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#1
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how do i go about fighting this?
i rented a movie (manchurian candidate, the new one. wasn't even good [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]) from a small, privately-owned video store in my gf's hometown like 4 months ago. they sent us some letters over that timespan but i don't go there that often and it slipped my mind for awhile. i went back yesterday to pay the fine and for the movie that i lost. first, i was in the store and the employee was ready to charge me $20 for the movie + a few bucks for the inconvenience of having to replace it. but then he realized that it was given to a collection agency. after talking with the collector, they now want to charge me $100 total for the $20 movie. clearly the collector is just trying to strong arm me, and charging 5x the value of the movie is not store policy.
first off, that can't be legal, can it? secondly, i want to know how to go about fighting this. i'm planning on first contacting the BBB to see if they can influence the store's decision, and if not, going down to the small claims court in the town. should i do one first and not the other? is there any other way to fight this? thanks |
#2
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
What are you going to do at small claims court?
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#3
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
have you tried callign teh collections agency and telling them you are willing to pay for the video plus the small charges, and that is all? they might be willing to jsut do that.
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#4
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
josh send mike gallo a PM? hes been in the industry for a bit.
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#5
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
[ QUOTE ]
have you tried callign teh collections agency and telling them you are willing to pay for the video plus the small charges, and that is all? they might be willing to jsut do that. [/ QUOTE ] well i didn't tell the entire story because it would've been too long, but it was actually the collection guy that talked to me. he was a huge prick and wasn't looking to negotiate with me |
#6
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
when the movie studio sells copies of a movie to a rental place, they charge them a different amount than the standard retail price. it is illegal to rent out a copy that you paid retail for. you have to pay for a different license. IIRC, these are somewhere between $60 and $100.
it's possible their licensing deals have changed recently with the preponderance of online rental places, but it's very likely it cost the rental place much more than $20 to replace the copy you lost. |
#7
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
[ QUOTE ]
when the movie studio sells copies of a movie to a rental place, they charge them a different amount than the standard retail price. it is illegal to rent out a copy that you paid retail for. you have to pay for a different license. IIRC, these are somewhere between $60 and $100. it's possible their licensing deals have changed recently with the preponderance of online rental places, but it's very likely it cost the rental place much more than $20 to replace the copy you lost. [/ QUOTE ] the collector's "formula" was $20 for the video and $1 a day for 80 days overdue. what's also sketchy is that it was well over 80 days overdue. so i think they just rounded it off at 100 since they figured the higher they charge, the more likely i am to cause problems |
#8
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
[ QUOTE ]
What are you going to do at small claims court? [/ QUOTE ] i don't know. i guess i'd pay them first then sue them for it and hope they settle with me. my concern is that i'm going to get bad credit from this |
#9
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
How do you know it's not against store policy? From what I remember (it's been a while since I've heard of this), all the local video stores in my town growing up charged around that for a missing movie. I imagine it's in your contract somewhere, if you had to sign something (which you usually do). Whatever clause they have is probably pretty broad, and covers $100 charge.
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#10
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Re: how do i go about fighting this?
[ QUOTE ]
How do you know it's not against store policy? [/ QUOTE ] i don't KNOW for a fact, but the employee at the store was ready to charge me ~25 until the collector got into it. |
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