My wife and son are out of town, so I jaunted by our new Blockbuster last night. I picked our a few games for my PS2 and a couple of movies. I filled out my phenomenally intrusive membership application with the names of my last three pets and their breed's scientific name. I waited for a few moments in line. Upon seeing my phone number, the employee recited a speech about how she had to have a physical phone number and that my cell phone number would not work. So I asked politely if she was telling me that I had to get a phone before I could rent movies and she said yes. Amazing who would think that a 35 inch television, sony reciever with surrond, and a brand new dvd player won't work without Southwestern Bell!

Before this looks like a rant, check this out...
1. Blockbuster doesn't verify phone numbers so I could have given them their own and probably been fine.
2. In larger areas, unless the employee had the same cell phone prefix that I do she never would have noticed the fact that it was cell phone number and I would have been fine.
3. I offered a work number...no go.
4. And to top it off, she went and asked her manager about it, which makes me think there's a way around it in the system but the manager couldn't be bothered to come and over ride the system.

phew...... I feel better now. Thanks.

By the way, my wife and I both carry cell phones which made a land line unnecessary. Hurray for the sounds of progress.

I got a local pizza place like that. they won't let me order from a cell phone but every other pizza place will.

I hit that on occasion. I have no land line, so when they say I cannot order from them I say "fine" and promptly go somewhere else. Eventually they'll learn.

I like to throw in a good insult before hanging up.

-Zeke

The thing that really annoys me though is that these policies are completely impotent in deterring misuse. They simply annoy those of us that would rather not lie. This whole thing has made me check out Netflix. The only thing is that I can't get games that way.

I stopped using Blockbuster 2 years ago because of their incredible customer disservice. I haven't had any issues with my local West Coast Video.

No other decent video store chains (or Mom & Pops) in your area? There's nothing like taking the business to the competition, letting the losers know that their stupid policies caused it, and letting the winners know exactly why you're in _their_ store so they know what they're doing right.

-Zeke

Unfortunately there are no major chains in the area. There is a Movie Gallery, but its individually owned. The mom and pop's here are friendly but not really up for the fight. One or two copies of individual movies is about it. I seriously doubt that any but one of them will out live the next six months. To make matters worse everyone in this town I tell the story to respond by saying, "You don't have a phone?"

In reply to:

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"You don't have a phone?"

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I get that a lot too. I usually respond with "I do, but its hangs on my hip rather than a wall". It seams more practical that way, but some people will never get it.

I'm beginning to wonder how many of us carry a cell phone exclusively. It seems to be becoming a more and more popular trend. Especially since it is illegal to telemarket to cell phones. Thaty right there is enough to make me never want a land line again.

You don't have a phone? The last person I knew that used their mobile as much ended up with a brain tumor, three of the buggers in fact, all clustered on the side of this head where he used his phone.

Anyway, I need my phone for the ADSL. But you're right, I never will get it. My landline is way cheaper than a mobile, even my brother with his current amazing tarriff is more expensive than my landline.

The old mobiles used to be like that. They put out MUCH more power to transmit a signal. EMI is no longer an issue, besides, I carry my earplug with me at all times so I never had it against my head anyway. Besides, I spend WAAAAAAY more time in front of a CRT, so if radiation is gonna kill me, it'll burn my eyes out first.

As far as the cost, A landline used to cost me $46 per month, whereas my cell costs $60. Plus with the cell I get free long distance, so I NEVER have to worry about calling whomever I wish. Ever. I get 2000 minutes a month which is more than I spend on the phone by about double, so even if I go way over normal usage, I'm still fine.

There just aren't that many drawbacks to me, save the fact that if I'm in the shower, and someone calls, and the phone is downstairs, I have NO idea they called.

Your tariff is far better than mine, maybe I should move to the states!

There was a study made into the possibility of hands-free kits channeling even more radiation into your head, which I can possibly believe as most hands-free's are ground plane extenders too.

I don't have a home phone either, I love it. Many of my friends and family do the same. You can get an unlimited usage phone for like $40 a month, which is usually less that what you'd pay for a land line!

I'm cell phone exclusively also. I'm going to be paying for the nationwide cell phone plan either way, and I can't get DSL where I live, and I never make international calls, so where's the motivation to get a home phone?

I used about 1500 minutes (and could have used alot more) of long distance last month and still only paid my normal monthly fee. The phone company would have bent me over for that.

Oh well...thanks for the heads up Rev. I'll give them my parent's number .

Blockbuster and Walmart are scewing over us DVD buyers who know what the hell a widescreen movie is. I will never shop at those stores.

Blockbuster is also a self-appointed censor (not that Wallmart isn't), which gets me even more annoyed.

What do you mean by ``sc[r]ewing over us DVD buyers who know what the hell a widescreen movie is''?

(It should actually be ``we'' and not ``us'', but that's a different story.)

Wal-Mart is definitely the bigger self-appointed censor. I would NEVER buy a CD there! Look at track 4 on this CD. Wal-Mart and K Mart have CDs that actually say that and have "less graphic" artwork on the back cover. Unreal!

That's just the all-purpose ``CLEAN'' In Utero. You can get the same one at Amazon, for example.

Well, the "Marts" don't give you a choice, which is the shame of it all. Little Billy Shitkicker whos closest retail experience is Wal-Mart, doesn't know that he isn't getting the real thing. That is very wrong.

Google turned up a few game rental services online like GameFly and AngelGamer. I'm not personally sure of ttheir availability on games though, as I haven't used them before.

If I remember right, the song is the same. All Nirvana and their label did was change the name on the back cover so that they (Wal-Mart) would start carrying that cd.

edit: on the amazon.com samples if you click waif me at about :27 into the :30 clip you hear the ever important "rape me"

Actually, it was directly because of Wal-mart's bitching that the clean version even exists. They forced them to do it or they would not sell the album. After it was done others picked that version to sell as well, but it is still Wal-mart's fault.

http://www.uwrf.edu/student-voice/pastissues/issues/1996/1996nov15/971035.html

Hey, someone has to protect us and our helpless children from ourselves.

At one point, I believe Blockbuster was refusing to sell widescreen DVD's, or at least was refusing to sell only widescreen movies.

check this
and this

The dominos I work at part time calls the customer before we leave with the order if you call from a cell phone. The problems I have with the cell phone only people are.

Many times the autodialers in the apartment entrys don't have their correct number programmed.

They assume everyone has a cell phone so they don't bother to tell us that they apartment complex has the incorrect number entered for them.

They can't open the door using the cell phone to let me in so I have to wait 10 minutes for them to get their slow ass down to the door.



The only time we won't take an order from a cell phone is if it's long distance because we can not call long distance from the store.

My local Pizza Hut takes cell phone orders, but the idiots refuse to accept a satellite phone number.

But now we have the MSN butterfly to censor questionable material for us.

Yet another entry this week to Roger Ebert's "Answer Man" column. I urge everyone here to spread the link that Ebert mentions at the end of his reply. It is an excellent explanation for those who don't quite get it yet:

Q. I work part-time at a Blockbuster Video store. I tried to get this job because I love movies and while the job didn't pay as well as some others it offered five free rentals per week. I completely agree with nearly everything you said about Blockbuster. If they didn't give me the movies for free I wouldn't go there. Because of all this, when I saw the Answer Man question about the spread of full-frame (pan-and-scan) DVD titles, I was thrilled. This is something that has always bothered me. I cannot stand to watch pan-and-scan movies and had always loved the fact that most DVDs came as letterbox by default. But you write, "The chains give their customers little credit for intelligence, and, incredibly, still believe many of them do not understand letterboxing." While I would love to believe this, I can tell you, the chains are correct in their assumptions. I can't count how many times per day people come up to me and ask if we "have the DVDs without those black bars on the top and bottom." The vast majority of these same customers have no idea and actually believe letterbox cuts off the top and bottom, not understanding that pan-and-scan cuts off the sides. I try to explain the truth to them but they usually don't care. The assumption that the general public deserves more credit is sadly untrue.

A. I can understand why people with small screens might resist letterboxing, which is why I see nothing wrong with offering the choice of letterbox on one side of a disc and pan-and-scan on the other. It would not be that hard to offer an in-store demo of the difference. Here, recommended by reader Joao Solimeo of Valinhos, Brazil, is a Web site with an excellent explanation of letterboxing: www.ryanwright.com/ht/oar.shtml

which is why I see nothing wrong with offering the choice of letterbox on one side of a disc and pan-and-scan on the other.

Or better yet, simply use the built-in features of the DVD format to use the anamorphic widescreen video file as the "source" for the pan-n-scan presentation, offering both formats via a menu selection on the same side of the DVD without compromising the image quality.

This is do-able, and some DVDs do this already. The problem is that many mastering houses don't have the proper equipment, software, or knowledge to master a DVD this way. Hopefully, in time, this will change as the DVD mastering becomes more ingrained as a natural part of the production process of all movies, instead of just an afterthought.