No I cannot make an exception for you

[BBVRoss]

Hey everyone,

I work at Blockbuster Video. It has been a busy night tonight but there was this one person that pissed me off tonight.

He and his family first came up with his 4 movies, snacks, and drinks.

It was the first time he used his card in this particular store so I needed to check his ID. He proceeded to hand me his military ID, I checked it and it was him.

Then I notice that there isn't a Credit Card on file. It was store policy that we need Credit Card on file in case of movies not being returned. I asked him for a Credit Card and explained the reasons to him. Without the Credit Card I could only allow him to rent out 2 movies out at a time.

He then started yelling "I WILL BRING THE MOVIE BACK!!!" and in front of others too.

In my mind I was like, How the hell would I know you'll do that? You're just some random guy I've just met.

I was beginning to refuse to check out his movie and he made me call my store manager, who was currently helping someone else on the floor.

So I did. After my SM explained the same thing to him about it. And He ended up yelling "I WANT TO SEE THAT ON A PAPER".

I was thinking, You want to see it on a paper!!! WHAT THE HELL!?! You want me to run into the back and type up on the computer that say that?!?!?

So my SM and I looked around our membership application to see if something like that showed up. It didn't.

SM decided to let him rent those 4 movies and put a note on the account saying to allow him as much rents out at a time.

in the end, He only have to pay for 2 of the movies since he got a coupon for the other 2 movies and the snacks.

after he left. SM was also mad about that coupon as well and told me that they wasted 30 minutes looking for movies with the SM while she was doing closing duties while his 3 little kids were messing up the shelves and knocking DVDs over.

I was so pissed off the following hour.

I'm hoping that our collection agency that we use does cause damage to credit reports so that I can laugh at him if he does anything that involve getting charge, but I highly don't think so.

This also remind me of another lady who was dressed in a military uniform a month ago that did the similar crap. I hate to admit it, but it's beginning to make me think that military people looks down on civilians.




phew... I needed to let that out. I really hate people who wanted to be treated special and not the same as other customers. I really don't know why. I mean it not like he personally insulted me or anything. Really wanted to let it go after he left

[bainsidhe]

Trust me when I say all military ppl aren't like that. When I worked retail, the ones who showed a military ID or who were in uniform were some of the calmest and polite customers I've had. No complaining about showing ID for alcohol, no muttering about wanting discounts, etc. I know every group has both good people and idiots, but I fortunately only dealt with nice ones.

[EvilEmpryss]

One of the great things about the military is that they take people from all walks of life. You've got every race, culture, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic background, gender, and (yes) sucky customerness. They are a just another cross-section of the country so you will sometimes get a real winner show up. The moral of the story: Blame the customer, not the uniform.

[videodrone]

Hi! I work at BBV too!

Do you happen to work at a franchise store? I work at a corporate one and we only need credit cards on file if someone is renting video games.

[flutes_and_fabric]

That sucks. I have a beef with my local BB (the manager knew me and didn't like me, so she said I needed 3 ids or something. I gave her a license, school id, credit card, car registration, school fingerprint card. There was no one else around and it was getting ridiculous, so I left. That particular store is now closed.) The other one I go to is great (kinda far away). Friendly peeps, patient (I've seen my share of SCs there.) Unfortunately that one is closing too. Darn mail order movies. I like picking my stuff out in a store. I feel like I have more control over it that way.

[Merriweather]

That sucks. I have a beef with my local BB (the manager knew me and didn't like me, so she said I needed 3 ids or something. I gave her a license, school id, credit card, car registration, school fingerprint card. There was no one else around and it was getting ridiculous, so I left. That particular store is now closed.) The other one I go to is great (kinda far away). Friendly peeps, patient (I've seen my share of SCs there.) Unfortunately that one is closing too. Darn mail order movies. I like picking my stuff out in a store. I feel like I have more control over it that way.

Several years ago we had a major problem with them as well. To get a store memberhip to be able to rent anything at all, they required two phone numbers. We'd just moved to the area, had a home phone, but had not bought a cell (we'd been living in a mountain area with absolutely no coverage before that, and overseas before that, so had never had one and were in no hurry to get one). I wasn't employed at the time. DH was in the Navy, on a ship that was going on a six month deployment - while they have a reachable phone when in port, they obviuosly don't have one at sea - and will not have the same one when they come back, either. So the guy refused us a membership because we couldn't produce two valid permanent phone numbers - and they had a credit card number for us!! This was before everyone had cells, so most military had the same problem - and it was a Navy town.

Sometimes I miss the good old days when if a business treated the military badly, the base would blacklist them - and military members could get in deep trouble for patronizing them. I hated the concept of being told where I could or couldn't go, but loved watching stores go out of business because they cheated or discriminated or otherwise took advantage of military.

[Tithera]

The BB round my neck of the woods is awesome. Clerks are always fellow college students or awesome older guys who love to have conversations with customers about movies. Much like my fav Family Video in my home town. I didn't know about the credit card thing, but I use my boyfriends card when renting. And vice versa from FV. They never have to check ID cause we go in there together all the time and every clerk knows us, so if I show up with his card by myself, they know he let me use. Plus we always return our movies when they are scheduled to be.
I'm not much for the mail-in movies. My parents had NetFlix when it first started and it wasn't bad, but it kinda sucked that we could only rent 3 movies and then when you wanted another one, you had to send one back in and wait like 3 days for the new one. As opposed to a five minute drive to Video Connection (old movie store we had, was awesome but got bought out by Movie Gallery then went out of buisness because of FV) or Cat Video (local indy-movie dispenser, Awesome little store with some awesome movies), rent like 5 or 6 at a time for a cheap price, then get more later that week. Much easier to do the store thing.

[Andara Bledin]

Much easier to do the store thing.

Unless you're a terrible procrastinator, like me.

I'd be lucky to manage only 3 movies over the course of a week. Hollywood Video made quite a bit off of me in late fines, and theirs were way cheaper than BB (which I refuse to go to for other reasons). For me, Netflix is a much better solution.

Plus, with the Watch Instantly option and my XBox, I'm golden. Can't wait till they get more content on there.

^-.-^

[Green_Fairy]

Plus, with the Watch Instantly option and my XBox, I'm golden. Can't wait till they get more content on there.
^-.-^

i second that. it's one of my favorite things in the world. i get to watch tv shows from other countries, movies i've never heard of...it's pretty awesome. i also wish they had more newer tv shows. i can't be a proper home-body without the latest episode of army wives! (actually, they don't have any army wives on instant...makes me sad)

i always hated going to the local video stores when i was little. they always smelled bad and were usually out of the movies we wanted. netflix ftw.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Re: the sucky guy with the military ID.

Was he active military? If I'm remembering things I've read on this site properly, if you report him to his CO, he could get in hot water with them and told to "make it right" with your store. The military tries to maintain good relations with the local communities these days.

Then again, I may be mis-remembering things.

[Bright_Star]

Sometimes I miss the good old days when if a business treated the military badly, the base would blacklist them - and military members could get in deep trouble for patronizing them. I hated the concept of being told where I could or couldn't go, but loved watching stores go out of business because they cheated or discriminated or otherwise took advantage of military.

The military still does that.

[wraiths_crono]

Hmm people in military uniforms, when I had problems with Pilots and enlisted at slaveway near Luke AFB, I would just call a friend, that was close to the base XO and drop a last name from their uniform. Mwa ha ha ha ha.

[Seraph]

GASP!! Someone from Blockbuster!!

<clings tightly> Please come back to my town....we miss your beautiful blue and yellow signage here in VA. I'm reduced to using terribad Netflix.

I actually think we don't have ANY BBs left in VA now....sucks, because I know that the one here did BUTTLOADS of sales since it was practically on top of a college campus.

[Merriweather]

Re: the sucky guy with the military ID.

Was he active military? If I'm remembering things I've read on this site properly, if you report him to his CO, he could get in hot water with them and told to "make it right" with your store. The military tries to maintain good relations with the local communities these days.

Then again, I may be mis-remembering things.

I'm sorry, but I really hate hearing that. Yes, if a military member does something really bad, sure, report them. But how would you feel if anytime you did something a bit sucky people said "call his boss and tell them, see if you can get him in trouble on the job for being less than perfect on his off time".

Yes, military do represent our country - they also spend months away from families, move when and where told, and put up with one H*** of a lot more than most people think, for one H*** of a lot less pay than most people think. Yet even when NOT in uniform, people seem to t hink they should be 100% perfect at all times, and if not, it's ok to call their boss and see if you can damage what for some is not just a job, but a career.

I've lived in towns where it was so bad that military members were often cheated by businesses, and if they complained, they were threatened with having their CO called. And if the military member went to the CO, they were told to "make it right", even if it meant paying for services not rendered, rent not owed, etc.

I actually had a previous landlord call me at my father's funeral (and yes, he knew that's why we were out of the area) to demand we drive 400 miles that day to pay rent we did not owe (we had been told since we left the house immaculate, the security deposit could cover the rent for the last month). When we got back home two days later (no, I did NOT leave my father's funeral to do what he asked) my husband went to his CO, who had already been called by our previous landlord. My husband was told off - he should have done whatever it takes to make the landlord happy, even to the point of walking out on my father's funeral. Not to mention he should have somehow known that the landlord would demand last month's rent be paid, in spite of his wife telling us the security deoposit would cover it (and her name was on the lease, she had every right to do so). Oh, and btw, at this point, the last month's rent was exactly 4 days late.

So please folks, if a military member is NOT in uniform, allow him, like the rest of us, to have a private life, and do not call his boss because he isn't perfect. Every one of us had a bad day, overreacts, etc. and becomes a bit less than perfect, and most of us would be shocked if our bosses were called for what we did on our own time. Call them on their suckiness, let them take whatever results from that anyone else would - but please, treat off duty, non-uniform wearing military as you would any other person/client/customer.

Sorry for threadjacking, and I don't want to get to fratching, I just wanted to point out something many people just don't t hink about, that military (and I do stress, out of uniform) should be allowed to be just like everyone else and have "private" time, and should be treated as everyone else. So if you wouldn't call that sucky customer's boss if you know they work in the office down the street, please don't call their boss just because they're military.

The military still does that.

Very rarely. Nowadays they worry much more about keeping the community happy than they do about keeping miliary members happy.

[GroceryGIrl]

So the man overreacted but I kind of understand his point of view about seeing it on paper. Shouldn't you have some kind of accessible information about the policies that the customers can reference? Especially in instances like this where they have to produce documentation?