Screwing With Blockbuster Video
by Hiemlich VonScootertraus the 53rd
The corporate invasion is well underway now. By the time you read this, Viacom will have stuck a Blockbuster store within earshot of your house. A boon for many, a curse for many as well. Having worked at a franchise that was bought out by the corporation, I can honestly say that things at the local video store are going to get worse before they get better. Corporate stores are now the norm as no franchises are being sold anymore. This ain't good. I'll explain why by dividing this article into two parts, the first being:
Franchises
O.K., for those of you who don't know, a franchise is a store owned independently of the corporation that owns the name. So, a franchise Blockbuster would be owned by Joe Schmoe, and he would buy all the movies, distribute pay checks, and reap the profits. A corporate store is owned by the corporation and they do all that stuff themselves. That being said, it's pretty obvious which type has to put up with less red tape.
Speaking as an employee, I can tell you that once my store was bought, we were immediately forced to watch some dried-up film star tell us how to deal with robberies, how to prevent theft, how to exit the store, how to breathe, and how to eat. Big time brainwashing. One of the things they didn't mention, however, is what to do if presented with an account that seems fake. All the better for us, the scorned few.
Here's how Blockbuster rents you a movie. They ask for your card, or, lacking the card, ask you for your driver's license. Also, you can quote off your account number and use that. So, if I were to say my account number were 25800115770, the loser behind the counter (who makes minimum wage, by the way) would type that number in and see all my info.
So, if one were to say, run in, grab a copy of Road Rash 3D, a copy of the MST3K movie, and a copy of Brazil, they could give the counter person the account number of the guy who used to take away their lunch money in second grade, pay rental fees, and have a bigger movie collection than when they went in.
Alternately, one could, feasibly, sift through the Dumpster behind and find a membership card that was misprinted and thrown out, get it laminated (or just memorize the number on it), come back and use it. At no time does Blockbuster check ID if you present them with a membership card or a membership number. There are pitfalls to this, as some accounts can be rigged to say "Check the ID of whoever uses the card" but that usually only happens when someone loses their wallet.
This works at both franchises and corporate store by the way.
But, as I said, some things won't work at corporate stores. At a franchise, for example, they use these little cards to scan in discounts. If I return a red-covered movie and ask for the dollar back, a franchise store has no way of knowing whether or not I actually did it, they just take my word.
A franchise is a lot more lax about security too. I can say from experiencing two separate franchises that their video surveillance systems are complete wastes. They have three months worth of videotapes in the back. Each one records 24 hours of activity. These are normal tapes!!! Hah! Even brand new, these things are unusable. One time, a customer was bickering about whether or not he rented something, so we took him back to show him coming in the day before on the tape. The tape was so staticky and mottled, we couldn't see a thing, so he got his money back, and a free rental to boot.
Which brings me to the next difference between corporate and franchise: franchises are tougher to get money out of. That being the case, lets move on to:
Corporate Stores
A corporate store has one goal: give you, the customer, whatever he or she wants. You could walk in and have $100 worth of late fees on your account, and if you make a big enough scene, a corporate store will always give in and apologize profusely. No kidding, you can get out of late fees as much as you want, just bitch and moan and complain.
Corporate stores, however, spend a lot more bread on security cameras. When we upgraded, we got a top of the line video monitoring system, even if the only cameras were trained on the checkout, leaving shoplifters to grab anything without a magnetic tag on it.
Corporate stores also keep track of their discounts. They don't just hand them out, they actually keep track of them on their computers! Amazing but true.
And what about their computers, you ask? Well, my friend, this is where it gets tricky. The good thing about the computers is that Blockbuster runs some freaky system that keeps them constantly linked to every other Blockbuster in the world. Yeah, that's right, I can go to Dallas tomorrow, tell them the account number of my old boss, wait 30 seconds, and leave 15 bucks poorer, but five PlayStation games in the clear. Ain't it cool?
The downside of this system, however, is that you can't get away from late fees. (Unless you piss and moan.) If you have a late fee from another store, there is dick-all a new store can do about it. Oh sure, they could take it off, but company policy is not to do crap to members from other store's account fees.
The Blockbuster computer systems themselves are an enigma to me, as I'm not particularly adept at odd systems. I can tell you that they run on PC's using an independent operating system, so there's no dropping to a C:\> prompt. To log into one of these things you need the last five digits of an employee's account number and their password. The passwords are over four letters, so you can work at it, but I have yet to find a store where the computers are easily accessible. If you do get a shot, try simple passwords. Most people who work at Blockbuster wouldn't know the difference between DOS and Windows, so they're generally morons when it comes to passwords.
At my store, during a boring night, all the employees gave away their passwords, if you can believe that. Smurf, Booger, Titanic, stuff like that. Once in the system, you really can't do anything useful unless you get a manager's password and number. Oh, account numbers are generally kept on a list with names somewhere behind the counter, so getting a number is relatively easy.
O.K., let's say one has managed to get a manager's account and password. You'll see a prompt. All you have to do is either scan in a membership card or just type in the whole 11-digit account number and hit Enter. Bingo, you've got the account on your screen, including balance due, number of movies rented, etc. etc.
So here you need to look at the keyboard. F11 clears the account. F10 goes to the check-in window. F6 (I think it's F6, but most keyboards have idiot stickers along the top that say what the F-keys do) should be refund. So, let's say I got my account up, with no balance. I hit F6 and a list of refund types comes up. I hit the number of the item that says "Credit". It asks for validating number and password (your stolen manager's number and pass) and I type them in. Now, I type in the amount I want back. Note here, what you type in should be a factor of 3.66 or 5.24 as these are the rental prices of new movies and games, respectively. If the amount is something other than that, the goober behind the desk might get clued in.
Bingo, you're all set. That's about all I have on the subject for now.