No, it’s charged because Blockbuster had to move your product from the retail pool back to the rental pool. Not because you were late. If you pay a fee for being late, you are essentially paying for time. The restocking fee is a payment for a service rendered.
So how long can you keep the tapes/DVD’s before they will no longer just take a $1.50 restocking fee? If I could keep the tapes for six weeks that would be one heck of a deal.
This is what we call bullshit. It is a late fee.
At what point would you agree to a fee of some sort without saying that BlockBuster was being unreasonable? How about if I kept the tape a whole year, ten years…? I agree two weeks is a late fee (but a darn good one). At some point a reasonable person will conclude that some fee must accrue under the Tanstaafl (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch). It’s a simple restatement of the 1st law of Thermodynamics in an economic format baby!
It is not a question of the policy being reasonable or not. It a question of missleading advertising.
Netflix in my opinion has no late fees. You can keep the movies as long as you are a member of netflix.
Yes, but isn’t there a monthly or higher initial fee with Netflix? With blockbuster you can rent the movies initially for about three bucks each (some a little less and some more). So with Blockbuster you could walk with three DVD’s under $10.00 and keep then six or eight weeks and then return them for an additional $4.50. In my case I had three 24 season III DVD’s out for about seven weeks, and I still get a chance to watch the things.
Also, there is “hole” in the Blockbuster system. If you rent from several different stores on a semi-regular basis they do not call your home store to see if you have any outstanding fees. You could rent three DVD’s at Blockbuster A, return them six weeks later not paying the $4.50 fee, and then rent three more at Blockbuster B. In my hometown there six stores so that makes for a good deal of video rental without paying late fees.
Blockbuster should abandon it’s no late fees stance. And it should also start charging monthly membership fees to combat the lunkheads who take their stuff and keep it a lot longer than they agreed to.
Uh, sweetie - just because the word “Netflix” came up in the conversation doesn’t mean we’re talking about what you think we’re talking about.
This thread is about people who are MAD at Blockbuster because they took out a movie under the REGULAR program, and got CHARGED when they didn’t return it in a week. Another poster commented that perhaps they THOUGHT it was like Netflix. Do you understand that we’re NOT talking about people who SIGNED UP for Blockbuster’s Netflix-like program. You see, dear - if they signed up for the program where they DON’T get charged after 1 week, and therefore DIDN’T get charged after 1 week, they couldn’t very fucking well be mad about getting charged after 1 week, now could they? Do. You. Understand. The. Words. That. Are. Coming. Out. Of. My. Mouth?
Do us a favor. Go back and read the thread again, and try to focus, m’kay?
If there are 4 or 5 ways for false late charges to end up on the account, does it really matter what the cause was? The end result is still that the customer has been falsely charged, correct? I don’t think the customers really care how the false charges got there; they are only concerned that they did.
I remember plenty of ridiculous business models from the early days of internet stores, all based on getting customers even if it meant taking a huge loss.
I can sort of see how people who were around for that could imagine Blockbuster had really eliminated late fees. Maybe they even thought they were willing to take a loss to counter Netflix. And yeah, they were also stupid. But I think the ads just crossed over into false advertising territory.
I agree that Blockbuster could be more upfront. But I disagree that Netflix is any more or less upfront than Blockbuster. Go back and look at the fine print I quoted earlier. That information is NOT given up front. It’s buried in the middle of the terms of service. HERE’S what’s on Netflix’s home page:
• No Late Fees - EVER!
• Over 40,000 Titles - Classics to New Releases.
• Free Shipping Both Ways.
• No Commitments. Cancel Anytime.
Read that again: No Late Fees - EVER!, and No Commitments. Cancel Anytime. But the TRUTH is, as soon as you DO cancel, you are subject to late fees. Nothing wrong with it, but it isn’t any more or less upfront than Blockbuster’s advertising.
Fair enough. I guess I’m just trying to get into the head of the ‘general public’ and figure out motivation. Certainly we can agree that Blockbuster drew the Netflix connection itself as this new policy is pretty directly in response to Netflix’s no late fee policy (I know, I know…). As someone else mentioned earlier, there is so much fine print these days that most people just don’t bother to read it. Not saying that’s smart, but it’s the case. I can’t think of the last time I read an EULA for software (actually, I was helping my grandfather install TurboTax, and he read a huge portion of the EULA before getting tired of it and skimming). Folks sign all sorts of things and trust the other party to not take advantage of them. There’s just so much out there that people often take things at face value because the time and effort to double-check documentation for everything is overwhelming.
This is, generally, how advertising works after all. Making claims based on varrying degrees of truth, and hoping that most of your target market buys your claims, either outright or subconsciously. Most people know that a McDonald’s hamburger looks nothing like what they see on TV, yet I’m sure the McDonald’s marketing research team has found that showing burgers that look only vaguely like their own sells product. That type of advertising depends on people believing the product is other than what it is, at least in part. At this point people tend to expect that sort of thing with food images. Maybe this Blockbuster deal was just some shock that the same sort of half-truth-in-advertising crossed over into video rental contracts, I don’t know. Another part of it too is, who would expect a ‘restocking fee’? Like the Spanish Inquisition, I’d imagine none of us have ever been charged a restocking fee before, certainly not non-Blockbuster customers (did they charge restocking fees before this late fee policy change?). So, I imagine that even people who turned their brains on a bit wouldn’t think of the posibility of this other fee they’d never even heard of before.
Again, this isn’t excusing folks; certainly most of the responsibility lies on the consumer to be informed. I think there’s also a burden of honesty that generally is pretty lose in advertising that should be maintained. I think Blockbuster tread a fine line, and I certainly understand the viewpoint that they are entirely in the right. Heck, I almost agree with that. They advertised no late fees, and due to the way in which they account for money and inventory, there is no ‘late fee’. But, it seems that they certainly had no intention of not charging people for returning movies late. They got called on it by customers, and rightfully so.
O.K., still trying to understand this. You can imagine that people just thought nothing would ever happen to them if they didn’t return the movie? I mean, if I seriously, honestly thought that I could rent a movie for $5 (or whatever they charge), and that I would NEVER be charged for turning it in late, then why would I think I had to turn it in AT ALL? You would in effect own the movie for $5. People really thought that was what Blockbuster was doing? That is stupid.
I do agree with you that you have to read the fine print no matter who you deal with. After reading your post, I went back and looked at Netflix terms of use. As for No Late Fees - that kind of true. When you cancel your subscription, you will be charged for the DVDs if you don’t return them within 7 days. You could call them late fees but it doesn’t really fall under the subscription agreement that you sign when you join up. It’s only in effect once you cancel their services. I, myself, couldn’t really call it a late fee per se. You rent from them when you’re a member and when you quit, they want their product back. Not unreasonable. But you are right, they don’t include that little bit when they are trying to get you to join.
As for no commitments, cancel any time, I don’t see a problem with that either. When you are a member, you are under no commitment to return any DVD, just as long as you pay the monthly charge. Once you quit, then you do have a commitment to return their property within 7 days. Not out of the question.
I think with both Blockbuster’s and Netflix’s terms, they expect people to be reasonable. A dangerous thing to do as BB has learned.
What I feel is most people’s beef with Blockbuster is they laid it on so think about no late fees. Maybe they don’t charge late fees but they do charge some sort of fee if you’re late. Again, I don’t have a problem with that. I just think that Blockbuster was a little rash in their campaign. When I first heard it, I thought something was up. You could rent a movie and keep it forever for $5 or whatever? It didn’t make sense to me and to find out, I was right. There are catches, or restrictions, or whatever you like to call it. And that’s fine. I’m not expecting a free ride nor do I think that any person should.
Their new policy always seemed fishy to me hearing it just from the ads. I knew there was a catch and I felt most people would. But once you know their policies, I think it’s fair but the ads do make you think otherwise. Instead of this no late fee nonsense they were touting, I feel they should have went with a lower late fee charge and/or a 4/8/12/24/whatever hour grace period. I think people would have understood that better, it would have been easier to explain and uphold, and they wouldn’t have looked so bad in the long run.
I don’t find fault in the way Blockbuster has handled their new plan. I find fault in the plan itself. It should have been much simplier to explain and understand.
Instead of
• No Late Fees
it should have been
• Lower Late Fees and
• 12 Hour Grace Period
You say, regarding Netflix:
And you say, regarding Blockbuster:
Not to belabor the point, but you seem to be faulting Blockbuster for charging what is not a late fee per se, but what amounts to a late fee, yet you hold Netflix blameless for doing precisely the same thing. I just think you’re being inconsistent. My point wasn’t whether either company is being reasonable, but that both are doing a similar thing. If Netflix is blameless, then Blockbuster is as well. As to who “laid it on thick”, BOTH companies lay on the “no late fees” thing pretty thick, so I don’t really see a difference there.
Anyway, I’m probably putting too fine a point on it, because I basically agree with you. If I were CEO of Blockbuster, I don’t think I would have done it the way they did.
Well, I’m not really faulting Blockbuster for charging a fee. I was just saying that some people got upset when they were being charged one, whether a late fee or a restocking fee, when they returned their movies late. As I said, I don’t have a problem with that but some do. I’m just surprised that people didn’t realize there would be some sort of catch. I can’t imagine a company would allow me to rent a movie for $5 and keep it forever.
It’s hard to really compare Netflix with Blockbuster. While they’re both in the movie rental business, their business models are completely different. While you’d only have to deal with Netflix “late fee” once, when you quit their service, you have to deal with Blockbuster’s everytime you rent a movie so it pops up a lot more when you do business with them. But once you learn their system, I think it’s perfectly fair as do I Netflix’s.
I think it really boils down to Blockbuster being (for awhile at least) the dominating force behind video rentals. They were the big guy for so long and being so big, they became powerful. With that power, they threw their weight around and did a few things that pissed people off. Such as not carrying NC-17 material, which seemed like censorship to many people. People are inherently distrustful of big businesses and don’t mind knocking them down a peg or two when the opportunity arises, whether right or wrong. This late fee fiasco gave people that opportunity.
I think we agree quite a bit too. I don’t blame Blockbuster nor do I think Netflix is faultless. People should be aware of any deal they enter. Just because some ad says something that’s too good to be true, that doesn’t allow them to play stupid. But companies really need to be careful with their ad campaigns. Nobody likes feeling led on with in-your-face ads, no matter what size the business.
Very well said, but also, people need to watch ads more critically. Ads are not a public service. They are not formulated out of the goodness of companies’ hearts to benefit the consumer.
Advertisements exist to sell products. In the mainstream, they are biased at best and at worst, only tell half the truth. There is no such thing as Truth in advertising, only accuracy. And technically, Blobkbuster’s ads are accurate.
If a customer expects to be spoon-fed by businesses, turns their brain off and abdicates their responsibility to be a critical media consumer, they might as well just dump their wallets on the counter of a business, because they are going to be taken for all they’ve got. Businesses exist to take your money.
As I’ve already said, there are three or four ways to inform yourself of the “fine print” in the No Late Fees policy. If you don’t like it, vote with your dollar and go somewhere else, but I guarantee that outside of Netflix, you won’t find a better policy (in Canada anyway).
Absolutely. Much in the same way that when I go to my job, I sometimes blow right through my work, therefore when I go to work I always get a blow job.
I asked how people here would have handled the promotion differently. So far only blowero has answered, and his answer was to keep the old, greedy structure in place (if I read it right). Is he the only one who is going to answer me? I see lots of complaints but few solutions.
No, more like if your date says she’ll give you a blowjob if you take her to a concert and then afterwards says, “You thought I was going to give you oral sex? I’ve never done that before, why would you expect me to do it now? When I said I was going to give you a blowjob, I meant I’d blow in your ear.”
You seem to be missing the point. It’s not that we object to the policy. We object to the false claims.
Hmmm…I’m pretty sure I didn’t say “Keep the greedy structure in place.”