oh dear, i guess no blockbuster for awhile...........

If it sounds too good to be true...

As the liklihood of something being posted on Snopes as false approaches 1, the liklihood of said thing being emailed by my relatives to me increases exponentially.

(I wish I had LaTeX handy to express this properly.)

The coupon is a one time use coupon that was obtained through Coke Rewards. The individual bar code is one time use only. Once it is used, it is your milage will vary on any subsequent uses. When you use it the 2nd time, it will ring up as being redeemed already. Depending on how nice the person ringing up your movies, they could override it and let you use it again. The people with legit coupons obtained through coke rewards can use their own with their own unique bar codes. Obviously, the legit ones haven't been used yet by yourself, so there's no way they can deny you use. If you printed one of these coupons out yourself without going through the coke website, you have a coupon that is already been redeemed, and most likely void.

Ha - my hunch was right. Some ladies at the work were jubilantly copying these and passing them around to everyone.

I took one look and it made a beeline for the recycle bin. Figured it was like the Starbucks thing a few months back. Plus I have Netflix and a wonderful local video store I support. So even if given free movies with no sign-up catches I really don't care to even enter a BB.

I have some of these from Coke Rewards and they are legitimate *but* the bar code is unique on each one. The bar code is a one time use thing.

Everything on it is blurry but the bar code, that should make people instantly suspicious. I'm just worried the lawyers'll get hints from this: not just small print, but small blurry print!

Why the hell would they distribute it through email but then prohibit its reproduction?

Wow, Blockbuster has defensive driving courses? Next time I have traffic school I should keep this in mind.

@SOhp101:
No, they don't have an actual course. They have a video you can rent to fulfill a DD requirement.

"First they say Bill Gates won't give us $245 for forwarding an email, then they tell us we won't be declared legally insane for taking more than seven hits of LSD, and now this."

Yeah, I'm still waiting for my pair of jeans from the Gap for an email I forwarded to friends back in 1998.

Must be the new thing to change coupons and see if they can slip it by clerks. I wonder what would happen If you had a coupon for every thing in the cash drawer, would it still be robbery?

Bay State Darren: Actually, the original and legit coupons that you redeem with coke products print out blurry (the words) and the barcode comes out clean even with a laser printer.

Timmus: These were not distributed through email. You redeem coke points for these coupons which you then print out on the coke website. Each coupon has a unique and individual barcode.

I hate that bill gates email... I get it from my less then internet-literate freinds at least once every month. I've told them so many times I do not want them to forward me anything except personal messages. Just to be an ass though I reply to all the recipients of their emails with the snopes article.

@82300SD: Actually I'm talking about the Blockbuster coupon. The story says It apparently originated as a genuine rewards coupon e-mailed as part of a Blockbuster promotion, but if you look at the fine print on the coupon, you're not allowed to reproduce them.

Once again, consumerist saves my life..just like the story about going into a dark alley way at 1am...

Yeah... the coupon in question is a single, one-use coupon. I participate in the mycokerewards promotion that hands LEGIT coupons that look exactly like this (except the barcode & number are different)& I have a BUNCH of these legit coupons, but NOW because of this fake coupon...I have to deal with snotty little teenage blockbuster-teller-monkeys who say it is fake before even scanning them. Little turds!

@nctrnlboy: I'd say "Let me speak to your manager. I'm sure he'd love to know that his workers are denying customers legitimate coupons" and if they refuse, call corporate on the spot.

"It apparently originated as a genuine rewards coupon e-mailed as part of a Blockbuster promotion"

This is a false statement by snopes. It was never a genuine rewards coupon emailed as a promotion by blockbuster. You only got one to print out when you redeemed 175 coke points (not sure the exact number) and each one was one time use.

I just bought "Gone With The Wind" and "Casablanca" for $20 total at Blockbuster.

Blockbuster is AWESOME!!!

@Chongo:

The LAST thing you want to do is respond to Corporate e-mails with a Snopes article. People really get ticked off when they find out they are idiots f9r sending a stupid fake e-mail to everyone in the company.

/Especially when it's an Executive. Word to the wise!

I actually got this coupon with my Pampers points and it worked just fine. Must be a bar code thing.

@jamesdenver:
Why on earth would they be photocopying it, says in small but chunky letters there don't copy.

I want to know how I can get my 1/100th of a cent that the cash redemption is worth.

@skrom: I've always wonder how that works. 100 billion coupons could make someone a very rich person!

Actually, back when the coupon was still new, I did redeem it at my Blockbuster.

@82300sd:
It's 36 points for just a movie or 26 points for a free movie with a paid rental.
I don't know the points needed for the movie, Coke & popcorn package.

I remember seeing this over at slickdeals.net many months ago. (Great site for you consumerists who want a great deal. No, I have no connection with the site other than a standard user who does not know the operators.)

At first, people doubted it, then the reports started slowly rolling in that the coupon was valid. Then more and more people. Then strange reports of refusals by their registers, with the employees having to override, etc etc.

It seems that, at the time, a coupon was only good for a single use AT EACH STORE. I don't know if this is the case or not, or if they upload at the end of each day and share among stores then, or what.

Blockbuster is/was a major sponsor of Slickdeals, so as you can imagine, it didn't make the front page. I had no joy trying to search for the thread where it all happened.

@Chicago7: but... I like pissing people off... thats my point.

it originated from the coke points redemption last winter. I had two of those coupons, worked back then. Actually printed and used it a few times...

Yep, My Coke Rewards (one-time use), I still have two left that I haven't used, but they have since removed this reward from the website (after raising the number of points it costs). Now they have $1 Off a 12-pack of Coke Zero for 15 pts which is pretty decent since there are 10 pts in a 12-pack.