Rypro 525

more bb bashing
i got a phone call from a computer saying that i have extended viewing fees on resident evil dvd and super monkey ball game cube which i rented on tuesday. they told me at the counter that it was due back on wednesday bc of the 1 week summer deal. but now the computer said that it was due back on sun. what gives, did they change the rules. im gonna have a fit with them tomorrow

Heat

What did your receipt say (as to when it was due)?

Movie_Man

Nice of them to at least call you. Years ago when I would actually patronize BB, they sent me a postcard about 3 weeks later reminding me to return a video (that I had already returned). Just imagine 3 weeks worth of late fees! That was the last time I shopped there.

Oh yeah, back to your post, what does the receipt say? If they were having a special promotion, the computer may not hav ebeen updated correctly. Be sure to actually speak with someone when you drop it off to have your account cleared.

gondorspit

I returned a movie to blockbuster right before they closed and lo and behold I get a late fee the next time I come in. I explain that it was returned on time, they don't give a @#$% and I haven't been back in four years, yet still I'm irked.
I suppose I can't blame the entire chain for a couple of lazy workers not entering my video back into the computer, but that is what I have chosen to do.

Rypro 525

just got back, resident evil was due on thurs by noon but the box had the 5 day rental. finally got a credit but the woman was a real [EDIT] with the next item. she said it was due back tomorrow by noon and i got a late fee. after about a minute, she gave in. she also said in a cocky aditude "now ill give you a credit this time, but next time, you will just have to pay"

well, all of you are right, all bb employees are braindead for the most part. the call was a voice computer not a real person

Groucho

There's no reasoning with a Blockbuster employee...they've already been assimilated into the collective.

joefrog91

Having been a BB assistant mgr, I've been on both sides of the counter when it comes to complaints. I've even worked for both a coporate store and a franchise store. I've seen and heard it all.

When it comes to late fees, here are a few tips to consider.

1. Always hand your video or game to an employee and insist they check it in while you watch. I know you shouldn't have to do this, but it cuts out any problems that could occur.

2. Keep your receipt. This shows the return date if you don't remember when the rental is due.

3. BB considers the day you rent as one day whether you rent it at opening or closing.

4. Franchise stores do not have to honor corporate promotions. Franchise stores can make up their own rental policies.

As for getting calls or letters stating you have a late fee or rental still out:

1. BB runs a report every morning showing all overdue rental items. An employee is supposed to check the store for the rentals to make sure that it wasn't placed on the shelf without getting checked in. Mistakes can and do happen. Some employees don't like the tedious nature of this task and might do a half-ass job.

2. It does no good to get into a shouting match with someone when dealing with late fees or overdue rentals. Both sides think they are right. I would usually get overly polite and just ask the renters to double check their homes or with the person that was supposed to return the rentals. I would promise to do the same. Of course, the renters would still get pissed sometimes, but I remained calm. I actually enjoyed it when I could piss someone off by being polite. Once in awhile, I would find the rental item in the store. But more often, the rental item would turn up in the overnight drop-box.

I'm not trying to defend BB, because I know there are some BB employees that are really braindead. I worked with a few. I just know how the system works. Now that I'm just a regular customer, I've had a couple of run ins with employees that don't know me. I just have to let them know I know the system and everything works itself out.

I don't know anything about the new one week rentals, but just because you drop off the rental while there are still employees in the store doesn't mean that the rental isn't late. I used to check in movies until about 10 minutes after closing, but everything after that was late. I worked with one guy that could have the store ready to close at exactly midnight. Everything put up, cleaned and the money counted right at midnight. So, as long as there were no customers left, we could leave by 12:05. We used to get people that would drive up and wonder why we were already closed.

Please don't flame me. I'm not paid by BB anymore, so I don't really care if people bad mouth the store. I just felt like posting to this thread. I have no agenda.

AJW

Twice I've been told I have overdue rentals outstanding and late fees accumulating.

Both times they turned out to be from the customer that checked out after me. Stupid blockhead employees failed to close down my session properly.

I don't patronize there anymore because I don't trust them. This could have happened many more times that I don't know about because the items others ended up checking out on my account accidently were returned on time.

JT_97Neon

I don't visit Blockbuster anymore because:

I had a few dollars in late fees last year and come January 1st 2002 they charged my debit card the amount due without contacting me or obtaining my approval for such a charge. That still pisses me off to this day! Geez, I would have paid it sooner or later...

Screw Blockbuster!

joefrog91

When you sign up for a membership, the language in the contract gives Blockbuster the right to charge your credit/debit card for late fees, lost or damaged rentals.

They were at fault for not contacting you though. The policy is to call, then send a letter or postcard and then charge the renter's credit/debit card. It's been awhile since I worked there so I can't remember how many days have to pass before they charge your card. However, if it's a franchise store, they can charge you whenever they want to.

The language in the contract is the reason why Blockbuster has won all the lawsuits ever brought against them regarding late fees. This past year, Blockbuster finally gave in and paid a settlement to a class action suit with the agreement that no other lawsuits could be filed in the future.

joefrog91

AJW, you have a very legitimate complaint. The computer would beep and show that your movies were still checked out. The next step would be for the employee to check the movie back in on a different computer and then check the movie out to the new customer.

The only way it would still be checked out to you is if the employee checked the movie in and then brought your account up and rechecked the movie out on your account, just gave the movie out without scanning it - either by mistake, to a friend or took it themselves, or someone grabbed it before it was checked back in and somehow was able to leave the store with it.

If this happened more than once, I would definitely contact the main Customer Service dept and complain. Especially if they admitted that they let the movies go back out of the store.

Julie Walker

I hate BB & refuse to rent their at all,just get sick if i step inside one!


The constant false late fee's is what really made me say "enough!" & absolutely not rent their anymore...since i rented ocasionally if i couldn't find the movie anyplace else.



One time when i actually stood up to them was a few years ago. I had rented a video game,returned it early....didn't rent anything for weeks,then BB keeps calling us up saying we owe so much in late fee,the game was never returned,then they start sending letter's demanding we pay $80 for the full cost of the game we 'never' returned..& also constantly harrassing us on the phone to pay up.


So my little brother wants to rent..& he was to go to BB,even though he bitch's about the store to...we went knowing they would say we had a late fee..& sure enough when trying to check a movie out.

So i just could not let them get away with this **** this time. I tryed telling him(really huge large guy who looks like those sterotypical fat prison bitch's in films) & he got pissed,seemed ready to explode..yet had to calm down & be 'nice'.....he refused to go check the shelf,he refused to listen & kept saying "i'm sorry..you will have to pay the fee!".....meanwhile he is the only register open & the line is getting bigger. 10mns of this crap goes by until the manager finnaly shows up with his tyranical self..& again same crap of trying to make us pay,rather than checking the shelf..finnaly he asks fat prison bitch to go look for the game....& sure enough he comes back with(only had one copy)...& gasp...they just 'forgot' to check it in for a few weeks!!

They apologized..let us rent the movie..yet the greedy souless bastards that they are..did not give us the rental for free because of the trouble!



Flashforward a few years later...i had slowly started renting less & less..& never going to BB. Yet went every so often with my little brother who rents stuff & i amy get something when they had a rent 1,get one free coupon...no way i'm apying for BB's ****!

Anyway...the late fee's start up again,even though the stuff was returned early. Since the late dvds were what my older brother rented awhile back..i payed the freaking $7 fee...since i was not up for another debate with them..& didn't no for sure if the dvs were returned on time or not since i did not return them.

Get home..brother says he did return them on time..& he would not pay me back the $7!..the cheap dam bastard that he is(he ripped a $1000 from me years ago..still have not got one cent back)...& i called BB up to complain & talk to the manager....same old crap...only get this.....

He looked up on the computer...& clearly said the dvds were returned on for example 8-20-02...yet not check in until after 1pm on 8-22-02 an hour after the noon due date!...which is a BB scam to rip people off of course...since how many stores have a noon return deadline????

So i questioned him right there..& said "see you just said...they were returned early & purposely checked in late...yet you expect us to pay?"..he said "yes" & tryed to sound reasonable....so i told him all about the scam,how i was sick of this ****,hated the store,there lousy selection,ensorship polices & so on...then said "you know what?...i just will not rent there anymore...sure you think i'm one person,big deal...well i'll spread the word & more will follow"..then hung up before he could say anything..since he tryed cutting me off to change my mind..& i didn't let him get through


Haven't rented one thing(including free rentals) since




More things i hate about them..is how suspious they are of everyone. They follow you closely,keep their eyes peeled on ou the whole time your there...durring the winter once my little brother & I walked over there(it was under 20 degree's with below 0 windchill!)..so we're bundled up with our coats,gloves,hats....& took our hats & gloves off in the store...my brothers looking at the game mags..& a clerk came right up behind him(MM's away),looking directly over his shoulder!...my brother looks at him like ???? oooook...puts the mag back & moves on.Clerk still follow's him closely..myself as well...we left less than 5mn later & said "forget this".

I mean...hello it was freaking middle of winter & dam cold outside...did they think we were gang-banger's with our 'puffy' colorful winter coats???



One of THE aboslute worst rental stores in the history of video rental's that i have ever seen!!!


So i say..."DEATH TO BLOCKCEN$OR"!!!!!!!!


Everyone please refuse to rent there & lets put those corporate *******s out of business!!

Rypro 525

do you have a local hollywood or a mom and pop shop in your area or do you have to have to deal with blockbuster. if not, just buy something and if it sucks, sell it on ebay.

Julie Walker

Well theres a Hollywood a few blocks farther away than BB. Then even farther is Home Video which is were i usualy rent now whenever i do...since they actually carry uncut films,WS versions + have huge VHS & growing dvd section with lots of rare stuff,much of which is not on dvd.



I was thinking of maybe going into a BB,especially this one out near my Dads house that absolutely has 0 Unrated titles,while the one near my house has a couple,but not many. So since this other one is even more conservative....i may just ask if they have the unrated verison to this & that,as well as 'banned from BB' films like Last Temptation of Christ....see what they say,tell them there 'policies' are pointless & wrong..we adults want a choice + if they are the family store they claim,then why bother carrying censored versions of adult films? what about adults who want uncensored films?...yadayadayada..& then say "To think i was going to beome a member here!" & leave

ajbowling

But even if they used FOS CHECKIN, sometimes, due to how long the video was out, they may still incur charges. As I remember, it only took a couple days of charges off, sometimes it seemed to give a fine to the last renter for a period longer than a couple days.

If the person simply responded to the prompt that came up when someone else wanted to rent it, I think it checked it in normally.

But like you said in a previous post, if the manager did the FOS report correctly (and that's no given, I had in the past found 5-6 tapes not found the previous day), there shouldn't be any problems whatsoever.

God, I hated the FOS list with a movie that had over 100 copies.

Another resident ex-Blockbuster assistant manager,
-jarrod

joefrog91

You're right Jarrod, I forgot that you could check it in off the prompt. If it's really busy, I could see where someone could check it in and forget to check it back out.

Yes, I also hated doing the FOS list on videos that had over 100 copies. That's why I would get the part-timers to do it if I wasn't opening with the store manager.

Julie, I tried to respond to your last post earlier, but it didn't show up.

You have a right to hate Blockbuster for what you went thourgh. I do not doubt it happened the way you said it did. The only thing is I don't understand how the manager could tell when your brother returned the rentals. The computer only shows the date and time a rental was checked out and when it was checked back in. Like I said before, always insist on having your rentals checked in while you watch. I've gotten some weird looks and some people assuring me that it will be checked in, but I keep insisting until they do it.

Also the reason Blockbuster started the noon return time was to appease all the people who complained about having to return their rentals by midnight. So Blockbuster gave everyone 12 extra hours. There was a big advertising campaign about it.

Julie Walker

Well how the BB manager knew when they were returned was.....my brother returned them inside to him & he set them off to the side,then they were checked in the next day after the due date!


This is not the first time this has happened. We could return a video the very next day after renting(since we'd watch the movie that night & thats it)...& we would still get charged late fee's,even though the movie was not due back for 3 days,yet was turned in the very next day after rental!


So i've had enough with their oppressive tactics(they just put this mom & pop shop out of business,which i rented from for years since i was a kid)...oh well,at least Home Video is an even better video store & the anti-BB

So far i have had not one late fee,no matter if the video(s) where returned on time or days early!

Thats how you run a business!!

chanster

Look, if you don't like Blockbuster - DON"T CONTINUE TO GO THERE. I mean it sounds like you get ripped everytime you walked in there, SO don't DO IT. You are asking for trouble.

As for my experiences at Blockbuster, well they have been pretty good. I snagged a few of those Shrek cards, rented at least 50 + movies (for nothing since I sold Shrek on Ebay) and never had a late fee. Also snagged a few free rentals for doing about nothing, Blockbuster has worked PRETTY good for me. In fact, I could say that Blockbuster has been the victim of my hot deals sense more than any single B+M store.

Also, don't forget the AMerican Greetings folks - they gave me like 10 free rental cards + 50 flooz (which I used in time) for like 10 bucks or somethig.

Julie Walker

Well as i said i do not rent their anymore.Those are just experiances of mine there from a few years ago,when i started getting sick of them & finnaly said enough & told them to screw off,they just lost a customer..& i haven't looked back since

markfp

I don't go to BB (but that's another story) but what I do at any place I rent is to actually stand there until they check it into the computer and don't just leave it in the drop box. I know this pisses them off but too bad. I've done this ever since I left one in a drop box at the public library and they said I didn't return it. Of course, it turned out it was right there on the shelf and that the clerk had put it away without checking it in.