Blockbuster Rewards

We signed up for this rewards program at Blockbuster. Basically, it costs $20 and you get a free rental each month for a year. This seems like a good deal on paper. Of course, there are several obvious catches to this. For example, most people are not organized enough to remember to rent the free movie each month so they just throw money away.

The biggest outrage with this scam is the coupon. You have to bring in a silly piece of paper to get your free rental. First of all, there is no reason they can not keep track of this on the computer. The only reason for the coupon is (a) if you forget the coupon, you will probably still pay for the video since you went to all the trouble to drive to the store and pick it out (b) there is a good chance you will lose the coupon (c) they can make it very difficult for you to get the coupon in the first place.

Regarding (c), you might think that they give you a stack of 12 coupons when you sign up. No no. You have to go to the store each month to get the coupon for the next month. The worst experience of all was the last time I went to the store. The guy said they don’t have the coupon, I need to go to “the website”. So I go to Blockbuster.com and nowhere is there any indication as to how I get the coupon. I sent an e-mail to their support, and got a form letter that says I can expect a response in 3-5 business days.

After all that, if they expect me to “be kind and rewind” they have another thing coming.

This whole thing really blocks my buster.