This is just a reminder....

The part that everyone hates about movie rentals is the late fees. Its like a reminder that you did something wrong way after the fact. They've never really bothered me, until I was on the other side. In the past, as a customer, I've hated them as well, but accepted the fact that I had to pay for keeping something that wasn't mind for longer than we had agreed. For example, I paid $2.75 to borrow someone else's movie for 1 night. The going rate is $2.75 per night. If I return it late, I expect to pay for the extra night that I had it. That's part of the rules.

I really started to hate late fees when I stepped behind the video counter and started working as an employee. As a "friendly reminder" I have to regularly call those people with long outstanding videos. (I think its 10 days and up.) The objective is to get back the company property so that someone else can take it home and enjoy it. Plus, you don't want someone to borrow something of yours for $1 and keep it indefinitely. That's just taking advantage of the renter, and immoral.

I look at retail transactions in a very complicated light. By giving a company money, I'm engaging in a contract with them. Yes, its an unspoken contract, but a necessary one. In exchange for money, (which is indirectly my hard work in providing the people of Meadville with quality entertainment...), I'm getting some service or product that is high quality. (Yes, even at Taco Bell.) That means that I'll adhere to the terms and conditions of the company within reason, but won't overstep my bounds. At fast food places, that means that my food will be disease-free, tasty, and the appropriate temperature. Anything outside of that, and we're going to have words. Both sides should have expectations from the other member in the contract, and that's what keeps this crazy capitalism thing going.

Well, in the world of video renting, there are guidelines for how long you can rent movies. In our store, $1 gets you most movies for 5 nights. Any longer and you get charged. (An additional dollar for an additional 5 nights.) Fair enough, right? That's the agreement you enter into. We give you a movie for a period of time, you give us money. Not hard, right? Well, apparently it is for some people.

There have been an average of 30 calls per night for people with outstanding movies of a significant time frame. (Significant = 10 or more days.) This actually means that more than 45 calls have to be made, as the accounts have 2 phone numbers that can be used to try to contact the renters. Majority of the people who reach the 10 night plateau give false information or get their cell phones cancelled due to failure to pay the bill, (which the message is sure to inform us when we try to call.) But, once in awhile, we are able to talk to the culprit / culprits.

I called a woman last week and told her that her movies were 25 days late. She picked the phone up at the same time as the answering machine, so I'm sure that every word of our conversation was recorded. I told her who I was, and why I was calling. After late movies reach 30 days past due, our District Manager records the movies as "Stolen" to the account, which places the full value of that movie to the renter. Basically, do nothing for 30 days, and you're buying it. I told her about it and received one of the biggest sob stories in all of history.

She told me that she was, at that very moment, packing up the house because she was leaving her husband. But, he was not aware that she was leaving. She told me how she packed up the TV, and the DVD player, and all that stuff. She cut him out of pictures and burned photos and couldn't stand the fact that he was seeing someone else now. I told her that I was truly sorry about what she was going through, and told her that I just wanted the company's movies back. As she continued, I leafed through the log of past calls, only to be met with a recorded history of all the lame excuses that she had given in the past. Not sure where they were - 10 days late. Gave them to a family member to watch - 15 days late. Swears she returned them - 20 days late. Will return them when she isn't working so much - 22 days late. I started typing in the log: "Leaving husband under the veil of night without his knowledge, doesn't want to be inconsiderate and ask him to look for the movies while the divorce is getting settled." Before I could get to "veil of night", she told me that she probably wouldn't find the movies. I told her what would happen next.

The district manager would process everything in the computer, turning the titles over to the renter and charging appropriately. The next time the person attempted to rent a movie or buy anything at all, a message would flash on the register notifying the clerk that said person owed a bunch of money for a stolen movie. Before anything could be taken by the delinquent renter, the full amount for the movie MUST be paid. No exceptions. If the person never came in to pay, the police would be notified that a movie was stolen from the video store, and then they'd act appropriately.

She told me she had to leave, and that she couldn't leave any trace behind. I wished her luck, and she said that she was halfway in the car and had to leave. I gave her a reminder. "Umm... don't forget to at least erase the answering machine." She asked me why she'd have to worry about the machine. "Well, we just recorded a big long conversation about how you don't want your husband to know that you left. You told me where you were headed, why, and when. You might want to get rid of the evidence." She was speechless.

A week later, she came in and tried to open a new account. She was hand and hand with her husband, who rents a lot of movies. I recognized her last name, pulled up her account, and saw the $125 charge to her account for all the movies she had stolen. Being the wiseguy I am, I took the movies she had picked out and quizzed her on them. I asked her if she had seen a movie, and what she thought about it. (Wild Hogs, which was on the list of stolen movies.) She claimed that she had never seen it. I showed her the screen, told her she couldn't rent from the store until the fine was paid off, or the movies were returned. I added that I was glad she got everything worked out with her husband, and that she could now try to find the $125 in movies she owed. She blushed, and admitted that she had been, *GASP!*, lying about the divorce. (Can you believe that?) I told her that it wasn't a big deal, and that we just wanted our property back. She went home and got them. Problem solved. No purged amount, just some late fees.

Other people have claimed that they've given movies to friends, and that the "friends" have already returned them. One guy in particular is notoriously bad at returning movies, so he had his friend rent an expensive video game for him. Imagine the friend's surprise when he got called for a 10 day late fee on the game. "But Jason said he returned it!" We told him about the 12 outstanding movies and games that Jason had out, and how his account had been suspended for excessive late fees. Ever wonder why he had you rent the game for him? Hmmm....

Well, 30 days after that, Jason still had the game. Jason was supposed to get a visit from the cops. Jason got scared and returned the movie. Good move. People still don't understand that if they agree to something under their account that they are liable for it. Your name is on the movie, and its your responsibility. Its one thing to be late now and then, because life happens. There's not always time to watch a movie or bring it back. But for those people that never bring them back... that's a serious problem. Where's the responsibility? And some of these people have kids! Do they just not feed their kids when they don't want to? Or do they forget to? Its a sad, sad thing to deal with, and I'm tired of hearing one lame excuse after another.

Just do what the contract says