Freakin morons who can’t tell time - that’s who they are.
A group of Quebec movie renters have launched a class-action lawsuit against Blockbuster Video, claiming that their late charges are “exorbitant”. Story here. I’m not a Blockbuster renter, but the story tells that late charges are a on full-rental-rate basis per day late even if the original rental was greater than one day.
Says the group’s lawyer, Robert Kugler, “We claim that the late fees are disproportionate to the rental fees and that the late fees exceed the potential loss of revenue that Blockbuster would incur for not having the video back in time.”
But let’s think about this a second Robbie. Let’s pretend that the late fee is reduced to be only representative of potential lost revenue because of its unavailability for rental. A cheaper rate will encourage people to keep the movie out an extra day, not because they haven’t yet had a chance to watch, but because it is inconvenient to return it on time. Those who then want to rent a movie on the day on which it was due have less selection to choose from. If enough people are keeping movies past their due date, the selection could conceivably be reduced a substantive level, thus encouraging customers to go to a movie store that has a greater selection. Bottom line: Late fees that represent only the bona fide lost revenue do not reflect the potential for lost revenue because of lost customers. Encouraging customers to keep movies past their due date is not in the best interest of Blockbuster nor in the best interest of other customers.
An analogy: Libraries commonly charge late charges. According to Mr. Kugler’s theory, they shouldn’t charge any late charge, no matter how long they are kept, as they don’t effectively have any effect upon revenues, since library patrons don’t pay on a per-item basis. These charges, be it a library or a movie store, are meant to be punitive, to the benefit of the entire community.
These people need to simply check their watch a little more closely and make sure they return their rentals on time. I’m sure they’d be plenty ticked off if they were wanting to rent a specific movie and it was unavailable because somebody was keeping it late. In fact, my experience as a movie store clerk 15 years ago tells me that they’ll not only be ticked, but blame the movie store for not having it back on time.
You rented the movie. You agreed to return it on time. Bloody well do it or pay the late charges you agreed to pay when you rented it in the first place.
Actually, checking their watches won’t do them any good. They need to memorize the ridiculous rules that Blockbuster uses to define a “day”. I once returned a “two-day” rental back into Blockbuster 26 hours after renting it and was told that a new day started after 11:00 in the morning so I had the video for “three days”
I told them that I wasn’t going to pay them and that I wouldn’t be back. Haven’t walked into one of their stores since.
There are many alternatives to blockbuster so I don’t miss them one bit.
I agree that a law suite is a stupid idea when you can just boycot their lousy service and find alternatives.
The funny thing is that the current scheme is in place because of the last class action suit where they complained about per day fees.
The other funny thing is that the late policy is spelled out on the membership contract, which every customer has agree to and sign in order to rent movies.
Blockbuster is evil for any number of reasons, but the fact that you have to return your movie at some point, and that if you fail to do that you get charged, is not one of them.
I don’t usually rent movies anymore, but when I did I always hated getting a late charge for a full day late fee, even though the movie was only 10 minutes late. Heck, a time difference so short like that can be explained by the difference in people clocks. I have multiple clocks and watches and none of them have the same time on them, they are close but not the same. :rolleyes:
I don’t think people should be able to sue over stupid late fees though. I hate stupid lawsuits.
I rent games for my kid at Blockbuster. there really are no reasonably priced alternatives anywhere near me, so it’s Blockbuster’s or nothin’. So when I have to pay a late fee, it’s a month before another game gets rented. This has had two effects:
My kid pesters ME about returning games on time, instead of the other way around.
When I do get hit with a late fee, I feel a lot less like a tool. I’m hurting them, too. That late fee cost them three rental fees.
The only thing I ever kept late were video games and I simply paid the late fees once they came. But, once video stores started having the deal where you got to keep video games for 5 days, I quit doing that.
I admit that I never kept video games late at blockbuster because the late fees were higher, but they were among the first stores to have the game=week deal, so it was all good!
Never kept movies late though, no matter how low the late fee was. Heh.
When I worked at a movie store, it was a small regional chain so we had some discretion as to how we operated on a store-by-store basis. I’m not sure how it works in the big chains but I suspect that a clerk has little choice in whether it’s charged or not. If a good customer was a few minutes (or heck, even half-a-day) late, we would usually just forgive the late charges and be done with it.
However, in an operation the size of Blockbuster, you probably need to make certain that all stores are operating under a common policy, and a line for “lateness” must be drawn somewhere. If the policy is to have returns by 8:00 p.m. then you must charge anyone returning at 8:01. You could have a one-hour grace period, but as that becomes known, the defacto return time becomes 9:00. Then, those who return at 9:01 will claim they are only one minute late.
I’ve never like paying full fees for a half-hour-late video, but I understand their need to charge it.
I agree; it’s completely ridiculous. If Blockbuster wants to charge $100 per day late, dems da breaks. You agree to it. You sign it. Tough titty.
Same goes for the last class action lawsuit I heard about. Seems credit card companies are charging too much interest. No shit, Sherlock. But people are suing them to get the interest lowered.
It comes down to the fact that our society has grown to think they have a “right” to everything. Nothing is a “privilege” anymore. That and our obsession with immediate gratification has turned us into the most ugly people in the world.
Slight Hijack: Try to get into a Blockbuster without being greeted. It’s impossible. It’s a little game I have with myself.
That logic breaks down, though when you consider that Blockbuster’s competitors charge reasonable late fees, so their selection should be substantially reduced, right?
I would tend to agree that the lawsuit is stupid, but it’s not so far out of line to accuse Blockbuster of gouging. How far have they gone to make their customers aware of their late fee policy? Is it uniformly applied, or only to new releases?
I’m interested, because I have a movie right now that I intend to return late-- it’s the six-hour adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. Although I am not sure of the per-day late fees that my video-store charges, I expect from precedent that it will be proportionate to the rental rate. I paid $4.00 to keep it for a week, and I bought a coupon-book from the store which has several “Forgive-and-forget” late-fee coupons in it, (each good for amnesty of up to $3 in late charges) so I have a reasonable expectation that I should be able to return the movie two days late, without being out of pocket. Coupon aside, I’d be pissed as hell if I was faced with an eight-dollar late charge for returning a four-dollar rental a couple of days late – especially since it’s a movie which is usually in.
Of course, my reaction would just be to stop renting at a such a shitty video store, not to file suit – and I stopped renting at Blockbuster years ago, because of an aggregrate of other irritations.
Interesting, my Blockbuster just assumes it’s a new rental; I wonder if that’s just a courtesy. The way Blockbuster describes their rental period is definitely misleading but that is irrelevant to this particular lawsuit. While I don’t agree with the OP’s reasoning I agree with his/her conclusion. Bottom line is a contract is a contract.
The trouble I have with your argument is that it could be used to justify any late fee, no matter how outrageously abusive it is. (Although I imagine that some folks in this thread would have no problem with a thousand-dollar late fee as long as it was spelled out in a contract signed by the consumer. )
The problem is that in many jurisdictions a private penalty is unlawful. Perhaps you disagree with this concept, but there it is.
This reminds me of the cases where overweight people are suing fast food companies for getting them fat…if you can’t bring the movies back on time, accept the late fees or don’t rent, they’re spelled out pretty clearly.
Not that I rent from Blockbuster anymore, since they decided that I had an $18.00 late fee for returning “The Count of Monte Cristo” late, a movie which I’ve never rented from Blockbuster (got it from Netflix, and confirmed with my then-roommate that we did indeed rent that movie from netflix). The only reason I know about the “late fee” is because i got a $5 gift certificate for the store, so I decided to use it to rent a movie. I told the clerk I had not rented that movie from Blockbuster (again, I’m POSITIVE it was from netflix, i even checked my account to make sure). He told me that he could take some money off the fee…but I would still have to pay about $14 for a movie I hadn’t rented. Hell, at that price I could’ve gone out and bought the movie, probably! Ah well, it’s no big loss - I was just irked that the clerk didn’t seem to beleive me, like the computer can never be wrong or something…
Wow, the place where I rent movies has a ‘one day rental’ for the new releases that are less than a month old, but they begin their day at noon. So if you rent a movie for ‘one day’ on Monday at 5:00 p.m., your ‘day’ doesn’t officially start until Tuesday at noon, and your video is due back at the store on Wednesday, before noon.
Same thing happens with their five day rentals. Your time starts at the first 12:00 p.m. after you rented the video. Rent it 5:00 p.m. Monday, your time starts on Tuesday at noon, and the tape has to be back before noon on Sunday.
If you’re there after noon, you pay for one day, if you come in after noon the next day, it’s two day late fee, etc.
That would be fine to me. It’s pretty easy to get something back on time, and if you can’t, you’re a fucking idiot who’ll end up collecting cans for a living.
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd]
Coupon aside, I’d be pissed as hell if I was faced with an eight-dollar late charge for returning a four-dollar rental a couple of days late – especially since it’s a movie which is usually in.
[QUOTE]
So it’s Blockbuster’s fault that you’re too lazy and/or stupid to turn a video back in on time?
As someone who regularly owes $20-25 to the public library for overdue books, I’m never bothered by paying $5-6 for a late movie at Blockbuster. This is my failing, I’m aware of it, I know I’m fucking late, I know I’ve hurt other renters and readers with my selfish hogging of very low-priced materials. Why all the drama and lawsuits? Geez, they don’t cut off my arms or anything.
