I had one of my single worst-ever customer experiences today, dealing with my local Blockbuster store manager. At the start of the month, I rented a video (Men In Black 2, I'm ashamed to say) and returned it the next day. Two weeks later, I got a notice that I'd failed to return the tape, and was being charged $46 in late fees and penalties.
In trying to resolve this reasonably I have:
- Visited the store twice (only to find that none of the employees were "empowered" sufficiently to help me.)
- Called the national toll-free customer support number posted in the store -- it was out of service.
- Spoken to the manager for twenty minutes. She suggested I bring in the tape. I pointed out I didn't have it. She said she didn't have it, so therefore I must.
I gently pointed out that unless she could come up with an alternative compromise or resolution, I would simply decline the credit card charge of $46 and cancel my account. She couldn't even suggest an alternate idea.
Basic marketing: the economic value of a customer is generally many times greater than the value of a single transaction. It's never worth losing a customer over $46, when the lifetime value of their purchases is probably $500 or more.
Our local store definitely acts like they have no competition. But I'll be buying my movie rentals off Time Warner Cable's excellent new digital cable video-on-demand channels rather than having to wait for the DVD to be in stock at Blockbuster, and deal with their minimum-IQ staff.
All of this reminds me about Blockbuster's lame class-action settlement regarding inappropriate late return fees back in 2001. Blockbuster settled 23 suits for a total of $423 million, but they got to pay it out mainly as coupons on futher rentals... what a joke.
Tom,
I had a similar experience, the only difference was I actually lost the DVD. On the day it was due, I confessed my sins and awaited my fine ( I had lost a blockbuster tape in the mid-80's and the retail value of the tape was something like $80) Anyway, after (2) 30-something employees were unable to help, they called the 19 y/o asst store manager, who surprisely had a clue and quickly resolved the situation. He charged me $9.99 (fair market price for a used dvd) and cleared the account.
All these stores are one thing, "A RIP OFF" They have people working there I would not trust to run a lemonade stand. Simple common sense seems to slip past everyone that works there, in every imaginable way. A late fee should be like either a buck a day or it should be just like it would if you had rented it again and you get the 5 days again if you don't return it then you should get a phone call ect. The problem being is that even if you do keep it say for 2weeks there should be no reason to ever try to charge you 100's of dollars in late fees since the stuff only cost 20 bucks. Thus the reason I only rent movies I am unsure off and games as well other than that walmart/target ect have sales every week on new releases for like 15-20 bucks.
so I buy and never have to return anything
I had a similar experience, too. I rented a videotape on Friday morning and returnet it the same day in the evening. The next day I went there to rent another video which I bookmarked on Friday. They told me, I have one tape rented and they reminded me not to forget to bring it back. I said I rented it yesterday but that I already brought the video back. They wouldn't believe me... At last they found out a bug on the computer program. Because I brought the tape back the same day the program thought I had the tape at home....silly
Tom KARLO. What is up? But more to the point on this thread: why are you doing this when Netflix has a distribution center out here in Flushing? I get my Netflix faster that taking the walk to the Blockbuster. Drop me a line sometime. Talk to you soon...
Would you guys like some cheese to go with that whine?
I work at a Blockbuster. Now, I am in no way shape or form defending my employer because I could personally care less about the place. I go to work, I come home, I get paid.....that's all I care about.
Do mistakes like the ones you people are rattling off happen? Yes, it's called...sh*t happens people. For the 20 mistakes Blockbuster makes, employees like myself have to deal with 20,000 dumb ass customers. Get behind the counter and you'll realize that the majority of the public are dumb assholes. People constantly returning empty DVD rentals, bringing up empty coverboxes when the rentals are right there in front of them on the shelves (it's even better when they bring up the coverboxes AND the rental boxes), questions of "where are your movies to buy?" as the GIANT red banner behind them says "Movies to buy" and it goes on and on.
Yes Blockbuster is a rip with the late fees and all but leave the god damn store employees alone about it! What the hell can they do about it? NOTHING! This is a country run by corporations, blame it on the fat cats.
If you've got any comments, e-mail them to me since I won't be reading any replies on this forum or whatever it is.
I love Mark and Devlin's responses. They've obviously never worked in a video store and don't understand what profit is. It's one thing to be accused of a late fee that you don't owe or to be accused of not returning a movie that you did return (has happened to me, yikes!). But I've managed a video store before and have to say that most late fees are whatever the regular rental price is per day that you're late. The reason is because that's profit the store is losing because you kept the movie. Had you returned it on time, they would've gotten full price for it's rental. If they charge less than full rental price per day, then they're losing profit because of your forgetfulness. Also, regarding Mark's post... It's fine to charge $10 for a used DVD once you've lost it if, in fact, the store has made it's money back on it in rentals. But brand new VHS tapes cost about $80 at first, then drop to "sell-through" price (about $15) after about 3 months or so. If a store hasn't made it's full $80 back on a particular tape and you lose it, you should have to pay the difference in the price. Make sense?
What video stores sell, basically, is customer service. Whatever value they provide customers is attached to the quality of that service... if they can't provide better service than say, Netflix or Video-on-Demand, then they're not long for this world.
As for the fair value of rental prices, it's illogical to argue that it should equal the per-day price because that's the lost profit. Under any reasonable examination, it's well above the opportunity cost lost because of the late video. The lost opportunity is the _profit_ the store passes up on renting it to someone else, multiplied by the probability of it being rented (which is well below 1, since otherwise there would never be any videos left in the store at the end of the day.) So you're talking, conservatively, maybe 10% of the regular per-day rental price, lost to the store.
Also, the post was about Blockbuster -- which was trying to charge $45 for a tape they lost.
My husband rented 1 DVD and 3 kid's videos from Hollywood Video in June 2002 and I returned them on time to the drop box. We didn't usually rent from Hollywood since they increased their prices, so this was not a normal event for us, which is why it is so easy to remember. 2 weeks later, they called about the videos. I said that I had returned them to the drop box on the due date. In December 2002, we received a collection notice from Hollywood saying that we owed them $196. I tried to clear up the problem with the store manager and with Hollywood (they are their own collection agency, you know) but they aren't budging. I even offered to come to an agreement to make this situation go away, but they offered a "discount" to make the price $120. I said that this was extortion and I wouldn't pay that amount for something that I know I returned. We even priced out what it would cost to replace the videos and all 4 total less than $50. They admit that the bulk of the $196 is late fees. We have notified them in writing that we do now owe this fee and they have chosen to ignore it. We've decided to blow off their threats to put this on our credit report since we have good credit and $196 is not going to kill us. We just refuse to be extorted this way.