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My wife, when we first met in the mid-90s, used to get DVDs at Blockbuster and always returned them late and paid the late fees with no complaints, which were h
by oblib 7y ago
My wife, when we first met in the mid-90s, used to get DVDs at Blockbuster and always returned them late and paid the late fees with no complaints, which were huge. The first time I went with her to return some they took her money and then told her she was no longer allowed to rent them there anymore.
She was pretty bummed out about that but I was shocked by how much their late fees were and explained to the manager that my wife was paying them way more than their customers who returned them on time and they may want to reconsider. Her response was about as snotty as can be. She said something like "We need them back on time for our good customers". We left laughing because that just seemed crazy and we knew she'd be saving literally $100s per month.
But I was puzzled about why they'd do that. It made no sense at all to me. She was giving them a lot more money each month than their "good customers" which I thought should have put her at the top of that list. And the manager, who was so rude, clearly got a sadistic joy out of telling people "No more DVDs for you!" like the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfield.
Before we'd met I'd never even been in a Blockbuster so that was my only real experience with them and I remember well thinking their customers would flee like rats from a sinking ship when a viable alternative came out.
As soon as I heard of it we bought a Roku and ditched our "Dish" satellite service and after using it I knew Blockbuster was going to take a big hit from that little black box. It was just a few years later I read they were going out of business. By then I'd seen people lined up at "Redbox" dispensers and the Blockbuster where we lived had already closed up.
I have to admit that seeing Blockbuster die like that warmed my soul like a bowl of good hot soup
- dlp211 7y agoI think the problem here is that you are assuming that the amount that your wife was paying made up for the lost sales of unhappy customers when titles aren't available. The math is not revenue for someone else to rent at normal rate vs. the revenue for your wife to hold onto the title, but rather the revenue from a customer that keeps coming back vs. the late cost revenue minus the the lost cost customer revenue.
- kshacker 7y agoHaving seen the rates for late rentals, I think your parent comment is "more" right. Unless blockbuster was running such a tight ship that a single rental's delay would upset the applecart ... but I remember waiting for DVDs and cassettes and unless you hit the sweet spot (a few weeks after the release, or maybe just on the first day of release), there was always a wait and/or the associated frustration.
- oblib 7y agoI have no doubt they had customers complain, but I have reasonable doubts they spent as much money at blockbuster as my wife did, and money coming in is what's really important. All businesses have customers that complain. Some people make it a point to always complain, but they're generally a small percent of the total. Cater to them and you'll have a small, shrinking, and constantly complaining customer base, and that's what happened to Blockbuster. Redbox is what really put the nails in their coffin lid though. You could rent a DVD and if you didn't return it you bought it for a still very low "used" price and never had to deal with any snotty customer service people.