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January 09, 2006
Blockbuster Bitchslap Nets $140K For New Jersey
It is nice to know that in a state with as poisonous a history of corruption as New Jersey, the good guys can still win. Take N.J. Attorney General Peter Harvey, for example, who today cracked the Blockbuster monolith that had bullied the Garden State's movie-renting community out of its hard-earned nickels and dimes:
The vidtailer has agreed to reimburse a total of $140,000 to the state of New Jersey and to Blockbuster customers for fine-print charges it levied. ... Harvey alleged Blockbuster's "restocking" fees amounted to a late fee, rendering its promise of no late fees misleading.
The company's policy was to convert rentals kept longer than one week to a sale, which Harvey alleged it did not sufficiently disclose. And while it reversed the sale charge if the rental was returned, it also charged consumers a $1.25 "restocking fee" if the film was 30 days or more overdue, which Harvey said it also did not make clear.
Variety's Steven Zeitchik goes on to report that $90,000 of the reimbursement will go toward correcting the affected accounts, while the remaining $50,000 will wind up in a parties-and-patronage slush fund somewhere in the Trenton State House covering New Jersey's legal fees. And just like that, Blockbuster's Jersey customers are free to hog Clerks until they have saved up enough for that next eighth. Justice is a beautiful thing.
Posted by stvanairsdale at January 9, 2006 01:03 PM
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Comments
The video rental industry is a goner. . . Even Netflix will disappear once over-the-air broadband and *real* video-on-demand become available. The "no late fees" was just their jump over the proverbial shark.
Posted by: Brandon Abell at January 11, 2006 05:38 AM