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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."
My local Blockbuster kept calling multiple times a day when I decided to press the new policy. By shear nagging alone I gladly returned the movie.
Right... because it only takes five seconds to drive to the appropriate Blockbuster store and return it.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
" Aren't you worried that you won't have enough movies and games if everyone keeps their rentals longer?
We will be carefully monitoring the movie and game selection to make sure we maintain our current levels of product availability for you. However, it's in everyone's best interest to return their rentals by the due date, even with the end of late fees, to ensure that we have the movies and games you want to rent, available when you want to rent them."
This seems like a reasonable assumption. People doing right for one another. So my question is... what are they actually going to do about this?
Netflix is garbage. With longer and longer turn around times on movies, your cost per disk is much higher than mine, seeing as how I can return my movies when I have time. And let's say I'd like to have a movie rampage and watch a stream of 007 movies the same day, that would be next to impossible using Netflix (which I used for well over a year, but just recently cancelled) with their 3-5 day overall turn around (unless you're a new customer.. funny how month to month subscribers rank lower and lower on their totum poll). Compare that to driving around the block and doing a quick exchange at Blockbuster, and I'll take that any day. And before you reply that Netflix has more titles, I'll tell you to save the bandwidth, because they do. That's why it's smart to have a blockbuster, AND a netflix account. BB for fast exchanges and new releases, and Netflix for the stuff BB doesn't have :)
So what was your point?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
How is it cheaper to pay cash if you get 0% financing?
That's the whole point. It shouldn't be cheaper. But since it is (presumably, since I have no personal experience with this), that means that the 0% financing isn't really 0% percent financing. They're just adding what they would get in interest to the base price. That's where the misleading advertising comes into play.
It's bad enough that the movie industry waters everything down into mindless pap without the video store trying to decide what I should and shouldn't view.
For years, they advertised, in large capital letters, UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS.
After they oversold an insane amount, realized they were going to lose their shirts, they started introducing bandwidth caps. All while still advertising UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS.
It's sad that we need lawsuits and regulations to deal with this sort of thing - but I'm sorry, don't advertise something in 100% plain english if you're not going to follow through.
Blockbuster just rolled this campaign out in Canada, and I've been waiting to hear the catch. Call me a hopeless optimist, but NO MORE LATE FEES means, in English, that if I return a movie LATE, there will be NO FEE as a result of my returning it late. Looks like NO MORE LATE FEES just means DEFERRED LATE FEES.
Morons. They deserve whatever they get. This is about as ethical as advertising $25 cars - with small print explaining that there is a $25,000 processing fee.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Back on topic a bit.. the real point is they are doing far more than creative wording in their new ads, they are lieing to the customer, which is both immoral and illegal... I think hollywood video will be the ones who have the privilege of ripping me off on game rentals from now on.
Shoot Pixels, Not People!
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.
Why? Baskin and Robins claims free ice cream on halloween, and you do get free ice cream. Many resturants claim free refills on coffee and sure enough they have free refills. I get free coffee at rest areas on the highway. Even those cheesy some see our property and get a free gift adverts after listening to the morons for hours do give you a cheepo free gift but always one of the three that are listed.
So why shouldn't someone believe "no more late fees" when clearly advertised as such?
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
As long as you're happy with Netfilx (i.e. you don't cancel or something) they would rather you keep movies out longer. Otherwise they end up signing over all their profits to the USPS.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
...but I'm actually glad to hear this.
:)
I recently rented Burnout 3 for the XBOX, and kept it right up until the afternoon of the 7th day, and barely was able to return it (the Blockbuster I use is a long way away).
I normally don't rent anything, but the whole "End of Late Fees" thing enticed me to go pick the game up. On the 7th day, I received a blockbuster flyer in the mail, referring to the new policy, and noticed the fine print mentioning the 7 day-full price policy catch...
In a nutshell, I damn near had a stroke. Was I on the verge of being charged $69.99 for a used game?
When I managed to take the game back that day (phew!), I saw a huge poster for the "End of Late Fees" in the window of the store, and noticed the fine print at the bottom, VERY fine print, mentioning the 7 day policy again. I'd like to note that THEY DO NOT MENTION THE 30-DAY REFUND (minus restocking fee) POLICY ANYWHERE. Had I of known about it, I would not have shit myself at the possibility of being charged 70 bucks.
In conclusion, I would like to launch a class-action lawsuit against Blockbuster, for the money its going to take to clean my underwear.
In serious conclusion, although I think the new policy is pretty decent, I also think Blockbuster should be legally forced to mention plainly, ALL OF THE TERMS of this new deal. It is very misleading for consumers, and could potentially be disastrous for them from a PR standpoint.
- Scott
- Scott
- Claiming "no more late fees", especially in a big splashy ad campaign, and then charging you a fee 7 days later, is false advertising. Plain and simple. I'm with the state A.G. on that one. They deserve this lawsuit.
- BlockBuster makes serious revenue on late fees (or whatever name you wish to call them). Someone on another claimed that 40% of their revenue is late fees, though I did not check this. Anyway, BlockBuster is not going to just give up that huge stream of revenue.
Claiming "no more late fees" was just a bone-headed idea. Hopefully B.B. will see that before too many Attorneys General look their way.They're not just making "borderline misleading statements" though. They are burying the information about the late fees very deep indeed (at least in the online advertisement). The initial Flash ad does not have any "certain condition applies" warning or somesuch - if you follow the "click here for more info" link, you get a customer service contact form and a link to their FAQ. The FAQ does contain a link to information pertaining to the restocking fee, but a) it is badly placed (it's the last question in the list) and b) there is another entry placed much higher in the FAQ that appears to answer the question ("Aren't you worried that you won't have enough movies and games if everyone keeps their rentals longer?") but does not contain any valuable information. That FAQ entry then contains a "related link" to the correct FAQ entry: "What if I return an in-store movie or game rental seven days or more past the due date"? That FAQ entry is definitely not clearly worded - for one, I have no idea how much a "restocking fee" is supposed to be.
Seriously, I think it's a good PR move by blockbuster to remove the late fees, and I like that system (I think... I'd have to see what the fees for a 7 days late film is first), but the way they are advertising it is quite deliberately misleading and entirely deserving of prosecution
Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
If there is ever a cause for a state to go after fraud, its after Credit Cards. All that fine print usually invalidates anything you can do.. Miss a bill on your car payment even tho its not on your credit card bill? They raise the rates to 25%.
>But if you bring the movie back after 7 days but
:P), what would you rather have happen?
>before 37 days, they charge you $1.25.
Semantics aside (BBV has actually not had "late fees" for a long time -- ever since that lawsuit a few years ago they're supposed to be "Extended Viewing Fees"
Say you rent a copy of Shall We Dance, which is currently a two day rental. You keep it a week past its due day. On the old system, a late fee of $3.99 plus tax (let's say $4.23 for the sake of argument) would be accrued every two days, so if you return it 8 days later, meaning that it's around six days late, you would have to pay a $16.92 EVF balance.
Under the new deal, if it was six days late, it probably wouldn't charge you anything at all! But if it's one more day late, yes -- the price of the movie is charged to your account (the price of the movie less the rental fee) which is about $18.00 for a new movie like Shall We Dance. If you've a credit card on your account, it's charged to that. If you don't, it's just slapped on your account.
When you return it, the $18.00 is refunded to the account minus the $1.25 restocking fee. So if you had that credit card, you'd show a negative balance of around $16.75, or if you had no credit card, you'd have a "late fee" of $1.25.
If you have that negative balance, you can have the MOD refund it to the credit card on your account or you can use it as money within BBV and not have to worry about paying for stuff for the next few weeks. Choice is yours.
I don't know about most people, but if it's a choice between having to pay $12.69 for keeping a 2 day rental a few extra days or having a net loss of $1.25, I'll choose the latter.
Also, even on the old system, if you kept the movie long enough (around 15 days), the movie should be sold to the customers account plus the EVF charges accrued until that point. So even if they charge the PRP price of the movie (probably $12.99 or $13.77 after tax), you have to pay the EVFs that have accrued to that point as well. Keeping a two day rental out for two weeks will give the account a balance of about $25.38 (the price of about six movie rentals). So if you "got stuck" with a movie, you would end up paying almost $40 for it, rather than the $18.00 you pay under the new policy.
But heck, misleading commercials aside, if you prefer to pay $3.99+ for only having a movie a few hours late, that's your perogative. If I wasn't a BBV employee (;)), I definitely would prefer the new plan. Of course, TEOL has other drawbacks, including the fact that NOBODY brings ANYTHING back on time anymore, so many "righteous" customers who think they're entitled to see the latest Hillary Duff movie right now get all pissy at us because their fellow customers want to keep it a "few extra days."
Netflix does it. And I'd wager it's what prompted the change in Blockbuster's policy. They are trying to capitalize on part of netflix's model (the no late fees thing) without making good on it. Sure it's worlds better than their old policy, but that doesn't mean they aren't lying. If it was actually no late fees, people hold on to the movies as long as they want. They just don't get any more until they bring them back. Ive had netflix movies over a month and they never "assumed" anything about me and started charging me money. That's because netflix has no late fees. Blockbuster does. I don't think Blockbuster is bad for charging what they charge. It's a great improvement. They should just call it something else.
Um. Most movies try not to get the NC-17 rating. It is the kiss of death as it means when the movie is released to the theatres a large demographic is not supposed to see it (barring sneaking in to the theatre). Seems like the sweet spot in ratings is about PG-13; not too low in the ratings to look like a Disney film and not too high to block potential viewers from seeing it. If there is anyone who is being swayed in releasing an R rating rather than NC-17 it would be the Producer.
However, Blockbuster has said that they do not carry X rated films not for a moral reason but because they are making enough money without carrying them that the hassle isn't worth it (iow it probably wouldn't improve their revenue stream enough to redesign all their stores to include the movies and pissed off parents when little Johnny wanders in there because they weren't watching their brat.
In general I prefer Blockbuster over Rogers as they have a tendency now to carry more widescreen movies, and a lot of the movies are the Director's cut so they contain stuff that was cut for various reasons from the theatrical release (i.e time, raciness) although it may be different in the states.
Now instead of watching the same cheap movies over and over we have a great selection that includes foreign films, documentaries, TV (including British TV series), special interest and, somewhat ironically, the series from the recently disposed premium subscription channels.
I couldn't imagine going back to anything as primitive as a video store, especially Blockbuster. *urp*
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
If we've reached the point where a company can advertise the end of late fees when it actually charges a late fee (just calls it a restocking fee), all without being subject to a lawsuit, then we have reached a new level of stupidity in the legal system.
I'm sorry, I'm a big believer that some of the disclaimers we require are ridiculous, but saying you don't charge late fees when you do is just wrong.
Seriously, if the retards at Blockbuster marketing had just said "we've added an extra week to all rentals" - which is really what they've done, then there wouldn't be any of this hassle for them. They deserve everything they are about to get for a stupid marketing gimmick that just obfuscates their real policy.
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Next time, subpoena the ad.
Thanks for the laugh.
badness 10000
I have a question: am I alone here in thinking that I actually like Blockbusters(BB) new policy? Now, let's make things clear, I am from the club that thinks that BB is evil. I don't like how they use their corporate clout to force censorship, they are over priced, and they are abusive to their underpaid staff.
Whrn I saw their new ad campaign that said you could keep your movie for an extra "day or two", immediately I thought the worst. I figured that on day three they would charge you for all three days missed and continue to abuse you. When I read the deal (look it up,I am not gonna explain it here) I thought it was extremely fair.
Lets be clear, you are still renting something, and you are expected to return it. If you do not, they do have to restock it. They may have to buy a new copy. It will require paperwork. These things take an employees time, who is being paid money.
I use Zip, so I am still not about to switch, but if I really want to see something, or I need to rent a movie for whatever reason, I would consider using BB. I would like know that if I like the movie, I can just keep it, and I can return it at my leisure without having to worry about things. A week is a long time people. A month is even longer, and an extra $1.75 for those 3 weeks isn't that mutch.
pk
Engineers arn't boring people, we just get excited about boring things.
My store did that too. I told them I would never return. Now I'm not a really big renter, but they are out $ 40 so far.
According to the manager of the store, I was supposed to ask if they were participating. They had no signs anywhere stating this fact. I bet they made a killing on late fees in January here. I bet they made a lot less money so far this month.
This was pure bait and switch. The consumer relates the local franchise to the main corporation (thats the idea of franchises!!!). So consumers had every right to think their blockbuster would be participating. Of course they're right about it being their choice. But, how many times has McDonalds had a promotion and the one you go to is not participating? I can't think of one time a food franchise in my town has ever not participated in a corporate promotion.
Anyway, they've lost my business forever.
I'm not actually advocating Blockbuster burning its own CDs, just pointing out that the physical media itself is extremely cheap. (So cheap that DIVX tried to make a business of "renting" by selling self-destructing discs.) If people are leaving the video store empty-handed (or with a $0.99 old release), both the rental store and the studios are losing money. If the studios' pricing scheme to rental stores is causing this situation, both would profit by fixing it.
I signed up for a Blockbuster account, just so I could rent some videos to test out my new HD television. I recently moved to this area, and Blockbuster was the only video store around.
I signed up because of their "no late fees". After I filled out my application, I was handed a small piece of paper with likewise small text, stating that the videos had to be purchased at market price if beyond a 6 days late. Then I looked up and saw the price of $4.29 per rental. I was fumed.
So I voted with my dollars and never rented a video there. I now drive back to Philadelphia to rent from TLA, which has supperior selection, prices, and deals.
You need to shop around. Hell, get your free phone and pay the $150 cancellation fee if your money management skills are so bad its somehow going to cost you $2000.
If you buy a car telling the sales guy "I want a payment of $x a month" or "I want the zero percent financing" you've already broadcast "sucker who can't manage his money" to the sales guy in blazing lights. Last car I bought I took the 0% financing, knowing exactly what the alternate discount was if I didn't take it. And the dealer made $400 on the vehicle, after their holdback (it was $600 under dealer *cost*, after all the incentives, almost $7000 off MSRP.
Its easy to get all those deals and not get screwed if you take some time and do your research. I went in knowing the exact (to the dollar) cost the truck I bought cost the dealer, exactly what the suggest prices for all the hundred different options on it cost, and precisely what incentives to the dealer and the buyer were available at the time, as well as checking what a five-star dealer's holdback was.
If Pepsi says every person who buys a 2 litre bottle of soda gets a million dollars on 8/7/2005, they don't get to make all sorts of exceptions unless they advertise those exceptions.
That reminds me of the 'Pepsi Points' game they had several years ago. You know, bottle caps were worth a point each, collect enough and get a leather jacket, or other prizes. Their commercial showed a Harrier Jet landing at the end, and they showed "10,000,000 points" at the bottom of the screen. Well, some college student(?) took advantage of a loophole ('Points' Were available for sale for 10 cents each) and gathered up enought points to get the Jet. Of course, Pepsi refused to give it to him.
In 1999, I had a summer job at Blockbuster (and have been missing small chunks of my soul since). About one in three people have late fees on their account at any given time. We would call about 50 people a day who had multiple movies 3 days or more overdue. While I agree with you that Blockbuster's prices are outrageous, a large portion of their rental base are too busy (or lazy) to bring their movies back on time. The responsible people can go to the grocery store next door to rent videos. :)
There are two types of people: those prepared for the zombie apocalypse and those who will be eaten.
First off, every news story I read or heard about the "no late fees" policy explained the caveat that it didn't mean you got to keep the movie forever, no strings attached. I guess I'm naturally distrustful too, so I even read the FAQ's about it on their website. They all said you got 1 week past your due date gratis. After that you automatically "bought" the movie, and it would be charged to the credit card on your account. If you returned the movie after that, the full charge would be refunded minus a restocking fee. This doesn't seem underhanded or tricky at all. In fact, it beats the hell out of Best Buy's "restocking fee" bullshit. I know I'm renting from Blockbuster, and keeping the movie forever is breaking that contract. Your movie is still due on the due date. Just because you don't have to pay a late fee for returning it late doesn't mean the movie doesn't have a due date any more.
Secondly, I know Blockbuster is a franchise system, so not every store is owned by the company. And every time I see an ad for them (or any other franchise system like McDonalds or Subway or something), they always feature the disclaimer "at participating locations." So I didn't assume that every store was going to follow through -- and sure enough, I heard news reports that some stores (to the dismay of the corporate parent) said they weren't going to participate. The stores near me all had big "The End of Late Fees" signs in the window, so that's how I knew they were participating.
Finally, I've been bitten by the late fees thing before. I know when I check out that the clerk always tells me when it's due ("Monday by noon" or whatever), and when I have the movie at home, I keep the receipt in the case as a reminder of when it's due -- so when I forget to return it, I know it's my fault for forgetting. Now I don't have to worry about forgetting occasionally. Recently, I rented a new release (2 day rental) and I only watched half the movie on the first night -- when the due date came and I forgot to return it, I could still watched the second half and return it the next day without paying a fee. To me, that's fantastic.
If Blockbuster hadn't posted a full terms and conditions or if they said something like "no strings attached", then, yes, I would say they were being deceptive. But they didn't do that. They listed their full T&C -- they even posted easy to read FAQ's on the details, and every PR interview or press release they put out disclosed the "automatic purchase" and "restocking fee" disclaimers.
IMHO, it's bullshit lawsuits like this that lead to crap laws like the one Congress just passed. There are people out there suffering real physical harm because corporations want to save $0.03 on a pool drain cover or hide the results of clinical tests that show their drugs are unsafe. There's factories out there that belch carcinogens into the air or drain PCBE's into the ground and some people get their panties in a knot over a $1.75 because they kept "Dodgeball" out for a month? If some little girl has her intestines ripped out by a pool drain, I want the motherfuckers to pay. But I could care less if some 30 year old guy thought he could keep his rentals forever because he was too lazy to read the fine print.