the article I read said that blockbuster makes between 300-400 million a year in late fees. They had the best scam ever going. Thier new releases are 2 day rentals so If you go rent it on a saturday night it's due back on Monday by Noon. Most people are at work all day monday so you better either take it back sunday night or on your way to work monday. So it never really was a "2 day rental" more like a day and half so all the people that forgot and took it back monday afternoon got a late fee.
the new system you get a 5 day grace period if you bring it back within that period no problem. If you don't then they charge you the price of the DVD. You can still bring it back and they will refund your money less a $2 restock fee. They say they will make the difference in lost revenue up in volume.
Maybe I'm just dumb but I'm not sure how this system is going to replace 300-400 million a year. You have to assume that most people will being a movie back in the grace period and those that don't will once they are charged the full amount so someone could keep a movie 3 weeks and end up only paying a $2 late fee on it. I think that what may happen is it will be harder and harder to get the new movies because people will rent them and not bring them back on time because they don't have too.
I think maybe what they are doing is just trying to push the movie pass thing and using this as a device for that. I use netflix and won't switch over because netflix seems to have about 200 times more movies than the blockbuster store where I live so there is much more to choose from and it's only $18 a month.
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