Blockbuster Abolishes Late Fees....

[ASUADPi]

As someone who used to work for BB I have some "interesting" tidbits about the store to share....


1) Yes the movies are due by noon, but their system is set up so that they have until TWO to check in the movies and you WILL NOT be charged late fees.

2) they are supposed to do what is called FOS (found on shelf) twice a day. they check to make sure movies didn't "slip through the cracks" and get put on the shelf by accident. if one did they are "supposed" to credit the account.


My late fee story, I returned a movie at 1pm. I completely forgot about it and I was sick to boot. I knew about the 2pm check in time though and I didn't worry. I then go into the store and discover that they didn't check the movie in until 4pm. I was so mad. I demanded to speak to the manager who was like "you had to turn it in by noon". Well being the smart ass I am I said "well your staff was supposed to have it check in by two". I also mentioned that I was a former employee and not to mess with me cause I knew the rules. My late fee disappered. But then over a year later the same store did the same thing, this time I turned the movie in at 10:30 AM and they tried to get me on late fees. I hate renting from the BB near my house anyways (cause it's ghetto) but knowing how incompetent the staff is makes me definately go to Hollywood.


Thought this late fee story might humor y'all. One day a man came in to the store where I worked and I told him he had like a 20 buck late fee. For the next ten minutes he told me a story about how he had been abducted by aliens and taken to "area 51" (mind you I had to tell him it was called area 51). It was really funny. My manager credited half of his late fees for "creativity". LOL.



As for the BB buying Hollywood. I was under the assumption that Hollywood isn't a cooperation but a franchise. All the franchises would have to sell to BB, which there will definately be some who don't want to see. Oh well, hopefully the Hollywood near my house won't become a BB.

[sigtau305]

I'm glad Blockbuster got rid of the so-called "Late Fees"... I already had to pay one for missing the due date of the return.

[AGDee]

I'm not getting how they can charge a late fee that is larger than the cost of the movie to begin with!

I go to Video Exclusive (which was Mammoth video, which was something before that). I pay $7.50 for 3 DVDs and most of them are 5 day rentals. The only 2 day rentals are movies that came out in the past 2 weeks. Very cool. I've had them waive late fees if I returned it within 24 hours of the due day. There was no time limit on when it had to be returned that day either, so if I went at 11 pm on the day it was due and put it in the drop box, they counted it as being returned that day. As long as it was there before they opened the next morning. Also very cool. I've also ended up buying most DVDs that I want from them. They charge $12.99 each or 2 for $20 for the used ones. So, when the kids want Ella Enchanted, Princess Diaries 2, blah blah blah, we get them used there. It's great! My late fees are only $1/day too.

Great store, great staff.. I'm feeling lucky after reading all of your horror stories!

Dee

[texas*princess]

So everyone will probably hate me now b/c I'm interning w/ BB.

Anyway, Blockbuster is doing a bunch of things to try to factor out late fees.

Blockbuster Online for example, their "Movie Pass" (which I believe is about $20 for unlimited rentals per month, no due date, no late fees. My parents use this and love it since they rent a million movies a month), and the new elimination of late fees.

What they are doing ("After that grace period ends, the chain will automatically sell them the product, less the rental fee.") is actually something that was started by Movie Trading Company (which is now a subsidary of Blockbuster... they can be found in the DFW/Houston area and other sparse locations around the country). I used to work as a shift leader & associate @ MTC, and this was actually something our customers really liked. Our rental prices were cheaper than Blockbusters, but customers still liked that they didn't have to worry about turning it in if they wanted to buy it anyway.

I believe Blockbuster is also looking into purchasing other movie rental companies in the near future.