And on the 8th day, Blockbuster converted the rental to a sale.

THE END OF LATE FEES. Maybe you’ve seen the posters plastered all over your local Blockbuster. As of Jan 29, 2005, Blockbuster Canada is no longer charging late fees for DVD rentals.

What’s the catch? You still have to return your rentals by the due date on your receipt. In fact, you can keep your rentals for an additional 7 days if you like. On the 8th day after your due date Blockbuster will assume you want to purchase that unreturned DVD. Your Blockbuster account will be billed for the full amount of the disc.

The good news is that Blockbuster will put your rental fee for the DVD toward their inflated sale price. Lucky you! If you decide that you really don’t want to purchase the DVD, that you thought you could keep it for as long as you like (no wait, only Zip.ca lets you do that) then you can beg, pay a $1.75 restocking fee and they will allow you to return the DVD.

So what we’ve learned here is that late fees have been given a flat rate of $1.75 and rebranded as restocking fees.

Posted in Movies at 10:59 PM