Username: Password:
Welcome! Please Sign In or Register

Hollywood Video

reviewed by ronnieramone

ronnieramone
11/30/2008

Hollywood Video 1

I have never in my life been so insulted, as a customer trying to give my money to a business, as I was this evening at the Hollywood Video in Pahrump, Nevada. I should have known something was up when a young kid with a bicycle held the door for me on the way in and asked if I had any spare change. Anyway, I was there for the movie my wife asked me to bring home, and call me crazy but I figure that if I see a 6' x 4' WALL of Hellboy II and I grab one of the many boxes to take to the counter, I assume its in stock. So, I'm waiting in line with my video boxes... there are 2 cashiers, and 3 groups in front of me, so I know it is going to be awhile. I see a couple of other workers milling about putting up decorations and I wonder why they aren't with customers if there's such a big line. As I am waiting, I notice that the Maximum Capacity sign is hung upside down. Odd. Then, I'm next in line just as a couple of young girls come in the front door, and I hear the kid ask them for change from my place in line. A worker, who I later discovered was the store manager, was hanging decorations right in front of the door, so I know he heard it, and I suppose that's fine. I just didn't realize that store managers were so lenient towards beggars outside their door. The girls who just came in stopped by the counter at the door, chatted with the cashier and then she walked away to go help them, leaving me unattended in line. Before I got too miffed, another employee did come over and help me at the register. I asked for the two-movie discount package with the popcorn and all that extra junk. That's when she tells me that Hellboy II is out of stock. Wait, what? I looked around and noticed all sorts of weird details while I was waiting, the upside down capacity sign, the fact that there's only nine days until the Batman Dark Knight release... if there had been a sign stating that Hellboy II was "OUT OF STOCK" I would have noticed it. Naturally, after being kept waiting by the previous cashier, I'm not in a great mood when I ask, "Why didn't someone tell me that ten minutes ago instead of making me wait in line all this time?" Almost without hesitation at the raised voice, the guy decorating the front stands up and intervenes, stating that the Hellboy II box that I grabbed from the shelf very clearly is marked "Display Copy Only." Okay. I get it, but that just means that there is no DVD in the box, and I assume (wrongly, it turns out) that I have to take the box up to the front and they will get me the video from behind the counter. I then argue that "Display Box Only" does not mean the same thing as "Out of Stock" and that there should be a way for customers to know if a movie is in stock before waiting in a god-awful line like they had. He answers that I have to look for the UPC barcode on a box that is otherwise identical to the others except that it doesn't say "Display box only." Now, before I go on, I want to clarify that I never threatened anyone or called anyone any names or otherwise insulted anyone at the store throughout this experience. I said, "fine, whatever" and began to walk out of the building, frustrated but not truly angry. As the door was closing, I heard the manager say, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Jackass." I could not believe it. Here I am, trying to give this business cash money and yet as I leave, I am insulted publicly by the store manager. That was it. I could not allow this to pass. Snickering at me afterwards in the employee lounge or after closing when no one is around to hear, fine, but public humiliation? No, I refuse to allow that. So I went back in and confronted the manager (Jeff is his name) more defiantly than ever, and more loudly, of course. If I was difficult before in my ignorance of the intricacies of Hollywood Video code-phrases and rental policies, now I would be a nightmare. Then he threatened to have me removed by the police if necessary! Calmly now, I asked if I had insulted him in any way. Of course he had no answer, because I had done no such thing. Then he claimed that I yelled at his employee, which I hadn't done. All I said was, "I wish you could have told me that ten minutes ago" in frustration before he jumped in and aggravated the situation with his attitude. Never once did I escalate the conflict beyond a civil debate over out of stock notices. When I demanded an apology for calling me a jackass, he demanded that I apologize to his employee for raising my voice with her. Note that I did not reprimand the clerk personally, I simply complained about a store policy, which is my right as a customer. If you called someone a jackass in a bar, you might expect to be knocked in the teeth right then and there, whereas I was only asking for an apology. Well, a few minutes later, three police officers showed up to escort me out of the store. I wasn't yelling, cursing or insulting anyone at all. I simply demanded an apology from

Join to vote! 0 Helpful / 2 Funny / 0 Agree / 0 Disagree
Showing 6 Comments
You must be logged in to comment. login now.
stupidcustomer commented 359 days ago.
there is a way to know if it's out of stock, if they are not on the shelf, then they are out. It's not that hard of a concept. If you have this much trouble renting a movie how do you get through other simple tasks?

muscleboundhamster commented 248 days ago.
You GO GIRL. My kind of HR person! How often do you go to Hollywood Video?
Not much I guess. Otherwise, they would know you by name and treat u with respect right? After all, you were going to bless them with your wealth and make them rich. I feel bad for retailers who have to endure dim-wit customers who don't have enough brains to know that the display boxes are for display only.
(well you were trying to rent HELLBOY so I guess that speaks volumes regarding your intellectual capacity anyway.) You GO GIRL. U shure can rant on and on and on and on and on. You must work in an office and probably supervise 100 people right?
You GO GIRL! Someone like you deserves to be waited on hand and foot. They should have told you that the display box u were holding was not in stock. They should have noticed that immediately. Why should someone of your obvious stature and high rank be humiliated by waiting in a line with the other plebs. YOU GO GIRL!!!!!

ronnieramone commented 248 days ago.
Actually, in this economy, Hollywood Video can kiss my Jack's ass. They are going under quickly. A half-retarded computer programmer could rig in a third of a week's paycheck of even one of their FULLY retarded managers a simple program to calculate whether a movie is IN FACT, in stock or not. There should be ZERO boxes on the shelves.

The truth is, people with actual brains unfortunately expect other people to have them as well, which is clearly not the case. When you buffoons at the cash register that can't tell that AUTH number means that the credit card has approved my card, and doesn't need to be called for an authorization, then you can start to talk about simple fucking tasks. You have a monkey's job. Act like it. ooh ooh ah ah

muscleboundhamster commented 247 days ago.
Where are u going to rent your movies now monkey girl? I have a suggestion for you. Go to your local library and rent them there. They only stock one copy of each movie, so it is a NO BRAINER. You just pick up the movie and check it out. You will need to get a library card, but don't worry, the card is free and you are not required to be literate. But I have a feeling that you enjoy going to places like Hollywood Video so you can look down your nose at the hourly wage people.
Do u go to Walmart and rant at them for not having your premium brand of cat food?

ronnieramone commented 246 days ago.
I think you just said that Wal-Mart employees and librarians are a thousand times smarter than you. While we're on the subject of literacy, "u" is not a word, so in the sentence beginning with, "where are U going to rent movies now..." you missed a "y" and an "o." But don't worry, you don't need to be literate to work with the other monkies (or hamsters, as the case may be) at Hollywood Video. They dubbed over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" so it's all good. You just have to wander through those pesky DVD menu screens with all those confusing extra letters. As far as renting movies go, Redbox always gets 5 stars for customer service in my book. If you don't know what Redbox is, it's basically a vending machine for DVDs, that tells you what is in stock. See, vending machines have been doing that for years with sodas. They have a litte red light that comes on when Mountain Dew is sold out. It's a wonder that an entire company of people can't figure out how to accomplish the same simple task. "Display Box Only" and "Out of Stock" DO NOT mean the same thing! I know I'm holding an empty box, because it says so on the box. I don't know, however, whether the real movie is behind the counter to prevent theft, in the returns box waiting to be on the shelf, or anywhere else for that matter. If the dumbass HV employees would bother to LISTEN to their customers, instead of calling them jackasses, they would realize that their system needs a simple improvement which would improve customer satisfaction and loyalty and help them to rent more videos. Instead, it's "business as usual" and a lot of attitude from the workers, all of whom should be immediately fired and replaced. I know at least twenty outrageously over-qualified people who have been out of work for months from more challenging and demanding positions, who would love a regular paycheck again and would actually compete for a job at Hollywood Video or Wal-Mart or even McDonald's. There is not enough business out there, and far too many potential manager replacements for a company to tolerate stupid idiots who can't handle the stress of their video rental job and have to call their customers jackasses. Maybe, if I insult you enough here, you will slip up at work, be FIRED, and make room for someone with less of a sense of entitlement. The world doesn't OWE you a job. You can't unite in a union for video rental clerks. No one cares that much about what you do. There's a vending machine that replaces you and everyone you work with. It's not ME looking down on you, it's the whole world. When you actually think about it, you'd really have to be pretty stupid to rent from Hollywood Video. High prices, ridiculous late fees, lack of availability of titles, arguments with management... your company represents everything that is wrong with America, and the world. Do we really need a giant store, with all that electricity going to waste to light it up until 11pm every night, just so we can properly showcase a bunch of EMPTY @#%$ING BOXES????

hayate commented 82 days ago.
God you are a moron. I hate getting on these sites to read some entertaining negative reviews and finding garbage like this. Yeah, the guy maybe shouldn't have called you a jackass, but you kind of brought it on yourself by being an idiot.

You thought the sticker said "Display Box Only" to indicate that the movie was behind the counter to prevent theft? Seriously, open your eyes and observe your surroundings for two freaking seconds. Look at the rest of the store. Are any of the other shelves lined with boxes that say "Display Box Only" or do you see a bunch of other boxes with the little bar codes on them?

The reason the boxes stay on the shelf with the "Display Box Only" sticker is so that when things are rented out people still know the store carries it, so they have an indication that it IS out of stock so they can quit looking for it, and so the walls don't have a bunch if ugly blank spaces all over the place.

Also, it would look pretty stupid if only half of the movies were rented and you had a section of Hellboy II with a bunch of the display boxes reading "Out of Stock" while the rest of the boxes in the section clearly had movies in them.

So yeah, this boils down to stupid customer syndrome. Learn to pay attention to your surroundings and try thinking about things for a change. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the "Display Box Only" sticker doesn't mean that you have to take it to the counter to get the real box.

You also mentioned that you had multiple boxes in your hand. Did you perhaps notice that the other box or boxes that you were holding didn't match the Hellboy II one? Nothing popped into your head like, "Hey, these other two movies have bar codes on the front of the case, have a little red lock in them, have a full movie insert instead of just the front cover, and don't have a sticker saying it's a display box... Maybe there's something wrong with the Hellboy II one I picked up that is so obviously different in every way from just about every other case that was on the new release wall."

That really didn't occur to you at any point in your agonizingly long wait in line?
Showing 6 Comments
About This Reviewer
By the Numbers