t one of them.

They claim you will receive your movies in a 1 or 2 days. That is far from being right. This is what I have come up with.

Movies in 1 day 10%
Movies in 2 days 30%
Movies in 3 days 40%
Movies in 4 days 7%
Movies in 5 or more days 3%

I told them I do not renew and cancel my account when the monthly fee runs out. They shut my account off 9/29 I still had another 11 days left to receive at least 3 more, but no. They said the month ends at the end of each month. I did not pay for a partial month, that was not an option. If you start up with them during the month, they have found a way to steal from you. They owe me $6.33 for the unused portion and will NOT send me anything. The emails I receive trying to get my movies or money back are just unbelievable, they are just down right stupid.

Even when blockbastard receives a movie it takes them almost 48 hours before they ship the next one out – if you sign-up with blockbastard, you should receive 3 movies a week and that is it!

Go with Netflix, All the movies I have received from them are next day except for one that shipped from New York and that was 4 days. You should recieve 6 a week with Netflix.

Never again blockbastard!!!!

I never worked at a Blockbuster but I know how the database works.

I know that everyone has had horrible customer service experiences at Blockbusters everywhere. I apologize for those bad experiences. The team at my store does our best to serve our customers every time they come through our doors. Yes, we have horrible, poorly-trained employees from time to time. Those of us who actually do care about doing a good job are the ones who end up paying for those who could care less. Please remember that the next time you call me an idiot or an imbecile for something that someone else has done to you in the past. I will always treat my customers with respect (no matter what kind of mood they are in) and I certainly expect the same in return. Issues arise daily. I deal with those individually and try my best to resolve the issue quickly and to your satisfaction, however, I am not going to be screwed over or treated badly just because you think I am inferior to you because I work behind the counter at Blockbuster.

We have a new CEO at our company and I hope that his vision will be positive for not only customers but employees as well. Only time will tell.

Beck

In any case, we do have a national database. All we need is your DL/ID # and your birthday to look you up. So if you don’t want to carry around your BB card, be sure you have the ID/DL you used to open the account and there shouldn’t be any problem. BB accounts never expire despite what anyone may have told you … I’ve pulled up accounts that haven’t been used in over 10 years for christ sake!! The account may be on “HOLD”, but that doesn’t mean the account is closed. More than likely you were dealing with an incompitent CSR and, if this is the case, you should ask to speak to the manager on duty and they should be able to help you out.

I know BB sucks … but don’t take it out on the people that work there … they don’t pay us enough!!

The only time a Blockbuster should need to call another location is if a hold has been placed on the account by that store. This could be for anything from unpaid late fees to outstanding rentals.

I’m actually shocked, though, that someone knew it was to keep the size of the database down – in my three months at Blockbuster, I heard every explanation from, “Because we have to make sure everyone’s accounts are active,” to, “Because otherwise they can’t tell who is renting or not”.

It always baffled me that Blockbuster’s account system is based on lastname as opposed to the phone number the account is under. And what’s really quite pathetic about the system is that balances are location-specific; if you want to pay the late fees for Store A’s movies at Store B they must do a manual balance transfer between locations. This leaves a lot of room for error – I know of at least two occurrences at my store where a balance transfer was completed on the one side but not the other.

Blockbuster should really get its act together, but I have the feeling that their rental software has become such an archaic beast that it would be a massive undertaking just the migrate the data smoothly at each location.