My daughter is having some friends over — she requested that I rent some scary movies. Off to Blockbuster. I have two films for her party – The Shining and The Excorcist (that should get them plenty scared!) and one for me Pieces of April. I get to the cashier, present my card and am informed that I owe $4.88 in a late fee. They feel that I did not return my last rental The Secret Lives of Dentists by noon. I am fairly certain that I did return it by noon, but I put it in their slot/bin thing – perhaps they didn’t empty their bin until 5:00pm! I think that this fee is ridiculous!! Even if they are correct, and I did not get the movie back to them until 5, they are charging me $1/hour??!!! When these movies need to go back, I plan on marching the recent rentals into the f-ing store and having them notarized! I am never renting from them again! bastards.
What to Rent. Here is a site to help me pick out what movies I am in the mood to NOT rent from Blockbuster!
purlingswine 
I agree re: Blockbuster. In a recent news story Blockbuster said that they make more money on late fees than on rentals. No suprise there!
I used to work for Blockbuster–the late fee is an “extended rental fee” so you are paying for an extra day. Try not to get mad at the cashier, it’s corporate policy.
You will be glad to know that I did not take my frustration out on the cashier – I have worked in retail in the past and know that they are only doing their job.
Blockbuster is evil. If you have a DVD player, I can highly recommend Netflix. You pick a nice long list of movies you would like to rent, and they send you 3 at a time, complete with postage-paid envelopes to return them when you are done. They never bug you about how long you keep the movies, and they are very prompt about sending them out once they receive your returns. It costs about $20 per month (about the same as renting 4 movies from a video store) and you can rent unlimited movies for that price. We got a 3 month gift subscription for Christmas, and we love it.
Yes! Former Blockbuster employee turned avid netflix member. Thanks for sparing the cashier :)
Just got charge for late fee for 2 dvds that they said were returned late. This is ridiculous, I told them I returned them before their 2 day 12 noon cut-off time to avoid the late fee. I rented the movies on April 10,2004 and watch all them that night till 2 am including the one that is due for 5 days.I remember I return all 3 movies the next day(Easter Sunday). They said all 3 movies were returned together just like I said but they insisted it was scanned Monday and that I could have returned it that day. Whatever….. Its been 3 three weeks who knows if its their mistake. I ain’t coming back there, Hollywood movie rental is also close by. Bad thing about drop boxes is you dont get some kind of a receipt that you return it that day and what time or else when they charge you for late fees, its your word against theirs. They can suck your money that much and just like that, might as well just buy the used one and you can keep it at almost the same price with the late fee.