Iowa’s part of a nationwide settlement that’ll see the Blockbuster movie rental chain be a little clearer on what happens to you if you failed to return a movie or game on time. Bob Brammer, a spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General, says the issue came up over Blockbuster’s new “No Late Fee” policy. Brammer says there were fees the company didn’t advertise. He says seven days after the due date the customer is charged the price of the item, and if you didn’t want to buy the item, there was a dollar-twenty-five “re-stocking” fee. Brammer says it was a judgment call that the company was pushing the lack of a late fee in its advertising — but failing to mention the other fees. “There’s probably no really bright line on where the fine print needs to be bigger,” Brammer says. “We felt like in this case there really was no fine print at all.” The agreement requires Blockbuster to clearly spell out its policies. He says the policy will have to be clearly advertised, and the company will have to make a refund to people who felt they were misled by the refunds. Brammer says if you felt you were misled by the company you need to file a claim. He says they want you to file at the individual stores if possible, or you can find a claim form on the A-G’s website, or mail a refund form to the company headquarters in Dallas. Blockbuster has 25 company-owned stores in Iowa and two franchise stores.
