funny gamerush story I got the "letter"

B

bluekeith75

CAGiversary!
First off I have traded maybe 10-15 games at blockbuster in the last year all at the same location. No "flipping", the last time I traded was about 3 weeks ago. Today, I got a delivery, overnight mail from dhl. I have not ordered anything so I looked at the label and it said blockbuster A. Curran dallas, tx tel: 214-854-4197.

I opened up the envelope to find a single page typed letter. I do not have a scanner so i will type it out word for word.


september 26, 2005


mr. **********
*************
*my add


Dear Mr. ********


Thank you for your enthusiastic participation in the BLOCKBUSTER Trading Program. While conducting a recent review of trade activity, your account(s) were identified as having excessive trade activity.

In order to be fair to all our trade members, BLOCKBUSTER reserves the right to limit the number of copies of a title and overall number of goods accepted from a member or autherized trader without prior notice, As of SEPTEMBER 27, 2005, we have suspended your trading account from further activity in all stores until further notice.

However, please note that this does not apply to your rental or purchase privileges. You may continue to rent and /or PURCHASE at all BLOCKBUSTER locations under the current terms of your membership agreement.

Thank you again for your continued patronage. We look forward to seeing you in our stores again soon. If you have any questions regarding your trade privilages, please contact our customer care team at (214) 258-1017.



Sincerely,

Customer Relations

Blockbuster Inc.





Has anyone else got this letter? I would call but it really does not bother me, Like I said I have only traded 10 or so games at bought 3-4 in the past year. I just found the letter funny and thought i would share.
 
I haven't gotten a letter, but I just traded in some games at a lesser traveled Gamerush yesterday and had to resign up for a trade agreement because I wasn't in their system. Curious becuase I'd traded there many times before.
 
I love the fuck YOU letter that ends with "you can still purchase things from us" sentence. Yeah, like I really want to give you my business after you've just told me to fuck off....
 
[quote name='bmulligan']I love the fuck YOU letter that ends with "you can still purchase things from us" sentence. Yeah, like I really want to give you my business after you've just told me to fuck off....[/QUOTE]


ditto, it would make me wanna call them and give them a piece of my mind(especially if i wasnt flipping) did you trade in multiple copies of the same game?
 
I agree, like I will ever step foot in a blockbuster again after this! The blockbuster is about 15 minutes from my house and we have a movie gallery opening up next month 2 miles down the road. I don't think they sell games but I will definately rent my movies there.
 
No, the last time I traded I traded in nfsu2, midnight club 3 and batman begins. I got madden 06, nintendogs and god of war all used except nintendogs it was new.. the time I traded before that was probably in may. I really have no clue why they suspended me, for crying out loud I don't even have any late fee's. The only thing I can ffigure is that when I was in 3 weeks ago I went back the next day and complained to the manager about the condition of god of war and the missing instructions and returned it for another copy.
 
You should change your title to something regarding the "letter" you received. Maybe more people will view the thread and we could see how many people got one of these. This is kinda disturbing.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Hey look, fuck in all caps doesn't get the 'treatment'. How funny.....[/QUOTE]

Yes, fuck by itself is funny, but what is funnier is sending the letter back to them with a big fuck YOU written on it with a Sharpie. :)
 
Hmm...this is the first I've heard of a letter such as this. There had to be some reason why they were suspicious of you or they would not have looked into your account in the first place. Blockbuster isn't in the practice of reviewing account histories unless they suspect something is amiss.
 
On the other hand, it seems like they are trying to (under their breath) accuse you of trading in stolen merchandise. We don't want you to trade in anything for a while, but please still buy stuff from us? WTF?
 
pretty strange letter. I've never got one. I do remember when I signed up for trading the guy toldme they had a trade limit maximum of 10 a day (this was when they were first starting out). It doesn't sound like you did it very often, if you feel you didn't do anything wrong you might want to contact them about it, because their deals like the "trade 2 and preorder for $29.99" is made to get you to trade tons of stuff in.
 
damn, if they send this out to everyone (ab)using their deals, they will end up out of business as the majority of people who shop at GR use their (somewhat) great deals to rent games for free, by selling games back for cost (minus tax of course, YMMV). if this is true, this blows as a suspension will most likely void all preorders and forfeit trade credit. i can see lawsuits just waiting to happen for stealing our credit.
 
[quote name='nakanenui']damn, if they send this out to everyone (ab)using their deals, they will end up out of business as the majority of people who shop at GR use their (somewhat) great deals to rent games for free, by selling games back for cost (minus tax of course, YMMV). if this is true, this blows as a suspension will most likely void all preorders and forfeit trade credit. i can see lawsuits just waiting to happen for stealing our credit.[/QUOTE]

I think you are misunderstanding the letter. They won't let him trade in any more games, but he can still purchase and rent items.
 
[quote name='greendj27']I think you are misunderstanding the letter. They won't let him trade in any more games, but he can still purchase and rent items.[/QUOTE]

Blockbuster is so NICE!!!

Maybe they should change their name to Nutbuster.
 
[quote name='tickdude']Blockbuster is so NICE!!!

Maybe they should change their name to Nutbuster.[/QUOTE]

Whoa there cowboy, I wasn't sticking up for them by any means. I was just letting the above poster know what was going on.
 
[quote name='greendj27']Whoa there cowboy, I wasn't sticking up for them by any means. I was just letting the above poster know what was going on.[/QUOTE]

Got it...sorry. Just seems that Blockbuster is playing Gestapo. They make a killing off people who trade in games, and then to add insult to injury. I just hope the OP was playing by the "rules" (not that any major corporation like BB actually does)...
 
[quote name='tickdude']Got it...sorry. Just seems that Blockbuster is playing Gestapo. They make a killing off people who trade in games, and then to add insult to injury. I just hope the OP was playing by the "rules" (not that any major corporation like BB actually does)...[/QUOTE]

No problem. ;)

From what he said, it sounds like he wasn't doing anything wrong at all. I have no problem if BB decides to start limiting their trade ins, but they need to lay out some rules and not just arbitrarily send out letters.
 
[quote name='bluekeith75']I agree, like I will ever step foot in a blockbuster again after this! The blockbuster is about 15 minutes from my house and we have a movie gallery opening up next month 2 miles down the road. I don't think they sell games but I will definately rent my movies there.[/QUOTE]

Movie Gallery sells games, but their prices are a joke. They were selling Gran Turismo 3 for $34.99 used after it became a Greatest Hits game. And they think people will pay $9.99 for used 2002 sports games. And worst of all, they seal the games with a sticker and won't allow you to look at the condition of the used games when buying them.

Renting games there is just as bad, some launch Gamecube games are considered new releases by them (only 2 night rentals). And they seem to either not get new release games in or they only get 1 copy
 
I've notice that the trading in more then one of the same name game question still isn't being answer.
 
I read this letter like this.

Hi dear whatever.

You are trading in games that have low margins for us and we really never wanted to accept trades but the rental thing just ain't working for us that much anymore. So we at blockbuster are tired of giving you money. so never come in wanting us to give you money. However when you are ready to give us money you are more then welcome.

Holla

Suckass rental company & BB customer service.
 
Did all of the games you traded in have any scratches on the disc's or anything? Because if they had a lot of problems with the games you traded in, such as people kept returning them because they didn't play corerctly, maybe that's a reason?

Also did you buy any of those games from eBay or where they all from a store? Also did the games you traded in include all instructions, original box, etc? Sorry about so many questions, but I'm trying to figure out why they would do this.
 
Based on how BB pulls information from a central source it seems individual stores do not link information. Basically if you are trading at GR alot consider using 2 stores if you have them nearby. The stores required you to open a game trader account at each store. Like I said there whole setup pulls information from corporate and individual stores don't seem to share info since some are franchised.

When they did the trade any 3 games (no sports) in for any 1 used early in the summer I was going back and forth to get games. The buy 2 used get 1 free was going on at the same time. Therefore I was buying 3 cheap games for $12 with tax. Then taking the game to the store down the street and trading them back for games like god of war, GTA: SA, and Revenge of the Sith.
 
Yes, this letter is very odd... I think just about all the regular posters in the Gamerush thread have traded WAY more than 10-15 games in the last year. That is just ludicrous. I've done that many in some weeks, actually :D. I seem to be on fairly good terms with my store, but who knows - maybe some day I'll get one of these letters. All my trades come from other sources (no flipping between BB's), and I put in a lot of preorders, which is good for their numbers.

We have heard stories of people getting suspended back during the trade 3 get any used for $5 - some were abusing that deal and flipping, and others weren't. But we haven't heard about any suspensions recently - it seemed to be a localized thing for a short time this summer. And even then, I don't think any of those people got overnight packages informing them of the bans.

But with only 10-15 trades I wouldn't even think you'd be on their radar as a potential abuser. Maybe they have you mixed up with someone else?

I got a PM a while back from a GR employee who said that in his district (half way across the country from me) they were suspending accounts with more than $10,000 in trade-in activity (not sure if this was over a certain time period or if that really matters). You weren't anywhere close to that! So, in any case, this is not a Blockbuster-wide thing, but probably handled locally at the district level. They seem to have wildly different standards though :D.
 
My neighbor also got the exact letter yesterday, delivered dhl. He has not even been to a blockbuster since early may, he did tell me he was flipping allot of games last summer (2004) during the trade 3 get a pp for 9.99 and he only went to 1 store ever. He said he called the store and the manager he had always dealt with was terminated for abusing the deals. .JPG to anwser your question the games I traded in were all bought originally at eb, gamestop or rechord exchange (local game/cd store) they all were complete and in original cases they had a few scratches but nothing to prevent them from playing. I wonder if when that store fired its manger if they reviewed all the accounts? Still I don't understand why mine was targeted.
 
My guess is they are just sending "the letter" based on number of trade-ins in a time period. They are probably not equipped to track much else.

p.s. I front paged this.
 
My question on all this would be do you have any open preorders? I doubt BB would send this letter out to anybody that still has an existing PO in the system. Maybe they have this letter ready to go to a lot of us, but will not send it out until there are no open orders on the account. If I got this letter I'd immediately close my online rental account and cancel all my preorders with them. Maybe they're waiting so this doesn't happen to a ton of accounts.
 
Did you have a lot of trade in credit on your account? I was just wondering if they looked at account balances to decide who they didn't want to trade with anymore.

I moved all my credit to a gift card so my balance is zero. And no I did not flip games. It's just really easy to build up credit with the trade in 3 games get a used game for $5.

I have to say Game Rush is the greatest store to dump all those $5 games I bought and played but didn't want to keep!
 
[quote name='bluekeith75']My neighbor also got the exact letter yesterday, delivered dhl. He has not even been to a blockbuster since early may, he did tell me he was flipping allot of games last summer (2004) during the trade 3 get a pp for 9.99 and he only went to 1 store ever. He said he called the store and the manager he had always dealt with was terminated for abusing the deals. .JPG to anwser your question the games I traded in were all bought originally at eb, gamestop or rechord exchange (local game/cd store) they all were complete and in original cases they had a few scratches but nothing to prevent them from playing. I wonder if when that store fired its manger if they reviewed all the accounts? Still I don't understand why mine was targeted.[/QUOTE]

Where are you located, I wonder if your a victim of an over zealous district manager. I was banned in CA earlier this year. The root cause turned out to be the manager of the store.
 
[quote name='Chris in Cali']Did you trade in multiple copies of the same game?[/QUOTE]

That is what I was wondering.

Blockbuster can pretty much reserve the right as to what they will accept as trade-ins and who they will allow to trade. Don't get me wrong, I am not sticking up for Blockbuster....

A few years ago I bought a used game from them and I didn't check it until I was out of the store. I never had a problem with games from them before that. Once I got in my truck, I looked at it and it was scratched to hell. I took it right back in and asked for a refund. The woman working got mad with me and actually told me that if I couldn't deal with scratched games that I shouldn't buy used games. Once I got my money I never went back.
 
I've always hated blockbuster. Just another wonderful example of how clueless and shitty they are. I'll never understand how they stay in business.
 
Three pages in and he still hasn't answered if he traded multiple copies of the same game. Since the letter does mention that as a cause for the suspension, I am betting that it is the case.
 
[quote name='niceguyshawne']Three pages in and he still hasn't answered if he traded multiple copies of the same game. Since the letter does mention that as a cause for the suspension, I am betting that it is the case.[/QUOTE]

That shouldn't be the case because if that were to be the case they should have sent me a letter a long time ago when I had traded in multiple copies of Tiger Woods 05.
 
I also find it suspicious he hasn't directly answered the question if he traded in multiple copies of the same game.

He's been asked at least three times directly, so I'll bet that's what it is.
 
[quote name='chakan']I also find it suspicious he hasn't directly answered the question if he traded in multiple copies of the same game.

He's been asked at least three times directly, so I'll bet that's what it is.[/QUOTE]

I don't know about that - but the deals do limit you to 2 of the same title PER DAY, so they certainly don't make it sound, up front, that trading in multiples of the same game is inherently bad.

We've gone round and round with these types of discussions before. I agree with the poster who said it is perfectly fine if they impose further limits on trade-ins - just freakin' TELL US what the limits will be so we can abide by them and not have to worry about these arbitrary bannings! The only limits spelled out in any documentation are the 2 of a title per day and 10 total trades per day. Beyond that, obviously, it is common sense that blatant flipping might get you in trouble. But trading in 10-15 games over a couple of months, even if they are mostly the same title, falls within the guidelines they have provided. If they don't want a particular game, they can just refuse to accept it - no need to ban the guy! It would be much better for their business to treat it that way instead of the asinine "you're banned but welcome to come back and spend money" approach :D.
 
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