Avoiding Blockbuster late fee

Here’s a little scam that I tought of but haven’t had the balls to try out yet.
If I had a Blockbuster DVD that was overdue by a couple weeks, would it work if I

  1. Put it in my jacket.
  2. Returned to the store.
  3. Went to it’s shelf location and returned it to it’s place.
  4. Grabbed another DVD to rent and proceeded to checkout.
  5. On ringing the new transaction they tell me “You still haven’t returned Forest Gump”
  6. I say, “Yes, I returned that two weeks ago. You must have failed to check it in.”
  7. They check the shelf and find it there thinking they made the mistake.
  8. The 2 week late fee is dismissed.

Is this plausible?
Mind you I am not for retail theft of any kind that causes lose of goods, this is rather avoiding a penalty charge.

Wouldn’t the tape set off the alarm as soon as you try to enter the store? I believe that they have both the entrance and exit rigged to detect a tape passing through.

I don’t get it. You know it’s a scam. You are stealing. But you claim you are against theft? Theft is theft.

The old saying “Just pay the $2.” comes to mind.

Avoiding late fees would still be theft, as it is part of the contract between you and the store. Late fees are a source of revenue for the stores and denying them that is likely illegal.

I’ve managed video stores and I can tell you that, yes, both the entrance and exit are rigged. (to prevent a thief from bolting out the entrance.) Also, if you could get it past the alarm, it would have to be an older movie, not a new release as all the copies of new releases are regularly checked out and it would be obvious that it hadn’t been sitting on the shelf. Plus, when I worked at Blockbuster Music, we inventoried the New Release videos daily (but had a rotating schedule for the older films). In addition, it would only work for you once as the manager would remember you if you tried it again. In addtion to that, the stores generally start calling you to remind you about your late movie after about three or four days. So you have to dodge all the phone calls (which are logged) and turn off your answering machine. So it’s not a real feasible plan…

I’m not a big fan of Blockbuster, but I have to say that what you propose does cause them to lose goods. They lost that DVD you (theoretically) snuck back in for two weeks time. Because of that, they couldn’t collect fees for renting it, not to mention the late fees you owed. That’s a REAL loss of goods.

Your scam does cause the lost of goods. Blockbuster could have rented that movie for two weeks while you had it at home.

Just pay the fee and return your movies on time from now on.

Questions about how to break the law are not permitted here. Don’t make the same mistake again.

bibliophage
moderator GQ