Several months ago, Blockbuster gave me a complimentary upgrade to their Blockbuster Rewards Gold program. The letter accompanying the new card told me I was one of their “most valuable customers.” (To be eligible, customers must pay for at least 100 rentals in a 12 month period.)

I haven’t rented anything since they sent it to me.

Not until last night, that is. Quality time with Brandon means movies, and so we rented 5 titles (2 of which were actually in English.) Matt rented the non-subtitled selections for us on Friday, confronting a monumental hassle in the process.

He had to fill out a new customer form, provide two telephone numbers (at 11p, they wanted to call his parents to verify it was a working number!) and jump through various hoops — even though he had an account in good standing at the store across town.

By contrast, when I went to Blockbuster, the rental process went off exactly as it does at my home store, some 180 miles away. (If anything, it was smoother. The employee seemed actually helpful.)

I found the contrast interesting, and told Brandon so. He thought differently: “I’m glad Hollywood doesn’t do it that way,” he said. “I’d never be able to rent anything.”

Hmmm. A national database means late fees that follow you wherever you go. The boy has a point…

Note: Nothing in the above should be construed to mean I don’t still view Blockbuster as the Antichrist. Despite a convenient rental procedure, their idea of varied selection continues to be 40 copies of One Night at McCool’s in both VHS and DVD. I eagerly await the day when I live near a Facets.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 8th, 2002 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Business, Film.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.