Practicalmadness

Something this holiday season must have made Blockbuster Video’s heart grow four sizes too big, as they’ve just announced that starting January 1, they are abolishing late fees (or as they cutely refer to them, “extended viewing fees”).

The move is part of Blockbuster’s ongoing (uphill) battle to compete with Netflix, the online rental service where there are no due dates, just a recurring monthly fee and limits on how many movies can be checked out at a time. The new plan does away with the daily late fee, and instead offers a one-week grace period after the due date for people to return items at no extra charge. After that, they’re automatically billed for the price of the item minus the rental fee. And after that, they can still return the tape/DVD/game within 30 days minus a restocking fee.

I tell you: the only reason I stopped using Blockbuster is because with all the late fees I was racking up by forgetting to return the 2-3 DVDs I rented in a given month, it became cheaper for me to just buy the things at Best Buy. Having an extra week to return stuff makes me a lot more likely to rent before I buy.

It helps also that I’m relatively broke.