Was everyone robbing blockbuster blind or just my friends?

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Whatchab@reddit

Naw, I was too busy ripping off Columbia House and BMG.

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unbalancedcentrifuge@reddit

Haha...I came here to say this same thing. They were my gateway drug to debt and collections!

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I never got a demand letter or paid or anything. I did keep the BMG membership a few months and looked forward to picking my monthly CD. But then when I never paid them again it was crickets. I legit still have CDs with that BMG stamp on them.

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Asleep_Onion@reddit

I saw a YouTube video about this recently and apparently their debt collection was totally unenforceable. I think their lawyer screwed up or something and they ended up with no legal way to collect on people's debts to them. They half heartedly tried sometimes but they never seriously chased or sued anyone, because they couldn't. It was the main reason they all went out of business

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otterbox313@reddit

So my parents WERE being dildos for not letting get 13 cds free*!!

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MinusGovernment@reddit

That explains why they never harassed me. But I wasn't attempting to rob them.

My late fees should've been $5 which I fully intended to pay. I lived in a small town and commuted to a bigger city for a year and regularly used the 5/5/$5 deal.

The last time I rented from them I forgot to bring them back for 2 days. Instead of just charging another $5 they hit me with the maximum charge for each movie which totaled almost $30 over those 2 days. The next time I tried to rent and found that out I told them to eat shit and I would never rent from them again. I expected it to go to collections but it never did.

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FactoryOfBradness@reddit

My college roommate and I abused their video game rentals to the point we were almost certain we had a hand in the company changing policies.

At the time you didn’t need a credit card to create an account, so he’d just create a fake one for me and I’d rent the new Madden and just keep it. We were rascals

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MinusGovernment@reddit

When the Tecmo Super Bowl that you could create players came out none of the stores in my hometown had it for sale. Hastings had it for rent though so we just lied and told them it got stolen after we rented it. It ended up costing $70 (split between 4 of us) because they charged extra for lost rental revenue but we didn't care.

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Spare-Actual@reddit

I worked at a local video store (not blockbuster), and my friends never paid a cent for a rental. Also the store got screener copies of movies before they came out on video and those made the rounds too….truly the best of times ✊😌

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Alternative-Light514@reddit

If you rented or purchased this vhs, call 1-800-no-copies

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bloomsday289@reddit

Worked for another chain, yes. it was ridiculous

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Anxious_Emu369@reddit

Can confirm. Worked at Blockbuster, stole relentlessly.

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Expensive-Day-3551@reddit

My boyfriend worked at blockbuster when they came out with gift cards. They were preloaded back then. I guess their store manager didn’t get the memo to treat them like cash.

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Superjoe42@reddit

You were allowed to rent a certain number of older releases for free.

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Significant-Block260@reddit

I worked there for a bit in 1999. Some assistant manager at the other store down the street from us was busted redhanded just walking out the door with like a huge stack of DVDs one night. Apparently he’d been doing it for a while, and apparently it wasn’t a rare thing for some of the other employees either. So I heard, anyway. He was prosecuted..

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Funkopedia@reddit

I worked there. So they would order 100 copies of new releases and eventually whittle it down to like 2. And how this happened was the computer would analyze the inventory and print out a list of how many of each movie was to be destroyed that week. I was put in charge of scratching or breaking the discs. My method of 'destruction' was to stack the movies on the counter near the exit and instruct customers to grab one on the way out.

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Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit

That's wild that they had y'all destroy them.

I worked at Hollywood Video and we had to pack them up to ship back to a distributor.

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Much_Bed6652@reddit

Toward the end it wasn’t cost effective to have it shipped back so they just had management “handle it”. My ex just brought home stacks of terrible movies.

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koei19@reddit

I worked at a bookstore and we did something similar with paperbacks. We had to send the front cover back to the publisher and we're supposed to destroy the rest of the book. I ended up with a ton of coverless mass market paperbacks.

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SerenityN00w@reddit

You just evoked a memory. My grandmother's friend (who I didn't really know very well) would give me paperback books with the front cover torn off, because my grandmother adored me, and knew I loved to read.

I vaguely remembered her friend was connected to a bookstore. (She probably was past retirement age - maybe it was through her son?)

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katie_cat_eyes@reddit

Ugh, our Blockbuster was never cool that way. I wish you had worked at ours!

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DiaDeLosMuebles@reddit (OP)

So my friends did something with the customer service credits. There was a certain number of “make the customer happy” credits they could give out. So they’d add it to receipts of happy customers and pocket the gift card. Then use that somewhere else.

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frankensundae@reddit

My roommate worked there like 2002ish and we always had a dozen plus movies in the house and never paid for a rental or a late fee again even after they changed jobs.

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Spartan04@reddit

That wasn’t something me or my friends did, but Blockbuster also didn’t have a big presence where I grew up.

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rangeghost@reddit

I only ripped off Netflix's disc program by getting multiple free trials from a friend.

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futilitaria@reddit

I was a manager and we could remove late fees and say that they were paid at a different store.

Also during monthly inventory of soda and snacks, I could just say there were 15 candy bars when there were 20 and pocket 5.

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CyDJester@reddit

I just flirted with the check out girl and got lots of free movies 🤷‍♂️

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Nadathug@reddit

I worked at a Blockbuster that had a good sized CD section. Every time I closed, id take the trash bag by the CD rack and throw a couple in, then go to the dumpster after my manager left and get them. One time I also grabbed a couple hundred bucks in pre-loaded gift cards from the back room. Some other guy had just gotten fired for stealing, so my manager figured he did it. I’d also drink a 20oz Coke every shift. We were supposed to print the receipt and rubber band it around the Coke, so I’d just reprint my last customers receipt and use that.

Now that I’m older, I can’t believe what a blatant little thief I was, but I also don’t feel bad because they were a multimillion dollar corporation that robbed people through late fees and failed to pivot to a Netflix-type model when they had the chance. So fuck em 🤣

Not that

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jtho78@reddit

I did a survey for Hollywood video and the thank you letter had two laser printed free movie coupons in the footer. No expiration date. I photo copied off hundreds of those.

How are they doing business wise? Haven’t heard from them in a while.

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