Decoding Blockbuster
by SDMX
Branching out even further from the article in 20:3 and hopefully creating
a recurring topic of the matter, the fun you can have with local local
Blockbuster is becoming easier and easier since they've decided to flood
member and non-member email accounts alike with printable barged coupons.
Since leaving their parent corporation of Viacom earlier this year, such an
attempt at sheer customer harvesting is an understandable once, but as with
all such attempts by our so-called corporate overlords, these plans come to
naught if not performed with security. Get out your bar-code generators and
photo-editors, folks. It's time to print out a quick laugh.
Blockbuster has a habit of handing out "rain checks" when a movie that
has been guaranteed in stock runs out. These small red pieces of paper have
blank fields where the associate fills out which movie you couldn't get your
hands on, when you came in to get it (as the coupons are only "valid" for a
month), and the store code. Beyond that is a bar-code the associate scans when
you come in the next time. Well, as you may have already guessed, there's not
much more behind that bar-code than a get-a-movie-free-card. The codes are
valid for all movies, not just specific titles, and they work over
any amount of time. If you happened to get one of Blockbuster's spamalicious
99-cent coupons recently, hold on to it.
While this specific coupon leaves a record of itself on your account
keeping you from using it again, the rain checks do no such thing and the
artwork embedded in the emails is pretty convincing. A quick cut and paste
gets you a free flick.
Moreover, there are a few more codes that Blockbuster prominently displays
about the store that you can have a bit more fun with.
Try these out:
5610Y500033: Movie rain check.
5610ZD00029: Game rain check.
~92923481032: Opens the register.
(This one is displayed on both sides of every monitor in most
Blockbusters, even the ones available for public lookup.)
~91064645213: Resets computer.
(YMWV, as different stores use different versions of the POS system.)
CLEAR (carriage return) Y (carriage return) E:
Drops the computer from the POS system.
(For this, it is recommended that you clear the post printed text
from your bar-code. Again, YMWV.)
Also, I'd like to offer a quick addendum to the article in 20:3 mentioning
the wrong store trick. Blockbuster knows about this trick now and asks you
for your name and store code before entering the movie into the system, so
find another associate name and their store code (once again, printed clearly
on the side of their videos after the first two digits) before you give your
local store a call. BBV has been trying to further enforce this by having
employees call that store back before checking the movie in, but most fail to
care for forget the 16-digit code. Finding a boondocks store in the middle of
nowhere in another state and providing a bogus five-digit store code works
well tool.
Have fun making it a Blockbuster Night!
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