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Susie of Tucson writes:
I rented a few videos under the impression from their store advertisements and one sent to our home that the video rental period was for 5 days. When I returned the videos and one game, they tried to hit me up for a $35 late fee. Even though I had previously always paid the late fees, this was highway robbery. I could have bought the videos for the price of the late fee.

My husband and I were extremely distraught. Even now, I often think of the money they are trying to extort from us under the guise of late fees. Any time you're made to feel that you owe money to an organization you feel a certain amount of stress. I won't feel good about this situation until it has some form of closure.

We have had many collection letters threatening to report us to the credit bureau. It's been at least a year, and Blockbuster has lost our frequent business to a Hollywood video rental store that's quite a bit further away. Over the years I'm sure this will amount to a significant loss.

Beverly of Scarsdale, NY, writes:
The new return policy of Blockbuster Video is a ripoff which they try to pass off as an advantage to the consumer. The so-called 12 hour extension does not exist. I routinely rent movies on Friday evenings and in the past the two-day new releases were due back on Sunday at midnight. With the new "extension" policy, they are now due back on Sundays at noon -- twelve hours less viewing time.

Similarly, the "5-day rental," when taken out on a Friday evening, are now due back on Tuesdays at noon when previously, they weren't due until Wednesday at midnite. I am paying a lot more late fees for keeping tapes out the same amount of time as I did in the past.

The people of Blocbuster should be ashamed of themselves for trying to fool the public in this manner. They actually decresed the rental periods as opposed to extending it. Who do they think they are fooling? They should be investigated for false advertising. I am paying more, and getting less.

Mark of Kingwood, TX, writes:
Rented two videos and was told they wer due on Thursday. I returned the videos by Thurday at 11:30. I then recived a notice that the videos were turned in late. Seems that one of the videos was a one day rental. The person of greater knowledge, the Blockbuster employee was wrong in telling me that the Video was a 5-day rental.

I do not know when they changed the video return time from midnight to noon, but I was also unaware of that. When I returned the video, there was a couple in line in front of me that had dropped off their videos on time and were charged a late fee. The late fee was waived for them, but they asked the manager what they could do to aviod this sort of thing happening in the future. They wanted to know if they could bring the video into the store and get a receipt. They were told that they could not because it was not a transaction. They said it damned wure was a transaction if they could be charged for it. Made me wonder how much money the company makes off of late charges.

I paid my Debt on 9-2-00. On 9-19 what I feel is a long enough time for them to inform the Credit Protection Association, L. P. of Dallas TX they sent me a letter letting be know that I had defaulted on the "30 day grace period of the Fair Debt Collection Act. Don't know how I could have if I had paid the debt. They then followed up on that letter on October 11, 2000 with another letter informing me that I was still outstanding. Will NEVER rent from Bockbuster again.