OT: Blockbuster to end late fees, but ...
 

... of course there's a catch.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/...ockbuster.html

DALLAS — Blockbuster Inc. is eliminating late fees, a move that affects both its customers and its 2005 outlook.

Instead of fees, Blockbuster will grant customers a one-week grace period at no charge. After that, the company will automatically sell customers the product, less the rental fee, if they still want to keep the item.

If shoppers change their mind and want to return the item they may do so within 30 days for account credit, minus a restocking fee.

In a press release Tuesday, the entertainment-rental company said it expects operating income for 2005 will be flat with full-year 2004, before $50 million in costs related to the late-fee plan, as softness in the rental sector continues.


So ... whaddya think?

Good idea for them. I saw Young Guns 2 for sale there last month, for 29.95

I think folks are going to be buying a lot more DVDs from Blockbuster next year.

Yup...just on pure laziness/convenience.

Their rental rates are obscene. I knew some people that would rent like 40 or 50 bucks worth of movies a month, i tried to talk them into netflix, since it just makes a lot more sense.

Well, they are insane to do that, even if they would rather go pick movies up on demand rather than wait through the mail. Blockbuster offers a similar service to netflix, just for a few dollars more per month.

I hate blockbuster

We use this service and rather like it. In addition to the netflix system that we get to take advantage of, we get 2 or 3 coupons for a free in-store rental every month.

Sure, I was just pointing out that anyone who pays $40-$50 a month on rental fees at Blockbuster is really, really, really bad at math.

oh, definitely. Just a random comment on blockbuster's monthly service. I feel dirty even making it, I hate blockbuster... but it's a damn fine service.

If nothing else, this new policy will make the due dates on the movies a much bigger issue, no more "oh, oops, we forgot, oh well, we'll deal with it later"

Our local grocery store has $1 rentals for any movie or DVD on Mondays. Woo :D

SI

I'm currently watching the Star Wars DVDs that we got out of the library. Woot :-D

Movie rentals may be expensive....but going to a movie is way more so..

maybe not as much as you think. 6.50 for a movie ticket here, over 6 dollars(not sure the exact amount) to rent a movie at our only local rental place.

we have rentals for 6 bux.....but it costs us $11-$13 to go see a movie.......and then there is the snack counter to deal with.

bring your own snacks in, cheaper that way

$10 - $20 to actually BUY most DVDs so you can watch them whenever and wherever you want.

I am very happy with the Blockbuster netflix style service. I'm getting a very good turn around on the DVDs I request, and because of the service, I am cancelling all of my premium movie channels we're getting through Direct TV. I think the new service rocks.

i didnt know blockbuster owns Netflix?

or you meant you subscribe to both blockbuster and netflix service?

I'm sorry I should have said Blockbuster's Netflix like service.
I pay a monthly fee, and they ship the DVDs my family requests to and from my mailbox.

i like Netflix..its awesome ..i am in california and the deliverly is always 2 days for them to receive my dvd back or for them to deliver it to me..

i think it worth it than renting from a video store..

I pay $16 a month for unlimited (well 2 videos a day with a full time job is basically unlimited) DVD rental from Blockbuster. Is this not available everywhere? I have to say that this blows Netflix away as I can rent whatever I want basically any day of the week.

It is also a genius move on their part I should add. How many videos were they really renting Monday-Thursday? And how many suckers like me are shelling out $16 a month and renting a bunch of videos that would have just sat of their shelf anyways. But why all of the hate for Blockbuster? Do we miss the mom and pop store that would have 2 copies of each video that were always rented out? Not sure how Blockbuster became the spawn of all evil.

Netflix and gamefly are such a better deal.

BTW, gamefly is the basically the same as Netflix, only you only rent videogames. For those of you who don't know.

Before going to law school I managed a Hollywood Video store and most of the complaints I heard about Blockbuster had to do with their attitude towards customers. They have become so big that they (at least used to) have some very non-customer friendly policies.

For example, my store's #1 customer (by rental $s spent--including "additional rental fees" [late fees]) spent more than $4,000 the first year that he came to my store. He stopped going to the Blockbuster two blocks from his house, and started driving to my store 15 minutes away, because they sent him to collections for less than a dollar worth of late fees that he hadn't paid.

At the time Blockbuster had a very aggressive collections policy and it was a reflection on how much of the market they controlled.

Currently I can't stand either BB or HW and subscribe to Netflix. BB because they cost so much and HW because I'm a disgruntled ex-employee (even though they treated me okay I hated the way they treated some of my friends in the company).

Amen. I stopped going to Block Buster when I had someone calling my work over less then $2. They got their $1.64 or whatever it was, but lost a customer for life.

Some dude spent 4000 dollars on renting videos a year? Holy shit, thats like 3 movies a day or something. Was he renting for a hotel or something?

He had a son that had some problems (I'm not sure if they were physical/mental or both). From what I understood he would work all day, and then stop by the store on the way home and pick up movies for him and his boy. They'd watch them, and then stop by the next day. They also rented video games.

At the time we had a limit that people could only check out 4 movies at a time, but when someone is spending that type of money at your store you break the rules for them. I'd have corporate calling me asking why I'd checked out 5 new releases and 4 new games to a customer at once. I'd tell them to check his account and one look at his rental history usually cleared up the questions for awhile.

My #2 customer ran an RV park and she would check out a bunch of movies to play at the office. She only rented about $2500 per year.

off topic, but similar to what Mgadfly wrote, when I worked at a Black Angus restaurant while in college, we had a customer who came in 4 to 8 times per week to eat and maybe once per week to drink in the bar. He was a nice guy who usually ate alone. We gave him the royal treatment when he came in.