Dash's Blockbuster Post

Since T and I have been steering towards the on-demand feature of our cable provider, we left the online rental program at Blockbuster. We are limited in the number of on-demand films available though; so we occasionally still drop into the local store to pick up a rental. We purchased a $10 rewards membership to help with this since it didn't have a monthly fee and promised 1 free non-new-release each month (along with an unlikely free new release each month if we rented 5 or 6 others).

After a few months we realized that we weren't getting the coupon in the mail (or email), so I asked the clerk about it when I was paying for yet another non-free-non-new-release rental. He gave me one and told me that they print them at the store now and that I could get one every month. Sadly, there was no way to get any sort of credit on all the month's I'd missed waiting for them at home. At least I had learned my lesson - I thought.

Last night I went to the counter to get my coupon ... but was told I had to rent something first. Apparently, the coupon prints at the end of the first eligible transaction each month. The explanation for this was that if I was coming into the store anyway .... I'd obviously be renting something (and be able to use my coupon when I brought that movie back). It took a while for the "manager" to grasp the fact that this was essentially forcing me to pay for my free movie and was at best a rent-1-get-1-free offer. Since I had forgotten to come into the store for a few months now (due to the un-mailed coupons), I was now ineligible for the satisfaction-guaranteed refund on the Rewards Account.

After a few moments of glaring disapproval and a regrettable description of the program as "crappy", the manager agreed to enter a super-secret-and-previously-unavailable code that would send my future coupons to my email address where they could be printed. Again, there was no way to recoup my lost coupons ... and since I refused to rent something else, I left the store without a movie.

On the good side of things - someone at Blockbuster got a hefty little bonus for keeping promotional costs down on the Rewards program. And (after I use my 6 remaining free non-new-release coupons) the company will continue to save on labor cost for the hourly employees that will no longer need to say, "hello" to me as I enter the store, ring me up, offer me candy, or restock my future rentals.