I Do Not Heart Blockbuster

MR and I went to Blockbuster to rent a movie the other day because I had a gift certificate and I had already watched my Netflix movies. I was reminded again of why I hate Blockbuster. We intended to rent High Fidelity, and of course, they were out of it. While perusing the shelves, I discovered that they didn't have any movies that I a.) hadn't already seen and b.) wanted to see. I have 137 movies on my Netflix queue, yet I couldn't find one movie to rent at Blockbuster. We finally rented Better Off Dead (incidentally, I'd be better off dead than having wasted 97 minutes of my life watching that movie). It cost $4.23. $4.23 for a 20-year-old movie. Theoretically, with Netflix, if you watch a movie every day, you could rent about 30 movies a month for less than $20. That's about 65 cents a movie. There is no way I would even consider going back there without a gift certificate.

My hatred of Blockbuster began several years ago. I always went to the mom and pop video rental place, but they were bought out and cost just as much as Blockbuster, so I figured I might as well go to Blockbuster because they have a slightly better selection for the same price. I received a phone call from Blockbuster one evening telling me that my movie had never been returned. If you know me, you know that there's about a one in one billion chance that I would have an overdue movie. And I knew I had returned this movie, which I told them. I asked to speak to a manager, and they told me I had to come in to the store. When I got to the store, the clerk told me, "Never mind. We found the movie. It was shelved wrong." Excuse me? Thinking back, I wonder why I didn't make a stink. I'm not usually rude to customer service people, but that girl was extremely rude to me both on the phone and in person. If that happened to me today I'd at least try to get a free rental or something. They must have caught me on a good day. At least I got some satisfaction out of the fact that that store was pretty empty. Damn you, Blockbuster!