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

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.