Blockbuster
Assumed Late when Computer Glitches Hanover Park

First of all, this is an older story, one that happened a couple years ago. They may be better now, but I doubt that.

In renting a video at Blockbuster, I was informed that I had some late fees. I would sometimes get these, but on this occasion, I did not remember what I returned late. I asked what the fees were for, and told the name of the video that was returned late. This caused me to recall that I had indeed returned the movie on time, and told them so. I told them the date and time I returned the movie. They reiterated that the computer showed that the movie as returned late.

Feeling pretty sure that I had returned it on time, I restated my claim of having returned it on time. They then informed me that their computer had a glitch and that all movies returned during a given period of time were recorded as being returned later, when the system come up again. This was after several minutes of disputing the late charges with them.

I was a little upset and asked what would have happened if I had not disputed the late fees, and asked about other people who do not dispute the charges from poor memory of when they returned the videos. They said that they would remove any late charges during that period that the customer disputed.

I told him that Blockbuster should assume the cost, and not assume that everyone returned the movies late. That if their systems had problems, is was not a good practice to place that burden on the customers.

He replied by telling me that "Blockbuster is a multi-million dollar company, I think they know what they are doing". (At least that's how I recall his words).

I left, sent an email to Blockbuster's customer service informing them that they had lost a customer, telling them my name/address and the location of the store.

I have not been to Blockbuster's since and have not heard any replay from Blockbuster.

But at least now I have a great store to tell about customer service, or the lack thereof.

Company: Blockbuster
Country: USA
State: Illinois
City: Hanover Park

  <     >