This morning, I noticed Blockbuster had started selling gift cards, again. At first, I was excited at the possibility of all those worthless Blockbuster Gift Cards gaining their value back. Perhaps DISH Network Corp. had come around and done the right thing by choosing to accept gift cards issued before it's acquisition of Blockbuster earlier this year; it would be great for consumers and was long overdue.
DISH Network: A New Low
Unfortunately, DISH Network Corp. is still acting in a very selfish manner by choosing not to accept the old Blockbuster Gift Cards and they've just made things a lot worse by issuing new gift cards with the same brand less than a year after all the "old" Blockbuster Gift Cards became worthless. Furthermore, there is no mention on the company's website of the old vs new blockbuster gift cards. Blockbuster has chosen to ignore the matter all together in that regard.
Bad For The Gift Card Industry
DISH and Blockbuster's decision to start selling gift cards is terrible for the gift card industry, an industry known for getting bad press.
A company going out of business, and consequently it's gift cards becoming worthless is not even as bad as this situation. That's because:
- It's completely avoidable: Blockbuster has actively selected to purse this strategy.
- It's very confusing: issuing gift cards with the same brand less than a year after millions of dollars was wiped out of consumer's pockets is horrible.
- Nothing will make consumers fell cheated more than being denied of redeeming an old Blockbuster Gift Card while the company sells it's new Blockbuster Gift Cards at the same point of sale counter.
- It's scenarios like this which result in more legislation aimed at regulating the gift card industry.
Make No Mistake
From time to time you'll hear people say something like: "A few bad apples give the gift card industry a bad name." Make no mistake about it, DISH and Blockbuster are two of those bad apples. Not once, but now twice. I wish the Blockbuster's Leadership Team would think a bit more before acting so selfishly and giving the gift card industry a second black eye.
