I was shocked at the replacement price at first, but remember asking around and finding out that it really *did* cost that much to replace some rental VHS movies back in the day (which I admit sucks for stores like Blockbuster, and I didn't ever complain about the replacement price itself during the fiasco).

Also yea, I don't remember the receipt / printout process being a problem back then at all - it indeed must have changed since I last set foot in there. I still had to ask for one once and a while when they didn't automatically hand me one, but I don't remember it being a hassle.

Movies can only be returned for 37 days after their due date, after 37 days the rental is permanently sold to the account and can no longer be returned at all. If you had returned the films at most 3 weeks before you received the collections letter, then you had returned them well after the 37 day cutoff.

That said, the manager was running a bad store and not following SOP, there should have been a notation on your account that your films had been returned "Post-37" The manager, with access to your account, can in-fact see what happened to the rentals, see when the auto-sale became final and should have been able to give you the movies you returned too late and now owned.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is, I'd be happy to have you at my store, you seem to be literate and reasonable, which is a damn sight better than a lot of what I have to deal with.

I can't speak for elsewhere but I'm proud of my store and the work we do, we're not perfect but we try and we're genuinely willing to help people. We're supported by an excellent District Manager who really cares about the work we do, not just in terms of figures but in real quality of service.

Don't dismiss the entire company some of us really want to see you happy.

All things being equal, if you return a movie from a corporate US store to another corporate US store the receiving store will automatically generate a transfer removing the film from inventory at the original store and receiving it at the second store, in the process removing it from your account at the first store.

In Canada, the computer will prompt us to check your movie into the original store's "Wrong Store" account, removing it from yours and we then have to ship it back to its home.

Between corporate and franchise stores the computer will recognize it's from the wrong store but the employee checking it in must call the original store and have them manually check it into their WS account.

While I hesitate to offer advice because 9 times out of 10 this guy's girlfriend finds the movie under the seat of her car I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this.

There are a number of things that may have happened to the film, most of which involve it being put in the wrong cupboard or bin, have them check their rental-prep problem cupboard, in case the rental barcode came off, be prepared to tell them when it was dropped off, also make sure they check their Post-37 and Mis-Match areas.

If that doesn't resolve it, don't worry, it's not usually to difficult to get a Benefit of the Doubt credit, just remain calm, remember that we're people too and explain your situation to the manager on duty. If, like you say, your girlfriend's account has a good rental history (No previous credits for the same problem.) then it shouldn't be a problem at all. Don't settle on waiting for them to do rental inventory but be prepared to wait at least 7 days for a balance to appear at all.

Just try and remember this one simple thing: Probably the worst thing I as an employee can do to you without getting in actual trouble is to follow the rules exactly and if you're a dick to me, that's exactly what I'm going to do: My job and nothing more.

Sidebar: The charges this guy would see are not late-fees, nor are they a restocking fee, in Blockbuster parlance it is a Auto-Sale or Auto-Post charge, it is the computer charging your account the cost of a film that was never returned. (Not returned late, never returned at all.) In the case of the Ugly Truth it would be (At my store) 26.99 plus tax, the balance would post after the movie was kept 7 days late and would become irreversible 30 days after that.

I'd dropped it off at 7AM that morning on the way into the office. At 6PM, I walked into the Blockbuster, and saw the game on the shelf (I knew it was the same copy because of some blemish or mark on the label that I recognized). I showed it to the guy at the counter. He claimed I'd just brought it in.

I told them to watch the security tapes to prove I didn't. He refused. I told him to cancel my membership and he said "Well, you're going to pay anyway." I told him it would never happen.

As we were talking, a local cop happened to be in the store renting something and overheard us arguing. The guy behind the counter accuses me of fraud to the cop. So now it's a "thing" with the cop. I told the cop the same thing I told the genius behind the counter - "let's go watch the tapes".

We all went in the back, saw that I'd dropped it off at 7AM (they had a camera by the front door drop box), saw an employee futz with it during the day and put it on the shelf, and saw me walk in the store at 6PM'ish and find it on the shelf.

I didn't get an apology from the genius. I called the BlockBuster's store manager - he was a bigger mental giant than his employee, so I spoke with the District Manager. I ended up getting a $50 gift card that I sold to someone for $40.

I haven't been in a BlockBuster ever since. And now that their stores are going out of business, I'm so happy, it's all I can do to not stand in front of a store and laugh and point and say "HA! HA!" in my best Nelson voice...

Screw you BlockBuster - rot in hell for all eternity.

Don't pay any fee they assess. Charge back any amount on your credit card. If they reverse the charge back, just charge it back again. Wait a day and report your credit card as lost. The credit card company will give you a new card - and a NEW account number. Charges to the old account number bounce. Just make sure you authorize all the valid charges with the credit card company when reporting it lost so you don't get jammed up with any auto-debits or pre-existing charges you may have...

BTW, am I missing something in the posting commands? When I click preview and want to make a change before I submit, my whole post disappears. Am I doing something wrong or is the idea that I don't want to preview unless I'm sure its exactly the way I want to submit it? Isn't that why I preview?

If I were Blockbuster I would forward that to the MPAA's antipiracy unit.

I was a perennial "bad returner" to Blockbuster. I have a fairly high stress job, and travel often on the weekends, so if something came up I needed to address, it was not unusual that I would not watch the movie I rented until a week (or sometimes up to four) later. Although the "no more late fees" campaign was not really that, I dutifully paid the $1.25 "restocking" fee every time I returned my DVD to the store (and the same store I rented it from, just so you're aware).

The last time I rented from Blockbuster, which was in March of this year, I returned two DVDs a month after they were due, just as I had done many time prior. I dropped them off in the store, roughly two weeks before got on a plane to head out of the country for a leisure trip. Imagine my surprise, the day I returned, to find a notice from a COLLECTION COMPANY waiting for me in my mailbox for the price of the two DVDs I returned three weeks earlier. I got in my car, headed to Blockbuster, and the following ensued:

I asked for the manager, with my collection notice in hand, and explained to him that I had indeed returned the DVDs in question. I confirmed the date I had returned them, and nicely explained that if he wanted to look at my account, I often kept movies well beyond their due date and then paid the restocking fee after they were returned. He did look at my account, noted my past history (which included the fact that I have had the Blockbuster account for over eight years), but then snidely commented that there was no record of me having returned the DVDs in questions, and that Blockbuster could not be sure what happened to returned DVDs that had been out of their store for after 30 days. You see, after 30 days, the rented DVD is then converted to a sale. The restocking fee covers the cost of adding the DVD back in to the Blockbuster database if and when it does eventually come back to a store.

So now I had a collection notice, no DVDs and nothing to back up my story; it was essentially my word against the store's, and they had already sent me to collections, which was really the most insulting thing. I never received a call, or a mailed notice, or anything that might have indicated to me that they had not received my DVDs. I asked what recourse I had, and he manager said that I needed to take it up with the collection company.

I went home, promptly found information on your site related to this issue, and sent an e-mail via the Customer Service portion of the Blockbuster website. I pleaded my case there, and stated that if the DVDs in question were gone from their database, what was to stop an employee from taking that DVD instead of putting back in their system?

Twenty-four hours later, I did receive an e-mailed reply from a Customer Service agent, who said that she had talked to the location I used, and that she had noted that the collection was removed from my account. I also verified this by phone with the collection company two days after that, and she had indeed kept her word. I was surprised, because quite honestly, I really expected to have to fight, based upon my conversation with the manager.

I, however, am now a Netflix user, and have not been to any Blockbuster since. Imagine all the restocking fees they are no longer getting from me....

It's as if Netflix intercepted each email I sent to Blockbuster suggesting changes or upgrades and then implemented them themselves.

If you came into my store with the attitude and maturity that you claimed without a doubt we would work towards a resolution. The charges on your account came from an error (who's error doesn't matter at this point) and you are accountable but it sounds like you were dealing with a manager who was way over his head. Fraudulence is a stretch, you signed a contract, the terms are on your receipt. Either way the situation should've never gotten so sour.

If the norm for you was to get the history receipt for your returns, that's different. Each store bends policy differently and if you were the guy who asked for his hist for his check ins, then that's whatever.

My intention wasn't to say that you deserve the collections letter, or that you were harassing the store but instead, outlining a typical situation. You'd be amazed how hard someone will spin something to avoid responsibility and actually dealing with a calm, rational person is the exception. I've had people do the rooster strut over a $1.25 restocking fee. I if came off as bitter or defensive, trust me, I am. I probably imparted too much in my last response and I apologize.

Your situation was ten years ago, a lot has changed. Blockbuster didn't have to be nice or rational all the time because they were the only game in town but still, you were denied the proper avenues for resolution. Your proper action then should've been to contact the district manager, who can rights wrongs as easily as he wrongs rights.

I had a receipt because I requested one, which I got in the habit of doing because of previous issues with movies going missing upon return at that location. I'm sure the employees didn't *love* having to do the extra work, but nobody ever seemed overly upset at it and I was always thankful.

I somehow deserve fraudulent charges that appeared out of nowhere, and I should just pay the fines as some sort of punishment for trying to fight the fines?

Trying to fix a collections issue that could possibly ding my credit is harassing the store?

Sending out a polite and well written letter after getting no resolution at the store level is immature and impulsive?

I really can't wrap my head around your response.

Now if you have a csr not paying attention another customer could get that copy.

I'd go more along the lines of that possibly happening, assuming a geek squad member would never lie. :P

Because as someone already pointed out, it could well have been dropped off at a different video rental store. Or been taken to the library (I know someone who works at our local library and they say that happens all the time). Or any number of things. It could be BB that's at fault, or the OP that's at fault. But at this point, the employee has no proof one way or the other. He can't just take the OP's word for it. If you've ever worked retail, you learn pretty quickly that people *will* lie and steal for what seems to be very illogical reasons.

So to me, it sounds like the employee did what they were supposed to.

I will wait until the store is empty of customers if need be, because once that disc is out of your hands you're at their mercy.

There's a very small chance that the store is actually at fault. And in those rare instances that it falls on us, there's nothing in our policy that says we can't make it right. Your attitude is what greases the wheel. I've been prepared to take away multiple fees as customer service (or as a "one time exception") but instead of the person opening up the proper dialogue they hee and haw like a child and embarrass themselves. I don't get paid enough to reward immature, impulsive behavior. If you're harassing us on the phone, causing scenes in the store... yeah, you're going to pay that fine and yes, those are yours now.

I received a collection notice stating that I owed about $75 apiece to replace three movies that I know I rented and returned about six months earlier. I went and dug through my receipts folder and actually found the printout from when I returned the movies and drove down to the store, figuring it would be a fairly painless ordeal to fix the mistake.

The employees refused to speak to me about it and directed me to speak only with the store manager, who dodged me for a few weeks until I caught him at the store in person. He told me that he "didn't care" what proof I had of my return since his system showed the movies were missing, and suggested that I just suck it up and pay the fees because he "didn't have time to deal with this".

I typed up a formal letter explaining the situation, requested written proof that my account was corrected and no action was taken on my credit, attached the proof I had, and sent it to everyone involved via certified mail.

The manager continued to dodge me for a few months until I got an employee there to track him down and force him to answer his phone. The first words out of his mouth were "oh, it's YOU, what do you want NOW?".

I explained that I never received any follow up from my letter, and that I would still like to have proof that the matter was resolved for my files. He scoffed and told me I was making way too big of a deal about this, made fun of me for a while for "actually sending a letter", and then told me that the matter was solved and to stop wasting his time and there was no way he would send me anything.

I drove down there, requested a printout of my current account standing and closed my account right then. The whole time the manager just sat in the corner glaring at me with his arms crossed. The whole thing was way too hilarious to make me angry, and I couldn't help but smile while closing my account seeing an adult 20 years my senior pouting like a child.

Yeah, I work at Blockbuster. Yeah, I hate it. But the inability of most people to understand our rules, which are reasonable, is staggering. "I thought ya'll didn't have late fees!" We don't but if you'd like me to charge you $10+ instead of $1.25, I can do that.

At Blockbuster the customer is wrong until the opposite is proven because we can't honestly trust anyone. The good faith of the employee is constantly being contested by the customers at a job with more or less no chance for meaningful human contact. I don't know how many people have threatened me, flicking their spit in my face as words fall out of their lips like limp spaghetti, only to find the movie(s) in question in the drop box the next morning. I also realize that my store is an anomaly and not every location runs as smoothly or as with a sense of reason as mine.

Regarding MIke, I can understand his frustration, but I don't understand why he thinks the assumption is that he stole it. Maybe Blockbuster thinks Mike lost the movie. In any case, non-returned movies are billed to the customer, and I don't think Blockbuster really cares why the movie never came back.

I am amazed at the number of people who don't get a receipt from ATMs or gas pumps. There is even a option to decline a receipt.

PRECISELY. Blockbuster decided to pull this on me NOT TWO WEEKS after proclaiming the end of late fees. I made my case, pointed out late fees are supposedly abolished, they didn't budge on some crappy movie I wouldn't keep around even to just scare away vampires or something. I looked them right in the eye and said, "OK. Let's go to the counter and cancel my account. I no longer want to be a Buckbuster member, effective immediately."

Catharsis, I tell you.

Oh, and Netflix. Two thumbs up.

Now why doesn't Blockbuster do something like this? Seems like the perfect solution to the never-ending "I returned the movie" problem.

If you insist on giving them your business, a couple of things you might find helpful:

(1) We were instructed never to risk losing a customer over an issue that was less than $10. For smaller late fees, just ask nicely that they be removed. Cite that policy. If the peon your speaking to doesn't know about it, the shift lead or manager or duty will.

(2) Go up the chain. Every store has the store manager's name and district manager's name and phone number posted on the big board behind the registers. Tell whoever is running register that if they can't fix the problem, you'll need to go to the store manager. If this involves a credit over $20 or so, that's probably what you'll need to do anyway. Store managers tend to work weekdays 9-5. Catch them on one of those shifts. And be firm but friendly. Don't fly off the handle. Store-level employees make just over minimum wage, and trust me, they hate Blockbuster as much as you do.

(3) Blockbuster does not have the money to update their computer systems, so the stores are not linked together. If you've ever asked them if a movie that was in stock at another store, they physically call that store to look it up. The computer systems are DOS-based, and the records only go back 6 months. If you have a late fee over 6 months old, they won't be able to tell you what it was for and will have to take it off.

(4) Never, never, NEVER set up your account with a credit card. You can use a utility bill that proves your residence. That way when stuff happens, they don't charge you. Blockbuster is bad about just charging you and not asking, even when an incident is their fault.

Definitely walking them into the store is your best bet. If you get an employee checking in movies who is too busy chatting with other employees or doesn't care about their job (read: almost everyone who works there), chances are good that one or two boxes will go un-scanned in the massive piles they walk into every morning.

/doesn't care for chick flicks, but cares even less for stereotypical male comments regarding chick flicks.

That movie: Demolition Man. My gf wanted to see it, so I rented it along with Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Returned all three the same day. Both of the amazing, Oscar-worthy films were returned fine but somehow Demolition Man disappeared from their system.

I told them flat-out: What kind of person rents two Martin Scorsese films and Demolition Man, returns the good films, and keeps Demolition Man? 'Cos the only answer I can come up with is "a fucking retard". And if you're calling me a fucking retard, I'm going to be really mad.

The found the movie.

I ended up paying for the movie, much as it irritated me to do so.

Bottom line... blockbuster sucks and we all know that. This story doesn't really offer anything new.

Pretty much the employee was right, they would have to do the monthly inventory and if the movie showed up then the late fees would be taken off.

You also have to remember that not all customers are saints. I worked as a shift manager at a blockbuster and the ratio was almost very bad of customers that tried scamming vs the ones who actually brought their movies back. One that comes into mind is the man who I saw dropping his movie in the drop-box one day and when he came in the next day it showed the movie was 2 days late and he claimed he brought it back on time despite me seeing him bring it in the previous day late.

I'm not claiming that blockbuster may not be at fault (an employee could've just taken the movie home, or just not scanned it back in), but it wasn't just at my blockbuster I worked at that customers had their fair share of scamming. In either case it's ridiculous, but if both the customers and employees do their job (customer bringing it back and not just claiming they did, and employees who don't steal the movies or not scan them in) then there would be no problem at all.

"My girlfriend had rented the Ugly truth from our local Blockbuster. Pretty funny movie actually despite being a chick flick."

Mike must love his girlfriend a lot to sit through The Ugly Truth. When the trailer came out, I just turned to Mr. Pi and went, "Whyyyy?! Whyyyy?!"

Thinking about all the times blockbuster gave me shit makes me thankful for netflix.