Blockbuster Tricks

by C.B. Cates

Continuing on a popular topic, here are more ways that you can squeeze some of the most enjoyment out of the Blockbuster Video (BBV henceforth) in your town.

The article "Outsmarting Blockbuster" in 19:3 was insightful on getting rid of pre-existing late fees (called Extended Viewing Fees [EVF] in BBV's industry), but there is an easy way where you don't even have to return a rental at all.

The shortcoming in the method described in 19:3 is that some stores won't even transfer balances, thus rendering the entire method useless.  (To transfer balances, one must use credits, and since credits are counted as negative revenue, Blockbuster highly discourages them.  Employees have actually been demoted and in some cases terminated for giving out excessive credits.)

There is a better way.

First, find the barcode on the item that you don't want to return.  For example, let's use the new Xbox game, Shemnue II.  The barcode is located on the spine and top right of the case and has 16 (in some cases 14) numbers above it.  Example: 3320313843457001

The 33 is a designation number, letting the BBV point-of-sale system know that the item is a rental.  20313 is the store code (in this case bogus).  843457 is the part number and 001 is the copy number.

In the top left of the front of the case, you will find the store's telephone number.  You will also need to find a dummy store number that you will be calling from.  The best way to do this is to just call them up or ask, or just look at any of their rental items.

Call up the Blockbuster which you rented your item from.  When someone answers, say something along the lines of "Hi, I'm calling from Blockbuster in [town name here] and I have a wrong store tape(s) for you."

The person you called will first ask you for your name and the store number you are calling from.  He will then ask you for the item you are checking in.  Tell them the barcode number(s) without the designator or store number (843457001), as these numbers are redundant in this situation and will raise suspicions.  Thank the person and hang up.  The item is now yours.  Just make sure you call before the item is due or Blockbuster will still stick an EVF on your account.

How this works: Rentals from one BBV must be returned to the same store but many people don't do this.

Thus, every time a tape from a wrong store is returned, BBV still needs to track your item.  The person you called inputs the item into the wrong store account, thereby checking it in on your account.

Because there are so many wrong store tapes, when they finally get sent back to their home store (usually once during the second or third week of the month), some fall through the cracks, and this is to be expected due to all-common rampant employee pilferage and general carelessness.

Try Dumpster diving at BBV as well.

If BBV can't sell a used tape/DVD/game due to a licensing agreement, they are sent to field destroy.  This means that the item is thrown away after being destroyed.  Often, however, the field destroy list is so large that it becomes an immense time-sink to ruin each individual item, and they are simply thrown away.