Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: JonLeung on April 30, 2007, 04:32:10 PM
Title: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: JonLeung on April 30, 2007, 04:32:10 PM
Everyone's heard the story about my bad experience with Mario Superstar Baseball and my local Blockbuster, so I won't recount that.
On a related event, when I tried to get that resolved months later, it was just around the time of Super Mario Strikers' release which proved to be another problem when I brought it to the till but they "hadn't received it properly" so I couldn't even rent it that first day.
This past week or two or whatever, I was really hoping to rent Super Paper Mario, of which they got three copies (you know, compared to their dozen Meet The Robinsons and dozen Flushed Aways and dozen Ribbit Kings and that sort of crap). I had an April coupon leftover that I realized I hadn't used, so I dashed over there after dinner and was delighted to see a copy of Super Paper Mario.
I brought it home, and guess what? It didn't work! I could see the cute Disc Channel animation, but I can't get much farther than the "Hold the Wii Remote sideways" screen before it gives me a disc error. Thanks a lot.
It looked like there were only minor scratches, but I'm guessing they were in all the vital places. My brother used the "smear on some toothpaste and carefully wash it off" technique as per Haley's Hints, which has helped us with some really scratched discs, like when I finally rented The Goonies and it looked like someone took sandpaper to the disc. That worked then. It didn't work this time, the error persisted.
I called the Blockbuster and spoke with a girl who looked for the other copy that was supposedly in (but as we would find out later, apparently someone had actually just returned the case but not the game with it). Otherwise, she said I could get credit for it and she would let me know when another copy came in. I went back to the store, and that girl had gone on a break, so only the other girl was there, dealing with some old guy about his credit card issues, while I waited like a knob for several minutes at the front because I didn't want to cross the alarm thingy. When she finally came over she was at a bit of a loss because the girl I spoke to went on a break and didn't tell her about my situation. A woman came up to the till so I said she could help her first, since it looked like a simple one. Yeah, well, she tried to use the May coupon even though it was April and then she was surprised that she got a free rental because she rented five things in the past month and then two more people came into the line-up. Rrrgh! Well, at least she knew she ought to be helping me so she did, and we looked for the other Super Paper Mario (since we didn't know yet that it would be fruitless) and then the girl I spoke to finally came back and cleared it up, gave me credit (the full amount to rent a game, too, not to be confused as the lesser amount because of the coupon I used) and since she works full-time, she says I'll be next in line the next time someone decides to actually return a copy, and a non-scratched one at that, to the store.
I guess I'll be playing it soon (unless she forgets, or loses my number, knowing my luck), but as I've never had problems with other games from Blockbuster except Mario's (come to think of it, back in the N64 days they charged me for keeping Mario Tennis for long when I know I returned it on time, grrr), I'm thinking that's probably why I buy (and should get back to buying) Mario games.
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: IceCold on April 30, 2007, 05:07:40 PM
Bad luck.. again. For the disc error thing, I've noticed it's quite sensitive. Once, only a few thumbprints on my Zelda disc caused the errors.
You should really consider Rogers - whenever I rent from there, I haven't had many problems. It isn't as convenient as Blockbuster for you though, right?
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: vudu on April 30, 2007, 05:11:46 PM
Buy the game, you cheapskate! Nintendo needs your money.
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: Ceric on May 01, 2007, 05:03:18 AM
Get Gamefly...
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: ThePerm on May 01, 2007, 09:23:14 AM
blockbuster is crap for game rentals, their movie prices have gotten really sweet though.
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: Ian Sane on May 01, 2007, 10:32:16 AM
I really wonder how anyone gets away with returning an empty case. I ran into that problem when I rented Predator and had the bonus of convincing them it wasn't me who took it. You figure that it would be store policy to open and confirm each case when it's returned or if it's in the overnight bin to check before putting it back on the shelf. Then it would be easy to determine who last rented the movie/game because one has to have an account to rent in the first place. But then maybe that is store policy but the teenage workforce videostores employ aren't very good at following it.
I've recently become irritated with Blockbuster as while they have no late fees they apparently have "restocking" fees. I had to pay said restocking fee (my Dad had hidden the offending DVD by piling a big pile of junk on top of it) eventhough I returned the film and thus in theory no "restocking" would have to be done. I don't know why instead of "no late fees" they don't say "no late fees for the first month" but then that probably would go over the head of whatever demographic was offended by late fees in the first place. Though I will admit that since that policy was put into place I have become very lax with returning films as I usually just wait until the next time I have to go to the general area the Blockbuster is in. In the past I would have made a specific trip just to return the movie if needed.
Title: RE: Blockbuster + Mario = cursed combination
Post by: ShyGuy on May 01, 2007, 11:23:12 AM
Yeah, the no late fee policy was a fix for a complaint that didn't really exist. Now it's impossible to rent a popular movie at Blockbust because everyone keeps their copy for a week and half.
