INTENSITY²
Start here => Free For ALL => Topic started by: Al Swearegen on August 26, 2011, 07:36:55 AM
-
OK so the situation was last week when I went to pick up dvd's like I do each fortnight from the DVD shop, I was told by the guy behind the counter that three dvd's were well overdue and there was some obscene amount owing on my account.
I said "Really? I don't think so mate. What were the titles?"
He confirmed the titles and said that they were overdue.
I told him that they were not in my possessioon and were handed back.
"No they are definitely overdue because I can see them on the system here"
I told him that I did not doubt what he saw but that they were handed back. Another guy said he would have a look for them.
I rang back the next day and was told that they were not found. I had in the meantime confirmed they were not with me. So I made an appointment to see the manager.
So I rocked up and saw the manager and he told of the system being basically fool proof and if they were missing then I would need to pay for the replacement fee. He was head kind of down and shifting around uncomfortably and giving me the hard word punctuated with apologies.
I said "OK mate let's make this easy on both of us. You stop defending your store and inferring I lost the bloody things and I will pretend that I am not annoyed with this place and believe you hav lost them and am going to charge me for what you have lost. Money is not a problem, I will pay those replacement fees you see fit to charge and then you can cancel my membership and I will go down the road and join there. I won't cause a fuss. I will square it up now"
So I entered my number and waited for him to calculate the replacement fees and then there was a problem. His faultless computer system had a problem. It would not generate the apparent $54 or allow me to pay.
More apologies and I said "Fine. I will be in on Friday then dropping off the last of the dvd's I borrowed and you can bill me then. Make sure it is ready for me and I will pay it then."
He was shifting around again and thanking me ofr being so good about it and saying he definately would and he would have another look.
Went in today and dropped off dvd's. Different guy there of course and I asked the young bloke to bill me and I would be on my way.
He got me to enter my details and guess what? No late fees no replacement fees and no note. I explained what had happened.
Nope. "I guess he must have written them off" was the reply.
So now Tuesday I am going back to see Manager to see what the fuck happened.
Anyone care to venture an opinion?
I personally think that the wonderful system has likely written off the dvd's as a bad debt and next I will recieve a debt collectors letter. If that happens then I am gonna go off like a fucking firecracker in that place and they and everyone in the place will know how fucking poor I think their fine establishment is.
-
I doubt they would default you on any money you owed them.
We had a bit of late return fees owing to Network Video for over 10 years that we didn't know about (we stopped going there in favour of Blockbuster).
We go back there years later to borrow some DVD's; "Umm, yeah, you have some late return fees owing on some Sega Megadrive games you borrowed in 1997" :zombiefuck:
-
Happened to us in 2000-01. We borrowed some dvds, they were returned, and were told they were late. They tried to get $20 or so in late fees, and as themembership was in my name, they sent the note to my place in Victoria. I rang them up and said the things were returned, so check your system. And told them I wasn't going to pay late fees which I didn't owe. They tried the debt collection stuff, but I again said they were returned. They gave up and NFA'ed the things.
-
Your country needs RedBox.
-
Had the same happen to us a few years ago but we are not as accommodating as you are but it mattered little as they were out of business two weeks latter. My guess is they didn't enter in in the computer that they were returned and the manager found them in the inventory after your little talk
-
I don't know. I hope Parts conjecture is correct. Some similar happy horse shit with VHS tapes back in the mid 1990s cured me of renting movies.
-
They probably found them on the shelf, after someone put them back out without checking them through the computer. Happens all the time at video stores, POS systems designed for that business will even have an FOS button for squaring that exact situation. I wouldn't sweat it, it sounds like they caught the mistake and are just embarrassed about it.
-
Perhaps someone tattled to the store manager that you were upset about it on I2, and he decided it was better to pull the charge than risk the wrath of "that other AS site"? :autism:
-
Speak into my mustache, it's really a microphone.
-
Speak into my mustache, it's really a microphone.
I bet you say that to all the guys :eyelash:
-
Speak into my mustache, it's really a microphone.
I bet you say that to all the guys :eyelash:
Only the cute ones.
-
OK so the situation was last week when I went to pick up dvd's like I do each fortnight from the DVD shop, I was told by the guy behind the counter that three dvd's were well overdue and there was some obscene amount owing on my account.
I said "Really? I don't think so mate. What were the titles?"
He confirmed the titles and said that they were overdue.
I told him that they were not in my possessioon and were handed back.
"No they are definitely overdue because I can see them on the system here"
I told him that I did not doubt what he saw but that they were handed back. Another guy said he would have a look for them.
I rang back the next day and was told that they were not found. I had in the meantime confirmed they were not with me. So I made an appointment to see the manager.
So I rocked up and saw the manager and he told of the system being basically fool proof and if they were missing then I would need to pay for the replacement fee. He was head kind of down and shifting around uncomfortably and giving me the hard word punctuated with apologies.
I said "OK mate let's make this easy on both of us. You stop defending your store and inferring I lost the bloody things and I will pretend that I am not annoyed with this place and believe you hav lost them and am going to charge me for what you have lost. Money is not a problem, I will pay those replacement fees you see fit to charge and then you can cancel my membership and I will go down the road and join there. I won't cause a fuss. I will square it up now"
So I entered my number and waited for him to calculate the replacement fees and then there was a problem. His faultless computer system had a problem. It would not generate the apparent $54 or allow me to pay.
More apologies and I said "Fine. I will be in on Friday then dropping off the last of the dvd's I borrowed and you can bill me then. Make sure it is ready for me and I will pay it then."
He was shifting around again and thanking me ofr being so good about it and saying he definately would and he would have another look.
Went in today and dropped off dvd's. Different guy there of course and I asked the young bloke to bill me and I would be on my way.
He got me to enter my details and guess what? No late fees no replacement fees and no note. I explained what had happened.
Nope. "I guess he must have written them off" was the reply.
So now Tuesday I am going back to see Manager to see what the fuck happened.
Anyone care to venture an opinion?
I personally think that the wonderful system has likely written off the dvd's as a bad debt and next I will recieve a debt collectors letter. If that happens then I am gonna go off like a fucking firecracker in that place and they and everyone in the place will know how fucking poor I think their fine establishment is.
They might think their system is foolproof, but it's only as good as the idiots inputting information. The manager may have realized this fact and probably found the supposedly lost DVDs somewhere in the store.
I remember being told at a local video store that I owed a late fee for a video that I know for a fact that I returned on time because I returned it before I rented another video and I rented this new video before 7 PM which is the deadline for returning videos. When I pointed this out, the late fee was reversed.
BlockBuster once charged us a late fee and didn't bill it until it had additional fees tacked on and they were threatening to send it to collections. I paid the overpriced late fee, but I wouldn't set foot in their store again for several years.
-
OK so the situation was last week when I went to pick up dvd's like I do each fortnight from the DVD shop, I was told by the guy behind the counter that three dvd's were well overdue and there was some obscene amount owing on my account.
I said "Really? I don't think so mate. What were the titles?"
He confirmed the titles and said that they were overdue.
I told him that they were not in my possessioon and were handed back.
"No they are definitely overdue because I can see them on the system here"
I told him that I did not doubt what he saw but that they were handed back. Another guy said he would have a look for them.
I rang back the next day and was told that they were not found. I had in the meantime confirmed they were not with me. So I made an appointment to see the manager.
So I rocked up and saw the manager and he told of the system being basically fool proof and if they were missing then I would need to pay for the replacement fee. He was head kind of down and shifting around uncomfortably and giving me the hard word punctuated with apologies.
I said "OK mate let's make this easy on both of us. You stop defending your store and inferring I lost the bloody things and I will pretend that I am not annoyed with this place and believe you hav lost them and am going to charge me for what you have lost. Money is not a problem, I will pay those replacement fees you see fit to charge and then you can cancel my membership and I will go down the road and join there. I won't cause a fuss. I will square it up now"
So I entered my number and waited for him to calculate the replacement fees and then there was a problem. His faultless computer system had a problem. It would not generate the apparent $54 or allow me to pay.
More apologies and I said "Fine. I will be in on Friday then dropping off the last of the dvd's I borrowed and you can bill me then. Make sure it is ready for me and I will pay it then."
He was shifting around again and thanking me ofr being so good about it and saying he definately would and he would have another look.
Went in today and dropped off dvd's. Different guy there of course and I asked the young bloke to bill me and I would be on my way.
He got me to enter my details and guess what? No late fees no replacement fees and no note. I explained what had happened.
Nope. "I guess he must have written them off" was the reply.
So now Tuesday I am going back to see Manager to see what the fuck happened.
Anyone care to venture an opinion?
I personally think that the wonderful system has likely written off the dvd's as a bad debt and next I will recieve a debt collectors letter. If that happens then I am gonna go off like a fucking firecracker in that place and they and everyone in the place will know how fucking poor I think their fine establishment is.
They might think their system is foolproof, but it's only as good as the idiots inputting information. The manager may have realized this fact and probably found the supposedly lost DVDs somewhere in the store.
I remember being told at a local video store that I owed a late fee for a video that I know for a fact that I returned on time because I returned it before I rented another video and I rented this new video before 7 PM which is the deadline for returning videos. When I pointed this out, the late fee was reversed.
BlockBuster once charged us a late fee and didn't bill it until it had additional fees tacked on and they were threatening to send it to collections. I paid the overpriced late fee, but I wouldn't set foot in their store again for several years.
And now they are bankrupt. I'm actually surprised that people allowed this industry to exist for as long as it did.
-
I worked for Hollywood video when I was like 17, mixups like this were pretty normal. What would happen is that a video would be turned into the box and put back on the shelf without going through the computer, thus showing that the video was never returned. At some later time, another customer would try and rent that video, and it would show up in the computer as still rented out. Then a manager would have to come out and enter the video as FOS, for Found On Shelf, which would negate any late fees an such that had accrued on the last renter's account. The real problem would be if it was an unpopular video, then it could be some time before the mistake was caught during an inventory or from someone else trying to rent it.
Also, beyond the whole "their business model got outdated" thing, video stores wasted so much time and money on mundane stuff that had no bearing on their profitability that I wasn't at all surprised to see them start to go under. We used to have a district manager that would inspect the stores in his district to make sure that we weren't wearing white socks with black shoes, no shit. Same guy nearly wrote me up one time for wearing black leather cowboy boots instead of black leather loafers, like people were going to take their business to Blockbuster because I wasn't wearing loafers. Any business that's paying a manager's salary to a guy doing sock checks isn't going to last all that long, IMHO. In a publicly held corporation, I believe they may even call that sort of thing fiduciary misconduct. Netflix just put the final nail in the coffin, they were going to go anyway period.
-
I worked for Hollywood video when I was like 17, mixups like this were pretty normal. What would happen is that a video would be turned into the box and put back on the shelf without going through the computer, thus showing that the video was never returned. At some later time, another customer would try and rent that video, and it would show up in the computer as still rented out. Then a manager would have to come out and enter the video as FOS, for Found On Shelf, which would negate any late fees an such that had accrued on the last renter's account. The real problem would be if it was an unpopular video, then it could be some time before the mistake was caught during an inventory or from someone else trying to rent it.
Also, beyond the whole "their business model got outdated" thing, video stores wasted so much time and money on mundane stuff that had no bearing on their profitability that I wasn't at all surprised to see them start to go under. We used to have a district manager that would inspect the stores in his district to make sure that we weren't wearing white socks with black shoes, no shit. Same guy nearly wrote me up one time for wearing black leather cowboy boots instead of black leather loafers, like people were going to take their business to Blockbuster because I wasn't wearing loafers. Any business that's paying a manager's salary to a guy doing sock checks isn't going to last all that long, IMHO. In a publicly held corporation, I believe they may even call that sort of thing fiduciary misconduct. Netflix just put the final nail in the coffin, they were going to go anyway period.
Netflix was the second to last nail. I think RedBox finished them off.
-
Netflix was the second to last nail. I think RedBox finished them off.
I always said that job could be done by monkeys, but a vending machine makes even more sense. I thought Redbox came out before Netflix, but I could be wrong on that. Netflix streaming has certainly killed both my video renting habits and any need for cable TV, though I hadn't rented a movie in years anyway.
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
The Redbox locations in my city carry games now. Not many, but I doubt it will be long before there are dedicated vending machines for games.
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
Never worked for them, though I did have stint at EB games between game testing gigs back in the day. With any luck, streaming games should put them under soon enough, though their trade in scam is pretty lucrative so it could take a while. Nasty place to work, everyone thinks their old games are worth what they paid for them, get pissed when you won't take their scratched up discs, bitches that the used games are only $5 less than the new ones, etc. Everyone thinks "ooh, video games, that should be a fun job"...
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
Gamestop doesn't rent. What's your complaint with them?
-
Anyway, dvds are cheap enough nowadays you can buy a copy and never have to worry about late fees. And if you want personal copies, just burn them.
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
Gamestop doesn't rent. What's your complaint with them?
They open up new copies of games and sell them as new, for one thing.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/report-gamestop-opening-deus-ex-copies-removing-free-game-code.ars (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/report-gamestop-opening-deus-ex-copies-removing-free-game-code.ars)
-
There is no way I'd ever agree to paying anything if I knew I had returned the DVDs.
-
There is no way I'd ever agree to paying anything if I knew I had returned the DVDs.
Agreed. I would stick to my guns and just never go there again if they keep being assholes about it. They'll loose out hundreds of dollars on future renting I might have done and for what, insisting a few bucks on late fees when I returned them on time? Fuck 'em.
-
There is no way I'd ever agree to paying anything if I knew I had returned the DVDs.
Agreed. I would stick to my guns and just never go there again if they keep being assholes about it. They'll loose out hundreds of dollars on future renting I might have done and for what, insisting a few bucks on late fees when I returned them on time? Fuck 'em.
And I'd make noise about it all the way.
-
I feel ya. Had something similar happen to me a few years ago.
Something's just not right with the system here in Australia.
-
I wish the same happened to GameStop. :thumbdn:
Gamestop doesn't rent. What's your complaint with them?
They open up new copies of games and sell them as new, for one thing.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/report-gamestop-opening-deus-ex-copies-removing-free-game-code.ars (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/report-gamestop-opening-deus-ex-copies-removing-free-game-code.ars)
Thought they only did used stuff, but yes, that's a crap thing to do, also strange to do.
-
Don't pay them! just out of curiosity - do they have cctv in there store? I wonder if they
have looked at it and seen that you did hand over the dvd's!
-
Don't pay them! just out of curiosity - do they have cctv in there store? I wonder if they
have looked at it and seen that you did hand over the dvd's!
I think they do have cctv, and the empty cases are all you see on the shelves. The dvds themselves are meant to be in the cabinet at the counter.
-
There is no way I'd ever agree to paying anything if I knew I had returned the DVDs.
Agreed. I would stick to my guns and just never go there again if they keep being assholes about it. They'll loose out hundreds of dollars on future renting I might have done and for what, insisting a few bucks on late fees when I returned them on time? Fuck 'em.
And I'd make noise about it all the way.
Two things stopped me.
1. I have been on the bones of my arse until recently and I fucking remember the horror of the all too often harassment from collection areas and so forth, over fuck all. I really was not that invested in bringing that atrtention on.
2. That said I was willing to tear this Manager a new one until I saw his performance in trying to be hard and tough over this and he was so nervous, awkward, stressed and so on....I simply caved. If he had of been a bastard I would have ripped shit out of him and publically and probably had a lot of fun.
I mean I basically gave him an out because I felt sorry for him. I felt like telling him he really wasn't good at this.
He seemed relieved when I told him he did not have to try and convince me of fault even though he had failed here and that I would pay it regardless. It would have been easier if he was an arsehole or arrogant. He simply wasn't. It is hard to berate someone like that.
-
Best comeback line ever is to tell someone who thinks they have authority that they really are no good at their job, and they are failing miserably. They have to either justify themselves more, which makes them look even more pathetic, or they just cave in and walk off flustered.