Posted on 12/14/2004 10:25:56 AM PST by crushelits
DALLAS (AP) - Blockbuster Inc., the world's largest video rental chain, said Tuesday that as of Jan. 1, 2005, the company won't charge late fees on any movie or game rental at its more than 4,500 company-operated and franchised stores in the United States.
Under the ``no late fees'' program, a customer has one week to return games and two days or one week for movies. Also, Blockbuster will give customers a one-week grace period at no additional charge. After that, Blockbuster will automatically sell them the product, minus the rental fee, or customers can return the product within 30 days for a restocking fee.
Blockbuster said it has been testing different rental options in U.S. markets, and in the ``no late fees'' markets the increased rental transactions and retail sales offset the lower level of revenue resulting from eliminating late fees. Additionally, the company will lower its ongoing marketing, operating and promotional costs.
Blockbuster said that including the continued investment in new initiatives and the expected continued softness in the rental industry, operating income for 2005 is expected to be flat with 2004, before about $50 million in marketing and implementation costs associated with the ``no late fees'' launch.
Blockbuster said late fees would have contributed about $250 million to $300 million to 2005 operating income, which is now expected to be offset by growth in revenue resulting from increased store traffic, less promotional and marketing activity, and increased cost controls.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
Cool. Late fees have been the death of me lately, financially speaking.
Seems like it would reduce availability of a particular movie title. If they don't have to have it back, they won't. So more movies will be out at any one time.
I presume they've thought of this, since no Blockbuster executives called me for advice.
So, does that get me out of the late fees I have now? If so I can go back there for the first time in about six months.
Wow! So much for getting new releases in a timely manner. It was bad enough before, now you'll have to wait longer. Where's the incentive to get a movie back so another person can rent it?
They neglect to mention that rental places pay inflated rates for movies intended for rental (at least they used to). So instead of buying that DVD at Walmart for 13$, it'll be a considerable higher amout due to the "sale" from Blockbuster.
Wanna pay 100$ for Gigli?
APf
I'm with you 47. This will save me some considerable coin every week. Between the kids movies and playstation games that I always manage to lose under my truck seat for a week or two, late fees add up to the difference between choosing the Sam Adams or the Bud at the package store.
We did Netflix for awhile and it was pretty good. We just don't get the chance to watch that many movies so it wasn't quite worth it for us at the time.
I was thinking of trying that. Blockbuster also has a similar program, where you can keep up to 2 movies or games out for as long as you want, but you can't rent any more until you return them. Gamepass and Movie pass I think they're called.
Anyway, I thought about doing one of those things, but I really don't rent that many movies to justify the approximately $20 fee they charge. There really aren't that many good movies out. Of course, I've been paying that much in late fees anyway! LOL This move by Blockbuster will really help things out; assuming I don't keep any movies more than a week! Then I'll REALLY get hammered! (charged the RETAIL price {I assume} for these movies if they're more than a week late? Whew!)
People will just keep the movies longer, knowing they won't get socked with a late-fee penalty. Makes me appreciate Pay Per View more.
BlockBuster's business plan is out-dated.
They have screwed their customer base with late fees and high prices for years.
Now they can not figure out why Netflix and PPV are killing them.
So they create another policy which will further alienate them from their customers.
It is simple. Giving a week extension make no difference. Now people will just think they can keep their movies for longer. They still will return them late and will be even more angry when they have the purchase them or pay a restocking fee.
If Blockbuster wants to bring in more customers they need to lower their prices and improve their customer service.
I stopped going to Blockbuster because their employees are rude and lazy.
I cannot count the times that the employees just sat their talking on the phone while the check-out line got 20 deep.
What they have is a management problem.
They need to get so ball busters managing those stores.
The Kids who work their are useless.
Nevermind the employees who work there who are stupid and lazy, it runs right up toward the CEO's who actually run the company.
This could also be a response to the increased popularity of NetFlix.
One word:
NETFLIX
Problem solved.
They called me and ask if it would be OK to implement the no late fees'' program, since they've launched an Internet rental program similar to NETFLIX!
I don't understand the 'grace period' thing. Better IMHO would be to have late fees be a pro-rated fraction of the original rental fee (e.g. if a movie is $3.50 for one week, each additional day would be $0.50). Beyond that, it might be useful if BB were to credit rental and late fees paid for a particular title toward purchase of that title. Spending $3.50 to rent a movie one might consider purchasing would seem far less onerous if one would get the $3.50 back if one bought the film (of course, one might have gotten the film $3 cheaper elsewhere, but getting it at BB may be less hassle).
I understand the DVDs and games will be sold at retail minus the rental cost. It's essentially a try before you buy service. Sounds good to me.
Netflix and other such services are OK but I don't buy a DVD every month, which is what there service really is. I do have a collection of special edition DVDs. With Blockbuster you can check out an expensive double disc set and see if it 's worth keeping before paying full price. The consumer wins.
My main problem with Blockbuster is their sometimes goofy inventory. They haven't stocked Prince of Persia: Warrior Within for Xbox, one of the biggest holiday titles. Yet they have two copies of World Series Poker. Makes no sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.