A Pox on Hollywood Video
This is the part where I use my vast power and influence to flip off a company. I've been a customer at that store for 3 years and spent way more than the $120 they want me to pay for that game, which I returned. Hollywood Video can suck a fat one.
posted by jeffrey rowland at 5:43:00 PM
38 Comments:
thats a nice bit of man sticking to it.. er.. it to sticking man. curses! how can i form that sentance without ending with a preposition! curse these infernal bonds of grammer.
- tohm
120 for a Game that sell for 20$ new? Screw that! Just offer to buy them a new copy of the game.. walk into the Game Crazy, pick up a copy for 15$, and hand it to them.
You can also complain to corperate especially if you have history with them. Be careful if they have a credit card on file they will charge the 120$ and chargebacks are HARD to do on that! Whatever card they have on file call and report missing RIGHT NOW!
When I worked at Blockbuster, employees at work would lose stuff all the time. Or maybe they just wouldn't check it back in and put it on the shelf where it would stay until they complained. Here's my advice, Jeff:
1. Ask them to check the shelves for the game. The most likely place for it is right where it should be, but someone just never checked it in.
2. If this fails, find out when the last time they performed inventory was. Lots of times random things appear all over the store when inventory is performed. We inventoried my Blockbuster store once a month.
3. Make sure the manager knows that you say that you returned the video and that something strange is going on.
Above all, try to be at least fairly courteous when dealing with the people at these stores. My manager was WAY more likely to be leinent with someone if they were cooperative. People who got into yelling matches usually got no help whatsoever.
Good luck, Jeff!
Yeah I talked to corporate and all the stuff you said, but now it's a "pay the late fee or don't rent here again" situation.
I used to manage a video store so I know about everything to say right. When I was managing the store one day the district manager pulled me aside and asked me why every single one of my employees was an attractive 17-year-old girl. I had not even consciously realized I had done this.
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2384
"I have shopped at walmart My WHOLE LIFE!" :)
i can't rent from hollywood anymore either. remarkably similar circumstances, but put "two towers" where "hit and run" is.
zac
those bastards did the same thing to me 3 years ago.
join Netflix fer your movies
join Gamefly fer your vid'o games
no due dates,
no late fees,
no hassles,
and best of all...
no more know-it-all-snot-nosed-dung-beetle-breathed-clerks.
--------
Tidbyte
Dear Tohm:
Try, "That's a nice example of sticking it to the man."
Sincerely yours,
Christopher B. Dino
I told Blockbuster to suck a fat one myself couple of months ago. I rented 2 PS2 games, one wrasslin and Spidey 2. Dropped them off to the night deposit box at the same time, on time. Less than a month later I get a letter from c*ckbuster asking for 101.21 for only the spidey game or they would send a collections agency after me. Several conversations with apathetic blockbuster employees later (who probably 'misplaced' the game), the charge was removed, but my vow to never rent at Blockbuster remains steady to this day.
-eightfive
I should also mention that they did do inventory but failed to find the game. I wish I could get the money I spent there over 10 years in the form of the cheque, that late fee letter was really the straw that broke the camel's back.
-eightfive
Does "sucking a fat one" have anything to do with what's in the reporter's eye?
You should read this article Jeff,
Blockbuster Announces the End of Late Fees -- Launches New Year's Day 2005
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041214/nytu067_1.html
Greac comic, btw, I've been hooked ever since a friend of mine referred me to wigu.
-- GP(MPK)
www.murpheek.com
It sucks that you are being screwed, But not all hollywood video is bad. They gave free rentals to a homeless teen shelter I used to live in.
They get you by not telling you it's late until it's like a bajillion days late. That can't be legal. Get a lawyer. Take this as high as it will go. This is a grave injustice and should be rectified. I'm with you Jeff. I'll stand by you forever. I'll even offer cheap merchendise with your picture on it to help you raise the money in case you decide to wimp out and pay the bastards.
What is it with Oklahoma rental establishments and screwing up on late fees?
Hastings, here in Norman, accused me of not returning a soccer video game. There are a few things wrong with that.
1) I hate soccer with a passion
2) I never rented the game
3) It was for a system I don't even own
Not only all that, but the late fee was $75. That's not a typo. That's more than the game costs itself...
I haven't rented from there since.
I also have a $25 late fee at a Blockbuster here in Norman for a movie I never rented.
I think there's a rental conspiracy going on in Oklahoma.
Keep your eyes wide and keep stickin' it to the man.
Why ARE you assembling your posse in front of Wal-Mart?
"Video Magic" does the same type of thing, I went there last month and tried to rent a movie and they said I owed them money for 20 Disney-kiddie movies that I would NEVER rent in this lifetime. According to the little dick at the counter I "rented" these movies in August of 2001, which is odd since I hadn't been there since '99!
"Video Magic" does the same type of thing, I went there last month and tried to rent a movie and they said I owed them money for 20 Disney-kiddie movies that I would NEVER rent in this lifetime. According to the little dick at the counter I "rented" these movies in August of 2001, which is odd since I hadn't been there since '99!
did someone say "stick it to the man"?
http://centennialsociety.com/mallpgone.htm
apologies for oldness
Lol...I used to work at Hollywood Video when I was in high school. I had a great time making fun of all the 20+ somethings that worked there and now, where am I? Unemployed...though I still admit their rental fees are too high to not carry porn.
Daphne
Wow! I never thought about Wal-Mart that way, but you are 100% Right! ;) I find all sorts of unsavory bloodthirsty types at wal-marts.
Dude! I can find PIRATES at WAL-MART?!? I've apparently been recruiting in all the wrong places!
Jeff, if you ignore the late fees, they'll eventually go away...however they'll screw your credit in the meantime. But hey, priorities!
I do not think he is forming a posse in front of the Walmart, I just figured that was a stock photo. Could be wrong though.
you dont need a credit card to rent from hollywood video. thats blockbuster.
personally, i like hollywood video.. you dont have to pay the late fees in full (or at all) to rent another video and sometimes the guys behind the counter will just lower your tab for the hell of it. :D
late fees suck though. i dont know how heavily populated your are is, but if there's another hollywood video nearby, you can always just open up an new account there. those people dont keep records between stores.
Man, I used to be the coolest video store clerk.. I took off everyone's late fees. I used to work at a place called Movie Magic that had the same initial owner as Hollywood Video. That guy is a jerk. Burn that place down.
-Amanda
http://amanda.zombiedepot.com
A video store screwed me over once, I took twenty five bootlegged tapes and VCDs and hid them in the cases at the store. Afterward, I immediately called the FBI and told 'em they were selling pirated movies! Mwahahaha, I never rented another movie there and no one else ever will either.... =)
-The Old Man Down the Road
You could also reenact that scene in Fight Club where they break into a video rental store and wave a demagnetizing coil over all the video tapes.
Why 'suck a fat one'? Wouldn't it be more unpleasant to suck an extremely thin and small, knarled and shriveled one, with warts on it and an unpleasant taste from the encrusted pus? Just a suggestion for the next time you get screwed.
Ok, having worked at Blockbuster, I can identify with a lot of these statements. They didn't used to *require* a credit card, but it was the *suggested* form of secondary ID. This meant that as clerks, we were supposed to tell them we needed a license and credit card to sign up, and only tell them about the other methods of secondary ID if they objected. Personally I tried to avoid putting credit card numbers in if I could... because personally I would never give Blockbuster my credit card number... I have seen how badly they can fuck up, I have dealt with people who have outrageous late fees because someone put the video back out on the shelf without checking it in.
By the way, if you ever rack up fees at Blockbuster(assuming you can still get an account without a credit card) you have several options to get a new account. You can go to any Blockbuster you haven't been to in 6 months and sign up for a new account. Your account only transfers to a Blockbuster when you use your card, and disappears from the store after 6 months of not being pulled up. Another option is to just have someone else sign up, when you try to set up an account, it will only pop up a warning if your license # matches one they have on file already... so if you get the properly apathetic clerk, you can write down the wrong license # on the sheet and get a new account that way... they're supposed to verify, but I rarely did.
That job sucked hardcore... I had a little flex, because I was a shift lead... but they were constantly on us about our credit percentage... we were supposed to increase customer satisfaction, while decreasing our credit usage. So we had to give less credits to people or get written up... then the customer would complain to the disctrict leader, who would tell us to give them three times the credit we would originally have given... which raised our credit usage way up... which meant that we were told to conserve credits even more...
Also, the way those late fees work if you lose the item... they check it out to you for the same rental period, over and over, until it hits the limit(Blockbuster was 12 days after the original due date) and then they sell it to you... and you still have to pay the rental fees on all the late days... so a 2 day rental would get checked out 6 times(at $4.25 a pop) and then you'd have to pay for the movie (which was new, so they charged you nearly retail price for it)
Blockbuster had automated calls if you were 1 day late on a product, and sent out 3 mailings... the problem is, if the address in the computer is wrong, you don't get those... most people only get the collections agency letter(which is actually just a warning that you *can* be sent to collections, most of the time) because the collections agency hunts you down.
The new 'not charging late fees' policy is ridiculous... and I am glad I don't work there anymore... the best plan they have there is the Movie Pass... one fee for 2 rentals out at a time... like netflix, but no mailing time... also, if you want to sign up for netflix, you might as well go with Blockbuster's mail plan... you get 2 movies out by mail all the time, and then 2 coupons a month for in store rentals... that way you can impromtu rent when you need to.
Also: Blockbuster is open on Christmas. Even Walmart is closed on Christmas. Fucking corporate whores.
For god's sake, let's not have this turn into a forum!
Is it just me, or does that reporter never stop winking.
Yeah, WTF? Jeff, are you alright? I don't know about the rest of ye but I am on the verge of panic.
Arrrrrrrrrrr! Preepare to bee boarded!
Please, Jeff, do not punish us for the sins of Hollywood Video. May we please have some more OC? Please?
jgarcia
There was a new OC up before, but I don't know what happened to it. Weedmaster P was in it! I won't say anymore so as not to ruin it if Jeff puts it back up.
I demand my free comic on time,dammit.
But Jeff has addicted us with his awesome comic, and now we are in withdrawal!
am dying slowly..... only cure: new overcompensating. please supply posthaste
What I like is, everyone is so concerned about talking about video stores that they have apparently failed to notice the emblem on the reporter's microphone.
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