I went to our local Blockbuster's Video Rental today to rent a movie. When the clerk was processing my rental, he said I owed a late fee for the last video I rented on January 7th. I remember renting that movie. It was Bugs Life. Friday, January 7th was my grandson's 7th birthday. He wanted to see Bugs Life, so after school, we went to Blockbuster's to rent it. It was a five day rental due back on Tuesday, Jan. 11th by midnight. I returned it Tuesday morning, putting it in the quick-deposit box. BUT, the computer screen said that January 7th was a WEDNESDAY and the video was due back on Sunday. I was just about ready to pull out my pocket calendar to show the clerk that January 7th was a FRIDAY, when he called the manager. They calculated it......and realized that I was right, January 7th fell on a Friday. But, their computer screen shows January 7th to be a Wednesday......I saw it myself.

-- Linda (lindasue1@earthlink.net), January 18, 2000

Answers

Did you ask him what *year* his computer said it was?

How much you wanna bet they "fixed the why to kay thing" by rolling the clock back two years?

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 18, 2000.

Linda, Blockbuster Video, did the same exact thing to me. In fact, they sent me a postcard saying I owed them $9 for returning a tape late. I've never returned a tape late. Called and spoke with their manager, they removed the charge. At the time, we thought that perhaps a five day rental had been keyed in as a two day tape, maybe it was some other kind of glitch.

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.Net), January 18, 2000.

Ron, I'd bet you a million dollars, and I'd win, you idiot. If they had put the clock back 2 years, why did the clerk call the manager, who then tried to work out the problem. Was that the 1st instance of a problem on the 11th of January?? Or would they play that little game with every customer who had returned a supposedly late video that year. Why not turn the clock back to 1994, where the days would be the same date is in 2000. I can't believe the level of stupidity of some people here.

-- Mr. Sane (hhh@home.com), January 18, 2000.

Mr. Sane:

Just FYI, Using 1994 doesn't work past February because 1994 was not a leap year and 2000 is.

-- Kris Gandillon (kris@gandillon.com), January 18, 2000.

The exact same thing happened to me. Rented a 5 day movie and the morning of the fifth day was charged a $4 late fee, tried to talk to the store manager who just cut me off and wouldn't even listen or look more closely. I let them know I would not be renting movies there in the future!!

-- Sammie (sammiex0@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

Blockbuster has had problems here in New Jersey ever since Hurricane Floyd. They kept saying their "satellite" connection was down. (how DO you spell that word?) In any case, I was given one of those BlockBuster money cards from a friend four months ago, and I have yet to be able to use it there.

I will also note that this has to be the third or fourth "Blockbuster" problems thread on the forum in the past two months. Obviously they are having a serious problem...but they do seem to be continuing business as usual despite it.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 18, 2000.

VA Blockbuster, my line was a little slow cause they had a "new system" and the clerk needed help with an unfamiliar screen. Only problem was human.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 19, 2000.