The Rebirth of Late Fees: Some Blockbuster Stores to Bring Back Late Fees

Blockbuster’s “No Late Fees” program has been plagued with problems since it began. At first, there was a lot of confusion about the program because policies differed between the franchisees and corporate stores.

As the program caught on with customers, a new problem began to develop with the supply of videos. Many customers, no longer concerned with late fees, began keeping videos out for several days more than they used to keep them, and many titles were unavailable to other customers for weeks. Further confusion resulted from the extremely low intelligence of many retail customers and their inability to understand the concept of restocking fees.

All things considered the “No Late Fees” program has been a bumpy road for Blockbuster. The program has worked well on the corporate level with increases in revenues; however, the periodic stories about confusion over the program is damaging Blockbuster’s image. The “No Late Fees” program has reached a point where no Blockbuster customer is absolutely certain they will not be subject to late fees in the near or distant future.

Most recently, Arkansas stores resumed the late fees, and some stores in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee will soon be resuming late fees. At this point, it is unclear what will happen with the “No Late Fees” program in other states.

Blockbuster is in danger of irritating a great number of customers with continuing inconsistencies in their “No Late Fees” program. If Blockbuster’s management is smart, they will come up with a clear nationwide policy on late fees, present it to the customers, and stick to it.