Blockbuster
Reviews and Complaints

I was charged a penalty for a late return on 2 x DVD's. I had returned these rentals on my to work before the shop had opened. When I went to rent more movies I was told that they deducted units due to a late return. According to there system I had only return them at in the afternoon. Who gives them the right to deduct units without my knowledge? Why were they booked in so late? There is a problem in the shop and now they want to make me look bad. I have sent email after email for a week now, but have had no feedback at all. I want my units returned, and I want to be reimbursed for being embarresment caused by them. And my record must be cleared. I know there are penalties for late return and would glady pay if I new it was late. But this time I know for a fact the shop is in the wrong. They basically stealing my money!

We recently switched from Netflix to Blockbuster DVD mail service. However, we've found a new problem with Blockbuster. We wanted to try viewing a new TV series. Blockbuster sent the first disk immediately. The second disk was listed as very high demand. So, Blockbuster sent disks 3 and 4. We watched disk 1 and sent it back, thus receiving disk 5 of the series. We waited several weeks for disk 2 to drop demand. It didn't, so we had to return unwatched disks 3-5 to continue our rental service. That was three months ago. Disc 2 is still on very high demand. This seems to be the case for not only the series we wanted to watch, but any series with multiple disks. We've contacted customer support, but the reply told how to change the wait times in our queue and did not solve the series disc 2 problem. We replied that their solution wasn't fixing the problem and we've heard nothing back. Based on this poor customer service, we do not recommend Blockbuster for mail order DVD!

I signed up for "Free" month-long trial. I returned DVDs to local store and then I cancelled at end of the free month. I received an email confirming the cancellation.
Blockbuster didn't erase the movie queue they'd had me set up, and sent another DVD after the cancellation. I took it back to the local store, unopened, and handed it to a clerk, explaining the situation. Now, about six weeks since the cancellation, I returned from a two week trip and went through a pile of mail, finding still another DVD from Blockbuster. I took it to the local store, unopened, and explained the situation to the clerk. She was not surprised, saying they must be behind back at the shipping area. She asked if I'd been charged and I said I had not (or so I thought). Then, returning home to my pile of mail, I found my Visa bill, showing a $16.08 charge from the day the cancellation was to have been effective. I called the number shown in the description area for the charge on the visa statement, and after a 20 minute call with a rep, Zan, that was difficult to understand, was told the best he could do was a half-refund. I insisted on speaking to a supervisor and that person, Johnny, refused to refund anything at all. He said my account had been reinstated (not by me!) and since I'd still been sent disks I should have known that was the case.
Obviously, I regret ever having dealt with a company that must rely on theft in order to stay in business.

I don't have time to write a long review of this terrible establishment since I am supposed to be babysitting my nephew, but I feel compelled to share my horrible experience when I made the mistake of entering this business earlier this evening.

I arrived to rent a movie with my nephew for him to watch tonight and there were two that he really wanted to see: The Transformers and The Simpsons The Movie.

I didn't have time to search the entire new release wall for two DVDs so I approached the front desk and asked him for either of the movies I listed above. The grumpy cashier no doubt making minimum wage told me "We don't have either of those in yet". I couldn't believe it because it seems like every time I go to Blockbuster they NEVER have the movie I'm looking for. I don't even know why I have a membership. After explaining how it would make sense to order more copies of popular movies so they would not keep running out and waiting for one to be returned in order to satisfy my needs, I scoffed and said "Great now I have to go disappoint my nephew" and turned away even though he looked like he was about to say something because I had heard enough and I was not about to end my call with my coworker.

In the end, we ended up renting some puppet movie called Force America which I hope my nephew is watching right now (or sleeping). I just couldn't let this injustice that Blockbuster keeps forcing me to endure stand. I doubt I will return to that place of business again.

Asked male associate for videos "Skyline" and "Black Swan". He said none available and none have been returned. Looked around for other videos for about 20min. Went to register and was assisted by Lana. Saw both videos had been returned and asked to let me rent them. She handed them to me and before I could pay took "Black Swan" out of my stack and handed it to a little boy. I said "what are you doing?" Lana stated that child had been waiting for video over 5 minutes. I said "and we've been waiting over 20." She said very rudely "Sorry, but you didn't ask me." Male associate said "they were waiting before the little boy." She just ignored him. My fiancee' and I have been renting from Blockbuster for many years and never have we been treated so rudely and unprofessionally as today. Lana needs training in providing good customer service!

Copy of what I sent Blockbuster--------->Hello, I have been a Blockbuster member for over 13 years, and I have hung in there through all the changes but, I can no longer be a member or customer for two reasons, (1) I am disabled and on a limited income and when I went into Blockbuster the gentleman that worked there asked me "do you want to take care of your late charges?" I said "no, can I do it next time?" He said" sure no problem" that was great because I had very little money at that time. The problem was that next week Blockbuster ran my bank account for late fees $4.28 not a lot but I had .23 cents in my account so it overdrafted my account $38.00 x 2 so now I owe & 76.00 (2) I contacted "Tiffanne" the store manager which was no help she told me' well ma am its not our policy" Thats all good but when I have always paid my late fees in the past. I have spent thousands of dollars there. And she was unsympathetic and blunt to me that she wouldn't help me at all. When you have three children and to disabled parents and get a check every three weeks to live off of $76.00 and climbing is a lot of money when that could be food, or movie rentals, or gas and she could careless. Well that's very poor customer service and I will not be going back there anytime soon. I would like some contact back about this issue. I now have to close my bank account because I will never be able to get out of being in the negative at $38.00 everyday overdrawn over $4.28. All this over less then 5.00 when she could have provided my bank something so the overdraft charges could be stopped. One manager there told me that Blockbuster could reverse the charge and provide something for my bank, but Tiffanne wouldn't even discuss this or work with me.

I purchased 6 movies & found one of them was defective. When I asked to exchange the defective one for a working copy, I was told, "Sorry, all sales are final". When I contacted Blockbuster Customer Care, I was told the same thing. So, once again, corporate America STEALS from the working man/woman.

Every time someone in my family or I enter this store, the employees are ridiculously rude. They refused to let me used my husbands card to rent on the grounds that I "might be lying." We have the same, very distinctive, last name. They would not let my seventee year old daughter, who goes in there with me frequently and has her own card, rent for the same reason. When I went in to get my daughter a card in the first place, the young man at the register refused, saying "Sorry lady, the man of the house has to be the one to do this, " and my husband had to go get her the card. I am a professional with a doctorate degree, and find his comments sexist and highly offensive. On numerous occasions, I asked to speak to a manager (with various complaints) and the employees told me there was no one there, and no, they wouldn't call someone or tell me when a manager would be present.Needless to say, I have not been to this store in months. This store should be shut down.

Ok i have had the service for two years now. Then june 4th, 2010 I was trippled billed for the online subscribtion for 21.59 twice at that amount then again 21.79 i dont know why the change in amount but on my statment thats what was billed from my bank account. Then when i called they stated that they already processed the refund on the account allowing 3-5 bussiness days. At that time my account bounced and they assured me that they would credit the over draft fee as well as the money that i was charged. So again i called when another check bounced 9th i called to find out what is going on with them and why no refund. Come to find out they didnt process the refund till the 9th. Ok so again they tell me its comming and the bank will refund the over draft charges as when they see the refund from them (blockbuster) How ever when i finaly got the refund today still no refund of the over draft charges. I call them on the phone once again after i called the bank they stated that it is up to the company to do the over draft charges when they are charged to your account. So i called blockbuster again they told me this time that its nothing they can refund they can only give back what they took from your account. And that they did any charges that happen after that with your bank they dont pay back. Not only that she also told me again that they may take up to ten business days and any charges they do not cover from the bank. Then they want you to take a survey on how u like the program yeah ok i will jump right on that. The Blockbuster is a scam! over charge but can not help you with the damage they do. Yes i should have had more money in the account to start but its the first of the month all bills are due and working two jobs as is still isnt enough money to go around when people screw you over like that. In the end my bank Oneida Saving Bank did give me the credit because they felt sorry for all the trouble that i had to go threw. But Blockbuster on the other hand.. Customer care sucks.

I have had sevral problems with these tricksters. At the current time it is IMPOSSIBLE to contact a customer service Rep for The Blockbuster Online. The form they post on their website will not submit due to "error on page". I have tried to access the form from5 different computers. Their is no such thing as a customer support email address and wait times are outrageous On their 1-800 number .For a regular 9 to 5 american who has more pressing things to do than deal with Blockbuster, this will not fly. Oh, and theyre closed on the weekends.
Blockbuster stores have a current practice of "holding" online trade in dvds in the store a couple of days to slow down the arrival of the next movie in your cue and limit the amount of videos you recieve on their "unlimited" Blockbuster Online accounts. This I was told this was to limit free trades and increase store revenue. I have worked in many Blockbuster stores in Georgia and have quite a few close friends. One of these friends who is a store manager admitted this practice when I asked why it took so long to ship videos when my online account indicated "recieved in store" status. He is a store manager.
Also unlimited plan subscribers are constantly subjected to price hikes of their plans when they recieve too many videos on an UNLIMITED status account.
My local stores have started closing at 9pm on weekdays already, charge late fees now despite their recent promotions of reduced late fees. Also several stores in my area have closed.
They are on their way out I believe parlty because of the bad economy, but also because of their poor, condescending customer service and shady business ethics.
I have empathy with my friends who may lose their jobs due to store closings. But I will be glad to see this business go.

I took my son to purchase new movies for our collection, like we do bi-monthly all of the time. I thought it was odd that after 40 min of shopping, not one employee asked if we had any questions with choosing our selection.I unconsciously blamed it on my sweatpants, anyway i proceed to check out and the man asked, "you don't plan on using a check today, do you?"in a rude tone, I stated no, then asked him "why, you don't take checks."He said yeah, but not if your not a member, the rude employee did not even ask me when checking out if i was a member or not, it didn't matter to me, even though being a member that my money should be as good as anyone's.He force himself to look at me again with a stack of movies in each hand and said "do you plan on doing the 4 for 20 with these", I looked and stated no, but with the ones in your other hand I do.He then said "Oh, i was going to say!I then told him, believe it OR not I can read.And I will say that the only reason I continued to purchase the movies is my son had picked out 5 out of the 9 movies that we looked for.And if my child was not with me I would have told the employee how displeased i was with his people skills. I just find it hard to believe that someone could be so arrogant to a customer that was making them a sale.I will not be giving blockbuster #90561, employee #36251 my business any more.

Several months ago I noticed an unauthorized charge on my account from Blockbuster.com - I am a library user. Why would I RENT movies when I can get them for FREE at my library? I have never been a customer with them, and don't plan to.

So I disputed the charges, and got a refund. To be safe, I also got a new debit card, in case my number had been phished.

Guess what just happened again? Once is an accident. Twice is idiocy. I'm not sure what kind of business they're running, but it's really inconvenient to have to keep clearing this up. It's comforting to see I'm not the only person here who's had issues with them - I can't believe they're still in business with such shoddy practices.

Took an trial offer which said one month free, on subscribing for the free trial offer i was charged. I complained and asked for refund they say they cant b'cox i ticked the Terms & conditions box.

That to me is unfair, no one reads a 2 pager T&C's for subscribing DVD's! Clear case of taking customer for a ride.

I was forced to buy my rental DVDs. When they were making me to be member everything was smooth and easy. If I am late they would charge me the cost of DVD and refund it when I bring it back. When I was late more than a certain time (it was fine print and they never mentioned earlier) they sold it to me.
I claimed that for any buying and selling there should be a customer satisfaction. Answer was "sorry!". then I said if I have to buy these DVDs then give me something better. It has scratches and product is not good. At least give me something newer. Answer "Nope!".
I cancelled my membership. They do not care.
I went Netflix ( I do not want to advertise, sorry but it is working) I save my loss in few months. They mean what they say.
I think all customers should say bye to blockbusters.
I forgot to mention, I dropped the DVDs to store earlier, it was sold to me and was reserved on the shelf. When they open the shelf to deliver my compulsory sold item, shelf was full.
Many others are with me.
Thanks for reading this.

I first want to say stay away from Purchasing Blockbuster's 2 Wire Media point Player ..Its absolutley been the worst experenced, and it just got worse..ok first i odered the product on 11-14-2009 and then i tryed to cancel it on November 15th 2009 and online status, it was not shipped, they emailed me and said we cant cancel the order, you have to get the product first open the box and then give them the serial number of box, by the way there office is only open Monday- Friday unless you want to E-mail them.So need less to say it was on tuesday Nov 17th 2009 I finaly got ahold of a real person on the phone, The representive said.I just canceled your order .Here is your confirmation Number.I said can you send an email letting me know that i canceled it, she said Im not allowed to do that, but a different department handles that..> What A joke < So anyhow 1 hour later after getting off the phone with representive.I received an E-mail saying this > we have shipped your order.. so i waited for the regular mail cause thats how they ship the Box.I reeived a knock at door on Friday 11-20-2009 it was ups they shipped the box ups, what another joke with the company of blockbuster...so anyhow i called up the number to activate box..which the representive was outstanding, very proffessional...she even helped me walk me through all the steps..so that was great..Ok heres where it gets worse.remember when you buy this unit you get 25 free movies which are already programmed in this box.so i found a movie that night and then rented it, in the mean time, i recieved a phone call from>guess who? yeah you guessed it.Blockbuster On line Demand service Department..unbelieveable.. They said sir I wanted to inform you that We have received your repsonse to cancel your order.> Keep in mind its been 6 days since i tryed to cancel this order..so anyhow, i didnt even bother telling rep i laready received box, i was too frustrated..oh it gets worse LOL . So i watch my movie which not knowing if i was charged for $ 3.99 or not, so i contacted the company on saturday by email, Rep E-mailed me back and said sir we dont handle this problem.contact the department that handles it. in reply I said what department ? and of course no reply back.so after a few hours later, received E-mail from customer service stating if you need help with this down load problem, click on this link..which is live chat support online..So i explained to the Rep what had happen, and Rep said .if i were you, I would keep renting movie and see if you get charged, What a stupid thing to say... and so he said did you rent the movie, of course i rented the movie, which i just got through telling you in this thirty min chat..Un belivable...so i told him, i was going to report this company to Better business Bureau..so in closing I have the box, which i cant rent any movies if i do, i dont know if i will have to deal with all sorts of stress and drama..and to make matters worse There closed till monday at 800am...

I rented a movie. Returned it a day early..Got a late fee charge in mail a couple days later. Went straight to the store and talk to assistant manager.. Who found the movie and said it had been rented to someone else since I had returned it. She told me the boy who rented to me had been fired. Then I receive another charge in the mail for the same movie for a whooping 29.89 ! I called the store and talk to the manager, who told me to pay 4.50 Late fee and it would be forgotten. I said no way, I know I returned it and saw it in the assistant managers hands ! Was that enough? No...I ask for the owners name and phone #, was told I could not have it ! Today I have received a letter from a collection agency ( credit protection association.Lp)13355 noel rd, dallas tx 75240 ) for a collection amount of $ 46.88 ! No one wants there hard earned credit messed with ! It is an outrage ! Please, please help ! Have left many messages for owner to contact me, he refuses ! Help (keep in mind I saw the movie and case in the asst. Managers hands !...

I have been a loyal customer for Blockbuster for a good 6 years now. I always bring my movies back on time and always make sure if I don't, I pay them right away. I also have their rewards program that you have to pay extra for, and I've had this since I have been a customer.

Basically what had happend was, I rented a game. I made sure I brought this game back 2 DAYS before it was due back, that way I gave the employees ample time to get it from the bin, check it in, and put it back on the shelf. Well, I go to my bank the other day and deposit some money. My bank teller tells me I am negative $57. I look at her and go there is no way. I have nothing huge pending, and I haven't made any big purchases in god knows how long. She looks up my statement and tells me that Blockbuster took out $63.99 and then returned it the same day. But because I didn't have enough money in my account, I was charged an over the limit fee. Now, since I had things pending from before this happend, when everything from the previous days came out, there was no money in my account to clear it, so everytime one of my purchases came out, I was charged another over the limit fee. After everything had came out, I was charged a total of $150 in fees. I'm a fulltime college student, I don't work, and I just picked up selling Avon as a way to try to get some sort of money in my pocket until I can find a job. That is my only source of income, and now since my bank account is negative, when I go to put any sort of money in my account, it's going to just suck it up.

I was livid with the fact that they took this amount out since I know for a FACT I returned this movie myself 2 days before it was due. I get to the Blockbuster and tell them that there must be some mistake. They look up the account and tell me that the movie was checked in on 8/31/09 at 6:50 PM. I tell them there is NO way that somebody returned it at that time because nobody on the account was in town at the time, and nobody went to Blockbuster to begin with that day. I told them that this isn't the first time they had mistakenly charged mine, or my friends card because my friend is still going through a dispute with this SAME Blockbuster because they charged his card almost $80 for a game he "never returned". He went down there and looked at the shelf. The game he just so happend to rent only had two copies in the entire store and when he got there, low and behold, the 2 copies were sitting on the shelf. The representative apologized and said the money would be refunded, and that was over a month ago and he still hasn't recieved any sort of compensation for their mistake. The manager told me that it was there mistake but they don't refund any over the limit fees caused by their mistake. I calmy tell them that this is unacceptable and I'm not taking no as an answer. This was their mistake and I shouldn't have to lose that much money because of them. They tell me that they will call my bank manager and talk to them. I take that and leave.

They call my bank manager and my bank manager tells the Blockbuster manager that the bank is not going to refund any sort of over the limit fees because this was not a bank error, it was their error. The Blockbuster manager tells her that they don't do this and they are going to have to refund the money themselves. Again, the bank manager tells her no, she needs to. This goes back and forth and finally the Blockbuster manager hangs up.

I call the Blockbuster manager back and ask her what's going on with them refunding my money because something needs to be done soon. She tells me that my BANK needs to refund me, not them. I tell her, listen, you've talked to my bank manager already and you've talked to me. I don't know how many people need to tell you that the bank is NOT going to refund ANY money if it is not their fault. She tells me that that's the situation and that's it. I told her I will be contacting the district manager and headquarters. She hung up on me.

I then called the district manager 3 times within the week and have not heard anything back from him. I called headquarters twice and got the run around every time. I was told first that a district manager would call me within 24 hours. I didn't get a call so I called headquarters back the next day and was then told it could take anywhere up to 72 hours to get a call back. I am then told that if it was a Blockbuster error, they will pay back my over the limit fees, whereas 2 days earlier I was told that they don't do that and I will have to have the bank pay me back.

I am so disgusted with the amount of customer service I have recieved. They refuse to realize that this problem has arised because of THEIR mistake. They have openely addmitted to me, my boyfriend, my mother AND my bank manager that it was their fault, but they are not refunding me my money. I have reported them to both my state's Better Business Bureu, and the Consumer Protection Agency. I will keep calling back until I get an answer and if I don't get this issue resolved I will have no option but to file legal documents and take them to court to get my money. I think this is unacceptable for a company that is nationally known to act like this and have such poor customer service. It's not enough that they are charging people's cards as they see fit, but the fact that they act so non-chalantly about an issue that one of their LOYAL customers have. I will be taking my business somewhere else, and I will be letting everybody in my area know of this problem and referring them to other businesses as well. I really hope I get this issue resolved soon and hopefully I will get a call back ASAP. I would suggest taking your business somewhere else if you would like to keep your money in your account where it belongs.

I have been renting videos and games from Blockbusters for years. Oddly, I have noticed they consistently tell me that I owe late fees. The last time that I rented a movie, I turned the movie in four hours before it was due. This evening, I went in to rent a game and sure enough, they told me that I owed a late fee! I asked what it was for and they told me that I rented "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" and it was due at 7:30 however it was checked in at 7:36." This was absurd and I refused to pay the late fee. They failed to check it in, yet charged me a late fee. I can only speculate this is how they are making there money. I will NEVER rent from Blockbuster again. Yes, it was only $5.00 late fee, however they were wrong and did not even attempt to resolve it. Beware of the time when you drop off your movie or you could be the next victim.

I returned a video via the drop off box. I was then notified by the store that it had not been removed. I asked them to look for it on three different occasions. They claimed it was not in the store and they would charge my account for the full movie and restocking fee. My questions are why would they charge me full price for a used movie and then not take off the amount that I had paid to rent it. Why am I paying a restocking fee if they "don't have" the movie.