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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.
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.
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.
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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%.
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.
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.