Blockbuster late fees

So apparently Blockbuster has changed their policy on late fees for rentals.
A lot of people have had issues with this, especially because they may not
have been informed of the changes. If you check out
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com...uster_latefees there is some
more information concerning these late fee changes. The site also provides a
free case evaluation for those who might be affected by this. I thought this
might be of interest to some.

kr0

kr0

kr0 <> wrote:
> So apparently Blockbuster has changed their policy on late fees for rentals.
> A lot of people have had issues with this, especially because they may not
> have been informed of the changes. If you check out

I don't see how this could possibly adversely affect any customer unless you
were being stupid in the first place.

Under the old policy, if I'm a day or two late, I pay late fees for those
day.

Under the new policy, if I'm a day or two late, I pay nothing.

Under the old policy, if I'm a week late, I pay late fees which roughly
equal the cost of the DVD I rented.

Under the new policy, if I'm a week late, I pay for the cost of the DVD...
and I get to keep it. Or, I return it, pay the restocking fee, and still
end up paying less than I would have under the old policy.

I want to meet the idiot who sees "NO MORE LATE FEES!" and thinks to himself,
"Haw haw haw, now I can keep it as long as I want... nyuk nyuk nyuk, look,
I figured out how to cheat the system!"

You'll only be 'burned' if you're not acting in good faith in the first
place.

Kevin

Kevin wrote:

> kr0 <> wrote:
>
>>So apparently Blockbuster has changed their policy on late fees for rentals.
>>A lot of people have had issues with this, especially because they may not
>>have been informed of the changes. If you check out
>
>
> I don't see how this could possibly adversely affect any customer unless you
> were being stupid in the first place.
>
> Under the old policy, if I'm a day or two late, I pay late fees for those
> day.
>
> Under the new policy, if I'm a day or two late, I pay nothing.
>
> Under the old policy, if I'm a week late, I pay late fees which roughly
> equal the cost of the DVD I rented.
>
> Under the new policy, if I'm a week late, I pay for the cost of the DVD...
> and I get to keep it. Or, I return it, pay the restocking fee, and still
> end up paying less than I would have under the old policy.
>
> I want to meet the idiot who sees "NO MORE LATE FEES!" and thinks to himself,
> "Haw haw haw, now I can keep it as long as I want... nyuk nyuk nyuk, look,
> I figured out how to cheat the system!"
>
> You'll only be 'burned' if you're not acting in good faith in the first
> place.
>
I agree, anyone who heard no late fees and didn't think there was a
catch has no business sense. A similar situation I've seen occur is
with regard to Napster offering users the ability to put songs they
downloaded from their subscription service onto their portable and take
it to go. The first time I saw a commercial for that my roommate had
the "epiphany" to sign up for a month, download all the songs, and quit.
I told him that obviously the songs stop playing after you stop
paying (and rewound the Tivo to show him the fine print at the end of
the commercial). It's naive to believe companies are going to give
something of value to the consumers without there being any catch.

Nicholas Andrade

Nicholas Andrade <> wrote:
> it to go. The first time I saw a commercial for that my roommate had
> the "epiphany" to sign up for a month, download all the songs, and quit.
> I told him that obviously the songs stop playing after you stop
> paying (and rewound the Tivo to show him the fine print at the end of
> the commercial). It's naive to believe companies are going to give
> something of value to the consumers without there being any catch.

Ah, but their system has apparently already been cracked, so somewhere out
there people are madly downloading as much as they can during their trial
period And I believe (though I'm not sure) that the only way your
player knows to stop playing them is when the PC tells it during one of the
syncs, so if you were to download a pile of music onto your mp3 player, and
then never hook it up to the PC again, it would never know to expire the
songs.

I've never been fond of the rental model for anything but movies and very
expensive things (cars, power tools, specialized equipment) and even
then, I tend to buy my movies much more often than I rent them.

Kevin

In talking to my older son who is an attorney, Blockbuster may have screwed
up in that their advertising makes no mention that some restrictions apply.
In addition to paying roughly the cost of the DVD, there is a $1.25
restocking charge.
"Kevin" <> wrote in message
news:cvlcrk$4g8$...
> Nicholas Andrade <> wrote:
> > it to go. The first time I saw a commercial for that my roommate had
> > the "epiphany" to sign up for a month, download all the songs, and quit.
> > I told him that obviously the songs stop playing after you stop
> > paying (and rewound the Tivo to show him the fine print at the end of
> > the commercial). It's naive to believe companies are going to give
> > something of value to the consumers without there being any catch.
>
> Ah, but their system has apparently already been cracked, so somewhere out
> there people are madly downloading as much as they can during their trial
> period And I believe (though I'm not sure) that the only way your
> player knows to stop playing them is when the PC tells it during one of
the
> syncs, so if you were to download a pile of music onto your mp3 player,
and
> then never hook it up to the PC again, it would never know to expire the
> songs.
>
> I've never been fond of the rental model for anything but movies and very
> expensive things (cars, power tools, specialized equipment) and even
> then, I tend to buy my movies much more often than I rent them.
>
>

Jim Hollis

Jim Hollis <> wrote:
> In talking to my older son who is an attorney, Blockbuster may have screwed
> up in that their advertising makes no mention that some restrictions apply.
> In addition to paying roughly the cost of the DVD, there is a $1.25
> restocking charge.

I thought it was more like, you pay the cost of the DVD and you keep it,
OR you return the DVD within 30 days, and get that penalty cost back less
the $1.25 restocking fee.

My question would be, if I end up buying the movie, will they give me the
original case and inserts? If so, I could see this actually working in my
favour as a try-before-you-buy system.

But you're eight, there should have been more prominently worded statements
of "Some restrictions apply" or some such.

Kevin

"Jim Hollis" <> wrote in message
news:K3tTd.37$o%...
> In talking to my older son who is an attorney, Blockbuster may have
> screwed
> up in that their advertising makes no mention that some restrictions
> apply.
> In addition to paying roughly the cost of the DVD, there is a $1.25
> restocking charge.


Uh, no, you're not paying attention. Keep it past a week, they charge you
for the cost of the movie. Bring it back, they refund the cost of the
movie, you only pay a $1.25 restocking fee.

Mark

Mark B.

"Jim Hollis" <> wrote in message
news:K3tTd.37$o%...
> In talking to my older son who is an attorney, Blockbuster may have
screwed
> up in that their advertising makes no mention that some restrictions
apply.
> In addition to paying roughly the cost of the DVD, there is a $1.25
> restocking charge.

Its all there in the fine print, even in teh tv ads...

Biz

"Kevin" wrote in alt.video.dvd:
>I want to meet the idiot who sees "NO MORE LATE FEES!" and thinks to himself,
>"Haw haw haw, now I can keep it as long as I want... nyuk nyuk nyuk, look,
>I figured out how to cheat the system!"

You will, because he'll be in the news.

And he'll probably prevail. It's not the customer's job to figure
out what is a good deal for the business.

Video rentals are what lawyers call a "contract of adhesion",
meaning that there's no negotiaton. The customer is given terms and
must take them or leave them. One legal principle in interpreting a
contract of adhesion is that any ambiguities are construed against
the party who wrote the contract. A legal principle of interpreting
_any_ contract is that it should take account of what the words
mean in plain English unless they're explicitly defined within the
contract.

I'm not a attorney, but I think it's at least a credible argument
that when the store hangs a big banner that says NO MORE LATE FEES,
a customer is entitled to believe that it means what it says.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
DVD FAQ: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
other FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm

Stan Brown

Kevin wrote on [24 Feb 2005 23:16:05 GMT]:
> Jim Hollis <> wrote:
>> In talking to my older son who is an attorney, Blockbuster may have screwed
>> up in that their advertising makes no mention that some restrictions apply.
>> In addition to paying roughly the cost of the DVD, there is a $1.25
>> restocking charge.
>
> I thought it was more like, you pay the cost of the DVD and you keep it,
> OR you return the DVD within 30 days, and get that penalty cost back less
> the $1.25 restocking fee.
>
> My question would be, if I end up buying the movie, will they give me the
> original case and inserts? If so, I could see this actually working in my
> favour as a try-before-you-buy system.

Not paying full retail for a used disc, that isn't exactly a fair deal.

Justin