My buddy and I rented "Star Wars Battlefront" for the PS2* last weekend (3/4) and I had the game until the 12th. (By the way, the game was horrible IMHO.)

I headed to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Conference on the 11th, so I turned the game in a day early. My wife and the kids were in the van and saw me walk up to the building and drop it in the slot.

So the conference was great and we had a really good time at my cousins house, I learned a lot from the conference and met a lot of new people...

Then I came home to find a message on my answering machine from "The Automated Blockbuster Video Message Center" that I had an outstanding rental... so I called the number.

Seems they don't have record of me turning it in and can't find the game on the store floor anywhere and that I haven't turned it in. I explain my side and the manager says "Well, we aren't going to do an inventory for two weeks, so until then we can't prove if we have it or not."

This didn't make me happy.

"I swear I turned it in, my wife and kids watched me turn it in."

"Is it in your car?"

"Like I would knowingly walk up to the building stick my hand in the return thing and walk away. I put it in the return slot."

"Again sir its not here, and we won't know if we are wrong until we do an inventory in two weeks."

"So what's the penalty then?"

"After one week, we charge the game to your account. If we find it, we take it off, if not then we'll have to talk about that."

"You betcha we will."

"We see that you have rented here before and this has never been a problem. So we'll have to wait for the inventory."

... and then played the "is it in your car?" card again and I took his name, number, noted the date and time of the call and that I would be calling back in two weeks.

I've never had this problem before and hope to never again. Thank goodness I only have $11 left on my GC from last Fall, so once this is done and that card is spent, I'm doing the H-E-B "$1-a-day" rental machine.

AARRGGHH!!

(* and too make a long story even longer, when I rented the game, we were half way home and I realized they had given me an Xbox version of the game, so I had to go back and get them to trade it out for a PS2 version. Sheesh! That must have been a bad omen right there.)

Hmm... when you went back and traded it in for the PS2 version, did you get them to redo the transaction (I have no idea if they charged the PS2 or the Xbox one against your account initially). I can see if they thought you had the Xbox version and you returned the PS2 version, how they wouldn't have checked it back into the system.

I still have the receipt of the switch, which they also had in the computer and checked that too. No dice.

Still have to wait for them to do inventory in two weeks.

Well, many things could have happened to be honest. Your best bet is to be polite about the whole thing and wait it out. However! You may want to make sure that your credit card is not on your account, or the charge will go directly to your credit card rather than your rental account. Simply go to the store and ask the manager to remove your credit card number until this is sorted out. If they aren't willing to do a more thorough search in the mean time, they should certainly do this for you.

Now, what could have happened: (Being fair to all sides here)

1.) The item was returned and was not properly checked in. Yes, this is annoying but video store clerks are human too. Particularly when new people start mistakes can happen. The item was then not put in the proper place and thus is not readily found. Again, annoying, but humans are not perfect. The inventory will turn this up because everything in the store is scanned, so even out of place product will show up.

2.) The item was returned and the store has a thief working there. Once upon a time I took over one of these stores. In my first three days as manager I had filled an entire legal pad with guests that had issues with product that they said they had returned. Two weeks after taking over the store we did a full inventory that took almost ten hours, plus two more days after the fact. Then I spent the next three days reserching accounts and calling the guests back. Of those three pages we found about half, we wrote off the other half, and I told three guests to stick it (if you want that story I will share). Of the half that I wrote off, I actually got six of them back when the guests came in and apologized profusely and each said that they did so because I had given them the benefit of the doubt in the first place.

3.) The product was returned, but to the wrong store. I have guests all the time swear up and down that they returned the item. They know that they did. They remember dropping it in the slot when they ran next door from the grocery store. I am not next to a grocery store.

4.) The product simply was not returned. More than once I have had a guest in my face claiming that they had returned the product. They knew that they did. They walked in and handed all three items to the clerk. Then they decided that they should call their spouse/daughter/son/neigbor/friend/pimp/chauffer/gynocologist/favorite lumberjack and check. Low and behold, they had lent it to somebody else who was supposed to drop it off, but the designee still had it.

Again, I am listing the possibilities. Alot will depend on the manager of the store if the product is not found. The manager that I work for now and I have SEVERE philosophical differences. If it isn't found, I would look at your account and make a judgment call. The guy I work for would tell you too damn bad.

If you have some spare time, you may want to take a walk through their game section and see if you find it. Yes, the employees should do that, but trust me, they are being stretched as thin as possible and complete their normal tasks only by miracle.

If you have any questions or need anymore help, e-mail me.

Hopefully this is the case.

That never crossed my mind, but I guess there are folks like that in the world.

While these are two possibilities, I did return it and to the right store. But I do remember that once quite a few years ago, my mom returned it to a different store and it all worked out.

Since I'm on Spring Break right now, I might go do this. Thanks for the suggestion.

How hard would it be to make the DVD return slot have a bar code reader and encode the case with an electronic sensor? They could even have a display acknowledging the return. Just a thought.

I have had several discs that were supposedly late, probably 1 out of every 30 or so. They've never given me a hard time about removing the charge though, but luckily with their unlimited rental plan I return the discs at the same time as renting the new batch, so the problem went away on its own.

This has happened so many times to me. I make it a point to walk in, hand it to them and either watch them scan it in or ask them to do it. Hopefully all gets resolved!

What stopping someone from simply returning just the DVD case and not the actual DVD (the barcode scanner in the slot)?

Jesus man, do you know how many times I walk out of my trailer and go to the laundromat just to find out that the quarter/bill changer is broken? And you want a mchine to scan in your movies and give you a receipt? Shit, I can't even get $5 in quarters to call the ho's!

Seriously, you are talking some expensive technology in a cheap-ass business. However, there is something like that already developed. McDonald's test marketed DVD vending rental machines in the Denver area last year. Supposedly it was successful, but I haven't heard anything about it in some time.

We have them in our grocery stores here (H-E-B) and its literally a dollar a day. If you get it on Monday and turn it back in on Tuesday, its a $1. If you turn it in Wednesday, its $2.

My friend uses it, but I've still got some $$$ on my card from the Fall DVD $8 deal, so once that's out, I'm doing the $1-a-day thing.

This happened to me a few years back with Movie Gallery. My then fiance and I were active members for years, renting a lot at a time, sometimes every weekend, in both games and movies. The last time we checked out two video games that were older, and the types you can easily pick up in the store for under $20. We get a letter in the mail a few weeks later saying they never recieved them back, when we did drop the tapes off in the morning before my (then) fiance was going to work. They said they would make sure it wasnt on the shelves and just hadnt been checked in. The problem was never resolved and for ages they sent me bills for an outrageous amount. I believe it was over 100 for 2 cheap games. If we were planning to rip them off after all those years, it would have been one of those times when we had the better new release games, as well as a couple of movies.

As for the blockbuster beside my house, I have learned the hard way (as have my parents and a friend), that you should never check out a movie and then go and pay to keep it out longer.They always screw it up to the point that I think the small place may be running some type of scam.

Got the bill today for the game... $43. The price minus the rental fee.

I've got 30 days til it jumps to the CC.

The inventory check is a week away.

Wish me luck.

I don't mean to cause you worry, but the inventory check rarely results in anything. At best, it's a delay tactic. One of the possiblities is that it was returned, did not get scanned when the employee checked in the games, and it got put behind the wrong box. In that instance, having them do inventory would help, because even if the game is behind Mrs. Doubtfire, once they scan the barcode, it will check it in on your account, but I am willing to bet they have already checked in depth for it on the shelf and in their mismatch cabinet (where items are put and not checked in if they have the wrong item in it or are returned empty.)

I do hope it works out for you, but be prepared is all I am saying.

Good luck Goldberg. Inventory saved me when one of their genius employees never checked in the Shaun of the Dead I rented, and somehow put it behind the Day After Tomorrow

What's stopping someone from doing that without the barcode reader?

I sure hope I get the same outcome.

Did they give you anything other than an apology?

More than likely, it wasn't the employee who put it behind the Day After Tomorrow. Customers are notorious for changing their minds and slapping something they are walking around with behind whatever. I am not ruling out the employee possibility, but it's more often customers doing that, and one just happened to get your DVD.

Of course not, just the fake apology.

I think Blockbuster should really do away with those damn quickdrop things. Would it really kill people to go in for the extra 15-20 seconds?

Everytime I had them tell me I didn't return something, it was when I dropped it off outside instead of going in. I stopped doing that and make sure I hand it to one of the people at the register so I can specifically point out who I gave it to in case they tell me I didn't return something.

Yeah that scenario wouldn't surprise me, but shouldn't the dvd have been checked in prior to that even happening?

Should have. Sometimes the barcodes are hard to read, or it could have accidently been skipped over in a pile of DVDs. It happens.

i guess alot depends on the mngr of the store.

we just do benefit of the doubt and credit off the dvd or game when this happens.
then we ask that if it is found at home just bring it in.

The problem with this is that with the quickdrop, it allows people to return things 24/7. Without it, they have to do it when the store is open. Whenever I rent something, I drop it off on the way to work, well before the store opens. Often after work, my route doesn't take me past the store so I'd have to make a special detour. (I don't rent that often) Having to make a special trip isn't that much of a hassle but I could definatly see people deciding not to rent to avoid the hassle.

Then lock the quickdrop during store hours. Make the people come inside to return things when they're open. It'd be even better for business, people running in, see a movie they weren't planning on renting and run out with it.

I have long advocated this NightFlier! Why would a business want to encourage people to NOT come into the store? Anybody's Hollywoods still have the drive up drop off? That was the worst!

Anyway, any update Goldberg?

Well, it ended happily.

I called the manager on Friday and asked him if the game had been found during the Inventory Check and he informed me that the inventory check had been moved to Sunday, April 10th. I told him that the charge was placed on my card on March 12th and the 30 day period allowed for the charge to be reversed was the next day (April 11th since there are 31 days in March).

He put me on hold for a minute and then came back on and said that he was going to take my word that I did turn it in (I've rented from that particular location exclusively for the last three years, with only one late return) and that the charge would be reversed.

I thanked him and mentioned that from now on I will bring the game or movie into the store and hand it to a clerk. He said that that might be a good idea. (Whatever.)

So that's over with.

Thanks for all the comments.

Still, the question remains....are you sure it isn't in your car?