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Ah, what better way to return to the world of Tiptonium than with a rant against a company that I truly have a love hate relationship with, Blockbuster Video. Now before I go too far, let me say that I truly believe for selection of both video games and DVDs, Blockbuster is far and away the leader in the rental biz among national chains (the others around here being Hollywood and Video Update). They have a tremendous selection of both brand new and older games, and I greatly appreciate that. I also appreciate that, from time to time, they unload their older games at bargain basement prices. Why, in the last few weeks, I picked up Paper Mario (for $19) and Jeopardy ($5!) for the N64, and my wife and I both play the hell out of both of them.
What I do not appreciate, and has me scrambling to find another rental outlet, are their absurdly high late fees. I had heard they were in the midst of a class action lawsuit, so I figured they would revamp their policies so as to, you know, NOT GET SUED AGAIN. Oh, how wrong I was.
It all started about a week ago. I went in to rent Madden 2002 for the PS2. I went to the PS2 section, saw what I was looking for, and promptly rented it. I got it home, popped it in my PS2, and … what's this? A PS One logo? Arrgghhh…someone at the store put a PS One Madden 2002 in the wrong place. To be fair, I didn't catch the mistake, either, so I took it back, in hopes of exchanging it for the PS2 version. Of course, by now they didn't have a PS2 Madden, so I shrugged my shoulders and took home Twisted Metal Black instead (which, I might add, is a damn fine game).
So I take TMB back, and it is four hours late. Ah well, I figure, I'll pay my couple of bucks. I shouldn't have returned it late to begin with, my own fault. So the girl at the counter rings up my rental (Madden PS2 - finally!), and says, "That will be $12.68."
I look at the girl, dumbfounded. "Ummm…there must be an error. I am just renting this one game."
The girl was very nice, and said, "Yes, but you had a late fee for Twisted Metal Black."
I was flabbergasted. "The late fee is SIX DOLLARS?!!!"
"Yes, it is considered an additional rental."
"Well, can I at least take the game back home with me, and return it with this one, since I am re-renting it according to your policies?"
"No, sir."
"So, I just paid you SIX DOLLARS because I returned the game FOUR HOURS late?"
"Yes, sir."
I grabbed Madden and went home, livid. This was absolute BS, and the lawsuit is goin to wind up making Blockbuster a lot MORE money, not less.
Look, I know that Blockbuster is just trying to protect its ass by setting up its late fees this way, but to me, the consumer, I feel as though they are ripping me off more than ever. I can understand the way they set up their fees (kind of), but to not allow the renter to take home something they have basically paid for TWICE is ridiculous. And come to think of it, why in the hell are they getting away with charging $6 for a PS2 game rental to begin with? That's almost DOUBLE what a standard DVD rental is.
Anyway, the point is that I just spent almost $13 to rent ONE GAME.
Note to Blockbuster: I won't be making that mistake - the mistake not being returning games late, but rather renting games from you - again.
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