This is minor in the grand scheme of things, fortunately, but it’s an annoyance.
In early March (you will note that it is now late May), we rented a couple of DVDs from Blockbuster. Returned them a week or so later.
A week ago (again, note the long time frame), we got a phone call telling us it was missing the disk (or one of the two disks? the message wasn’t clear). I expect someone came along and tried to rent the video, and it was discovered missing at that point.
Well, we’ve ransacked the house and no missing “Ice Age II - The Meltdown” video has turned up. It’s not impossible that it’s there, but we sure can’t find it.
My annoyance is, WHY ON EARTH did it take 2+ months for them to find the thing missing, and how are we expected to trust that it didn’t get swiped while in the store? Don’t they check these things upon return???
We’re basically honest people. If we’d gotten a call within a few days of returning the video, we’d have ransacked the house then, and if it didn’t turn up, we’d have willingly paid up. It’s not like it’s a huge amount of money - 20ish bucks, per retail price, though I wouldn’t put it past them to try to soak us for more than that.
So far, we haven’t seen a charge on our credit card. Nor have we tried to rent additional movies using that account. My WAG is they either realize they don’t have a leg to stand on with a 2-months-later claim of a missing DVD, or they’ll attempt to charge us the next time we try to rent. Which, again, is an annoyance. We don’t rent all that often, usually just when the kids want a video that we can’t Netflix in time.
Just go to the store, ask for a manager, look him/her/it in the eye and tell them that the disc was in the case when you returned it. They won’t give you much of a hassle.
Having worked for Blockbuster I can assure you that DVD cases are supposed to be checked for discs before scanning the item in. Unfortuantely due to human error or sometimes laziness this process isn’t 100% effective. The problem was undoubtedly discovered when someone else went to rent it.
You won’t make friends at your location if you go in accusing store employees of swiping it, but if you complain enough to management they will eventually pass this off on to someone who will give you a by on this. You may even receive compensation for the error. Blockbuster always erred on the side of the customer in my 4+ years of experience if the customer took it high enough, and if there was any room for doubt as to who was at fault.
Edit: Yes, they will attempt to charge you the next time you go in. A hold will be put on your account that affects you nationwide on that account if you try to go to another location. Only creating a new account will circumvent that. And no, the worst that will happen will be eventually this will be passed off to a collection agency, and they will start to bother you instead of Blockbuster. With 20-30$ that won’t ever go anywhere serious.
Oh, I actually didn’t think a Blockbuster employee swiped the disk; I was thinking a lightfingered client had done so (if indeed that’s what happened), or perhaps the case fell open when we slid it in through the depository slot and the disk fell out.
It’s certainly possible we failed to return the contents of the case, though we normally try to check them carefully before returning. And of course if this weren’t so long delayed (they admitted it was checked in on March 11), we’d be quite willing to pay to replace the disk and less inclined to believe that some other error occurred.
We will definitely pop by one day this week and talk to a manager-type to get this cleared up; I hate to have the account locked out and wouldn’t be too pleased to have a collection agency drop us a letter either.
I worked for Movie Gallery. My favorite was the time some kid tried to return a game that had a plastic insert from a CD spool in it. I guess maybe he figured that we’d just shake the box and hear that it had something inside it. But here’s the kicker: he had written the name of the game on the plastic disc with marker. I think he even gave it a nice colored border. WTF? I understand putting something in the box, really. Empty boxes sound different, and had I been lazy maybe it would have gotten by. But the fact that he thought that when I checked, a plastic insert with Grand Theft Auto (or whatever it was) written on it was going to be easier to pass off than just the plastic insert? Even if he had printed a label, maybe he would have gotten away with it (probably not, but y’know-- it would have been a lot better).
Bolding mine. They admitted it was checked on March 11th? Was that after you returned it? If so, they have to know that it can’t possibly be your fault.
Off topic, but that reminds me of something I did when I was a kid. I had rented a Super Nintendo game from a video store and really liked it. So much so that I decided I wanted to buy it. Problem was, this being before games were on discs, all my saved data was on that particular cartridge. I hated the thought of losing all that data, so I unscrewed the cartridge, popped out the chip and replaced it with the chip from some crappy game I had, Sim Earth or something I think. I returned it like that, and never heard anything about it. Months later, after I was done with that game, I decided I felt guilty.
I rented it again, and there be my old chip. I switched them back and returned it. I guess no one else had rented that game in all those months, or just didn’t notice they were playing a different game.
They checked it in and the procedure is to verify the DVD is there at check in. The fact that something is wrong now is their fault, for not following procedure at check in, or for allowing somebody to take the DVD out of the case after check in. This could be a customer that brought a device in to defeat the security box, or think on this now, the store had an employee stick the DVD in a player for the store. The DVD never made it back into the correct box, for whatever reason, and now they want to hold you accountable at this late date. Ask them if they have to check DVD’s out of their system if the store plays them on their tv’s. I think you can calmly raise reasonable doubt about when this DVD became missing.
There’s a number of possible ways this dvd could have been lost. You might not have returned it, some customer might have stolen it from the store, or some employee might have taken or lost it. Blockbuster apparently created a policy that whenever a dvd is discovered missing, they would look up the last person who rented it and blame them. If it worked, they could make that person pay for a replacement.
Blockbuster’s records indicate that you returned the dvd on March 11. So legally they’ve acknowledged it was returned to them. It’s possible you did forget to put it back in the case and they did forget to check the case when you returned it. If that’s true then both sides made a mistake (if they had checked the case at the time the problem would have discovered and you could have looked for the dvd back in March).
I don’t see any reason why you should assume responsiblity for a loss that’s unlikely to have been your fault. Don’t let them bulldoze you in paying for it.
Keep in mind it might be substantially more. Video stores often pay a higher rate for purchasing movies because they’re paying for the rental rights. A movie that cost you twenty dollars for your home viewing copy might cost eighty dollars for a rental copy.
This is one (of many) reasons I stopped going to Blockbuster.
We used to rent quite a few films before we got multiple premium channels on cable. However, we would only rent films we had time to see in the next two days.
We never once turned in a film late, and usually a day or so before it was due. We had been going to the same Blockbuster for almost 5 years. Then one day we go in and they want to charge us a two week late fee for a film we supposedly turned in late.
I asked for a manager and said, “Not once have we ever been a day late, let alone two weeks late. There must be an error.”
She said, “No. The computer shows it didn’t come in until two weeks late.”
“Well, I am an honest guy and I can guarantee you we did not turn in the film late. If you just check our records, you will see we have never once been a day late with a single film over the years we have been renting from you.”
“Sorry, but we have to charge you the late fee.”
That was the last time we ever went to Blockbuster.
Yeah, looking over my post it may have sounded more accusatory than I intended. Sorry if it came across that way.
If the disc fell out ,which they often do, then it should have been sitting somewhere in the vast pile of returns. Only employees should theoretically be able to interact with the returns as the only egress points for these would be behind the counter, so random passer-by’s shouldn’t be able to snag it.
In any case, as noted in Harmonious Discord’s post, there are many explanations of how it may have gone missing either through your own accidental fault, employee negligence, or some kind of theft. As such if you take it to the right person they should clear this up for you.
These are the scenarios that suck for employees to have to try to enforce, and similarly suck for customers to have to deal with. One of the many reasons I left was because people will try to game the system because someone will cave for them even if they are in the wrong.
Similar to something that happened to me a year or so ago. I had rented 4 or 5 movies and returned them all at the same time. Went back a couple of months later and grabbed a few more and when I went to check out they told me there was a three week late charge on one of the previous moveis. Me: :dubious: “I don’t think so. I returned it with the rest and this is the first time I’ve been near this store since then.” Them: “Okay, we’ll clear that off.”
I had the same problem w/the local Blockbuster back in the '93 or so. After getting nowhere with the local franchise, I wrote to the president of Blockbuster at the corporate office, explaining the situation. I requested that a copy of the letter be sent to the local franchise. If memory serves, I got a call from someone at Blockbuster asking for payment. I repeated that I’d returned videos on time, & had sent a letter of complaint to the corporate office. I haven’t heard from the since. Obviously, I no longer use their service.
AFAIK, they didn’t pursue the matter. Don’t much care.
About 5 years ago I rented some weekly PS2 games from Video Ezy, a video rental chain similar to Blockbuster. A couple of days into the rental we got an automated SMS saying that the games were overdue. Looked at the boxes, which clearly showed them to be weekly rentals and figured it was a mistake. I remember they’d also been labelled as weeklies in the store, because we went out of our way to avoid the overnight and 3-day rentals. When my fiance returned the DVDs he mentioned it to the store guy who he said that some of the DVDs had been mislabeled that week, and we figured that was that.
Anyway, several months later we got a collections notice from Video Ezy saying they were going to pursue us for the $20 or so in overdue fines from those two games. Fiance called to explain the situation, but the manager was a real bitch about it and called him a liar even though our rental history showed we’d always paid our fines without complaint. So we got her name, wrote a letter to corporate, and never heard from them again.
Also I can’t believe I ever paid $6.95 for a new release. I get them for $1 at our new video store.
I worked for Blockbuster as an assistant manager for a couple years. When the rentals are checked in the contents are supposed to be checked at that time and verified. If the CSR that checked in your rental failed to open the case and check the contents, that’s hardly your fault. Once the rental has been checked in, it’s no longer your problem. If the manager isn’t willing to admit this, I would ask for the District or Regional Manager’s number so you can argue it with them. You should not have to pay for their mistake. If you’ve checked in your home and you’ve been unable to find it then I think you’ve done all that you should have to do. Once they returned that movie to their shelves it stopped being your problem. I have issued credit for similar situations when I worked for them, it can be done. The manager might resist because they don’t want to eat the replacement costs.
That makes sense, though I could argue that really, I’m just purchasing something equivalent to the “pre-viewed movies” they have for 14.99 in bins near the door. Just paying for it 2 months after I “bought” it.
I wonder - if someone lost a rental DVD, then ran out to Best Buy or whatever and bought a replacement for 19.99, and turned that into Blockbuster - is there really any difference in the DVD itself?
