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Nothing better to do

8 comments on Nothing better to do

Nothing better to do

: New Jersey’s Attorney General Peter Harvey — apparently suffering a bad case of Spitzer envy — filed suit against Blockbuster over its new no-late-fee policy.

On Today this morning, it came out that the state had received only one complaint prior to filing the suit. And the state never went to Blockbuster for clarification.

I’ll grant that the policy is confusing. I’ll also stipulate that I’ve never liked Blockbuster. But when I went to the store to get a DVD recently, they made the policy clear to me: If you keep the DVD longer than about a month, they charge you for buying it (minus the rental fee) but you can return it later for a $1-plus restocking fee. That means that you can rent the DVD for an extra month for about a buck. It’s not a bad policy. It’s a little confusing. But it sure beats the old policy of nya-nya late fees.

I think our attorney general is merely grandstanding.

8 responses to “Nothing better to do”

  1. Frank L. Avatar
    Frank L.

    Poor Blockbuster is just trying to do something to compete with Netflix.
    Betcha anything Mr. Harvey brought home just one too many scratched up DVD’s from his local Blockbuster. Now, it’s PAYBACK TIME!

  2. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    I betcha there will be numerous errors made by employees, so it may be fun around.
    The U.S. page for Blockbuster’s “More Info” on late fees simply takes you to a form for customer service. The Canadian site’s FAQ’s are working.

  3. JohnO Avatar
    JohnO

    I had 4 movies/games rented at the time they started their big ad campaign about the no late fees (I think it was just after Christmas). My wife returned the movies approximately 2 hours after they were officially due, but didn’t think anything of it since they had the “no late fee” policy.
    I returned about 2 weeks later to rent anothe movie and was advised I had $11+ in late fees. When I questioned the employee she advised that the “no late fee” policy didn’t apply to movies rented before the first of the year. Since I wasn’t sure how late the movies were returned (and because I didn’t want to piss off the people behind me by arguing) I went ahead and paid the fee.
    Blockbuster has spent the last decade building up ill-will and bad feelings. Pardon me if I don’t shed a tear about them having to pay some extra fees defending themselves.

  4. steve Avatar
    steve

    “I had 4 movies/games rented at the time they started their big ad campaign about the no late fees (I think it was just after Christmas). My wife returned the movies approximately 2 hours after they were officially due, but didn’t think anything of it since they had the “no late fee” policy.
    I returned about 2 weeks later to rent anothe movie and was advised I had $11+ in late fees. When I questioned the employee she advised that the “no late fee” policy didn’t apply to movies rented before the first of the year. Since I wasn’t sure how late the movies were returned (and because I didn’t want to piss off the people behind me by arguing) I went ahead and paid the fee.
    Blockbuster has spent the last decade building up ill-will and bad feelings. Pardon me if I don’t shed a tear about them having to pay some extra fees defending themselves.”
    Oh, what a big baby you are!!!
    You rent something from someone. You return it late. You pay late fees. Simple arithmetic.

  5. Beat Royalty Avatar
    Beat Royalty

    I’m less concerned about the new late fee policy and more concerned about Blockbuster including promotional material for the National Guard along with rentals. I have recently returned to renting at Blockbuster since they opened a new location convenient to where I live and have noticed they’ve been including inserts advertising the National Guard in the sleeves of video boxes. This concerns me especially considering the recruiting come-ons were slipped into several PG-13 movies targeting younger viewers. The only info I could find online regarding this is here: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/01/309360.shtml#165566

  6. Patrick Avatar
    Patrick

    Whenever I rent at Blockbuster, I’m told at the counter that I won’t be charged a late fee as long as the movies are only “a couple of days late”.

  7. Not Happy Avatar
    Not Happy

    I’m usually against these sort of AG PR stunts, but Blockbuster’s policy is a mess and quite deceptive in implementation. Sorry for the lengthy tale of personal woe, but just want to illustrate the confusion generated by this policy.
    I don’t usually rent from them, but with the new policy I tried them and explained to clerk that I would be traveling and would have the DVDs out for about ten days. I was repeatedly told that with the new no late fee policy, it would be fine and that I would be charged the price of the DVDs only if I had them out for more than a month. Fair enough.
    I took the DVDs and returned them about ten days later. A few days later, Blockbuster sent me a mailing that said I was being charged the price of 2 of the DVDs since I kept them out too long. WTF?
    I then had to make a second trip to Blockbuster where I was informed that they were deemed “purchased” when I did not return them in the time specified. So late fees are gone, but they’ve effectively been replaced with “you’re late, you buy it”.
    Of course the latter part was never clearly communicated to the public, while the former was trumpeted as the second coming. In my mind this type of conduct is just asking for smart ass, headline grabbing AG action.

  8. Jeff M. Avatar
    Jeff M.

    The intentions of the New Jersey Attorney General are hard to determine, but it does give him some publicity. People will read into that what they will.
    The policy, as spelled out by Jeff Jarvis, is inaccurate (realizing this was the information given by the blockbuster employee). The actual policy does not indicate that you’ll be charged after about a month.
    The facts are that rentals may be kept up to seven days after the due date. On the 8th day the customer is charged for and owns the DVD. If you return the DVD between 8 and 30 days after the due date you will get a refund minus a restocking fee (blockbuster is very vague about what this is). After 30 days you own the DVD and cannot return it. Not exactly what employees are telling customers.
    What’s most annoying to me is the arrogance of company representatives. On the Today Show sometime last week (I could not find it on the show’s web site) a representative indicated that employees do not explain the whole policy because it will be too much information for people handle.
    Although the policy really has no effect on me since I only rent two to three videos per month and never “suffered” a late fee. The policy is interesting, but ultimately just a PR stunt that may be backfiring. Great way to endear yourself to customers.