An angels's smile on your lips - Blood red nails on your finger tips

In the past week I've sat down 3 times to blog and just couldn't do it. Too distracted. Too much work. Too much stress. But now, on this practically work-less day before the holidays, I find myself with a few minutes to kill while I wait for some spreadsheets to get sent back to me.

So which of my topics do I want to share with the world? My latest encounter with injustice...

...and the hands of Blockbuster.

If any of you out there have BlockBuster Online (Total Access) then you know what I'm about to talk about.

At one point or another, many people face the big question about their prospective online video renting. Netflix or Blockbuster? They cost about the same, and their online system is similar. For me, blockbuster took an edge because I could exchange my online rentals in at the store for a free in-store rental. Great, huh? This is helpful because when a new movie comes out it'll take weeks or months before you can get it from the online service, so this way I could just rent it from my local video rental store.

For $17.99 each month I got 3 online rentals at a time plus a free coupon to use on either a movie or game. I always used it on a game since rental fees for those are like $9. And for this price you also got unlimited in-store exchanges. It was the best thing since sliced bread.

Then, in September, they screwed me for the first time (but not the last). They were changing my plan (and everyone else's). Now, they were limiting my in-store exchanges to 5 per month. After that, I could exchange for $2. Ok, that's not too bad. But then they also took away my monthly coupon so I couldn't get a free game. Their suggestion was to now use one of my 5 in-store exchanges for the game and get it for %50 off. that still means $5 to rent a game each month.

So I'm actually paying at least $22.99 each month to get less than I had before. I was furious... but I took it like a man and let it slide.

Well, a few days ago Blockbuster sent out an email to its customers. It was full of bullshit about how great they are... and right in the middle of it they threw in that they were raising their monthly fees from $17.99 to $19.99.

They have the nerve to take away features of our plan in september, and then charge us more for it in december!

There are forums all over the net about people canceling their accounts because netflix is only $16.99 per month.

But ya know what really makes me angry??? I can't find a better deal.

If I go with netflix for online rentals then I'll still have to pay for my in-store rentals at some place. And if that store isn't blockbuster then I'll wind up paying late fees.

So Blockbuster is screwing its customers and there's nothing we can do about it, except to hope that netflix can pick up the pace and match the service offering.

If anyone out there has any suggestions then I'm all ears...