Late fees are the bane of my existence. Not only do I have to spend over $5 to rent a fricken movie… but they know full well that the pace of life almost dictates that half the time you won’t be able to return the movie on time… and them WHAMMOO!!!! They nail you with the late charge. Suddenly you’ve spent $8 or $9 on a rental. Grrr… I can’t blame Blockbuster for that really… it’s my own fault.
The good folks over at FilmRot put up an interesting post about some changes Blockbuster is trying out to their late policy. Here’s what they have to say:
Before you go thinking the mom-and-pop-shop killer has gone soft, there is a caveat, of course. Instead of charging for member tardiness they’ve decided they’ll just charge you for the WHOLE FREAKING VIDEO.
“…customers will be given a one-week grace period after that to return the product. After that grace period ends, the chain will automatically sell them the product, less the rental fee. If the customers don’t want to purchase the movie or game, they can return the product within 30 days for a credit, less a restocking fee.”
Hmmm… interesting approach. If they mean “sell you the video” as meaning a NORMAL prices video… then it almost becomes an interesting try before you buy kind of system. However, if they charge you like $30-$40 for the videos, then it becomes something of a rip off. I’m interested to see how they structure this. It could either be quite inovative… or really evil.
