Support NeoGAF

[Tedesco!]

Today I got a letter from a collection agency saying I owed $121.19 to Hollywood Video. They didn't say why. When I contacted the HV that I go to; they said that I hadn't returned Tiger Woods 2K5. I know I rented that game, and I know I returned it over 5 months ago. I never received a phone call from HV asking for the supposed "late" game, nor did I receive one piece of mail until today. The manager at the HV wouldn't answer any of my questions, instead he kept reffering me to the collection agency.

How can they say I owe them money when they don't follow their own procedure and contact me for the "late" game? How am I supposed to remember stuff from 5 months ago? All I get is a letter saying I owe money. This is bullshit. They could have a collection agency send anyone letters for money since they don't have to prove anything on their end. They can just accuse me and fuck with my credit all because some dim-witted teenager didn't properly check in my game.

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[Particle Physicist]

go back and say you want to speak to the regional manager in order to enter a formal complaint. they didnt do their job correctly and you are paying the price.. it could very well be that the game was never scanned in.. or that an employee stole the game before scanning it in..

 

[Jotaro]

It happened to me. I used some hard logic, and the chick was left speechless. And I never rented videogames there ever again.

 

[Kon Tiki]

I used some hard logic,

What level do you learn that? or is it a spell you buy?

 

[lexi]

What level do you learn that? or is it a spell you buy?

:lol

 

[AntoneM]

offtopic: Tedesco, are you a German living in Italy or an Italian living in Germany, or did you just like the name?

 

[Jotaro]

What level do you learn that? or is it a spell you buy?

Well, backed by straight facts. They accused me of not returning a game after a long while, I rented two, I returned them two. So I let all of the videostore make a fool of themselves and played the fool, and at the last moment, out of the blue, I stated that logic and that proof. An angel flew, and they were owned.

You learn that by playing Final Fantasy 7 with all your characters to level 99 and having beaten all the weapons monsters, and having revived Aerith, btw.

 

[RobotChant]

When I have late fees I pay for them. But there are times when it is just incompetence on the stores part.

This past December I got a Blockbuster notice that said I still had a movie out (The Italian Job). This wasn't the first time they made a mistake like this, so I wasn't too concerned about it. I was thinking I'll clear it up the next time I go in. I always drop off my rentals in the morning after I drop off my brother at school. I clearly remember dropping off the rental in question and I know it shouldn’t have been late.

I forget about the whole thing and then in January, a notice came from a collection agency. The notice said to call Blockbuster if I wanted to dispute the charges, so I did. I asked the guy who picked up the phone to tell me what items were late and the guy told me The Seven Samurai was late. I asked him if that was the only title late and he replied, "Yes". "It was about two weeks late", he said. I found that odd, since the notice I received stated The Italian Job was the title that wasn’t returned.

I explained to him I rented The Seven Samurai, The Italian Job and a "Game" (SMB2) all at the same time, and I dropped them off all at the same time. So how can it be that only one title is showing up late while the other two aren’t? He told me to wait, and puts me on hold. I could hear him tapping on the keyboard.

He comes back and tells me, Mario Tennis was due on Thursday so even if I returned them all together, the two other title would still be late because those two were due Tuesday. MT wasn't the game I was talking about.

I had rented Mario Tennis a couple days after, giving it a later due date than the other three items.

He told me he would do me a favor and only charge me for being two days late, even though the movie was showing up two weeks late. I asked him “did you say Mario Tennis”, he said “yeah.” I told him the game I rented with the movies wasn’t MT, it was SMB2.

The guy tells me to wait, and then the manager comes on. She asks me "why do you have two different stories", and "why are you changing your story". I tell her I didn't change my story at all. I explain to her what happened. I explained to her, how I dropped off the three items rented together all at once. I told her that when I mentioned “game”, the guy assumed it was MT. She still sounded like she didn't believe me, but she told me that she was going to take the charges off and that even though they have a new no late fee policy in effect this year, I need to still remember to return my movies on time.

I'm not sure what to do in Tedesco!'s situation. Did they ever receive the game back or not? Maybe you can just ask to buy the game in exchange for them to take the late fees off. Most likely they'll charge you full price for the game, but it's at least better than having the mark on your credit history.

 

[Blackace]

I worked at a HV 2 months before I moved to Japan. and I promise you that they didn't check you video back in. People did it all the time under my crew...

 

[Teddman]

You said it, I just noticed today that 20/20 Video charged my card earlier this month for late fees on two movies I KNOW I returned on time.

That was right after I'd been hit with $10 of late charges on another flick. You know how chains have "hot new releases" you have to return in two nights, then eveything else is weeklong rentals? I had one hot one and two regulars. I got hit on the hot release for three days' tariff and so then I made a point to return the week-long rentals on time.

Immediately after that, I joined Netflix (which is such a better alternative, I don't know what took me so long) and said to Hell with them. Now I see on my monthly statement that they billed me a nice little parting gift. I called them up... "Must have been in the after-hours drop slot" my ass! Lazy bastards on the check-ins, I dropped them off inside the store while it was still open.

Blockbuster tried the same thing on me in the past, but luckily my credit card was expired and that was the last time I rented from them.

Moral of the Story: Get Netflix and don't pay that sheeyat to the collection agency either.

 

[marsomega]

Moral of the Story: Get Netflix and don't pay that sheeyat to the collection agency either.

Please write to the respective corporate offices of both and rub it in their faces. File a BBB complaint just for kicks.

 

[impirius]

Today I got a letter from a collection agency saying I owed $121.19 to Hollywood Video. They didn't say why. When I contacted the HV that I go to; they said that I hadn't returned Tiger Woods 2K5. I know I rented that game, and I know I returned it over 5 months ago. I never received a phone call from HV asking for the supposed "late" game, nor did I receive one piece of mail until today. The manager at the HV wouldn't answer any of my questions, instead he kept reffering me to the collection agency.

I work at a Blockbuster, so I'm not sure how the procedures differ between the two chains. I doubt that Hollywood would condone the store manager blowing off the important and immediate concerns of a customer, though, especially given that it likely stemmed from the store's oversight. (The store I work at is careful about scanning in each and every item, but a couple per week inevitably slip by.) See if you can get in touch with a regional or district manager and tell him or her what happened.

Now, if you want to talk about the fact that a corporation can ruin your credit for life through no fault of your own... that can be a whole 'nother thread.

 

[demi]

It happened to me. I used my "hard logic", and the chick was left speechless. And I never rented videogames there ever again.

Just flip it, stick it, see ya later bye!

 

[B'z-chan]

Now, if you want to talk about the fact that a corporation can ruin your credit for life through no fault of your own... that can be a whole 'nother thread.

No lets get into this. My grandparents opened an account with blockbuster back in 93. Rented one movie turned it back the very next day. 9 months later they get a letter from blockbuster notifying them that they now need to pay blockbuster for 8 months of latefees.

After contacting blockbuster, they were then fronted with a lawsuit from blockbuster 2 months later. They somehow got the courts to freeze my grandparents creditcard and other finacials. It was hell for a month till they got a nice lawyer and got them a shit load of money for wrong fully accusing them of all of these latefees.

Talk about power over power. I hate blockbuster but yet i still go to gamerush Oxy motherfucking moron if you ask me.

I also have a nice story thats in progress currently with HV and they're collection company wanting money for Kotor2 i rented it for three week. Each week i went in and re-rented the game. Well they want me to purchase the game at full price. But does it say i returned the game, when i did? NO so my suggestion get a hold of a regional rep.

They're working on it for me right now i just got the notice yesterday. Hope to find out what will happen cause i dont want my credit or anything screwed around with.

 

[Miburou]

What happens when you don't receive a movie from netflix (i.e. it gets lost in the mail)? I subscribed to this online DVD rental company here in Canada, called Zip.ca, but one of the movies they sent me never arrived (that was 3 weeks ago). I told them about it, but they never got back to me.

 

[Tedesco!]

offtopic: Tedesco, are you a German living in Italy or an Italian living in Germany, or did you just like the name?

It's a long story, but the short of is I like the name.

 

[Tedesco!]

Did they ever receive the game back or not? Maybe you can just ask to buy the game in exchange for them to take the late fees off. Most likely they'll charge you full price for the game, but it's at least better than having the mark on your credit history.

I found this out at 11:00 pm last night. I'm going to go to the store this afternoon and try again to talk sense to these people. I can't believe they'd blow me off so easy.

 

[teiresias]

Back when I still bothered to give business to these sleezy rental operations (I don't rent anything anymore) this happened to me once, not nearly to the extent that it happened to a few of you, I just got like two or three days of late fees at a Blockbuster. It was cleared up, but I made a point everytime I went into the store to hand the movie to someone and tell them I wanted them to scan it back in as returned as I watched. The first time I had to sick a manager from the store on them, and then I had to tell the manager the entire story a couple of times to explain to them why I felt I had to compensate for their ineptitude. I don't pay money for retarded high schoolers to not do their lazy-ass part-time jobs and get me late fees.

 

[Celicar]

Blockbuster did the same fuckin thing to me. I signed up for a free month of their home delivery thing and I got a couple of in-store free rentals. Rented a movie and returned it the next day. They said they never got it. Bullshit. They wanted $30 for the stupid dvd. I didn't pay for it, and I never returned the last 3 dvds I got in the mail. Said they must've gotten lost in the mail. :lol

 

[BigJonsson]

Once Blockbuster told my dad that we had like 15 things overdue by a lot and he talked to them and they took the charges off and we put a password on our account just in case someone was renting things under our name

But we don't go to Blockbuster at all now

Hell, I haven't rented anything anywhere in years

 

[Particle Physicist]

I found this out at 11:00 pm last night. I'm going to go to the store this afternoon and try again to talk sense to these people. I can't believe they'd blow me off so easy.

dont forget to tell tell them that you want to enter a formal complaint and talk to the regional manager.. i used to work at blockbuster and i cannot understand how they blew you off so easily.

 

[calder]

Blockbuster once told me out of the blue that I had a $190 late fee. You could tell something didn't add up because the guy looked at the screen and said "that's weird..." like what he was seeing didn't make sense. I asked what movie it was and it was one unreturned movie I hadn't even heard of and another very late but returned movie I hadn't rented so I knew it was just a mistake. The guy clearly believed me when I said I hadn't rented those movies and went and got his manager and the manager wiped it out without so much as a question. I think it said my account had the movies out for a month or so but they could see I had been renting and returning stuff normally during that period so the manager assumed (correctly) it was a glitch. Wish I could remember the name of the movies though, they were both just random direct-to-video crappy movies that I would never in a million years watch.

Still, I've had two rental stores (BB and the dearly departed Jumbo Video) do stuff like that and both times when I complained the manager quickly determined it was a computer mistake and waived the bogus charges. You might have some trouble now that a collections agency is involved though.

 

[Tedesco!]

I asked for the info so I could contact the regional manager, and I was told I could not contact him; that I should call their corporate number. All I have to say is that there is a manager at the Loveland, Ohio location that is 100% dick! I'll will update as new info becomes available......

 

[Matlock]

I asked for the info so I could contact the regional manager, and I was told I could not contact him; that I should call their corporate number. All I have to say is that there is a manager at the Loveland, Ohio location that is 100% dick! I'll will update as new info becomes available......

That's fuckin' stupid--when I had a complaint at the Hollywood Video in SE Ohio, they gave me the regional manager's home phone without any guff.

 

[Somnia]

I work for HV right now as a manager, and unfortunally the manager who said you could not contact the Regional is correct, we do not have his number nor are ever given it. The only thing we can do (which we normally do) is remove the item as a one time curtiousy and call collections and remove you... OR if they are a dick which this manager seems to be, they make you call the hotline (guest relations) and you can talk to them, 99.99% of the time you will get your way with the hotline and get free rentals out of it to boot... you can also agrue enough that they will forward you to the District manager who 99% of the time will bend over backwords for you.

 

[Shazapp]

Normally, you can dispute any debt within 30 days of the notice. So, I wouldn't blow a gasket. I also would stop renting at Hollywood and get a Netflix account. Hit 'em where it hurts: the bottom line.

 

[Tedesco!]

Update!

They have removed the offending balance. They said it will take a week or so, but the charge will be removed and my credit restored. Thanks to everyone who lent their $.02!