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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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An advertiser using borderline misleading statements in order to sell a product or service? I'm shocked, SHOCKED!
By the way, what, exactly, does this have to do with my rights online?
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.
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.
Fuck, I'm just glad they got rid of those commercials with the hamster and the rabbit. Fraud is nothing compared to how annoying those lil' fuckers were.
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!!
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 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.
The no-late-fee policy only applies necessarily to corporately owned stores; the privately owned ones are not required by Blockbuster Inc. to honor the new system. Mind you, some are, but it is voluntary on the part of the respective owners.
"WTF? For what??"
"Criminal Copyright Infringement!!"
"Huh?"
"You posted millions of copies of Star Wars III on the intarnat!"
"Yeah... so?"
"That's copyright infringment! You'ze goin down!!"
"Ah, no. I own it."
"???"
"I own Star Wars III. I can do with it what I want."
"Er, no. You may own the DVD, but not the movie. You're coming with us."
"No, I own the movie. I followed the TV ad: 'Own it on DVD today!' By 'it', they mean the movie. So, I own the DVD, and what's on it, the movie."
"Tell it to th' judge!"
later...
"Your honour, I own the movie. Look at the TV ad that caused me to buy it."
"You have a copy of that ad?"
"Sure, watch!"
"GUILTY!"
"WTF, er, I mean, why, your honour? I own the movie, no?"
"The movie, yes. You're guilty of copyright infringement for showing me the ad that says you own the movie. You don't own the ad. Take him away!!"
You could've hired me.
I work for Blockbuster as a manager. I think it's about damned time someone started complaining. They've been engaging in deceptive business practices for years now. I'll outline this new policy for you guys:
You have 7 days after the due date to get your movie back. This means, if it's due monday, get it back the following monday by NOON.
If you fail to do this, you will get charged the retail price (unless it's been out for awhile) of the dvd, game, or vhs.
Bring it back before 30 days (this is where they get really shady, because even I dont know if it's 30 days late or 30 dates after the 7 day thing), and you will get a full refund minus a $1.50 "restocking fee"
This fee is supposedly charged to cover the cost of sending you a bajillion phone calls and postcards reminding you that your stuff is due. Mind you, there's a glitch in the system at the moment that will still call you even if your stuff has been returned. (I might also add that you should call us if you get that call and know you brought your stuff back. It may be on the shelf NOT checked in)
If you don't bring it back before the 30 days, you are STUCK with the movie. Come in and get your cover art, you're entitled to it. There is no way you can get your money back after this point.
So, ending this long reply. No matter what, unless you get your movie back within two weeks (most of the time), you're still getting charged.
Hope this helped you out... I hate this company.
see sig. see sig run. run sig run.
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.
but you can FAST FORWARD through the commercials, if fact if you keep the FFWD pinned, so to speak, it only takes a moment to get to the main menu. I agree that it is utterly frustrating that you cannot "skip" the commercials, but not as bad as you make out. I have yet to see a DVD that does not permit fast forwarding through commercials, if that's even possible in the DVD standard.
Note I have only viewed the Canadian version of Shrek 2, which contains both English and French audio tracks, so the American version might be different.
Sure enough, they have a huge banner ad saying "The end of late fees". There are no asterisks, fine print, or other disclaimers.
However, if you click on the "Terms" button at the bottom of every page, you get a few pages of legal text such as their privacy policy, copyrights, terms regarding their Online Rentals, and .... terms on their In-Store Rentals. Lo and beyold:
-David
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 think you meant to say "worked"
Signed,
Your Area Manager
;)
If ignorance is bliss, knock the smile off my face.
They say no late fees. They mean no late fees. It doesn't say anything about other fees.
Get the point?
First, did you read the links above?! Blockbuster says, without an OUNCE of ambiguity, that "there are no more late fees." It has a link to "find out more" and that link is DEAD!
Here's a scenario, what if the pamphlets and the dead links said you had to turn over your first born child?! Would that be fair too?
The fact is that Blockbuster COULD have put the fact that you've bought them after a week on their signs AND on their website. How difficult is it to say, "There are no more late fees, after a week, you've bought it!" The ONLY reason that did not do something so incredibly simple is because they want to deceive their customers!
The fact that Blockbuster did NOT say that means they were committing fraud by omission.
I agree that consumers have to take some responsibility, but when a company says "no more late fees" but then charges you 20 bucks automatically after a week, they are screwing customers over!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
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