In the video rental system, the people are divided into two separate yet equally important groups: the people who hire the movies and the customer service representatives who tolerate them. These are their stories.
Some of the most common passwords used amongst the video shop trade are names, mostly those of children, pets or partners. This particular post is about those short sighted young men that pop in for a DVD with a girl on date night, make the chivalrous gesture of using said girl as the password on the card and not thinking about the future ramifications, like say, the next time they come in and it’s with another girl.
The look in a guys eye as he hands over his card and realises he is going to have to mutter his ex-girlfriends name is one of utter panic and distress. They know they can’t circumvent the fortress that is the password, they’re inevitably going to have to say it in order for the new date to continue.
Sometimes I’d help a brother out and say he is due to “update his password”. This is completely fictional, it’s simply something I created to help the poor fellows dodge a bullet. They’re often so relived they don’t think straight and would make the new password the new girls name and the whole cycle starts again, only next time I may not be there to save them. (Apparently making your password at the video shop your girls name is a sure fire seduction technique.)
Occasionally you’d get the jerk being a douche about the whole thing, the guy who thinks if he’s a big enough dick and pleads ignorance long enough i’ll let him hire without saying it. Not on my shift. If such a jerk occurs, i’d give him clues such as “rhymes with…” or “maybe it’s your sisters name?” or my favourite “that blonde you always come in with has this name”.
