Video Store Late Fees.

Surely there are tonnes of stories out there about the fines. Have you ever racked up fees so high that you had to change your name and leave the country? Well, not entirely but there is a blacklist that I have heard of in the Blockbuster Chain.



I can say that I haven't paid a fine for years. I have probably hired 50 dvd's this year and they have virtually all gone back on time. So people have a problem forking out for their fine? There is talk that retail stores are going to be a thing of the past with the Internet. You can now download a movie from Bigpond (not accounting to your download limit) for the same price as a dvd or less, and you get to have it for 3 days. It's just added to your bill at the end of the month. You can plug new TV's directly into your internet and download them on your TV!


One that I got away with about 10 years ago was I lent a video to an acquaintance and he never took it back. I was worried when they tracked me down after I had moved but they let it go.

Funny thing is, the rationale is that if they don't have the video they can't hire it out. But nearly every time I am in the video store there is always at least a couple of copies of each movie. Very rarely is there absolutely not one copy there.

Discuss.

http://www.quickflix.com.au/ = no late fees.

I haven't been to a video store to hire a DVD for a few years now. Viva la internet + increasingly cheap DVDs from JB Hi-Fi etc!

I do remember getting a letter from a debt collector years ago about a $10 late fee that I forgot to pay though so some of them are persistant I'm sure it would have been easier for them to just call me but it was probably some silly store policy.

Video Ezy was effectively splayed by every consumer protection agency in Australia several years ago. They were listing defaults on the CRA files of members with late fees in excess of $50. It was found that a video rental contract does not bind the customer in the same way as a consumer credit agreement does; as such they were forced to pay the cost of repealing every default listed.

Late fees are a confidence trip put on the hirer. The assumption is that by you having a DVD out longer than the agreed time frame you are preventing the store from generating revenue. If they want to take you on legally then you can demand they substantiate the grounds for the loss, meaning they will need to substantiate actual incidents of demand for the title you had hired on the days you had it for.

If a DVD hire retailer makes a claim that they will take action against you to recover a fee they are scaring you into paying. Just refuse to pay, inform them that you will file a complaint with whatever consumer agency in your state and then advise that you will be going to one of the many other retailers in what is saturated and over supplied industry;

Alternatively, you can pay $1 (or more if you wish) from the outstanding balance. This is legally considered to be goodwill compliance and you will have 'broken' the liability.

If a store is so bold as to claim they will undertake legal recovery action against you, then invite them to do just that. The chance they will follow the process through to judgment is slim to none.

For those who haven't seen it, relating to this.

I have nothing relevant to say, it just reminded me of that

I used to be a manager at Video Ezy and we were so easy going on late fee's because when you say to a customer that they have an outstanding late fee of $7 they laugh at you and cause a shit storm...

It's just not worth it imo, Id usually say to my staff not to worry about telling people that they have late fee's because i just couldn't be fucked arguing with them..Anyway my store had the highest late fee recorded which was nearly $1600...(I got busted for that too )

Be kind to the brick and mortar video rental stores. They're living on borrowed time.

With Quickflix - they are good, just make sure when you sign up for a free trial that you cancel it before the trial runs out and it ticks over onto a paid subscription if you don't want to continue with it.

That was, at least a few years ago, the foundation of their business model. Though that could all have changed now they have a reasonable amount of subscribers nationally.

One of my friends works at a video ezy and was telling me the other day of a 20 grand late fee that was racked up after a fault in the system change a few years back so it never got sent to the debt collectors and just accumulated. I was trying to get him to convince his manager to send a letter to the person for shits and giggles,imagine your reaction if you received mail trying to make you pay 20k for a hired movie.

When i was a teen i worked in a video store and man i HATED charging people their late fee's. The bullshit that came along with it was crap. The stink people kick up over $5.... i have never argued with a video shop attendant about late fee's because i know how shit it is charging people it.

People just don't get that the world doesn't revolve around them, and that if they keep an over nighter an extra night then they have to PAY for that extra night. The shop could have hired it out to someone else and made that $5 off them so PAY UP MOFO!

I should also ad that whilst I advocated not paying late fees earlier I also say spread the wealth. Even if the store has a multi-national conglomerate name, most of these shops are owned by family units running a small business on tight margins. The people working there are also on fairly borderline wages.

The imposition of the fee itself hasn't got much tangible weight behind it and you can't be legally bound beyond having your membership terminated, BUT, everything needs to be put into context.

If you held a DVD over a couple of nights an its a fair cop, then part with your $5 - $8, give the guy/girl behind the counter a smile and be on your way.

Sad thing is there is a good chance there won't be many of these store around by the current decade is out. Most of them now are mini JB-hifi's already

An ex and I kept Napoleon Dynamite, in its new release days, long enough to accrue a couple of hundred in late fees. We took it back but couldn't even afford the 50% off for immediate payment deal they had. I have no idea what happened to that debt.

Also, I borrowed seven weeklies once, came home to return them, couldn't find them, thought they must have been returned, and went on holidays for a while. About two months later I found them in a drawer. I put them in the store's return shute late one night. Not 100% sure what happened to that debt.

I miss the old video stores, though. The employees were often film obsessed and could tell you so many interesting things about random movies. I've been a Quickflix member for about two years and I like it, but I do miss the thought and consideration that took place in video stores. It seemed to matter what you picked, back then. And you consulted with the person you were going to be watching it with. It was more of an event. Now, not so much.

I received a letter from Blockbuster the other week telling me to pay a $40 overdue fee I have with them. I actually changed video stores just so I didn't have to pay. Like fuck I'm paying a $40 overdue fee for five weeklies...

eggman said:

Late fees are a confidence trip put on the hirer. The assumption is that by you having a DVD out longer than the agreed time frame you are preventing the store from generating revenue. If they want to take you on legally then you can demand they substantiate the grounds for the loss, meaning they will need to substantiate actual incidents of demand for the title you had hired on the days you had it for.

Click to expand...

drugfukkdrockstar said:

People just don't get that the world doesn't revolve around them, and that if they keep an over nighter an extra night then they have to PAY for that extra night. The shop could have hired it out to someone else and made that $5 off them so PAY UP MOFO!

Click to expand...

Funny thing is... except for tightarse tuesday there is always at least one copy of a new release movie there, they buy so many copies! And yeah, always... I have monitored my local shop by at least browsing 2 or 3 times a week to see what new dvds have come in that week.

^ That is what I think also. I can't see how these guys can claim they have been prevented from generating income when they have an additional over supply of specific stock.

When ever it is stock in which there exists an excess-demand most stores do a ring around to try and bring all outstanding copies in from the previous night hires.

Torrents killed DVDs for me full stop so late fees are irrelevant. I just can't be arsed paying for shit anymore.

I still pay for CDs 'cause I like the whole package and I like that some of the money probably makes its way to the artist, but all those rich hollywood arseholes, FUCK THEM!

/apologises to all the makers of small budgeted foreign films etc. I may have downloaded.

I still hire DVD's. I still like to go to the store and browse around, you cant do that on Vuze. Also, I cant be arsed downloading a movie and then burning it or watching on my poxy 19'' screen.

My last late fee was around $25 for the final season of Sopranos. It just sat at my house for a few weeks ....I have to re hire it because I didnt finish watching it.

So apparently Blockbuster is in some financial strife in the states:

Video chain Blockbuster Inc filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday

How Netflix (and Blockbuster) Killed Blockbuster

I know someone who racked up like $500 on Dogma...
not sure how that one got sorted.

Dude who owned a video store once came to my house
and threatened to break the door down... not chill.

Can't really remember how that one got sorted either.

LP said:

/apologises to all the makers of small budgeted foreign films etc. I may have downloaded.

Click to expand...

Even Human Centipede?

Only late fees experience I've ever had was an ex girlfriend's dad owed I think $50-$100 in late fees (mid 90s) and a couple of the "heavys" came over to coax the money out of him. His daughter/my ex answered the door, the guys "gruffly" asked for him, he was just out of the shower so only had a towel on. He is a HUGE fcker, probably weighed about the same weight as the 2 guys combined and most of it is muscle, he was a brickie, got divorced and became a cop. Each night we'd hear*boom boom* from him practicing his kicks on the kick bag out back, his life was, work, work out, exercise, kick bag and see his girlfriend. *repeat*

I swear I heard the guys voice become an octave or two higher when my ex's father came to the front door with just a towel on. He brushed them off as the guy meekly said "oh.. you umm, owe late fees, could you, umm, pay them?" and with a laugh my ex's dad just said "Yeah, I'll look into it. Bye" Slammed the door, never paid the fees far as I know and no one came back to hassle him about it

from the olden days of fxp'ing/MIRC xdcc fserv botsto these days BT.

Not for once i've paid for movies.

Piracy FTW :>