Before everything was available to stream and binge watch online, there were video stores where you could rent DVDs.

Imagine going to a video rental store to pick out a DVD to watch. You take it home, watch it, and then what? How do you return the DVD and what exactly counts as returning it?

The answers to these questions may seem obvious, but they weren’t so obvious to the customer in this story.

Let’s see what happened.

But I returned it…

I used to work in a video store.

We had a woman call because we had charged her credit card for a DVD that was never returned.

We had been calling her every day for 15 days and leaving messages warning her of the increasing late fees and that her card would be charged on day 16.

When she got the Thank You for Paying The Late Fee And The Item Cost letter she finally called in to argue.

I explained the charges and she proceeded to argue.

She claimed she returned it.

Customer (C): “But I returned it.”

Me: “We don’t have it here. Maybe you returned it to another store or another location?”

(C): “No, I dropped it in the mailbox.”

Me: “You.. mailed it to us? ”

The employee makes sure he’s really understanding this.

(C): “Yes.”

Me: “Like.. in an envelope? With stamps? ”

(C): “No. I just put it in the mailbox.”

Me: “You just put the DVD case in the mailbox? No envelope? No stamps? ”

(C): “Yeah”

She didn’t think she needed an envelope or stamps.

Me: “That’s not how you mail things”.

(C): “But the case has your address on it. ”

Me: “But mail requires postage to be paid. Okay, anyways, we never got it. So it was never returned. So the late charges and replacement fee stand. ”

(C): ”BUT I RETURNED IT. ”

He tries to explain how ridiculous her method of returning the DVD actually was.

Me: “Ma’am, you ‘returned’ it like you left it in a field and called us 2 weeks later to say it’s in a field somewhere. When you rent an object it is your responsibility to ensure it is returned to the business. We do not have our DVD, so you owe us money. ”

(C): ”Can’t you call Canada Post and get it from them? ”

Me: “Ma’am, I think you missed the ‘your responsibility’ part. If you call them and you manage to get the DVD back from them and bring it to us we can refund you the replacement cost. ”

He clarifies what he means by “returned.”

(C): “And the late fees?”

Me: “No, it’s still late.”

(C): “But I returned it on time.”

Me: “I think we’re working with two different definitions of the word ‘returned’. We only consider an item returned when all components of the rental are returned, dvd, box, everything. Zero pieces of your rental are in our store. So it is not ‘returned’. Even if you were to find the dvd and return it right now, it would be crossing our threshold two weeks later than it should have been.”

Wow. What a crazy customer.

Why would she stick a DVD case in the mail instead of taking it to the store?

That only works with Netflix and their red envelopes.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This would be a funny comeback!

Yes, she might be thinking of Netflix.

A retail worker weighs in.

A former Blockbuster manager shares their experience.

That is not how you return a DVD!

Common sense, folks. Bring it back.

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