Late Charges

Over the past few years much has been made about the practice of charging late charges for overdue video rentals. This is mostly due to several law suits filed against the Blockbuster rental chain. I have to admit, I have very little sympathy for those who complain that late fees are unfair. In the eighteen years that I worked in the video rental business, most of the customers who complained about late fees were often habitual offenders. It seemed they were more upset about having been caught returning late videos, than the actual cost of a few dollars extra. My favorite charge by repeat offenders was to infer that I or one of my colleagues were calling them a liar. Often they would claim to not have rented a title on a date the computer or receipt stated, and so we the clerks had the audacity to accuse the customer of lying! Well, yah' you are lying! You got caught returning a tape late, and now you refuse to admit that you were wrong. And that's the real problem isn't it! While your SUV is illegally parked in the fire lane in the front of the store, you're arguing a lousy $2.00 late charge because you're used to getting everything your way. And no, I don't believe you had a death in the family, because you've used that excuse three time before. And don't blame your kid, he didn't rent the three porn tapes, you did. Have you no shame? Does it mean that much to you that you would use your own kids as a ploy to get out of paying for your crime? Wow, that felt good. Now, if I only had said that to the hundreds of liars who never returned their films on time.