  gballMaster YodaPremium
join:2000-11-28
South Bend, IN | wow nobody saw this coming!! | |
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 | | | Re: wow now the videostore i have worked for 16 years now will have less competition.
we don't buy as much as b4 but we are still alive and there are many renters.
videostores are important as you get off your couch, get some exercise, and you can pick out movies w/ friends or lovers. | |
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| | | | Re: wow But where will I get the weekly release of a straight-to-dvd Steven Seagal movie?
The RIAA should study this as "how to ruin your business model by failing to embrace technology"!
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BF69~~~Please stop suffocating gerbils! | |
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| | | | | Re: wow Anybody see this coming? Moog even said it.
First it was the mom/pop shops. Then they were killed by the Wherehouse, Sam Goody, etc whom were they basically killed by Blockbuster, Walmart, etc.
Now it's their turn to get killed by Netflix, Redbox, etc. | |
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|  syslockPremium
join:2007-02-03
Ann Arbor, MI | Bye Bye Blockbuster.
You will NOT be missed.
Redbox, Netflix, and a great library system in my area
have killed you.
See ya. | |
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| | | | Re: wow said by syslock:Bye Bye Blockbuster. You will NOT be missed. : : Yes! It won't be missed. High rental prices, lousy store, depressing atmosphere. I am glad it will cease to exist!  | |
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| | |  OlegBellsouth FastaccessPremium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | Re: wow said by SilentMan:said by syslock:Bye Bye Blockbuster. You will NOT be missed. : : Yes! It won't be missed. High rental prices, lousy store, depressing atmosphere. I am glad it will cease to exist! Yea.What was it $2.50 to rent one DVD? | |
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| | | | | | Re: wow said by Oleg:said by SilentMan:said by syslock:Bye Bye Blockbuster. You will NOT be missed. : : Yes! It won't be missed. High rental prices, lousy store, depressing atmosphere. I am glad it will cease to exist! Yea.What was it $2.50 to rent one DVD? Last time I was at BB store it was Five dollars to rent a movie on DVD here in New York. | |
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| | | | | OlegBellsouth FastaccessPremium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | Re: wow said by SilentMan:Last time I was at BB store it was Five dollars to rent a movie on DVD here in New York. What da 1 year go it was $2.50.They are pigs. | |
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| OlegBellsouth FastaccessPremium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | said by gball:nobody saw this coming!! How can you not see it when Netflix was killing Blockbuster for a long time? | |
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| | Reviews:
 ·Bell Sympatico
 ·TekSavvy Cable
| Re: wow said by Oleg:How can you not see it when Netflix was killing Blockbuster for a long time? I'm about 98% sure he was being sarcastic there. | |
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| |
| kuba
join:2010-08-06
Canada | I spoke to a Blockbuster representative in Canada an he told me that the company had already purchased the software and equipment to rent movies digitally when Netflix released. Apparently they never put the project to work and missed out on the electronic market, sad really.However there still may be hope since Blockbuster Canada is almost completeky separate from the U.S sector they may survive in Canada and maybe rebuilt their empire and move back into the states. Netflix isn't available in Canada yet but they want to make it they are going to have digitize before Netflix expands otherwise they're out for sure. | |
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| | They are still around? All of the Blockbuster stores in my town closed months ago. | |
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|  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: They are still around? said by Camelot One:All of the Blockbuster stores in my town closed months ago. Around me too. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone paying attention. Blockbuster got killed by Netflix(and their mail delivered and streamed content) on one side and Red Box(and their $1 rentals in every supermarket) on the other side.
Their stock has been sinking for years:
»finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=BLOK···ndefined | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: They are still around? I stopped using blockbuster the last time I decided I wanted to just "keep the movie" and got charged for the price of it - only I was sent to a collections agency for an un-returned video,.. that they charged my visa for. Some automated collections agency, too. The only contact with them was to simply "press 1 to clear up this issue" which meant "Pay us the $150 collections fee we want from you"... It wound up on my credit report, I sued them, they lost and gave up MORE than enough money for me to replace a few of my HD TVs in my house with new ones.
.. and why did I stop using block buster again? .. that experience actually was worth it!
No really, they've never been able to manage their rental records very well going as far back as I can remember, at least in my experience. Redbox works great and Netflix even better. Blockbuster can go the way of Hollywood video for all I care. | |
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1 edit | I still have a few BBs around me, one a few blocks away. Even though on Netflix, I tried BB via mail for the game rental and quick store return. It works pretty well and you actually can get a lot more rentals since you can swap up to 5 in the store per month. And they have game rental that NF doesn't have.
Thought about doing both services since I've canceled cable altogether. If BB makes it out of bankruptcy, the online game rental will hurt Gamefly more than NF. I would definitely do BB over Gamefly since both are about same price but with BB you get a DVD/BR as well. Give it a shot, especially if a store is nearby. | |
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|  Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | They're dead here, along with Movie Gallery. | |
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 PhoenixDown-- Wants FIOSPremium
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY
kudos:1 | Sad... I know a lot of people have their gripes with blockbuster I personally like things the way they are at the moment. My local store, just blocks from me, rocks.
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~ Insert a Funny Sig Here ~ | |
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| | | Re: Sad... said by PhoenixDown:I know a lot of people have their gripes with blockbuster I personally like things the way they are at the moment. My local store, just blocks from me, rocks. Same here, the BB store I frequent is almost always busy, however, I will admit I never spend anymore money than my monthly 3 out plan which is about $22. I just go in and swap out disks, or use my once a month free game coupon.
I think BB failed by not partnering quicker for kiosk locations, redbox seems to have all the good locations here. | |
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| |
| | PhoenixDown-- Wants FIOSPremium
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY
kudos:1 | Re: Sad... Hollywood never had many stores here and they went a long time ago. Never heard of family video, guess they haven't made it here yet but glad to hear someone is filling the niche!
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~ Insert a Funny Sig Here ~ | |
|
Reviews:
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Sympatico
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| Not surprised I used to be a Blockbuster customer.
Mostly what made me leave Blockbuster was price, lack of promotions and low or no availability of Blu-ray after Sony's format beat out Toshiba's HD-DVD. When I found out I could rent Blu-ray elsewhere, I stopped visiting Blockbuster.
While not being serious about broadband video delivery has certainly put them behind, I doubt this is the cause Blockbuster's fail.
I look forward to Netflix venture into broadband video delivery in Canada. We need some real competition and choice, and in Ontario it's been Rogers video stores, Rogers video on demand, or ...... I guess Blockbuster. | |
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|  Subaru1-3-2-4Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT | Re: Not surprised I used to be a BB customer also but about 5 years ago we stopped that's about time time I found nextflix they had a nice international film section which I was really looking for.. I really don't miss block buster at all. | |
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| | | I also used to be a Blockbuster customer, until the day that the idiots working there tried to screw me by checking my videos in late and trying to hit me with a late fee. After that I never went in a Blockbuster again. I will be glad to see them go under, the stores around me have all closed and before they closed they hardly ever had anyone inside. | |
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|  SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA
2 edits | I stopped going to Blockbuster before Blueray because they *never* had enough titles for new releases - you'd have to wait weeks or beg the counter person to look through the recent returns and get lucky.
To make matters worse, they listed nearly everything that came out in the past 4 years a "new release" and overcharged accordingly.
Screw them - glad to see them fail! | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Not surprised Before you may get over worked in my reply... don't. 
I agree with what you're saying about BB because the BS they did was true...
.. but the lesson is never wish failure or hope for failure - at least too often. Even the worst of the pile has to remain to balance out the best. If you cut the worst (in the chain of competition) then the best get lazy, complacent, and even gravitate back towards the roll of greedy as the bottom of the pile erodes away into nothing.
IE: You always need the worst, or the best will ultimately too become the worse when there are fewer and fewer or no one else to force them to try to be the best.
My attitude towards bottom feeding, money grubbing, horrible customer service companies is "the more the merrier".. you know they suck, I know they suck, many people know they suck, however, their competition generally always will react to them as "the competition" wanting to cut into their business. right?
Besides... in BR, it's hard to say it will be a "failure".. it very well could be a re-org and they just shed the debt. I personally don't think that BB will be actually going anywhere more so than they will just get rid of some debt, re-organize and come back leaner as a company and refocus their efforts.. and if they do actually do that, seize the opportunity and do it correctly, it could be a good thing.
On another note.. and this is pretty much true in just about any major legacy business these days.. what's holding these companies back is their own board of dirs.. they won't vote out and chop from the top. It's old ways of thinking and ideas that keep the rest of us from moving forward.
I have a business that serves automotive services needs; a luxury. Compared to the industry, I'm a "kid" at my age compared to the rest of the operators in the field. The rest of them all have laughed at me for the way I chose to run MY business and constantly talk about me behind my back and honestly in front of it. These idiots, if you will, are too stupid to realize that while they're busy talking about me and how "he's doing it allll wrong, that's not how you do it".. I'm not only doing it, I'm doing it better than them, AND I'm doing it well by taking THEIR business away from them hand over fist. These other operators just can't let go of their old ways of doing business from a time in our society where the economic world and way of thinking was much different.
A lot of people think that I'm old fashion, don't think about the customer and their needs, and all about control - but if anyone REALLY looked past black and white text, of knew how to read it correctly, the reality is that I am always thinking forward, always working to give my customers what they want (In fact, I'm often told I have too many "programs" or "offers" that it's "too confusing" when in fact there are a lot of them, I just know how to read my customers and their patterns and offer them the ones that best suit their patterns while leaving the others in the dark..
A little off topic, I know.. but this is part of the reason that companies do fail. There does have to be a balance between what the customer wants and what it takes to run a business AND being competitive... too many companies, like BB for example, won't let go of part of the old and redirect that energy into something new. That's what's hurting them.
Block buster could have done some of the following and this bankruptcy story never would be here today for us to talk about:
- Focused more into the home delivery of movies.
- Built a better platform for online streaming rentals.
- Closed down and re-focused more of their retail outlets.
- Built a model similar to that of Red Box and focused on new releases.
- partnered much of their retail outlets with retailers like Target or local grocers, or fast food outlets.
Instead, they still believed that the brick and mortar model was the best and that just closing down some of the ones that weren't profitable would keep them alive.. they were too busy doing that in order to realize that there was a whole other world going on around them doing something people DO want which was the cause of them having to close down a lot of their retail stores.
Moral: you can't force the old onto people and think that your model has a right to exist when the overwhelming majority is telling you otherwise. | |
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| | | SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | Re: Not surprised I never knew that fiberguy was actually Rocket Singh! Things are starting to make sense.... | |
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| | | | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Not surprised said by SLD:I never knew that fiberguy was actually Rocket Singh! Things are starting to make sense.... ... eh? come again? | |
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| | | | | sam64
join:2006-07-31
Newtown, PA | Re: Not surprised said by fiberguy:said by SLD:I never knew that fiberguy was actually Rocket Singh! Things are starting to make sense.... ... eh? come again? Take a look at the following,
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Singh | |
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| | | | | | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Not surprised .. did long before you posted a link.. still, makes no sense to me.. :: shrug :: | |
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|  bionicRodFunkier than a mohair disco ball.Premium
join:2009-07-06
united state
·CenturyLink
·Mediacom
| said by Tristan:While not being serious about broadband video delivery has certainly put them behind, I doubt this is the cause Blockbuster's fail. You're probably right. I think Netflix and Redbox have simply put them out of business with their rental systems for physical discs. At Blockbuster (or any brick and mortar place) you spend, what, 6 or 7 dollars on ONE MOVIE that has a due date? I have the 2 at a time plan from Netflix and go through probably 6-8 blu-ray movies a month on average, plus hours of streamed content. No due dates or late fees. Costs me around $20/m. Watching the same blu-rays from Blockbuster would be over twice that, assuming I brought them back on time. It's a no brainer. | |
|
| | | I wasn't impressed with their nonchalant attitude toward fixing their lack of stock for new and old stock at any store location, esp with the ever present Internet. Amazon Unbox had it going to take over except for their pricey BB dvd model.
It was either suck it up for what was available, maybe try out Blockbuster Online with their late-to-market options, or just go Netflix and cut the damn BB cords. Guess which the market went with? | |
|
 newviewEx .. Ex .. ExactlyPremium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD
kudos:1
 ·Vonage
 ·DIRECTV
| Too expensive . . . The closest Blockbuster to me was about 20 miles round trip. With gas prices being what they are, the round-trip cost of fuel and the price of the rental was damn near the price of a movie ticket. Netflix solved all that.
--
The Rules of Spam | |
|
 morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Failure to address broadband and commit to a strategy Blockbuster's leadership and management simply ignored all signs and enjoyed the good ol' days of VHS and DVD rentals, before broadband and Netflix came along.
Instead of seeing Netflix as a serious competitor and at least MATCHING their prices, Blockbuster ignored the problem until it was too late.
In addition, they've watched as RedBox has swooped in and started picking at their bones.
Blockbuster died due to poor leadership and management. | |
|
| | ... Blockbuster, Blockbuster... | |
|
pnh2006
join:2010-08-18
Westminster, CA | yeah... yeah when they started charging almost $9 for a game rental i knew they weren't gonna last long... Guess I should camp out and buy some games for cheap and trade them into game stop for a newer game. | |
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|  TransmasterDon't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY
1 edit | Re: yeah... We had a Blockbuster here in Cheyenne and it closed down late last year. I never rented anything from them. Their Business model was in lock step with the MPAA which is what is putting them out of business. Good bye not very many people will miss you. Of course Blockbuster could always reopen and sell porn to the middle east. I have numerous friends coming back from Iraq and they tell me when ever they capture a laptop from a jihadist the hard drive is 98% western porno, 1.5% who has the money, and .5% I am a member of Islamic Jihad and I am going to kill for God stuff. My Army and Marine compadres tell me heaven for these people must be Boom Ah Boom studios, and Grind them out movies in South Los Angles. 
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I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.
- Mark Twain in Eruption | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: yeah... okay.. now that's too funny! | |
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|  underlord2Lolcat is LolPremium
join:2005-01-06
Belleville, MI
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by pnh2006:yeah when they started charging almost $9 for a game rental i knew they weren't gonna last long... Guess I should camp out and buy some games for cheap and trade them into game stop for a newer game. Yeah, $9 is a tad too expensive. I stopped when it got to the $7 mark myself.
Here's to the hopes that Gamefly will open more Distro centers and become more popular!
--
»twitter.com/The_Dord -- Twitter Account | |
|
| | finally It is about time, let this dinosaur die. It is time for Blockbuster to go away especially since they arriving in the situation by there own doing.
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Certs: CCNA, GPEN, GCIH, GCFW, GSEC, GCIA, GCFA | |
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|  John_WPremium
join:2000-04-25
Worcester, MA | Re: finally said by Crypto_Bug:It is about time, let this dinosaur die. It is time for Blockbuster to go away especially since they arriving in the situation by there own doing. They aren't going away(just yet, anyway). They are just restructuring their debt.
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Team Discovery--BBR Team Helix--Cuz I Care!! | |
|
kxrm
join:2002-07-18
Fort Worth, TX | Red Box here Red Box has just completely saturated the market here in DFW. That was my first sign that Block Buster was going away. Blockbuster used to dominate the DFW market. Now there is only 1 lonely store near me and I have never been inside it. Renting movies is just less of an event in my life, and the fact is, Redbox is available 24 hours a day. Blockbuster just can't touch them in terms of convenience. Maybe when their kiosks start showing up I will reevaluate them however, at this point I am never getting a membership to any movie rental company again. | |
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| kxrm
join:2002-07-18
Fort Worth, TX | Re: Red Box here Heh, turns out their kiosks are already around here but they are NCR machines branded with Blockbuster Express. So Blockbuster is done. NCR should buy the brand instead of license it. However, given the brand doesn't have the same value it once had I think they should abandon it. | |
|
Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
| BlockBuster Movie Boxes What most of you failt to realize they do compete with RedBox and NetFlix. BB has the rent your movie online and turn it into the store for a new one without any problems. They offer online streaming of movies (although you do pay per movie which is a bitch- but Apple does the same thing and you don't hear anyone bitch about that). And they also have RedBox type of Boxes all over the place. Movies are $1 to rent per night. Google BlockBuster Movie Boxes and you'll get the website.
BB won't go anywhere- they just need to trim some debt and they'll be back and most likely only by the box machines or they'll team up with an MSO or Telco.
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www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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| | hmm The CEO is going to drive this company into the ground. They should get rid of the CEO. Find someone more into today's modern technology. Charging per video is a dead concept. | |
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cacoPremium
join:2005-03-10
Whittier, AK | Taken out by REdBox and NetFlix I don't think broadband was so much of an issue for them since they still has some time to get it right. In my area there is a serial killer of video stores known as REDBOX. REDBOX machine at local supermarket wacked two video stores in my area, The Movie Gallery and a local mom/pop store. Both just could not compete with 1.00 rentals. A Blockbuster Express kiosk just came online about 500 ft from redbox so it is game on for cheap rentals.
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Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason. | |
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QLR
join:2009-06-23
Tallahassee, FL Reviews:
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Wireless..
| only been to blockbuster twice. And one of the times was last week as they were having their closing sale... it is the last store in my town to close, if i am not mistaken. Didn't notice anything worth buying besides Heroes, the tv series. Only thing that wasn't discounted were the sodas LOL. The Blockbuster kiosks at my favorite grocer seems to be doing well... there is always a line at the thing. I agree with some of the reasoning on here... bad locations + bad prices + atrocious customer service = FAIL. | |
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 RockCakePremium
join:2005-07-12
Woodbridge, VA | Good-bye, BB... ...I won't miss you | |
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|  Duramax08A Challenger AppearsPremium
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX | Re: Good-bye, BB... Neither would I | |
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|  SSX4lifeHello WorldPremium
join:2004-02-13
kudos:2
·RoadRunner Cable
| won't be missed by me either!
I think their CEO was like Ted Stevens.... a SERIES OF TUBES!
Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.
[...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
--
Fog Project - Open source computer imaging and TFTP server project | Supporting open source software and development since 2000
Knowledge is power... Silence is golden... but duct tape is Silver =) | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Good-bye, BB... .. that crashed and burned. | |
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nltech
join:2007-06-13
West Haverstraw, NY Reviews:
·Vonage
2 edits | They are not going anywhere yet They are not going anywhere since most of the users in this country do not have the bandwidth or do not want to wait to download. Even my 30/5 Cablevision is a pain in the ass since either they are bottlenecked or the server I am downloading from is capped or bottlenecked. If I just rent from Cablevision the problem is the rental is only good for the cable box you are watching it on.
I also find that online and cable box downloads tend to be more expensive than our local video stores or Blockbuster. Itunes movie rentals are a royal pain in the ass and only allowed me to watch it once. Although I have not used Netflix since I am spur of the moment what and when I want to watch something.
So I and I assume allot of other people like the convenience of not dealing with all the computer-streaming and box bullshit, just go to Blockbuster and simply put the DVD in the the player. The problem is who wants to go to Blockbuster and possibly wait in line. I do not blame the staff since all too often the problem is people show up all at once, combined with I live in an area that is heavily populated with ignorant assholes. They get in line and then when at the check out have 50 questions, can't decide on a snack or change their minds on the rental. It is usually one or several more of these people in front of me.
So it is a coin toss for me whether to use BB and possibly wait in line or deal with all the restrictions, costs and inconvenient BS that comes with streaming/downloading. | |
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| | Redbox I'm constantly amazed at how many people line up at the Redbox machines about a mile from my house. There are two just outside a Walgreens and any time I've ever gone by there day or night, weekday or weekend, there's a line of people waiting to get to the boxes.
Blockbuster actually turned me over to a collection agency over a bogus late fee back in the 90s. They claimed I had turned in a video late but I had never rented the video in question. So over an imaginary ten dollar late fee, they lost a customer forever.
--
Dresden - I work in Accounts Payable.
Random Bad Guy - In what capacity?
Dresden - I make sure everyone gets what's coming to them. | |
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| nltech
join:2007-06-13
West Haverstraw, NY | Re: Redbox We have one box at our local grocery - Stop and Shop and I have seen the same thing at night or weekends.
The thought that crossed my mind when passing it was that the selection is limited, why would I want to wait in line for that. | |
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| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Redbox don't wait in line... Reserve your movie on line, go pick it up at your convenience when you do go shopping. Heck, if you have the phone app it's even easier. You could be at a redbox, in line, wanting to get a new release that may run out before you get to the box, and reserve it while standing 5 people in front of you. (I've done that before. ) But to be honest, at least in my areas and experience, I've never waited in a line at a red box for any length of time, and the time or two there were other people at it, was no different that an ATM wait. | |
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| | | | | Re: Redbox the only problem is, didn't the movie companies put some sort of limit on redbox and netflix where they can't rent "new release" movies for 4 to 6 weeks after release or something like that? | |
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| | Who cares Back in the early 90’s Blockbuster opened in out town. Even though I never returned a tape or disk late I started receiving late charge notices on post cards from BB in the mail. It turns out more than one store in NY was running this scam and the state government stepped in. That store closed shortly after, Bah bye | |
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| | So if BB fails... Will Motorola remove the Blockbuster app from my Droid X? Talk about a lousy model. With the BB app, I can watch a movie on my Droid X for $4. I can't use the HDMI port and watch it on a real tv, but I can watch it on a 4.3" screen (again, for $4). I can't save it, or watch it on anything else. I can't remove the app (not without violating Verizon's warranty anyway), and for almost every other Droid user out there with this piece of bloatware, the day that app can be removed can't come soon enough! | |
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|  heat84Bit Torrent Apologist
join:2004-03-11
Fort Lauderdale, FL | Re: So if BB fails... said by viperlmw:I can't save it, or watch it on anything else. Cell phones don't have web cache folders or Temp folders?
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Bit Torrent is my DVR. | |
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NyNexit
join:2009-11-01
Huntington, NY | liquidation? If there is a liquidation... I'm there ! | |
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