Don't rent DVD from Blockbuster (Blockbuster)

Member Name:

Product:	Blockbuster
Date:	12/12/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They refund damaged rentals, Good for buying new DVD- cheap ££

Disadvantages: Scratched / greasy / dirty discs, Broken rental cases damage discs, High price £3.75

I've read nothing but glowing praise on Dooyoo for Blockbuster, which surprised me as Blockbuster is probably the worst store for DVD rentals. Maybe the Dooyoo members writing these Op's don't rent DVD's?

I don't own a video player, I got rid of mine 2 years ago and got a decent DVD player. I buy plenty of DVD's, about 100 a year, and like to rent DVD's, usually 2-3 per week. As you can see, I like movies. My dad works in television, and I grew up appreciating quality presentation; this is why I embraced the DVD format.

However, renting DVD's from Blockbuster has been nothing but a miserable, annoying experience. I even wrote to their HQ to complain, and was fobbed off with a promise that action would be taken, and was credited 2 free rentals!

The majority of DVD's I have rented from Blockbuster in the past year have not worked properly. DVD's are susceptible to scratch damage, much more so than CD's, as the DVD format uses a higher data density to fit all that extra information onto the same physically sized disc as a CD. What this means is that DVD's are less tolerant of scratches, contamination with grease or anything that stops the laser tracking the disc properly.

I don't know why Blockbuster has such a problem with DVD rentals? Maybe it's the way their discs are stored in the store, or their rental boxes, or the way that customers treat them?

Video tapes are more suitable for rental as the magnetic tape is installed in a tough plastic casing that means if a customers drops the tape, it won't really get damaged. You could even smear strawberry jam across the box and it wouldn't do any damage (though it would screw up your video player!)

So many Blockbuster DVD's I've rented have scratches, greasy fingerprints, smears of food, etc. It got to the point where I had to buy DVD cleaning products to clean Blockbuster's DVD's when I
rent them! I'm not always confident about cleaning someone else's DVD because they can become scratched if food is stuck firm to the underside (I've rented a Blockbuster DVD with hard baked pizza sauce all over the bottom).

Many of the DVD's seem to be scratched because they are not put into the rental cases properly, or the cases have broken tabs. You put the case into your bag, the disc jumps loose and rattles around, getting scratched. I have rented tons of Blockbuster DVD's that have been given to me in broken cases, with the disc rattling around before I got out of the store. A recent DVD I rented was "Mummy Returns" which looked fine until I tried to play it; my player rejected it and I looked at the underside to see a 3 inch crack running across the spindle. From the label side (label was black) you couldn't see this damage.

OK, Blockbuster have a good refund policy, they always credit my account when I return an unworking disc. But getting £3.75 back isn't the issue, it's the time lost. I work hard, and don't have much spare time. When I rent a movie I actually want to watch it, not have to take it back to the store (quite a hassle). And if I start watching a movie at 9-10pm, the store is closed before I notice the problem. I then might have to wait another week to rent that movie again, and my chosen film will often be rented out by someone else.

I wrote to Blockbuster HQ to mention these problems. I received a symphathetic reply, promises that they would retrain staff to check DVD's for scratches before renting, and that they would tell staff to check for broken DVD rental boxes. They also credited my account with 2 free rentals as a thank-you! I was satisfied to get this response, but the situation has not changed.

My local store is Kentish Town in North London. They closed for 1 week and refitted the entire store (it was looking totally ghetto - real tatty fittings)
but didn't change any of the their DVD rental stock and so the problem continues. I have to check their discs myself before leaving the store, and sometimes have to ask for a different copy if the disc they've rented has scratches. One movie, all four copies were scratched so I asked for my money back.

Another issue I have with Blockbuster is the time it takes to serve customers. I don't expect to wait 15 minutes to return a damaged DVD, when they are only 2 customer in front of me, and 3 staff, with only 1 serving. They have 2 tills, the other 2 staff members were filling shelves, don't they want to keep customers happy or what? I dread going there to rent movies, 'cause I know I always have to wait 10-20 minutes to get served. It seems like they always have a trainee member of staff working on Friday and Saturday nights, which seems real dumb!

As it stands, I really can't be bothered to rent DVD's from Blockbuster, until they can provide scratch / dirt free discs which actually work. Watching half-way through a great movie, and then suffering long minutes of jumping frames, pauses, or the disc being ejected - just doesn't make for good viewing. The excellent thriller "Momento" was ruined like this, the last 10 minutes are critical to the plot and were completely unwatchable - due to deep scratches on the disc. They credited my account, I had to rent the same movie (thankfully a different disc as they had 3 copies) and watch it all over just to see the last 10 minutes.

Blockbuster should stick to renting video tapes, tough, robust, grease and dirt proof. Friends who own Playstation 2 have had the same problems as us DVD owners, renting scratched games that just don't work!

Probably the only use I'll have for Blockbuster in the future is to buy new DVD's, that is one area where they are good. As they are new, boxed DVD's - there is no problem with scratches. Their prices
are very aggressive too, usually beating the high-street retailers like HMV by several pounds. They are currently running a "3 for £25" campaign, in contrast to HMV's "3 for £27" campaign featuring the same DVD's. As a big company, Blockbuster obviously has major purchasing power and their new , for sale DVD releases are often £17.99 instead of HMV or Virgin's £19.99

Thankfully, there is a great independant movie rental store called "Channel 22" in Camden Town (North London) that has a wide selection of current releases, cult classic and foreign arthouse type films. They only charge £2.95 for new release rentals, in contrast to Blockbusters steep £3.75!

Last time I visited Channel 22, they had a load of Blockbuster membership cards stuck on their wall behind the till. I asked if people had dropped these cards in their store by mistake, the guy answered, "Look carefully, you'll see all the cards have been cut in half. They all belonged to Blockbuster customers who had enough and asked us to cut their cards up!"

I can see my Blockbuster card up there on that wall pretty soon!

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