Time For A Round Of Introductions

[Woodstock]

Mun - the link isn't valid. Get a message that says "The video you have requested is not available."

[almondSM]

i am almondsm. i ran a store for a long time. it closed like most others in my area. I got demoted in order to keep my job. Not to toot my own horn, but you have kept a lot of employees that don't deserve to be there, and demoted and demoralized those of us that worked our asses off. But, i am all for change and i am excited to see what you can do with bbv, if in fact, you plan to do anything at all. Good luck. listen to us. and fire Jim.

<3 Almondsm

[BBVTyrant]

I am BBVTyrant, former Blockbuster Store Manager, District Training Store Manager, and occasional District Leader overseeing a small district towards the end. I was based in the Mid-Atlantic area within the Northeast.

I started as a Store Manager with Blockbuster in 2000 and my relationship with Blockbuster ended in 2006 when I went on to get a job as a Marketing Associate with a major Food Manufacturer/Distributor. Today, I work as an Associate with a Consulting firm in Energy Efficiency in the state of Maryland.

Where as I enjoyed Blockbuster from 2000 until approximately 2003/2004, my opinion of the company drastically changed around that time period as we began the conversion to Project Store, which saw store standards slip. Where as I had no problem up-selling at the register, the positions went from Customer Service to hardcore selling for laughable rates of pay vs the amount of pressure which came from corporate. My issues with Project Store were minimal at first, and I was actually a huge fan of Team Engagement, as I believe in developing people from within.

However, when the company went South after a number of horrendous business decisions, such as John Antioco passing on Netflix and failing to accelerate the Online Business much sooner ... in addition to the End of Late Fees initiative, which made store operations unsustainable with the frequent cutting back of resources, my attitude completely soured. This became an extremely nasty company to work for. Long hours became longer hours, the most petty components were harped in, which even a person with a shred of common sense, knew wouldn't make one lick in the company's overall profitability.

The resources simply were not there to operate a store, yet management was still held accountable. And that includes lack of copy depth.

I tried being DL for a mini-district, knowing that a change was in order for me to stay, however that essentially was more of the same, and my ethics would not allow me to hold my Store Managers accountable for items I knew were out of their control, based on my extensive experience as a Store Manager, myself.

I was very well-respected for running one of the most challenging stores in the Region, and was known for being hard, but fair in my management style ... praising when praise was called for, and holding other accountable when that was called for.

We had a rash of incompetent and/or nasty District Managers which really deteriorated my morale, after our well-respected RDO left around 2002/2003. We had a new RDO that simply was not in the same league as our former RDO, however again, the major issues with the company went far beyond her control and I feel she did an "okay" job with what she had. She could have been better, though.

So now that I am completely past retail and earning a great salary, I remain to keep up on company events, and try to make others still hanging on, to see the light and get out. To be frank, if anyone still works for this company today, they need their head examined.

[DavidNewlySL]

I guess I do need my head examined...

[djsdojo]

If top people at dish is reading this Hello Dish Network welcome to the team!!

Well my venture at BBV started in 2001 where I worked for this company for about a year. For the most part the job was awesome back then until the sales pressure started in 2002. I was in a test market store for the movie pass and all of a sudden everything went from a employee into a hardcore sales men. It felt like I was a drug dealer standing in the middle of the ghetto hussling meth and other such drugs in a drug ring the only difference is selling drugs is a little easier. But at least I did get a bonus on my check for selling movie passes.

I came back to BBV in April 2008 been with the company ever since. When I got the job back I just seen how bad the company was it was low pay and high sells goals with no commission seems like the company standard. It like a struggle every week to meet quotas because the company that is known for renting, and refuses to advertise, wants its employees to get the customers to do something something different. How are we supposed to pre order games or movies to the people that usually just want to rent them without any advertising and a sign in our games section that says why buy a game for $60 when you can rent it!?

Anyway I do like my job at BBV but when you put the quotas on people like this you take away everything else. When I work for BBV I really don't care too much about anything but the one thing that is going to keep my job quotas. I should care about selling a bunch of extra items to a customer and improving my average check but if its not my quota items I could careless about it. I should care about getting the right movies to my customers but I could careless about talking about movies with customers I care a lot more about talking to them about what I have to sell to them.

[BBW[BlockBusterWorker]]

Hi my name is BlockBusterWorker and I have been a CSR > 4* > SL > ASMIT > SL > CSR and have been with the company for 4 years and worked my last shift today. I hate this company and I want to see it literally wiped off the planet. Please speed up this process Dish.

[EVFNazi]

Hi, I'm EVFNazi, a name given to me by my hiring manager in 2001. I took this job when we moved to a retirement community in Florida. My son had worked for BBI during his high school years in New York and I loved the idea of being part of company that had given my son such great customer service training and work ethics. Mainly, I needed a little job to provide college money for my kids. But mostly for the 5 free rentals a week. I worked for the most driven, creative, knowledgeable young businesswoman I'd met in a long time. Her deduction and passion woke in me the desire to share my 40+ years in business with the young people that came through our district training store. Blockbuster was the perfect place for first time workers to learn work habits, accountability, and drive. Employee development became my goal and Blockbuster my obsession. I have loved this job, my store, my employees, my movies, and my dear customers for 10 years. Today, my assistant manager and I box up the movies for shipment that we unloaded from the truck 10 years and 2 days ago. My heart is broken. I just hope that Dish will recognize and reward the incredible, not-so-young woman, running one of the most profitable store in the state, my idol.

[abhorrent scowl]

I am Abhorrent Scowl. I worked for BB for 3 years, which I know is chump change compared to many here, but still long enough to get a good feel for how things worked (or in this case, didn't work). I left late last year as the CAM process ran amok, deciding that I simply did not wish to work in that kind of toxic environment any longer.

We can debate the appropriateness of goals, quotas and the amount of pressure that is applied to drive them for days on end. Is it good customer service to descend like a horde of locusts on a customer who just wants to browse? Should an employee be threatened with termination for not meeting all goals? Regardless of how right or wrong that is, the bottom line is this:

It didn't work.

Customers were alienated. Employees were alienated. Stores closed.
Working at BB used to be a very cool gig. There is no reason (with good leadership) why it couldn't be once again.
So take a broom, sweep out the offices of Keyes, Dunlap and co., and inhabit them with people who A) understand the business and B) are willing to listen to the experiences of the people who work the stores.

[AbandonedDreams]

Hi, I'm AbandonedDreams. I got hired way back before you had to be 18 to work there (in my state). I was there for nearly 4 years, on and off my first two semesters of college.

When I was first hired, I loved my SM. I had worked with her at a different company before. A few months into the job, we got a new DM with NO prior Blockbuster experience, and the first thing he did was fire her. We went through at least 3 different SMs in less than a year and a few periods of weeks at a time with no SM, so neighboring SMs (from the sister store 20 miles away or the DTSM 30 miles away) had to cover. Finally the ASM had had enough and stepped up to take the job.

Things were good with her for a long time, but we just couldn't keep staff in the store. Eventually, I got written up for being on the phone while ALONE on a Saturday night and being secret shopped. I got tricked into signing the write up and after it was signed told that if the SM had known I was alone, I wouldn't have had to sign it. Then the DM (same one from before) told SM to cut my hours down to 1 four hour shift a week. I was in college then and traveling a good 45 minutes to get there, so I walked out that night.


Now I am one of the youngest supervisors in my company, a non-profit that serves people with developmental disabilities. I manage a group home for 4 gentleman who are as sweet as can be, and 4 staff under me and rarely have any problems with them.

I hate Blockbuster for the way they screw over good employees. If you want honest feedback, listen to the few competent people who are still left in the stores. Take advice from BBStore482, and give him a raise. Get rid of Jim Keyes, etc, and quit selling pickles and heel cream in stores. Even snuggies and socks make more sense than that shit.

[Veruka_Salt]

Originally Posted by OzMan

although I doubt EVERYONE at BBI would recognise my name, there are at least a couple who probably would say "oh, him"

Oh, you're Reed Hastings.