Hollywood Entertainment Corp., Hollywood Video
Close store suddenly & wont refund membership plan?!

So, I have a membership to my local Hollywood Video and decide to purchase their "PowerPlay" plan which is $39.99 each month for unlimited, 3 out at a time, rentals. Being someone without local television reception, this is great for me... I go in typically every day, unless I am uber busy at work.
The staff at my LOCAL STORE (Fenton Missouri) is awesome... Almost like a 2nd family since I see them nearly daily, right?
Well, I go back one day after having not been in for 2 days... And the STORE IS CLOSED, permanently! They have a sign on the door about the nearest two locations to serve us (40 and 44.3 miles from my home!) and instructions for returning any movies. (Basically to drop at another location!)
I call one of the locations and apparently no one that worked at my former store, work there. No one has ANY information on WHY the store (in a very populated and popular area!) closed; no one knows what I am to do. I attempt a web contact, but there is no number there, to my knowledge. I call back a local store and am given Corporates number.
I speak with "Ashley" who says she is just as surprised with the sudden closing. They do not even have the store in their system any more (so soon?!) and her first concern is if I have any movies out!!! (WTF?) She finally finds my account and sees that I returned the movies... But says someone will have to call me back about refunding my PowerPlay membership, because "usually it just transfers to another store." (I am NOT going to drive 44 miles for movies!) She ensures me that someone will call me "next week." No one does. I attempt to call them back, having to call several local stores again, for the number. I am told by a recording that, "due to an extreme high call volume, there could be waits as long as 10/30/10 minutes." (I called multiple times!) After the longest wait of NINETY MINUTES, I gave up. No option of leaving a message! I finally find the email address and still await a reply about refunding my JUST PAID $39.99.
I think I am most irked by this because I feel they intentionally were "hush hush" about this store closing. Several things happened at this location to indicate trouble. The A/C went out in the middle of Missouri Summer (HOT!) and they NEVER fixed it. It was excruciating to be in there for 5 minutes... I am baffled at how the employees dealt with being there for their shifts!? They finally got a portable cooling unit which was LOUD. Also, their outside SIGN fell down one day; thankfully no one was hurt or anything damaged... But they never fixed it! WHY a business would not let their members know that they were closing, baffles me. Especially one that sees you daily and knows you by name. Weird. I am also irked they were more concerned with knowing if all of my movies were returned, over MY PAID MONEY needing refunding.
But all in all, I want my $39.99 refunded... And I want it refunded IMMEDIATELY. To add insult to injury... The email address listed on the website, mailto: whelp@websales@hlyw.com is not a valid email address as I just got a mailer daemon notification! Ha!

Company: Hollywood Entertainment Corp., Hollywood Video
Country: USA
State: Missouri
Site: hollywoodvideo.com

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