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Blockbuster Settles No Late Fee Suit
fistfullast33l writes "In a followup to a previous Slashdot story, Blockbuster has settled a lawsuit with 47 states and the District of Columbia over its No Late Fees advertising campaign. The New York State Attorney General's Office released the following: 'The Attorneys General alleged that the advertising campaign launched in late December 2004 was misleading because it failed to clearly disclose that, seven days after a movie or game's return due date, the consumer would be charged its selling price if the item were not yet returned. The Attorneys General also alleged there was insufficient disclosure that not all Blockbuster franchise stores were participating, leaving customers of those stores wrongly believing that they, too, would not have to pay late fees.' Blockbuster will be refunding customers as part of the deal." Additional commenary available on MSNBC.
Wow. Am I the only one that said "there's got to be a catch to this" when this thing started and went to their website to check it out. I knew that they would charge you for the movie because I looked it up. Did you think they were just going to let you keep the movie?
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Truth makes lousy advertising slogans, dunnit?
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I used to work at GameCrazy (a part of the Hollywood Video chain,) and we had a lot of customers who would come in, and basically say, why should we be renting from you anymore? Blockbuster has no late fees. When we informed them that if they didn't return the movie within a week of the due date they would be charged the full price for the item, not a single customer told us they were made aware of that fact.
I went to Blockbuster myself a couple months ago and the man who checked me out, the manager, said to me "And don't forget, we no longer have any late fees!" Certainly a misleading comment.
That is what the ads strongly implied.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Anybody actually been in a Blockbuster since they instituted the No Late Fees? The only thing this promotion did was make it so there are no movies in stock.
Do you really waste hours of time downloading television programs and movies from the Internet? I've found it's much easier to just go rent a movie than to spend hours downloading some 8 gig DVD rip only to find it's gay porn some jackass put up with the same name as the movie I was looking for (which was not gay porn BTW). I guess I'm just getting old, but I have more money than time these days.
Their slogan was honest. I remember the commercials:
"The end of late fees. The beginning of more."
I jokingly said to myself that they meant the beginning of more fees, but I guess they weren't joking and instead were being honest.
The worst part is the stores that don't participate. I wanted to test out the no late fee policy, I returned 3 movies 3 days late. What do you know, I get a late fee notice in the mail. I go in all cocky... "but you don't have late fees anymore!" Ah, but they don't participate in that.
I'm so glad this happened, I was about to switch my Netflix account over to Blockbuster even though I knew deep down they were still evil. Same on me, fooled my twice.
Seriously though, it's something to consider. The Blockbuster mail service, in my experience, has been something approaching a disaster. I didn't have good luck with Netflix either, but they were still better than Blockbuster's service.
I think it's high time companies started being held accountable for their business practices and started having to be responsible for their advertisements as well. Huzzah for the consumer backlash!
Blockbuster will be refunding customers as part of the deal.
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This is precisely what the Netflix model is. They send you a movie, you keep it as long as you want. Along with the 2 movies we received recently I've got a DVD next to the TV we've been meaning to watch for 3 months. Netflix doesn't care. You send it back when you're done, you get another DVD. The only thing sending the movie back does is refresh the choices you have next to your TV.
Buried underneath those somewhere are a couple of DVDs we had when we closed one of our Netflix accounts to change the name it was under. That was over a year ago. Netflix doesn't care.
Blockbuster introduced "no late fees" as a direct answer to the Netflix model.. at least, that's what people apparently thought. They only wanted to create the impression that they were like Netflix, obviously, without actually doing any of the work.
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In defense to Blockbuster...but not to troll, the restocking fee is a set fee. It is not dependent on how late the movie is and so if you keep it for months on end and then choose to return it, you will only be out the fixed $1.25 (that's the fee in AZ). That would hardly be considered a "late fee".
If you look at it that way, you could consider renting the movie for $4, allow them to charge you the additional $17 (sale price is based on the DVD's "used" value), and then own it.....one day you can choose to "sell" it back to Blockbuster, and it will have only costed you $1.25. Not a bad ROI in my book. Try getting that much on eBay!
"If you don't like the system...make it work for you."
Looks like we agree that the ads are rather deceptive. I hate frivolous lawsuits as much as the next guy, but it is not frivolous to sue over late-free harassment when you respond to a "no late fees" ad. What part of "no" do you not understand?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Overall I think that the system is fair. In fact, it is something that I was saying should happen for a long time. I would get really pissed when I returned a movie two days late and the late fees combined with the original rental fee were enough to purchase the movie. My issue with this is if they clearly mark what they will charge you for the movie. Blockbuster regularly sells previously viewed movies at or below 10 dollars. I would hate to be charged the retail price of 20 dollars for a movie that they are selling in the store for 10 dollars.
It's the same thing as advertising made to look like invoices. At the bottom there's fine print saying this is only a sales offer, but plenty of incautious people have been very silly and sent off money. Yes, it's true that in either case the consumer ought to be more cautious, but the fact is that people are often too busy to sit there and read the paragraphs of fine print that comes along with these various offers and promotions. With consumer laws, the government is doing its part by allowing recourse for those who have been taken advantage of by dishonest marketing ploys. Blockbuster should not only be forced to refund money, but also to, at its own expense, run a 30 second spot on TV explaining that what it did was dishonest and unethical, and run it for as long as the original scam advertising campaign was on.
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Look closer. Lots of those are not taxes on *you*, but taxes on parts of the Cell business that aren't directly related to the consumer.
If you read the fine print, you'll notice that many of the charges have names like "Tax on gasoline for cell-tower maintenance workers transportation fee". Ok, so most aren't quite that bad, but some are close.
They try to make it sound like the Gov is taxing you directly, but the cell companies are really just itemizing the costs that they incur paying *their own fucking taxes* on your bill, then not including those itemized parts in the quoted "price" of the service. Given how high these fees can get, and that they're mostly *not* taxes (directly) on consumers, this is very misleading.
It would be like a Brick and Mortar book store telling someone that a book costs $5, but then tacking on not only sales tax, but a $2 fee for the property tax on the store itself. Actual cost at register: $7 + sales tax.
So, in fact, this is even *worse* than what you described.
No = None, Zero, Zilch
Late = After the due date, Not on schedule
Fees = Monetary charges, money, currency
They were charging late fees. It's not idiot consumers, it's idiot marketers who thought they could bend the consumers over.
I don't live anywhere near a Blockbuster, nor did I do any more than skim the contents of the advertising campaign when it came out, yet these details were sufficiently clear to me.
See my statement above; it applies in this case as well.
So, we penalize Blockbuster, who were trying to offer a service that I would have been glad to use had I lived within a reasonable distance from one of their outlets, because people are fucking stupid, or illiterate, or both?
This isn't news. This would have been news:
"American public too stupid to understand gist of simple advertising campaign. More news at 11:00."
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It is merely a delayed mandatory financial assessment. How dare you assume it to be anything like a "late fee" !!!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
When I initially saw the ad I thought there was going to be some grievous catch.
Being we don't have a Blockbuster anywhere near my location I didn't really need to look up the details.
That said, it was obvious the advertisement was going to be misleading. You cannot say "No Late Fees" and simply re-word how you charge someone.
It's still not a bad idea, but the wording needs to be honest. Maybe even go so far as an opt-in policy and run it as a "Try it and Buy it!" campaign.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
"No late fees" means no fees, period. No matter how long you keep the rental. Right? Even if I decide to keep the rental for 4 years! Right?!?
...for the rest of your life!
Next up: a class action suit against restaurants that advertise "All you can eat buffet for $X.XX". Nothing on the sign indicates that you aren't purchasing all the food you can eat
Seriously, you have to be incredibly naive or stupid to not know that there are sure to be conditions to the offer. Anyone with any common sense would naturally inquire about the stipulations.
I had been saying from the beginning that the American public would be too stupid for a system like this, and it looks like I was right. Hey I know, I'll rent a movie under the new no late fee program and return it 3 years later with no extra charge, wow what a store, those Blockbuster folks are so nice!
A "late fee" is a penalty for keeping the video out past the specified time. Blockbuster isn't charging a late fee, they are selling you the video according to a contractual agreement. An enormous difference, in my mind. With a "late fee," Blockbuster keeps the video and I am punished for my own sloth/stupidity/absent-mindedness.
This is the equivalent of the "you break it, you own it" policy in many stores. You knock over a dispaly of china and destroy it, you own it, and the ownership isn't even as attractive an option as Blockbuster offers, as you have only shards. With Blockbusters option -- which you didn't have to agree to -- you at least walk away with the merchandise.
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Not quite, but unfortunately, the article misses the major point: Blockbuster would charge you the full price of the movie after 7 days (not unreasonable) and when you return it, they would 'buy it back', removing the charge from your credit card minus a restocking fee. The "restocking fee" was, in reality, a late fee for keeping the movie past 7 days.
The difference is obvious when compared to Netflix - take a movie out, keep it for as long as you want, months even, and when you return it, there's no additional charge for keeping it too long. That's "no late fees". Blockbuster's version is "late fee with a different name".