49er Video - Davis Wiki

Location

606 West Covell Boulevard, in the Anderson Plaza

Hours

Sun-Thu 10am-Midnight

Fri-Sat 10am-1am

Phone

(530)759-8260

Website

myvideostore.com/49er

The website has a search feature but it does not search the actual inventory of the store. Please call if you have any questions about titles they carry.

Accounts
Pricing

Specials
Late Fees

49er employees: Fierce Service

49'er Video is an independent video store in Anderson Plaza at the corner of Covell and Anderson Road, just a couple shops to the east of Guad. The staff are rumored to give "fierce service" and are fairly knowledgeable and interested in movies in comparison to the staff of some chain video retailers such as Blockbuster.

Cutting up your Blockbuster card at the store used to earn you a free rental, which was a nice little perk. Check out the "decorations" hanging from the ceiling.

They have sections for films required by classes on campus (restricted to one-night rentals), Art House (foreign & indie) films, a separate adult section containing pornographic movies, as well as BBC and US television series (Lost, Star Trek, "South Park", "Dexter", "House", etc.). The main difference between Blockbuster and 49er is that 49er has a much wider selection of movies (you won't just find a few mega-hits and new releases).

While Blockbuster prides itself on excessive new releases (the big-budget movies), 49er has more of a focus on its collection of classic/foreign/independent films, in addition to the most recent new releases. Recent releases are updated on their website, but the website is NOT an accurate listing of the store's rental stock — if you are looking for a specific title you should call and ask them. The staff can look up anything. You can also learn about new additions to their collection via their weekly mailing list.

49er no longer rents out video games.

49er is also the place to go to get cheap, high-quality, used DVDs. The racks of previously-viewed 'for sale' movies are immediately in front of the registers and the movies are usually only priced around $4-$10. Movies include the original packaging and can be exchanged or repaired if they're scratched beyond watchability.

49er is one of two places in town (the other being Dimple Records) with a DVD buffer that can repair scratched DVDs and CDs. They use this machine on their stock to maintain rental quality, and also offer this service on non-49er stock for a small charge ($1.99 plus tax) per disc.

They also carry a very impressive number of Blu-Ray titles that are available as one-night rentals.

Accounts

You need an account to rent at 49er Video, without exception. This account is completely free, however you do need to have a valid credit card (Visa or Mastercard) on file and have a valid photo ID (preferably a California Driver's License) when you sign up in order to rent movies. These are the same guidelines for an account at 99% of all video rental stores. For families, the head-of-household may place any family members on the same account, as well as any restrictions for those individuals (for example, if you don't want your 13-year-old checking out R-rated movies).

Pricing

New Releases are 4.59+tax for one night

You can add an extra day to a new release for the cost of 50 cents - at the time of rental only!

Library titles (older films) are 2.99+tax for five nights.

Specials

BLU-Ray titles that are not new releases 1.99+tax per night.
Any day! Get five library titles for 7.99+tax.
Any day! Rent one new release film with one library title for 5.99+tax.
Weekdays (Mon-Thurs): 2 new releases for 5.99+tax
Weekends (Fri,Sat,Sun): 2 new releases for 7.99+tax
Friday & Saturday MIDNIGHT MADNESS: 1.99+tax for any movie when rented between 12am-1am

FALL 09 UCD SPECIAL!
From 10/5 - 12/4 ALL DVD NEW RELEASES ARE $1.00+tax per night! This is a TEMPORARY PROMOTION for Fall Quarter only! Library title prices remain the same. Limit per customer is 9 at a time. You must have a UCD STUDENT ID and have a valid VISA or MASTERCARD on file. All late fees are eligible to be billed to the CC on file one week after they have accrued. The late fee rate is $1.00+tax for every day they are late.

Late Fees

New Releases: $2.79+tax per day - per title
Library Titles: $2.99+tax for every 5 days late.

The library titles "re-rent" to you for another 5 days - so if they are one day late or five days late the price is $2.99+tax. If you rent a set of 5 library titles for 7.99+tax the late fee for the set of 5 movies is 7.99+tax for another five days.

**Late fees for new releases add up very fast!** At 2.79 per day, plus tax, if you have just three new releases that are three days late each, you will end up owing 27 dollars! For fees that are very steep, you can usually (this is not a promise) have them cut down to 50% of what you owe if you talk to an employee when you return the late movies and kindly ask them if they can help you out. Even at a 50% discount, however, late fees can be very high, so rent only what you can watch and return your movies on time!

Comments:

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2005-12-31 02:38:11 This place is awesome. Five movies for seven dollars. —NickSchmalenberger

2006-01-19 00:28:45 No more 5 movies for 5 days for $5? That's a shame. —KurtMontandon

2006-07-12 23:49:31 The quality is excellent. It would be hard to find a better quality selection even in a big city. It's certainly helped me expand my film viewing. —MisterProfessor

2007-01-04 16:48:58 They have recently added a employee notes to a lot more of the new releases. These can help a lot when trying to decide on a movie, especially because the staff overall has great taste. —JanelleAlvstadMattson

2007-01-05 02:11:04 perhaps mention should be made of the employees getting there own section for there picks? —StevenDaubert

2007-08-15 09:01:35 employee picks and the wall for the most rented movies are awesome and their porn selection is far greater than stonegate. —piratechef

2007-08-16 15:24:13 I've found a lot of great movies here - check this store out if you're about to give up on films b/c of the Blockbuster/Big Box Office crap. —ChrisThielen

2007-09-11 22:32:23 i love 49er but you might want to keep an eye out for erroneous late fees. After getting one employee told me they don't check their drop off box late at night or early in the morning (in fact this person said to me they only check it twice every 24 hours, which may not be true for other employees). Therefore, if you are returning your movie the day or night it is due, you should return it in the store just in case (its good for the employees too, so they don't have to carry as many movies in late at night in the cold. They should probably just put a slot in the store wall, it actually wouldn't be that expensive). If the store is closed put the movie in the box and call them the next morning. If you are charged a false late fee and call them on it, some employees may or may not correct their error (even if you have a history of turning in all your movies on time). Based on other people's comments, this was likely the act of one particular employee and not the policy of the store. However, what ever you do do not pay the late fee , they take payment as an admission of guilt, and therefore you can not speak to the manager about it later if you payed the fee. So request to speak to the manager before you pay (of course you should pay it if you did return the movie late...duh). Hopefully this is an isolated incident, but its always a good idea to be careful. —MattHh

2007-09-16 10:14:34 MattHh, I am sorry if you've had issues with erroneous late fees here before, but speaking on behalf of myself and myself only, I can tell you that I've already checked the box once so far this morning (we just opened 10 minutes ago), and I'll check it at least 2 more times during my shift, including once just after noon. I realize your frustration with our drop box system, but try to remember that we often have only one employee working at a time, especially during the day, so for instance, if it gets busy, that employee can't just take a break from helping a line of customers to go check the box. Also, with regards to the fact that the box should be attached to the store - I agree! In fact, I'd bet good money that ALL of our employees agree. It's kind of inconvenient having to carry a big plastic box outside every few hours, open up a locked door and carry 50 to 100 movies inside. But think about how much money that would cost, and we are a small, independently owned business. Finally, if you're charged a late fee that you believe was incorrect, OF COURSE you shouldn't pay it — would you go to court with a speeding ticket, pay the full amount, and THEN tell the judge that you want to dispute it?? We try to do our best here but we're all human beings, and human beings do make mistakes. If we charge you a late fee you believe you shouldn't have been charged, just tell us you don't want to pay it and you'd like to talk to the manager. We try our very best to be reasonable and understanding, especially if the error is on our part.

—DavidObrien

thanks for the very civil and honest response. Its employee courtesy like this that keeps me coming back even after I had one bad experience. Thanks again. —MattHh

2007-09-27 02:43:27 Yeah, please don't listen to that Matt guy everyone, I've been working here for just short of two years and that box has always been checked at the VERY least 4 times a day. No one "admitted" to it being only checked twice - thats silly. But the box-checking is irrelevant, if we are late checking the drop-box we check all the movies in as if it was the day before. We do make mistakes occasionally but its so rare its hardly worth discussing, and I have never seen another employee (or myself) not give a customer the benefit of the doubt if they say they returned their movie on time and the computer shows that its one day late (unless a customer has had a history of lying to us or making excuses). Look, we get it, we know you dont want to pay late fees, but its part of the rental game. It's not our fault if you return something late, even if it's only a little late. We offer a 12 hour grace period, but thats all we can do. We are aware there are movie rental services out there that dont make you pay late fees, but thats not us - instead we offer the best customer service we can and give you the ability to select a huge variety of movies the same day you want them. We are also usually quite generous about cutting larger late fees in half, especially if you bring them into the store and take care of the fees the same day you drop off the late movies. We aren't mean-spirited and we aren't working on commision, so give us a break MattHhs of the world - we get paid minimum wage (or a hair above), work way into the night, and are open every single day of the year, no exceptions. Pay your late fees, it's good karma. —JakeJames

All I did was post a personal experience. You really should read over your comment and then read David Obrien's. His is very civil and genuine and reasonably says that there could have been a mistake, and that i should have never paid for a accidental late fee. To address your point I only said you shouldn't pay a late fee if you turned in the movie on time. If i ever turned in a movie late I would obviously pay the late fee. You can check my history, I have never turned in a movie late, so I obviously don't have a habit of lying or making excuses. Also how can you say no one admitted to checking the bin twice every 24 hours. I'm pretty sure you don't work their every hour of every day, so you don't necessarily know what some other employee said to me. I am sorry if I sounded accusatory, but I was just pointing out what happened to me, and gave advice if others find themselves in a similar situation. I never said that anyone should not patron the store, in fact i started by saying I love it. thanks for sharing your opinion —MattHh

I'm sorry if you didn't find my response civil - it wasn't my intention for it to not sound civil -and I still don't believe that anyone would have said that we check that drop box twice every 24 hours because the box would overflow in between that time . If it's true someone told you that, I don't know what they were thinking and I apologize, but I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that it is not true. I'm sorry if my response took on a personal tone, like David said we do on occasion make mistakes, but more often that not it is customers that are mistaken about when/if they returned films and it's hard to get people to see that they were the ones at fault. It can be a headache to sort out if we made a mistake, if a customer is mistaken, or if a customer is lying to us and trying to weasel their way out of fees, and if false information gets out such as the box being only checked twice a day it only helps that later category of people take advantage of our system. So that is why my response was so strong and again I am sorry if I made it sound personal. Thank you for being a good customer. —jakejames

Again, just to clarify the thing about the outside dropbox... I seriously doubt another employee told you we only check it twice every 24 hours. I know I can't be sure as to what someone else did or didn't tell you, but that's never ever been true for the nearly 2 years I've been working here. We check that box a minimum of 5 or 6 times a day, sometimes more if it's a heavy return day, like a Sunday or the day after a 3-day weekend. If someone told you that then they were... wrong. Simple as that. —DavidObrien

2007-11-07 14:01:47 I moved from San Francisco and despaired of finding a video store here on par with Le Video on 9th Ave. 49er is not quite as large, but for a town this size, it's incredibly complete, and the staff there are really knowdlegeable and give fantastic service. I am awed. —NotSure

2007-12-08 16:37:44 After a bad Blockbuster experience, I only go to 49er. It truly is the best. Just remember that unlike Blockbuster, late fees do exist. A friend forgot this and had quickly accrued a $30 late fee. I was a few days late on a DVD return and had to pay $6. I don't think they charge more than any other store, but people have just grown accustom to not having to pay late fees with Netflix and Blockbuster. —VinceBuffalo

2007-12-28 20:39:44 I have never once posted on Davis wiki but after my experiences with 49er video I felt obligated to warn others. The store is appealing enough initially, but the staff was very pompass and rude on nearly every visit, they rarely seemed at all interested in helping me, or even renting me the film after I found it myself. The rental charges are unnecessairly complex and the fees are without question exuberant. I always pay my late fees and I also see the reason which they apply (however any video store that does not offer some kind of flat rate monthly service is falling behind quickly) however beware as they will just Take your money from the account provided at the time of account opening, and without warning. Honestly most practices of this store are primarive and I STRONGLY encourage other guest to take their video business elsewhere. —Pmpman

2008-01-08 20:29:23 "beware as they will just Take your money from the account provided at the time of account opening, and without warning" Pmpman, you need to clarify what you mean by this. "Take money from the account"? Are you referring to overdue charges being billed to customers' credit cards? First of all, we NEVER charge anyone anything they don't legitimately owe us — and almost always, if someone contests a late fee or other account charges, we are at the very least willing to listen to their story and give them some benefit of the doubt. Second of all, the terms and conditions that EVERY new customer agrees to when they sign their membership form give us the right to bill credit cards for uncollected charges or unreturned movies, after a certain period of time. It's a right every video store that wants to remain in business reserves — it's not out of the ordinary at all. If you are accusing us of doing anything unethical or illegal please get your facts straight and be clear about what you are saying. I'm sorry if you're upset about an experience you had at our store with overdue charges, but please don't accuse us of doing something you don't have the facts to back up. —DavidObrien

2008-01-09 18:52:33 "The rental charges are unnecessairly complex and the fees are without question exuberant"

We have two prices. Two. 2.99 for a library or older movie, 4.59 for a new release. There are some deals if you get multiple movies, but still how can two standard prices in any way be considered complex. What do you do when walk into a grocery store where there are literally thousands of different prices? Do you hide your eyes and run out of the store screaming? —JakeJames

2008-01-15 08:46:45 My fiance and I have been patronizing 49er video since we moved to Davis almost two years ago. I have always had such a positive experience and the selection is by far the best in Davis. The employees are all movie fans and have given us great advice on films we may have not otherwise seen. I am a high school teacher by profession and the manager spent almost a half of an hour looking for historically accurate films on WWI with me. If you need help—or advice in my case—just ask any of the wonderful employees. As long as we live in Davis, we will not go anywhere else! —hbrittan

2008-01-15 09:29:27 I agree with the positive comments. We have always had a good experince with 49er and love the selection and prices. —MyaBrn

2008-01-31 09:38:23 I'm a fan of 49er and their employees despite having an idea, I think, of what the "complex fees" complaint is about. I blame the signage. The full structure seems only to appear on one sign near the front, which I routinely find myself unable to reference from even half-way across the store, either because the font size of the key info is too small or because it appears in a not self-evident place among other items and heads and fonts of different size. Plus it's not the big sign over the register, and little reminder signs amongst the shelves seem everywhere with the deal price for renting 5 or the basic price dare you to scan for the particular fact you are looking for ("First-run rentals are cheaper through Thursday night?"), but it's only on the white sign at the entrance, which seems to be an introduction to first-time visitors, and so can raise the implication that, if you're a semi-regular, you must be mentally deficient if you find yourself always having to cross the store to take another look at it. Probably the state had more enemies before the recent trend to make public transit maps and rules easier too. Love it or leave it. —oliverevilo

2008-02-01 00:22:47 Great selection, very helpful staff, reasonable rates. The broadest range of titles I've seen in a video store. —DonShor

2008-02-23 17:27:37 Best video store in Davis, they love film, they love to help you out in picking what you could be looking for, amazing selection in all genres English and foreign language, just the best place to get a vid in Davis. —AggieFinn

2008-06-07 18:48:26 In my opinion just having good movie taste does not remove the requirement for having respectable business practices. They make a lot of money charging exorbinant late fees. Then if you happen to not be in the store for 30 days they just send you to collection agency. Imagine having your credit trashed by a late fee you didn't even know about. (In my case because they rented to someone else on my account without my permission) So beware under the guise of being cool they are steling blind from us. —cmj

I don't know this person's exact story but here are the store's policies regarding some of what they are saying here: The late fees are posted throughout the store and we always tell you when your movies are due so it's up to you to get them back on time or you face paying late fees. If you have late fees that have not been taken care of in the store after 30 days they are eligible to be billed to the credit card you put on file. Usually we try and call you before we bill the amount to your credit card on file. When the credit card on file is expired or not working we always call the person to try and have them come pay the fee off in person or phone in with a different credit card to bill. Sometimes people don't get these calls because they change their phone number and don't inform us of the change. Sometimes people just flat out ignore us when we call. In both cases, if we cannot reach the customer or they don't come down and pay the fee in person after a few weeks the owner or manager will begrudgingly send the account to a collections agency to collect the fees. We never rent to anyone whose name is not on a rental account, in fact if someone wants to rent under their parent's or friends or other acquaintance's account and their name isn't listed as a supplemental renter we will immediately phone whoever owns the account to make sure they give authorization to rent to that person. This is a hassle and half but we do it to make sure thing's like what this customer above says happened don't. Once authorization is given the person who owns the account is responsible for all fees and penalties anyone on the account incurs - this is one of the terms of service that people sign their name and agree to when they set up their membership. One flaw in the system is that friends or kids will often lie and say their name is the main person on the account - we try and combat this by offering customers the option of making their account check for ID and we usually waive fees that incur the first time this happens. No one is 'stealing blind' from anyone, nor are we trying to be cool to lure you in - we are just a video store offering the best selection in town and trying to maintain good business and happy customers.

2008-06-09 16:33:43 I really like 49er, I haven't had any problems. A year or two ago they had this end of the year deal where you could put $20 on your account and get a free rental. I have 16 cents left, and I like that it was just there for whenever I wanted to rent a movie for the past two years.

Plus, they had reduced prices on new releases for students this quarter. That's cool, too. —ChristyMarsden

And just to add—We do the $25/$20 deal (where you give us $20 and we give you $25 credit...New releases are $4.59 so it's basically a free rental) every 6-8 weeks. Check back often or call the store to see if we're doing it! —SarahOsler

2008-06-09 19:35:47 I don't need blockbuster anymore. Thank you 49er.

p.s. go for the employee picks!!!! —Adaleen

2008-07-16 16:43:28 I've always liked going here but not so much lately. The staff seems to be getting grumpier. Maybe their pay should be upped.. —GabeDavis

2008-07-16 23:17:17 49er is the best video store in Davis! Hands down. Not only is their large and diverse selection way batter then blockbuster, they carry older and/or obscure titles. The service has always been great here and have never had a problem with anything here. If one must rent movies, rent them here. —sweetsoni

2008-09-16 17:14:46 Third best place to meet a mate in 2007, according to the Aggie! —SallyHensel

2008-12-25 18:30:19 I miss Mike. Mike - we love ya. Heard the circumstances weren't ideal... too bad, quality employeees are too good to lose. Sad to see you go but to everything, a season. Best wishes. —toyon

We miss Mike too :-/

2009-02-21 18:52:45 Overrated. With employees that suspiciously stare at you. :( —AnnieSirrah

I am a 49er employee and am curious, how did we stare at you and what made it suspicious?

2009-03-20 18:11:13 I love 49'er and rent from them on a weekly basis. I loathe Blockbuster and wouldn't dream of going to one of those soulless, censoring chains. I love their "past 12'o clock means a cheaper rental" thing, since I am a night owl, and often when we rack up late fees like nobody's business certain employees seem to cut us a little slack with the fines. Perhaps they notice how much money we give them every week due to our laziness? Who knows!? I am mainly writing to comment that about two weeks ago, on our weekend soujourn to get a video or five, one of the employees (a new face, lighter curly hair, glasses) smiled and joked with us. So simple, right?! It was refreshing, since as much as I love 49'er, the staff always looks very bored/neutral and somber and are hard to get a smile out of. I often suspect they are not paid very much, since my days in soul-crushing retail made me that way too.
I always protest that "I want my indie video store clerks WEIRD"!, since I am used to strangely-coiffed, film-studies-majoring, movie snobs in suspenders that look down their nose at me when I rent Underworld and freak out when I rent Kurosawa, or whatever. Maybe I think I'm living in a John Hughes film. Maybe those weirdo film-nerds are all older grad students who won't work for minimum wage. Maybe 49 is a soul-crushing place to work and I just think it rules because it carries awesome films? Who knows?
Anyway- to the nice curly-haired employee; Thanks. Little things like that make me glad I canceled my Netflix subscription. —KaiSmart

You're most welcome. I no longer have the curls though.Users/E.C.H

They're growing back.E.C.H.

2009-04-11 22:12:53 I just got an account at this store tonight, and the service is excellent. There was a cute girl with really long hair and a cute dyed hair girl with glasses and they were both super knowledgeable! I even quizzed them! A+!! I'm curious to come back in and see how well the rest of the staff holds up, but I'll tell you.... The cute girls are good. I also wonder if they are single :-0 Just kidding... Kind of.

-Ryan —HunkyDavisLoveMuffin

2009-04-23 18:23:32 I'm always amazed that 49er can stay in business given the rise of NetFlix, but every time I stop in I remember why - they're just so great! From the special deals to the employee picks section to the friendly counter banter on Saturday nights, I'm always happy to find myself here. I do have to say that I seem to have rented an above-average number of DVDs with scratches (meaning you have to stop the movie halfway through and FF through the scratched parts), which might (?) be the result of how many people in Davis throw their stuff into their bags onto their bikes before they pedal off? - but even that doesn't keep me from coming back. 49er forever! —calvin2

2009-06-15 17:25:13 Staff is really courteous and helpful; selection and depth of inventory greatly exceed expectations. This store is a real asset to Davis! —DataPoint

2009-07-31 22:36:33 We have just become members and maybe it's too soon to make this comment—but everytime we have been in to rent a movie and even to set up our account, the staff has seemed grumpy and bored. Again, we've only been in a handful of times, but form those experiences I'd say they need to work on customer service to keep us and others coming back! However, the selection of movies is great and we are happy to support a local, independent business. —Devrey

2009-09-13 19:25:47 this place has a GREAT selection and the workers know their movies and won't say that everything is "pretty good." however, the last 3 or 4 times i've been there at least 1 of the dvd's i rent will be defective and be scratched and thus freeze halfway through. they used to use the dvd-cleaning machine everytime you rent a dvd, but now they don't, so make sure to tell them to clean the dvd's whenever you rent there. —boing3887

The DVD cleaning machines we use are actually resurfacers, they aren't meant for everyday cleaning of the discs. Their job is more to repair discs. That being said, we actually clean a lot more discs as they are rented than we ever have before in the four years of my working here; we have never had a policy where we clean every disc as customers rent them, that would really put the buffer machines under unnecessary wear as well as severely increase the wait time for check out. We will gladly run your movies through the buffer if they need cleaning and we have time. Unfortunately DVDs just don't hold up very well, they are very easy to damage. Any time you have a rental that doesn't work for you, let us know, and we will gladly exchange it for a new copy or a free rental that you can use either right then on the spot or at a later date. —JakeJames

2009-09-20 01:09:55 i have been going to 49er for a long time, since i was a middle school student, know i am in college. I have never had a problem with the employees before, i actually thought most of them were very nice, but my last 2 visits i have left very mad, they were really really rude, and were not helpful in the least, it seemed my questions about videos were an inconvenience to them. i was also given a hard time when i was not questioned about my identity, and was told that i was not a regular because this employee had never seen me before. i am in the customer service business, and this is not how u treat a customer. —patty45

Hi Patty. I don't know exactly what happened, but I can offer some possible explanations. First off, we have had lots and lots of employee turnover in the last year and there are currently a total of three staff members (out of 7 total) who have a month or less of work under their belt so far. I'm not sure what the confusion was regarding your identity, it may have just been them asking for your name after typing in your phone number - this is how we confirm that we have the right customer. After a while, we put faces to some of the regular customers names and then don't have to confirm in this way, but until they know who you are they are taught to ask for a name. Some accounts also have notes that say "Check for ID" - if this is on your account, this may have been why they were giving you a harder time about your identity. As far as someone treating you as if you were an inconvenience, that is a big concern, and you are welcome to discuss this with myself (the manager) or the owner to see if we can find out what happened. The reason that 49er has outlasted almost every other video store in Davis has been because of it's excellent customer service, and while I do realize that several people on this forum think we look bored or groggy on the job, once we are asked a question we most always do as much as we can to help and assist. I hope whatever bad experience you had was just a result of a new employee not knowing their stuff yet, and I hope your experiences are much better in the future. —JakeJames