BLOCKBUSTER striles again: Pan & Scam GRINCH only (1 Viewer)

[Richard_Huntington]

I hated this movie. My wife liked it. She asked me to rent it. So I went to the local Blockbuster, only to find 50 Pan & Scam copies. I saw the manager and he instantly knew what I was going to say, so he just spit out the response (this is somewhat of a paraphrase, so forgive me): "We don't have any say, Richard. Believe me, you are not the only one upset. But corporate feels that two choices will confuse the stupid people and even our own employees."
Amazing. So this morning, I called all the Hollywood Video and Blockbusters I could, only to find ALL have the pan & scan version exclusively. Some morons who answered the phone didn't even understand my question and had to give me to the manager. Frightening.
MCA really needs a good thrashing, because they are single handidly causing mass chaos in the world of DVD.

 

[HenrikTull]

Can't really say I'm shocked to hear this.

How great it is to live in Norway where this issue as a non-issue. Nobody cares, everyone accepts Widescreen. I feel your pain.

 

[Jim Golden]

The same thing happened in my neiborhood. They didn't have any widescreen editions in the store. I was going to buy a $50 gift card (to get the free $5 card) and apply it to the purchase of this movie. They didn't have any copies available for purchase widescreen or pan and scan(not that I'd buy a pan and scan anyway, I want the widescreen).
COSCO also only had pan and scam editions for purchase.
Jim

 

[John_Bonner]

FWIW I was in Toys R Us yesterday (not for DVDs!) and they had a fair sized Grinch display with both VHS & DVD. Anyway all of the DVDs were Pan & Scam.

 

[BryanZ]

Called K-Mart yesterday and asked them if they had this title in WS rather than full. They said they only had full. On a hunch I went down there and checked. They had several WS copies. Bought one and got the poster too.

 

[WoodyH]

Same situation at the Blockbuster right by my house, too. I picked up one of their comment cards to scribble on and send in, though I don't expect it will really do much good. Grrr. This makes two films I was planning on renting (Cats & Dogs and Grinch) that I won't because they're only stocked P&S.

 

[Tim Bernot]

FYI, I bought the widescreen version at CC yesterday for $15.99. All I saw there were widescreen versions.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

And what a suprise, in their commercials for The Grinch they show clips of ONLY the widescreen edition. Class action false advertising law-suit Recover money for wear&tear on your car driving to rent the movie, your time, and rental fees (don't forget mental anguish

 

[Nick Graham]

Well, the Hastings chain must have been on the receiving

ends of some complaints, as the local store got both full screen and widescreen copies, whoich is much better than their horrible pan & scan Mummy Returns debacle. I recently took a job as collections manager at our local Hastings, and everyone in any sort of management capacity has heard my whining, so though Blockbuster will always of course suck, those of you in the midwest shouldn't have much trouble finding a widescreen version to rent. Crossing my fingers the same goes for Jurassic Park 3.

 

[Shawn C]

Got mine at K-Mart too, and it was the WS version.. And I got a free poster too!

 

[Yan_G]

Hi!

In my Blockbuster (Quebec), The Grinch had 15 copy and 3 are Widescreen. For Cats & Dogs, all copy are Fullscreen.

Bye!

Yan_G

 

[Robyn Young]

My Hollywood video got Widescreen versions--Very cool!

robyn

 

[BryanZ]

Don't know if it will do much good, but I just emailed a complaint off to Blockbuster. Hopefully they will take the time to read it and rectify the situation.

 

[Neil Joseph]

The BB I went into yesterday to browse in had about 10 copies of the Grinch and 9 were P&S. There was one LB version.

 

[Peter Kim]

This example only further reinforces Blockbuster's unwritten, corporate policy...

When a dvd is released in two formats, make P&S available for rent. Widescreen versions are only to be sold, not rented. (This is obvious, target-market driven strategy.)

Trust me, any complaints to corporate will result in bullshit, doublespeak, or outright deception. For those who are skeptical, keep track of future movies released in dual-format. Blockbuster will invariably rent only the fullscreen format. This is no longer the exception...it's the rule.

It really sucks, since I don't think I'm the only one that cannot afford to buy every release.

 

[bill lopez]

HOLLYWOOD VIDEO seems to have widescreens for rent.

I gave up with BLOCKBUSTER. With Jurrasick Park 3 coming go to HOLLYWOOD VIDEO to rent.

 

[John Gido]

Went to Blockbuster last night to rent Grinch. Manager told me that they had a problem with their delivery as they were just putting them out at 10:30 PM on Tuesday. They had 25+ copies to rent, all P & S.

Wife wanted me to purchase Grinch and Shrek while I was there (19.99 ea.) as a Xmas gift for my 11 year old nephew and they only stocked the "Full Frame" version of both DVDs.

Total BS, manager told me to e-mail Blockbuster office as I would get better results from them than if she compained.

 

[Bill Buklis]

I was all set to rent this last night until I saw those two ugly words on the box - "Full Frame". Every copy they had was the crappy P&S. I hadn't been following this release, so I didn't know they were doing separate releases. This really blows. I didn't bother to complain, since I didn't feel it would do much good.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Hey John, Shrek is a double-disc. Disc one has the FF, disc two has the WS.

 

[Youssef]

Well Blockbuster after all, as they quote, are
"The best way to DVD" LOL.
They should change their slogan to:
"The best way to screw yourselves over on DVD's is Blockbuster"