Thread: Blockbuster - scam! 2 charges

I was late in returning 2 movies last week and Blockbuster charged my paypal debit card for the late charges. I have never had them do this before. They usually wait until I come back in to rent movies again and then charge me the late fees.

So I went in tonight to rent a movie my daughter wanted to see and the cashier said I had a late charge of $2.16 to pay. No way I said, I had printed off the paypal notification of the charge from Blockbuster.

She said that I would have to pay the late fee or I could not rent the movie. What a scam! They are charging me twice for this!

Did you end up paying again? I have had this happen to me too. They charge the credit card on file. I thought they only did this when you didn't come back in for a while so it was their only option but boy was I wrong. They charged my credit card the day I returned the movies. I didn't realize it so I paid the late charge that weekend (they said there was still a late charge on my account). I did not even look at my credit card bill, as there were no charges on it (no balance) or so I thought. I ended up having to pay a $30 late fee on a $1.08 late charge from Blockbuster.

Needless to say I have not been back in and I won't.

My son rented a game from Blockbuster on my membership card. I got a voicemail on my cell phone that said I had something past its due date. I called them up because I couldn’t think of anything and they told me it was this game. She said it had already been changed to a sale, and my card had been charged about $70. She said if we return the game within 30 days, we’d be refunded the amount (less a restocking fee).


I checked my credit card and it didn’t show a charge. I called them back and said that it wasn’t showing up on my card and asked for the number to which they had charged the amount. They read me the card number and I checked it against all my cards. It did not match any of them. I found that it was a card I had cancelled years ago and no longer had.

I called them back to tell them that the card was not a valid one, and they said that the time limit to return it wasn’t up yet, so if I got the game back, then the charge wouldn’t happen anyway. So the next day, we returned the game, in the return slot by the front door.


A few days later, I got a letter from a collection agency asking me to pay Blockbuster. I called the manager and he told me the game had not been returned. Naturally there isn’t any way for me to verify this - or refute it. I know we took the game back, but they didn’t scan it in, apparently. He said that it is a popular game and people ask about it when it’s not in stock.

This is so frustrating. We know we don’t have the game because we returned it. They say they don’t have the game. They have a problem in their return process when something returned can go missing between drop off and check in. Anyone could take one of the movies or games that hasn’t been scanned in yet, because they set them on the counter in the process. How do they know if it was stolen? But we didn’t steal it, so we shouldn’t have to pay for it!

I recommend you use someone else - like Netflix - because Blockbuster is just a company of scammers who are out to screw you out of your money. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. Avoid them!