The End of Late Fees...but not really.

Netflix can do it without the fees because they have one centralized location to manage their inventory.

(Public Library or local video store.)

[...] customers get a one-week grace period to return movies or games at no charge.

Isn't it that a kinda good thing?

They're going to be moving into a location directly across the street from my local video store. Unfortunately I'm probably going to wind up using Blockbuster because the local place never has what I'm looking for. The girl that works there gets a kick out of the awful luck I have with them.

TORONTO (CP) — Blockbuster Canada is confirming that it is eliminating late fees effective Saturday — but if you don’t return the DVD, game or tape, you’ve bought it.
The new policy announced Thursday is in line with one initiated at Blockbuster’s U.S. stores on Jan. 1.
The rental terms and due dates at the video chain’s 426 Canadian outlets remain basically the same: two nights for in-demand new releases and a week for other titles.
However, customers get a one-week grace period after the due date to return movies or games at no charge. At that point, if an item hasn’t come back, Blockbuster will bill the client for the price of the merchandise, less the rental fee.
A customer who doesn’t want to buy the product can return it within 30 days “for a full credit to their account, less a minimal restocking fee.”.
Blockbuster Canada president David Stewart said in an interview Thursday that this fee will be $1.75, reflecting the cost of the transaction.
Before charging a client the price of an unreturned item, “we’ll have done what we usually do, remind the customer that they have a movie — it’s going to be a very friendly reminder, a telephone call,” he said.
“At the point where they’re seven days beyond the return time ... we’ll assume that they really like the movie and want to keep it, and it’ll be posted to their account in the store, or charged to their account if they have a charge card on file with us.”
The cost will be Blockbuster’s retail price in effect at the time of the rental.
Stewart, who declined to detail the Canadian unit’s revenue or profit, anticipates a smooth transition to the new arrangement.
“As time goes by, people will get used to it; it is a natural way for a company that’s releasing deadlines and so on to have some form of finality to the transaction.”
Dallas-headquartered Blockbuster Inc., with more than 9,000 stores worldwide, had $1.41 billion US in revenue in its latest reported quarter, with a net loss of $1.42 billion including non-cash asset writedowns of $1.50 billion.
Excluding one-time items, the July-September period showed a profit of $3.4 million US, down from $63.7 million a year earlier.

all the local video stores have gone out of business because of blockbuster! public libraries rock though.

not as much as Turner Classic Movies. "Tonight we're featuring Italian Neo-Realism from the 40's" -- what? Rock! You don't get that anywhere else.

Maybe in Canada. In the US, I'm pretty sure it's a business license like any other.

xpost

I have no idea, but what I am pretty sure is that whatever license they have to rent these items that those licenses have not been substantially altered with the switch from VHS to DVD.

Is everyone in the fucking world missing that part in bold? YOU DON'T GET CHARGED FOR THE PRICE OF THE MOVIE IF YOU RETURN IT, THEY CREDIT YOU BACK AND ONLY CHARGE YOU THE $1.25, AND ONLY IF YOU HAVE RETURNED IT MORE THAN A WEEK LATE. You might notice this is significantly better than their previous policy of charging you $47,643.98 per day late!!

Damn you, Blockbuster!! That will teach you for doing something that benefitted the 99.9999999% of your users who return their movies like 3 days late, instead of 3 months late!

(Though I must say I disagree with the policy wholly, 1-2 day "priority rentals" should be returned 1-2 days later, not whenever people feel like it, at no penalty at all, for crying out loud.)

Exactly, I have been trying to watch Mr. 3000 for two weeks, and the fucking loafers have no incentive to bring it back, and now I'll never know if Bernie Mac can do man push-ups.

xpost

oh xpost

$10 that I can walk to the blockbuster down the street right now and get a TOS and it'll be in there.

Keep in mind that the basis of this lawsuit is that the new TOS was not "disclosed" to these people (which fair enough, either they didn't get a copy of it or, more likely, they didn't read it). Which means they thought they were still operating on Blockbuster's old, late-fee based TOS.

The late fees for keeping a movie overdue for 8 days would come to $40+ on the old system! Non-refundable $40+! What the fuck is the difference besides, oh, that's right, if you get off your ass and bring the movie back, they CREDIT YOU BACK THE CHARGE MINUS THE RESTOCKING AND RENTAL FEE. Hi hello it's me an outlaw YOU'RE WINNING HERE.

Also just cuz it is in the TOS now doesn't mean it was initially. They did say this was "revised" in the article (perhaps because of New Jersey residents.)

Also I'm pretty sure that when they said "revised policy" they were referring to the change from the old system to the new, and not some recent revisions to the new policy.

STILL IT IS NOT OK TO STEAL MOVIES FOR WEEKS ON END

It is with Netflix. In fact, it's what their whole business is based on. They lose money on people like me who plow through 15-20 movies a month. They make money off of lazy fools who never send the things back. Obviously there are more of them than us, since they are doing quite well.

Blockbuster's just trying to kinda reverse-engineer that business model, and maybe it'll work and maybe it won't. Worth a shot, I guess.

BTW WTF is that even about?

No one is paying $90 per DVD directly from the company. I want to see evidence of this before I believe it.

New Jersey claims Blockbuster’s new late fee policy violates consumer laws
By Jeffrey Gold
NEWARK, N.J. (AP-CP) — The state of New Jersey claims Blockbuster Inc., the continent’s largest movie-rental chain, has violated the state’s consumer protection laws with its new policy on late fees.
In a lawsuit filed Friday, the state charged that Blockbuster failed to disclose key terms in the policy, including that overdue rentals are automatically converted to a sale on the eighth day after the due date.
The company has a similar policy in its Canadian stores.
The state is seeking restitution for customers whose overdue rentals were converted to a sale. It also wants compensation for people who were charged late fees by stores that were not participating in the new policy, but that failed to make that obvious.
State Attorney General Peter Harvey on Friday called the company’s advertising and marketing “deceptive.” He said state investigators began visiting dozens of the 170 Blockbuster stores in New Jersey even before receiving a complaint, and found that employees gave misleading or erroneous information on the policy.
To date, one aggrieved consumer has contacted the state, Harvey said, adding, “We will be flooded with complaints from people who will tell us this is their experience, too.”
The lawsuit was filed in state Superior Court in Trenton.
In a statement, the Dallas-based chain said it has “taken a number of very thorough steps to let customers know how our new program works. Blockbuster has trained store employees on how to effectively communicate the program to customers, both on the sales floor and at checkout.”
The stores also have free brochures explaining the program, the company said.
Blockbuster eliminated late fees on games and movies starting Jan. 1, although customers who miss a one-week grace period will be billed for buying the item or charged a $1.25 restocking fee. The company said due dates at its 4,600 U.S. stores would remain one week for games and two days or one week for movies.
Additionally, about half of 1,100 Blockbuster stores that are operated by franchisees are participating in the program, company spokesman Randy Hargrove said.
Harvey, however, said some stores displayed signs touting “The end of late fees” but were not participating.
Hargrove said that only franchise stores have the option not to participate. “I’d love to be able to know which stores he was talking about to see if he was accurate,” he said.
Renters who keep the movies or games beyond the grace period will be charged for purchasing the DVD or tape at Blockbuster’s full retail price, minus the rental fee, the company said. If they return the movie or game in the next 30 days, they will get a refund for the purchase but will be charged a restocking fee of $1.25, the company said.
The revised Blockbuster policy also took effect in 426 Canadian stores on Jan. 29.
A spokeswoman for the federal Competition Bureau in Ottawa declined to say if the agency has received similar complaints from Canadian consumers, noting provisions of the Competition Act prevent such disclosures.
Mel Fruitman, vice-president of the Consumers’ Association of Canada, said he wasn’t aware of any complaints, but noted the policy — as outlined on the company’s website — is difficult to follow.
“One can’t help but think there is some intent there to perhaps confuse consumers or make it appear as though it is better than it is,” he said. “It is so odd.”
A spokeswoman for Blockbuster Canada was not immediately available for comment Friday.
Blockbuster shares, meanwhile, rose five cents to $9.13 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares are up from a 52-week low of $6.50 last fall.

"Harvey, however, said some stores displayed signs touting “The end of late fees” but were not participating."

"“One can’t help but think there is some intent there to perhaps confuse consumers or make it appear as though it is better than it is,” he said. “It is so odd.”"

Fair game as far as I am concerned.

I still see this price on Amazon from time to time! Who would buy it at that kind of price! Crazy.

And yes, the some-locations-not-participating thing is definitely fair game.

My guess is that there was not intent to confuse anyone - more like poor training rollout to the stores. Which does not excuse them from liability, but should be considered..

Again this would be MORE believable if Blockbuster didn't have such an grotesque history of obfuscation (from it's video editing policies on down.)

If by my puppy you mean the entire independent videostore industry (outside of a few small pockets) and by move on you mean continue to live in SF (one of those pockets) and rent entirely from Netflix and independent videostores and never from skanky anti-competitive conservative monopolistic video rental companies, tell Blockbuster not to worry that I have. Also tell them I appreciate the Meadowlark Lemon rubbings.