Decoding Blockbuster

by SDMX

Branching out even further from the article "Blockbuster Tricks" 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 barcode 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 barcode the associate scans when you come in the next time.  Well, as you may have already guessed, there's not much more behind that barcode 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 (Enter) Y (Enter) E  - Drops the computer from the POS system.  (For this, it is recommended that you clear the post printed text from your barcode.  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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