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Blockbuster Sued Over Late Fees Claim
DesiVideoGamer writes "CNN has a story about Blockbuster's violation of New Jersey's consumer fraud act in which they made false claims in their "No More Late Fees" campaign. New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey filed a lawsuit today in hopes that Blockbuster would stop misleading their customers into thinking they could keep their movie rentals as long as they want without penalty."
These services seem like good deals on the outside, but when you really look at the prices they charge, better deals can be found elsewhere. I'd like to see a decline in the high priced rental stores like Blockbuster, and a move to lower priced store with good selection. In my town, there are several small convenience stores that do very good business renting DVD's for cheap prices($2 Canadian after tax compared to the $6ish the Blockbuster charges). One store in particular always has many copies of all the new movies, plus tons of older ones. Plus, having the movies at a convenience store gives the added benefit of a large variety of snack foods to fill up on.
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I mean if people today are so dumb that they think Blockbuster's commercials meant they could just keep rental movies forever then we have reached a new level of stupidity not equaled in quite a while.
I'm thinking that if they priced it right, this could be one way to sell dvd's and games. You can rent all you want, if you like it, keep it.
Free electronics!
Let's see.
I can get a free cell phone almost anywhere. 3 years and $2000 later it's paid for.
I can buy a car at 0% interest....but if I pay cash it's $$$thousands$$$ less than if I do credit.
How come none of these advertisers are sued? Does the government really need to protect me against the cost of a DVD because I didn't read the fine print while ignoring far larger issues?
You're telling me that you can take the time to browse their selection, wait in line to check out and sit on the movie anywhere from 14 to 44 days, but you can't find 5 seconds in that time to slip it back in their drop box?
No sig for you!!
Yes, it IS a news-flash, you CANNOT keep movies you've rented, forever.
But since when have advertising campaigns been free of ambiguity and deceit?
I'm really confused, what's your problem? People like you are gonna ruin this great deal for the rest of us.
You can keep the movie for 7 days in ADDITION to the normal rental time of the movie. Then, after that seven days, you have 30 days (from the orignal rental date) to return it only beeing charged 1.25$ restocking fee.
Before this, you kept the movies for their rental times then the big late charges piled up. For the price of keeping it one day, you've already got more fees on your account than keeping it up to one month with the new system.
How much do you think you'd pay for a movie keeping a new release 30 days with the old system? I bet it would be more than the movie is worth and you'd still have to return it. Now if you keep it that long, you've payed and you now own the movie.
How you got +(x) informative for saying yuck to a deal that charges you signifigantly less money with no catches is beyond me.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
The problem is the damn ads say NO LATE FEES...
When I was at Blockbuster recently, the customer in front of me asked about the "the end of late fees". This is exactly what the employee told the customer, word for word...
"This lets you keep the rental for a couple of days extra, just to allow you extra time."
That was pretty much about it, nothing about the restocking fee, which was just appeared on their price list one day. Nothing about after 30 days, we charge your credit card on file for the rental value of the rental.
The reason for the lawsuit is simple... they changed the way they do their rentals, because they suspect that you could accidentally forget aobut the rental and then keep it too long, but then since they will debit your credit card, by the time you find out, it's too late.
Now, here is the problem, you were NEVER told about the restocking fee or the 30 days late we charge you. That is down right wrong. They should tell you EXACTLY what will happen. Even in the commerical, there are no little words at the bottom of the screen or some crazy fast talking guy.
It's riding VERY close on false advertising, but it is the end of late fees... they just have restocking fees and purchase charges!
THANK [Fill in god of your choice] FOR NETFLIX!!!
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)... oops
For those that say "to think you'd never have to return it", its not stupidity. Blockbuster specifically advertises on tv in prime time commercial slots NO LATE FEES, with no extra wording such as "Other details apply" or the ever lasting Read the Fine Print.
Now with that in mind, if I actually used Blockbuster I would go in, and rent a new release movie for whatever X amount they charge. Now within common sense Blockbusters "NO LATE FEES" policy they have advertised, they CAN institute a policy that say within 30 days you must return the video, but within those 30 days you WILL NOT be charged late fees. And they could throw in some clause such as if the video is not returned, your account is forfiet. No late fees doesn't mean "keep forever" but it means that if you forget or just don't give a fuck like most common people when they rent a movie, you won't be penalized for it.
Is that ok? No, of course not. People shouldn't automatically assume you can keep it forever after "Renting" it for $5. HOWEVER, Blockbuster is in the wrong here. They blatantly advertised NO LATE FEES. In their ads, they never mention you must sign up for some special monthy deal or pay a monthly fee, they just say NO LATE FEES. A nickel and dime lawyer could win this case of Faulty Advertisment in court quicker than OJ was aquited.
Aw Frell this
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you're up to some fiddling, play DVD's on your PC with mplayer, or get a mythTV box going and (using it's internal DVD player/ripper module) jump straight to the movie, without the ads.
Then, just for **extra spite value**, rip and compress it to your hard drive, so that every time you play it you can say, "Yeah! Take that Blockbuster, you FUCKERS!"
That's what I do... and frankly, it feels good every time I do it.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
They suck now because they're just been completely overwhelmed by demand. The people at the top are too busy raking in the profits to worry about hiring enough people to give decent customer service, or expanding their distribution system. I quit because they were just getting slower and slower at checking it my returns and shipping new discs.
Too bad, too. They had a hell of a company going at one time.
...not that I'm a pirate.. Hell I've never even fired a cannon. - oldwolf13
Did you actually believe that no late fees meant you could just keep the movie forever free of charge? A femtogram of common sense would have saved you this embarassment.
Of course nobody thought that, but at the same time, they shouldn't say something in their ads that is clearly not true. Just changing the timeframe and renaming it to "restocking fee" doesn't change that it is, in fact, a late fee.
Bring it back more than 7 days late and they charge you a late fee, no matter WTF they call it.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It has nothing to do with lazy consumers or anything like that. All they are saying is that there are no more late fees. And there aren't any more late fees.
Furthermore, the new policy IS more forgiving. In the absolute worst case scenario you pay the price of the DVD after 37 days. (And if you come back before those 37 days are up, guess what its $1.25. That has to be better (more forgiving) that the old policy).
Now, I don't recall excatly the pricing of Blockbuster's old policy, but I don't think they stopped charging you late fees after 37 days, or ever (until you returned the video). And I'm sure after 37 days of not returning said tape you would have easily paid for the tape and then some (Feel free to whip out some numbers here if you want). They said no more late fees, you get no more late fees. They aren't trying to pull the wool over your eyes, they ARE being more forgiving.
Why not fork?
Quote from TFA:
The company said it was "surprised" that Harvey did not contact company officials to allow them to explain the new policy.
The average customer doesn't get any special explaining... If they're judging an ad campaign, how can they judge it, save by looking only at the campaign?
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
I never saw an ad that said "No more late fees as long as you return your rental within 3 days." I didn't see a commercial that said "Oh by the way, if you don't bring your movie back within a week, we'll charge you the retail price for that title." Nope. It was all about "no more late fees." That's what they advertised, and they aren't delivering.
I'm not sure how the average consumer would see the ads other than the obvious interpretation. What I took from the ad campaign was that I don't have to pay a late fee, even if I can't find 5 seconds to return the video to Blockbuster. The ad campaign said no more late fees.
If they're charging fees anyway, that seems rather gauche, and perhaps illegal. Don't you think?
Maybe it's a good thing that I download instead of rent...
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
They say no late fees. They mean no late fees. It doesn't say anything about other fees.
Get the point?
The majority of their rentals are 5 days. You get a week in addition to that. If you can't stop by the video store on your way home to drop your movies off in 12 days, they should charge you.
Or better yet, go back to the old policy and autodraft late fees from the customers. See which policy causes people to bitch more.
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
Maybe they didn't do a great job of explaining the program for customers but blame is a 2 way street here. All their signs refer to the phamplets available at each cash (and throughout the store) which explains the program in detail.
The way it is now, you have around 37 days extra to keep a movie and return it for the same cost as 1 day late fee before the program. I swear to god some people here can complain about anything.
One person above was paying their monthly fee to netflix and kept one of the movies for 3 months. You could have bought the damn movie but you'll complain about blockbuster?
Yikes...
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
It doesn't matter if it's a better deal or not. They can still offer the deal while changing their advertising. They are using it to reap profits and it's misleading and the cost is being borne by the consumer and competitors who are losing business.
Maybe it's me, but WTF is so hard about returning a rented movie on time? Granted, I haven't rented anything since laserdics were popular, but I *never* had a problem returning a movie within three days. As for DVD's, I just buy the ones I want. Between the DVD club, buying used DVD's, and just finding good deals, I'm averaging right around $10 a DVD, and I get to watch it as many damn times as I want. And yes, I have watched most of my DVD's more than once.
Are people really so stupid to think that by saying "No more Late Fees", that they can keep rentals forever without penalty?
If you can't be responsible enough to return a rental product on time, maybe you shouldn't be renting them in the first place...
The dry fish swims alone.
Yes, please stop questioning our Benevolent Corporate Overlords. Don't you realize that Welfare Mothers are driving Cadillacs?
is that Blockbuster extended the due date by a week and changed the late fee to $1.25.
It's obvious that this is a shakedown. We had a late video, but my wife believed the ad campaign. "They don't charge late fees anymore," she'd tell me. Then I received a bill from Blockbuster for the two videos I rented. One had been returned because I didn't believe Blockbuster. One was still in it's 7 day grace period. I called the store and spoke with a manager. He assured me it was just a reminder. I had to inform him that the "reminder" claimed I had decided to keep the videos and that I would be charged for them. I could get a refund if I returned them within 30 days but be charged a $1.25 restocking fee. The odd thing was that my account hadn't been charged yet, and he could clearly see that one of the DVDs was not due yet. If I was a pushover consumer, I would have assumed that I had already been charged, blamed myself for being stupid, and left it at that, not called to check on my account.
This is criminal. They obviously plan on people forgetting about the rentals, then scare them into believing they've already blown it so they get charged fullprice for the discs. I'm glad somebody's suing them. Not only was this the most stupidly worded commercial campaign but it was the most deceptive one I have seen in a long time.
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
Better yet, is to use Credit Cards AGAINST bad businesses like Blockbuster.
;)
Talking in a stern manner, whilst using strong terms as : Unauthorized, Theft, Illegal, and other power words and start some serious proceddings against BB.
When this shit starts hurting BB's mail line, awwwwww
In addition, they are getting much more strict with late fees. I had one credit card due on the 13th of every month. I get paid on the 14th. So I would send my payment to get there on the 14th. They never cared before. Now, they charge $39 every month if even a day late. I've been forced to go to automatic payments from my bank, with payments sent well in advance, to stop being affected.