So, Blockbuster.com’s customer service give a less the spectacular response regarding the late fee’s I had been charged.
My Message To Them:
I do plan on returning to the store and discussing this with a manager, but I’m a little upset about the fact that it was not mentioned to me that late fee’s had been re-instated for store rentals. When I came to the local store to get a couple movies with ones from Blockbuster.com, I was informed that I had a ~$8 balance on my account for a movie and a game that I had returned four days late. Despite my better judgment I proceeded to pay the fine, however I wanted to express how frustrated I am over the fact that I had not been informed of the late fee policy change when returning the movie and the game.
Blockbuster.com’s Response:
Dear Jason,
Thank you for contacting Blockbuster Customer Care.
We’ve received your email about the late fees in stores.
I am sorry if you feel that you were not informed sufficiently about the change on the account. We recently enhanced our policies. This was decided upon the objective of providing our subscribers with better title availability.
Thank you so much for understanding and for making Blockbuster part of your home entertainment.Sincerely,
Philamie
Blockbuster Customer Care
So obviously they have no problem not informing their customers, and feel that a simple “sorry” is perfectly ok. As I mentioned before, all Blockbuster customers be warned, that late fee’s have returned, and they really don’t seem to care if the store tells you or not…
Update 1/23/2009:
Davis Freeberg found this article regarding Blockbuster going through some market testing.
I’ve replied to Blockbuster with the following:
I don’t really seem to gather that you connected the main reason for
my complaint. It isn’t the fact that you’ve reinstate late fee’s that
bothers me. That’s Blockbuster’s decision to make and I will have to
accept that if I wish to continue as a customer. What bothers me is
that the employee’s at the store indicated nothing to this fact. I’m
still looking for the receipt to see if it had anything, but
regardless, most people aren’t going to thoroughly read the receipt.As a matter of common courtesy and good customer relations, I would
think that you would understand explaining these things to customers
is a good thing. Blockbuster has had a number of lawsuits brought
against them in the past for not explaining rental policy changes
completely, both through marketing and the in-store employee’s. One
could only hope you wouldn’t want to repeat the same actions again…
I did a little digging and it looks like this is a Blockbuster HQ decision. You’re right about them “quietly” introducing this though. All I could find is one article from right at the beginning of the year.
http://www.star-telegram.com/100/story/1119307.html
I’m not sure whether or not you ending up renting the DVDs “your way”, but it will be interesting to see if they role this out nationwide.
That’s for looking! That’s exactly what I’d been googling for and couldn’t come across anything. Hopefully if they do roll it out, they opt for openness as opposed to letting customers find out the hard way.
As a part-time blockbuster manager, here some helpful information:
Late fees are being reinstated Nationwide at most Blockbuster locations starting March 1st. Basically, they are eliminating the 2-day rental & making all DVD/Blu-Ray/Game rentals 5 days. Everyday beyond that will be an additional .99 cent fee (which calculates at noon by our computers) until on the 10th day the product is converted to its sale value (which may be its new or pre-owned value depending on the product). After that point you have 10 days to get this product back into the store for a refund of the purchase price (but not the fees) or the product is yours to keep. THE FEES WILL AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE TO ANY CREDIT CARD LISTED IN OUR SYSTEM ONCE WE SCAN THAT PRODUCT IN.
Some stores have already had part (or all) of this policy in place as part of a testing phase to see how best to introduce this back to consumers (as far as I know). Every customer should be informed of any type of change such as this regarding the main terms & agreements of your membership. If for any reason you were not that is the fault of that stores manager and/or staff, and shouldn’t be held accountable (I would never expect one of my customers at my location to pay for a fee on a brand new policy they didn’t know about). Of course, each location and staff is different but all of these decisions are made by the managers on duty, but corperate offices send out emails WEEKLY informing management of all changes and this knowledge is expected to be passed out to our consumers.
You have to understand, this had to be done. With the “no late fees” policy, Blockbuster sank its own ship. With customers knowing they could keep a 2-day rental for 31 days (31 days?!?!) and only pay an extra 1.25, the new release wall would stay stripped of titles. This would only add to frustrations of many of our customers. I’ve watched 3 stores in my district close down and some of my friends lose their jobs because this policy.
With ANY retail business, that store is a reflection of its STAFF>MANAGEMENT>DISTRICT MANAGEMENT<CORP. The decisions flow down in that order to our floor employees who have to make decisions on the spot to satisfy every customers needs. Realisticly, every business wants the best customer service it can achieve but that is just not going to happen everywhere. Almost all of the problems I have read about here deal precisely with your stores staff not doing their jobs correctly, or the customer not knowing the terms and conditions of their membership agreement (in which case an employee at your location SHOULD be happy to explain to you).
I can't blame anyone for not wanting to visit a Blockbuster after some of the horror stories I've seen here. Shit like this would not fly at my location.
Helpful tips for the fees : Blockbuster MOVIE PASS customers will not be subject to the fees as well as Blockbuster Online Total access customers who trade in their sleeves for a free rental (it has to be a fully free trade it, not a 1.99 trade in).
-Lowly Part-Time Blockbuster Manager Scott