Now that was funny.
It’s not just the cost of the item and the processing–since when do we not pay fines for reneging on agreements, whether at the library or the video store? You pay more because your keeping that item made it so that others could not use it.
Hello? World? 
Right. But you paid 9 monthly rental fees for it.
You have no way of knowing that, none whatsoever.
I had a guy keep 4 new releases for 2 weeks. Our late fees are lower than pro-rated rental, but even so that adds up to $84 in late fees. Now of course I offered him a break on that. But he still had a major problem with the whole concept. I told him that late fees were less than rental, so depending on the title we could actually be losing money even by charging him the whole $84. (This would actually be the case if they were the brand new titles that get a waiting list for the first couple weeks they’re out, no matter HOW many we buy.) He said, “That’s assuming 100% utilization.”
Now, I didn’t punch him until he was dead. I didn’t even bother to ask him how HE would work that system: what, we should log every request for a movie, and calculate the late fee based on that? What about people who come in looking for it, see we’re out of it, and don’t bother to request it? How do we work them into the equation? I did not ask him how coming up with a system like that could possibly be a better idea that simply having a reasonable, consistent policy that is clearly posted and (bonus!) leniently negotiable.
No, instead, I just said, “Well, YOU had 100% utilization of them.” He paid and left, and has never argued again.
But when you’re dealing with a library budget that includes just enough room for 75% of the DVDs you want to buy, having someone offer to replace a destroyed DVD that you couldn’t afford to replace anyway is a good deal.
That’s not the point. What about those other 6 patrons who couldn’t watch “The Thornbirds” because you kept it in your car? Surely you should pay a fine for that. That’s part of the deal–you get to check it out for free because they’re trusting you to keep your end of the bargain. If you don’t, others suffer. So do you–to ensure that you will return it on time. If you returned it on time, there would be no fine and those other 6 people could get their Aussie priest fixation satisfied (if they all abide by the agreement).
It’s not just about YOU.
Plus, there are some libraries who count on the late fees as part of their income, sadly enough. But that’s another thread (how we finance libraries–no, I don’t want to talk about it in depth…)
No it isn’t. We are still out the extra $1.25 for the case (I have never been to a video store or Library who did not recase dvds), $1.00 for the barcode and .50 for the other labels and tape. Those are figured in to the cost to a customer for a “lost” item. Also if they had it as long the OP states we have probably already reordered the dvd and don’t need nor want a copy they buy.
It is amazing the amount of people who try to replace a hardback with a used paperback. Then get bent out of shape because we say no.
This is probably the hardest thing to make clear to people. Why don’t any of them think about the time they came in looking for Disc 1 of Thirty Rock Season 2, but it wasn’t in? And then they checked back a couple days later, and it was still out? And then again a couple days later?
Why don’t they understand that when THEY keep it for 2 weeks, they’re pulling the same frustrating shit on another customer?
People think that since they weren’t *watching *it for 14 days, they shouldn’t have to *pay *for 14 days. Newsflash: I don’t give a frilly heck if you watch the damn thing at all. If it’s out of the store, it has to be earning revenue, or the business model fails. Again, we’re almost always happy to negotiate, but we lowered our fees to less than pro-rated rental, so you’re gonna pay something.
Who would rent a car for a week, and then take it back saying “I just left it in my garage, I decided not to drive it.” Who the hell cares what you did with it? You *had *it, and no one else was allowed to use it.
Oh and my other favorite is when someone returns an empty box, leaves the disc at home, and then doesn’t bring the disc in for a week.
First of all, we ALWAYS call them immediately, to remind them about the empty box. ALWAYS. Then they bring it in a week later, and are shocked–SHOCKED–when there are late fees to deal with.
I’m like, *Would *you *rent an empty DVD box?
*
“But obviously I tried to return it, it was an honest mistake.”
Ma’am, it’s always an honest mistake; no one brings their movie back late on purpose.
The problem is that they think of it as a penalty. It’s not: it’s merchandise that you have used but not yet paid for, period. Even so, we’re far more likely to be lenient in discussing late fees when it’s something like that. Know when we’re LESS likely to be lenient? When you’re an asshole about it.
Anyway, I try to present them in such a way to discount the “penalty” thing. I don’t call them late fees at the counter. I say, “There’s a buck fifty on here for a couple extra days on a Sponge Bob disc,” and just proceed with the transaction. If they want to discuss it, I’m happy to discuss it, but I don’t *start *by being apologetic or anything, or asking them if they want to pay them. I just skate over it, like it’s no big deal.
One guy you used to work here, used to actually *call *them penalties, and thus almost always had to have an argument to get them paid.
I wonder, has any rental store tried to sell late fees as something like “extended rental charges”? It seems like that would be a better description that people would be less inclined to fight. I mean, I’ve no doubt many would, and they’d just see them as late fees, but it might make the concept click in more folks’ heads.
Yes, they’re officially called “extended rental” fees; on all our posted signage, on our little new-customer prices/policies card; and on the receipt.
And as I said, I don’t call them late fees at the counter.
So the quoted arguments are not the norm; they’re just the ones that ruin your day.
Ok Lissener, truth serum time. If the missing movies are two really good movies does it make a difference? As a minor film snob I have always wondered whether I would give someone who rented “M” and “The Third Man” a break over someone who didn’t return “Baby Geniuses” and “Pearl Harbor”.
Truthfully? It depends on the customer. We’re in an extremely wealthy neighborhood. If your movies are picked up and dropped off by your “asisstant,” or they were late because “the maid was supposed to return those last week,” or “we left those on our boat in the San Juans,” then I’m sorry you’re not gonna get much of a break from me.
If you’re a regular customer, who rents interesting things, and makes interesting conversation, and makes my job a nicer place rather than a living hell, and it was an honest mistake and it’s not something we have a waiting list on, of course I take all that into account when I’m negotiating late fees.
Bottom line: don’t be a jerk. (Now where have I heard that before . . .)
I recently racked up 10 bucks in late fees at the library (for each book-I thought they were due a week later, and because my modem was out, I wasn’t able to check). Fortunately, the librarian was kind enough to renew them for me, but I still have to pay off my fee. (I didn’t have any cash on me that day)
But you know what? While it WAS an honest mistake-it was MY honest mistake, and I’m only going to bitch at myself for being so careless.
Whoa. Who said anything about waiving the late fees? I said I waive the replacement charge if they replace the DVD. Late fees are totally separate and short of a doctor’s note, I don’t waive those. Ever.
I guess that makes me an evil librarian.
I know. My library is one of them.
You’ve never seen a libray use the original DVD case? Around here, very few libraries recase them. Just the ones rich enough to afford the locking cases. Thankfully, we poor libraries get their castoffs, so we have plenty of backup cases.
Also, handing me a replacement DVD doesn’t wipe away the replacement fee. $5 that’s used to cover the cost of a barcode, tape, labels and time.
Honestly, it amazes me that I have to defend this position to other librarians at times.
As I said, supplying us with a replacement is not out of the question, in certain cases. But it’s not workable as a general policy, for a couple more reasons I didn’t mention before.
[ol]
[li]What if the title is “over”? You kept it for a month, during its first month on the shelf, when we ran out of it almost every day. We lost actual rentals on it before we charged you for it. Now it’s “over,” and we no longer need 40 copies of it. We’ve cut back to 8 copies on the shelf, and the rest in back to be sold to a broker of used discs. (Sorry, we’re not in the market for another copy, you missed your window. Obviously, the situation would be different if it were our single rental copy of a classic film, or something like that.)[/li][li]What if the customer brings in an unacceptable copy? Say the average copy sells on Amazon Used for $12, but there’s one available for $3? They’re gonna buy that one, bring it in, and it’s gonna be ANOTHER problem. Our store already has a buyer, thank you (me, in fact), who is responsible to my boss for the quality of the disc if it’s used. We also already have a distributor of wholesale movies, which for obvious reasons is always the first choice of source.[/li][/ol]
One of the things people just stop to think about is the difference in scale between what any particular such transaction means for them, and what it means for us.
Take the empty DVD box: everyone expects to be the exception to the late fee rule when they return an empty DVD box. We get probly three to six empty DVD boxes on any given day. Everyone expects us to just write off the late fees for that, because it was an “honest mistake.” In other words, they want that to be our policy, to just automatically not charge late fees for that. With late fees as little as 75¢ a day, changing that policy would mean maybe $1.50 to them, while it would represent possibly thousands of dollars for us over a year’s time. Guess who absorbs that overhead? Changing that policy would effectively mean charging all the customers who DON’T bring back empty boxes for the mistake YOU made this one time. Which makes more sense. Basically, I understand that it’s not because it was an “honest” mistake; it’s because it was a “stupid” mistake, and they’re embarrassed, and the 75¢ represents insult added to injury, or something, when honestly it’s just overhead applied fairly.
Well, just out of curiosity, what would stop you from levying a aforementioned $30 fine, buying the DVD for $5 at Wal-Mart yourself, and using the extra $25 for something else?
To give Justin the benefit of the doubt, it sounds like he’s talking about two different replacement fees. One is to cover the cost of buying a new DVD, while the other is to cover the cost of getting said DVD into the system. The former can be waived while the latter can’t. That’s the only way I can reconcile the two statements here, anyway:
I got a little mixed up. Late fees would only happen if someone returned the original item. They would be billed for the cost of the item if they lost it. I accidentally morphed the two situations without mentioning that they are different situations.
Because that would be dishonest. Although there’s no contract in place that we have to replace it when you pay for a lost item. The money goes into the general library pot and could be used for any number of things.
Charging $30 dollars for a DVD is outrageous, but not returning someone else’s borrowed property for 90 days isn’t?
Actually the true crime here is not reading a contract and then being outraged by the terms of it.
If a person wants to buy a DVD, they can go buy it somewhere. If they want to rent it and then keep it, they pay for messing with the business model.