Breaking news on the Blockbuster Late Fees "Scandal"

Blockbuster has been forced to settle and give full refunds to customers who were misled by their “No Late Fees” campaign.

So, despite the fact that the peeps who didn’t read the fine print might have “had it coming,” who foresaw this dramatic turn of events?

::waves hand wildly::

It wasn’t even that secretive, as I recall. I mean, sure, in their commercials it seemed pretty one-sided, but I saw several news reports saying, “Replacing the late fee will be another fee…” and a detailed explanation.

Did people think that “No late fees” meant “no due date” or what? Gah.

Well, when your ad looks like this…
NO MORE LATE FEES!!

restocking fees may still apply
it’s possible that people could get the wrong idea.

It’s called false advertising. Deliberate misrepresentation.

I think it means “if you want to keep it forever, you have to buy it.”

True, common sense does apply here. But then the ads say “The end of late fees.” without stating “the beginning of new ones.”

Blockbuster really should’ve been more careful with their campaign. They weren’t and it gave em a little nip in the bum.

What surprised me was how reasonable the policy was. Only $1.25 if it’s one week overdue? That’s wonderful.

This is really how I feel about the situation. Re-naming what is essentially a late fee a “restocking fee” is disingenuous, since “THE END OF LATE FEES” implies the end of any sort of fee associated with actually returning a movie.

At the same time, my BS-0-Meter went through the roof with this ad campaign. Of course I was wary when they told me I wouldn’t be assessed late charges, from a place reknown for charging on a video 32 seconds late. As a wary consumer, I read all the fine print and still disbelieved. Who on earth would not inform themselves in the face of such a dubious claim?

And then again, we have plenty of folks who still fall victim to Nigerian e-mail scams. Oy vey.

Why certainly people weren’t atually stupd enough to think that they could keep the movies indefinitely for $3.00, did they?

I had assummed that you only got charged pro-rated based upon the initial charges. Like instead of paying $4 for the first week and then $10 in late fees for bringing it in a week late, you only got charged another $4.

Just out of curiosity, when you rent from Blockbuster, how easy is it to get an account? Do you actually have to sign something or do they simply tell you to refer to the Rental Agreement which is written in size 6 type on a ream of paper that we sent to the back side of the moon on a Russian rocket booster?

That’s their fault for not reading something before signing it (or clicking the “I Agree” button).

You have to fill out a form, show ID, maybe get a credit autherization (to see if it’s a real card) and sign. You are given a copy of the terms and conditions to take home, although it is written in small type. We give a fair amount of warnings and clarifications with each new account- we don’t like people bitching at us all the time because they don’t understand stuff- but this varies from store to store.

Blockbuster could give every man, woman and child in the United States a bag of money, and they’d still get sued for something. A shocking percentage of the American public is unable to comprehend the very basics of video rental. You can never win against stupidity, especially when paired with greed.

Well I thought so, based on the commercials. (I don’t actually rent from Blockbusters so I had no reason to read the fine print.) I thought maybe they just won’t let you rent the next movie until you return the old one. Isn’t that how Netflix works?

Agreed. As I said, common sense would lead one to conclude that there was another fee involved, but the ad is still very misleading.

I say, good!

True, but I think that too often the letter of the law and not the spirit is maintained by businesses who very clearly try to market their products with claims that are blatantly false and/or misleading. I shed no tears for Blockbuster; they basically lied in their ads and tried to use the fine print to cover their asses.

Ditto, this was my impression as well.

I just figured blockbuster was just trying to realign itself with the internet rent’um companies.

(Actualy, if they did that I’d renew my membership with them. I’m too impatient to wait for the movies in the mail. Yet, I’m also too lazy to or too busy to return the Blockbuster movies when they are due…)

Well I don’t think you were given new information at block buster when you rented with an existing account after the policy change.

Great, I say.

I think that Blockbuster’s new policy is very reasonable, and I don’t really have much sympathy for people who were “misled”–they should have suspected something and should have taken the time to understand the policy.

Still, it pisses me off to no end when Blockbuster says in its ads, “THE END OF LATE FEES! NO MORE LATE FEES!” and yet, if I take my movie back LATE, I get charged a FEE. This is known as “pissing on my back and telling me it’s raining.”

Yeah, I figured it was a “compete with Netflix” policy as well, so I didn’t think there were actual late fees. Of course with my Netflix account, and the local video store that has a far and away better selection than Blockbuster, two doors down the block, I haven’t been to Blockbuster in ages.

However doesn’t Blockbuster have a DVD account that is meant to compete with Netflix, like 30 bucks a month, and you can have three movies out at a time, that is different from this “NO MORE LATE FEES” lie?

The video store next door is three stories high, has music, videos, and books for sale + an incredible selection of porn, anime, indie, cult, and mainstream films for rent, that I see no reason to go to Blockbuster that has a minor censorship ethic as it is.

Erek

It wasn’t false advertising as far as I was concerned. The restocking fee is not a late fee, and they didn’t just “rename” the fee.

You can now keep a movie for 10 months, return it, and pay $1.25, which is what blockbuster considers the price of restocking a movie they have deleted from inventory.

It’s a fee to cover costs associated with that and isn’t a fee to dissuade being late, or a fee for being late. A traditional late fee grows massively over time, ask anyone who has kept a video for months.

Here is your refund, sorry for the inconvenience. Just to make sure you don’t have any problems in the future, we will revert your account to the old-style, which you apparently prefer.

Have a nice day!

I know the campaign is a bit on the misleading side… but goddamn the deal is so much fucking better than the old contract, and better than competing video stores, you’d think people would be happy about it. Of course, we have lawyers in this country, so a company giving out free blowjobs would be the target of a class action suit.