Blockbuster Nightmare

So last night I made my weekly run to Blockbuster. I'm there almost every Tuesday night to rent the latest releases. I go in, I pick my movies, I get in line, I check out, I go home. The whole process usually takes about 10 minutes from leaving my house to walking back in my front door. Last night the whole process took 45 minutes. I went in, I picked my movies, I got in line, I waited, I waited, I waited, I waited, I (well you get the picture). I'd like to point out at this time that the line I was waiting in consisted of me and the lady at the counter. Yeah, that's it. They weren't busy.

Its one thing to wait in a line when they are busy and you have 4 or 5 people in line, but it's another thing when it's just you waiting for somebody to finish up at the counter. Now, if she had a legitimate reason for taking so long, that would have been one thing, but no, her whole deal was that she was too stupid to comprehend what the clerk was telling her. She wanted to rent 5 movies for under $10. She thought she had the system figured out. With the rent one, get one free, plus the Rewards program's rent 5 get one free AND the in store Mon. thru Thurs. rent any 3 for $9.99 she figured she'd walk out of there with 5 movies and have only paid the $9.99. Unfortunately the computer system and fine print of the 3 separate and individual programs had her beat. The clerk clearly explained to her that it was one or the other. You can get two for free (the Rewards deal plus the rent one get one free) and pay for the other 3 or you can get the $9.99 for three and pay for the other two, either way, you aren't getting out of here for under $10. Well each time he was ready to ring her up, she stopped him and he had to go over it all again. Mind you her total price was $14.00 plus some change, so this whole ordeal was over $4.00. This whole thing went on for 20 minutes. The poor clerk kept looking at me mouthing, I'm sorry. I was ready to smack the lady.

Finally she just agrees to pay the $14.00 and does so and then doesn't leave. She tries to start up a conversation with the clerk, still expressing her view that she thinks she should have gotten out of there paying no more than $10.00. At this point the clerk is assisting me OVER the computer because she hasn't moved. So now, even though she's paid, she is still in the damn way. She eventually leaves and there is a collective sigh released from the staff and the other customers who had, by then, all lined up behind me. Then the clerk explains to me that this woman does the SAME DAMN THING EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT! So this isn't a case of her not getting it, but rather a case of her playing dumb every Tuesday night to see if she can get away with a better deal than she deserves. At this point I'm rung up and being the smart ass that I am, and always one for some fun when I have an audience, I look at the clerk and separate 3 movies out to one side and the forth on the other and very innocently say to him "OK, so I get these three for $9.99 and this one should be my free rental..........right?"