Blockbuster stores: Screw it! We’re charging late fees.
17 regional Blockbuster stores have defied corporate policy and abandoned the popular “No more late fees” campaign. The move, surprisingly, had nothing to do with the $250-300 million in lost revenue that the policy has cost BB, but rather to customer service complaints on the local level.
“With the no-late-fee policy we were having an extreme problem with satisfying the customer on movie availability,” said Mickey McFarland, director of operations for Capitol Entertainment, which owns franchises in Arkansas, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia, including nine in Fairfax County. “We did not know when the movies were coming back.”
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“People just scarfed up movies,” said Kingdom, who rents from Capitol’s franchise in Great Falls. “You could see people leaving Blockbuster with an armful of movies instead of just one or two.”
I guess those late fees served a purpose after all. FYI, the stores are now charging a $0.99 extended viewing fee for each extra day the movie is out past its due date.
Read the whole article here.