Slashdot Mirror
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?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Truth makes lousy advertising slogans, dunnit?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
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.
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.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
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.
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."
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
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.
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.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
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".