No, I’m not talking about them opening up competing online rentals. This is something way better.
Until December 21st, you can get free movie rentals at Blockbuster stores in exchange for the Netflix mailing labels. You know those top labels you usually throw away? Yeah those. 1 top label = 1 free movie rental. Blockbuster is definitely trying to tout their one and only advantage over Netflix: brick and mortar locations to fix your instant gratification needs.
I drove a Blockbuster 2 miles away to test this out. Chance happens that I just received 3 Netflix movies earlier this week so I still had the flaps. Yay.
They require you to sign up for an in-store membership and provide ID and a credit card. So bring a driver’s license and cc if you aren’t a blockbuster in-store member. My girlfriend is a blockbuster online customer and she still had to sign up for an in-store membership. The membership is free though, just a hassle.
Also, I don’t know if this is the policy at every store, but the name and address on the Netflix flap must match your name and address. So don’t go around asking for them. My girlfriend had her school address on the flaps instead of her home address and explained this to the clerk and didn’t have any trouble at all.
Now here’s the best part. I got 3 movies that were normally 2-day rentals. However, the clerk said they tack on 7 days to the due date so I had a total of 9 days to return what would’ve normally been a 2-day rental.
If you were wondering, I rented Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Hard Candy, and Thank You for Not Smoking.
of course this happens a week after I cancel my Netflix subscription.