10/10/09

The Insufferable Staff is Getting More Tolerable

by DonnaRhea

It's great that Movie Madness has a policy (official?) to keep a VHS copy of a film if it's no longer on DVD and/or to replace it with a DVD once that is released. With new hires (love the B52s esque lady) there seems to be a better balance of hipster douchebag staff with genuinely nice, down-to-earth people. Daniel is consistently a first class, all-around a**hole - I challenge anybody to give me an example, otherwise. Once my friend went in looking for a film and had a staff member "help" her. Faced with the usual Belmont tude, she asked, "Could you be a little less cool right now?" Best line ever. And one more of us should ask these people.

Personally, if I'm looking for something, I call Clinton St Video first. They charge the same rate but you can keep the titles 2 days longer and I've never once encountered a staff member even a hint as annoying as at Movie Madness.

Oh, yeah, and the skinny blond girl (the shorter, curvier one is very nice) is an absolute killjoy about late fees.

• Pros: seemingly best selection in Portland
• Cons: see headline

05/03/09

Rude staff

by VictorWolf

Firstly, my account was randomly deleted by their system, so I had to sign up again; Minor annoyance. Then, they wanted a $200 deposit for an out-of-print VHS movie. When they swiped my card for the $200 authorization, it sent it into fraud mode (absolutely no fault of my own). After spending 25 minutes chewing out my bank over the phone, I still couldn't get the block removed, so I had to go the ATM for the cash. All said and done, it took a full hour get the movie rented, so I half-jokingly asked them to hook me up with a free movie or something. I mean, account deleted, $200 deposit for a VHS movie, putting my card into fraud mode (major inconvenience)... the least they could have done was give me a free rental credit ($2.50 value) or a frigging piece of licorice.

Instead, they actually had the nerve to imply that I was 'un-cool' and that I had a bad attitude. It was the end of the night, and they were tired, so I suppose they thought that gave them the right to get a little grouchy. Well, guess what guys... I work nearly 60 hours a week between two jobs AND go to college. I work until 11 PM, then get up at 6:30 AM for the next job. I get to hear people shouting over the phone at me, and I treat them like gold. When I'm trying to rent a movie and have a little R&R with my friends, during the precious little time I have off, I don't want to go to hell and back to rent a movie, then be treated rudely. While your selection rocks, Videorama's staff are easily 10x nicer. The employees there are good, quality, laid-back people, and I look forward to seeing them and having a little chat about film every time I go. I don't care how cool you guys think you are, or how fantastic your selection is, learn how to treat your customers! A little red vine can go a long way.

• Pros: Great selection, Neat museum
• Cons: Sub-par service

03/04/09

Customer service from Hell (great movies though if you don't have any problems)

by farreach

Movie Madness is great, I've been a customer for 8 years. The one problem they have is the uber-hip (sarcasm) staff will treat you like you like a criminal if you have a customer service issue such as these two I recently had:

-Late fee query (snowed in and can't return by due date)

-Movie forces software install then crashes on scene 6 if watching on laptop.

The pattern at MM goes like this:

-you calmly state the issue and problem

-you ask for a credit

- the staff person starts out by disproving you

- the staff person then blames you indirectly (argues with you)

-you feel unsupported as the customer and demonized

-you get irritated and maybe raise your tone or swear etc. (annoyed but not aggressive)

-another staff member jumps in to condemn you and make you feel bad.

- you leave unsatisfied and feeling attacked.

-you call the owner and he fixes everything (he's great).

This is the pattern, it has happened exactly the same to me in the past 3 months. I never have any other problems, only when there is some issue.

Movie Madness needs to get out of the dark ages and stop treating customers like Soviet Russia in the 1950's.

• Pros: movie selection
• Cons: staff attitude and lack of training in basic customer service skills

11/24/08

Amazing selection!

by user715

This is by far the best video store I have ever rented from. Not only do they have nearly every movie you could possibly want to see, they arrange them in a way that real fans of cinema can appreciate. If you are totally lost though, there is not only a MAP but also a super handy computer that will pinpoint the location of the needle in the haystack. And while you're there, you might see a few other movies you didn't know you wanted to rent. Great place.

• Pros: Every Movie Ever
• Cons: Too few hours in the day to watch movies

06/06/08

dirty/scratched DVDs

by Elisabeth2008

Movie Madness without doubt has the best selection of DVDs in PDX. But of the last eight DVDs I have rented, four were unplayable. One had some sort of yellow crusty growth on the back. I can only recommend them for new (and therefore theoretically relatively clean) DVDs. Otherwise, you might want to look around for another locally owned rental place.

• Pros: excellent selection
• Cons: extremely poor care of DVDs

08/16/07

ONE OF THE BEST VIDEO & DVD STORES I'V EVER SEEN........

by lovingmike

To Everyone,

Just a few weeks ago I discovered Portland's Best Kept secret......Movie Madness. I moved to

Portland almost a year ago from San Francisco and I didn't even know that this wonderful store existed....

Until now. I do not agree with the negative review that someone wrote about Movie Madness. I found the

staff and management very helpful and friendly. Perhaps the person that the previous reviewer had a problem with....no longer works there because of this incident. They really need to give this place another

chance. I also love the many costumes and props they have on display. I can't wait to see this store

when their major expansion is completed.

I also love the fact that this store has one of the best selection of videos and dvd's that I've ever seen.

A NEW CUSTOMER WHO IS VERY HAPPY TO DISCOVER SUCH A GEAT STORE.......

• Pros: large selections of video & dvd's, great customer service, good prices too.....
• Cons: construction going on during business hours...but I know it has to happen

10/30/06

Rude manager, poor business practice!

by antigonelahti

I walked into Movie Madness at 11:30 on a Saturday night. They close at twelve. At 11:48, I was ready with my selection and approached the counter. The 'manager' informed me that they closed in 3 minutes and that it would take about ten to open an account for me. My friend and I pointed out that they in fact closed in 12 minutes and that should be plenty of time. He said they had to count out the drawer in three minutes (he already had his coat on and was ready to leave-12 minutes before closing). He then went on to say that he had to help the other customers (there was no one else in the store and there were three other employees just standing around in the area.) He then proceeded to inform me that they do not open new accounts after a certain time. There are no signs that indicate this and, if this is really their practice and had I known (signs people!), I would have opened the account before selecting my movies.

It is poor business practice to not assist customers during business hours. You do not count out the till until after closing-not 10 minutes before closing. You want to leave by 12:00, you close at 11:45. The manager was incredibly rude and had a very smug little 'I can do whatever I want to and I don't want to assist a customer, I want to get out of here early' smile throughout the whole conversation. It was not like he had to shut down the store by himself, there were at least 4 other employees in the store at the time. He had more than enough time to help me and chose to count down the register before closing so he could leave. I will never go back there and I will tell all of my friends to not go there. They just lost business because of a rude and unhelpful man.

• Pros: good movie selection
• Cons: Really rude manager

A movie buff's paradise, with a selection of weird, off-the-wall, over-the-top videos.

by Contributor

In Short
The operative word here is eclecticism. You'll find everything from big-budget new releases to art-house fare to some of the most obscure exploitation flicks ever created. They've also got a great selection of classic films. In other words, inventory in this cool store runs the gamut from Bergman's best to Ed Wood's worst. There's also a nifty collection of authentic Hollywood movie costumes and props.

03/22/06

Amazing

by katsiss

This movie store is amazing and so are the staff. Not only do they have every awesome movie under the sun but the staff are so knowledgeable. You can walk in there say your looking for a movie but you can't remember the name but for instance say you remember a three word line from the movie, they'll know what your talking about.

• Pros: everything

10/28/05

Best video place in Portland

by sunbreak

This is really an incredible store - if you're looking for a video and they don't have it, it's probably not worth seeing (with a few exceptions). If you like old tv shows, they have them. If you like foreign films, they have those too. If you like old movies (I am talking 30's and 40's here), this is the place to go. They have every academy award winning film of the year since the awards started. The only complaint I have is that some films are categorized by director or actor (rather than movie name) and if you have only the movie title you might have to hunt or ask for help to find a film.