My wife and I live directly between two Blockbuster Video stores. The stores themselves are less than 2 miles apart. My wife returned a video that we'd rented to the incorrect location. Not a big deal. I became aware of this when I discovered, over 1 week after the video had been returned, that I had been charged a purchase price for the video. I contacted the store (Louisiana Street Location) and was told that they had not received the video. I called my wife and realized that she had returned it to the wrong store (Tchoupitoulas Street Location). I called the Louisiana Street Location and was told that I'd have to drive to the Tchoupitoulas Street Location to pick up the video. I called the Tchoupitoulas Street Location.
The phone was answered by an incredibly rude employee who brusquely informed me that it was not their policy to release videos and that I would have to wait for the video to be mailed to the Louisiana Street Location. She never confirmed that the video had been located at their store and hung up on me before I could get a word in edgewise. I called back twice.
During the first call-back, I was placed on hold for several minutes and my call was dropped. During the second call-back, the same rude employee told me that my video had already been mailed to the Louisiana Street Location. I told her that this was not what she'd told me during our original conversation. She denied this, raising her voice at me while doing so. I told her that I wished to cancel my membership. She told me that I would have to do so in-person.
I drove to the store and informed a different employee that I was cancelling my membership and that I wanted to check on the status of the video for which I had already been charged full purchase price. This employee informed me verbally that my membership was cancelled, effective immediately, but refused to offer any documentation that this was the case. I was also told that there was no manager on duty and no way to confirm the status of the video for which I had already been charged full purchase price. I asked to speak to a store manager, and was told that no store manager was on duty.
After informing me that she was "busy", an Asst. Manager told me that the store only printed "transaction-related" information, but that I was welcome to contact Customer Service.
I placed a call to Customer Service to discover that, according to their records, my membership had not, in fact, been cancelled. I was told that a call would be placed to both stores in an attempt to locate this video. The next morning I received a call from the Louisiana Street Location informing me, once again, that I would need to go to Tchoupitoulas Street myself and get the video in question or that I would be charged full purchase price.
I placed another call to Customer Service and was told that a Field Manager would be assigned to my case and that I would be contacted in 3-5 business days.
At no point did anyone involved on Blockbuster's end seem the least bit interested in resolving the situation or in retaining me as a customer.
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