I think the 'late fee' thing varies per store, in some cases. I have been with BBO for over a year, and have used the two coupons each month. The two cases I can remember where I've been 'charged' for a game I returned on time, were both from the same store, a store I don't go to that often. The last time, I called up and said "I got the call saying I owed money, but I returned the game" "clickclickclick-You sure did, I'll take it off." And the other time, I had gone to my 'regular' store, and they wanted to bill me for the late fee at the other store--but I basically said, "Hmm, no, I returned that on time and I'm not paying." So there's something going on at the other store, either technical difficulties or some lazy/clueless person working there.
Not honoring a card that's still valid, yeah, that sucks.
I do agree, they're the 800-lb gorilla, and many of their practices show that. A financial crisis could serve to shake them up and turn them a little more customer friendly. Maybe.

I think there's still room for a B&M, either for sales or rental. There are still lots of people who either don't want to wait, don't live on a computer, or don't trust credit card information across the net. I also don't think VOD, either thru cable companies or broadband internet, is all that attractive yet either [although cable VoD is better than downloading movies].

My beef with Blockbuster has nothing to do with pricing, rentals, whatever. It's what the company stands for, the influence it has had on American cinema. It's a corporate, censorship-endorsing, monopolistic evil that has blighted the movie landscape for waaaaay too long.

---yeah, but don't they rent out those crappy Alliance releases of U.S. films?

Agreed, but publicly held companies have an obligation to their shareholders to return something on the investment. This leads to all sorts of pressure to increase profitability and maximize relationships to the benefit of the company (and shareholders) and not to the consumer or employee (unless that too serves the shareholders). I think that if you take the time to look at major consumer-oriented publicly held companies you'll always go down the same path of F the customer, we gotta make a profit.

[hijack]What company do you use?[/hijack]

I have to thank Blockbuster for causing my longtime netflix account to go down a couple of bucks per month .

I don't want to see the employees loose their jobs. But I couldn't care less about the investors. They're the ones who have been reaping the rewards of BB killing off all the small shops that were better to begin with. It was their investment captial that helped drive all the small business owners out of business. I'm having a hard time understanding why they deserve my pity.

Which is why BB (among others) is in the shape it's in. Believe it or not, customers do notice this kind of business attitude.

And that dichotomy is, unfortunately, a holdover from the go-go 80's and overpriced, instant return 90's. Making a profit and taking care of the customer are *not* mutually exclusive, unless you're only interested in extremely short-term profits.

Can't wait for the official one-and-only What I snagged at the Blockbuster Going-out-of-Business Sale thread ....