I have paid tons of late fees when I rent from Blockbuster or Hollywood . I wonder how hard would it be for these companies to implement a rental box that has a light that starts flashing the day the video is due back .
It seems like all it would need is a little LED light and a timer in the box which gets set when I rent the movie. Then when the timer reaches 00:00:00 ( one day before my video is due back ) , it starts to flash the light .
The question here is though that these companies probably make tons of money from late fees and they are probably not going to invest in something that will make them lose it . Still something to think about .
Maybe this might be useful somewhere else ?
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Excellent idea. This would greatly reduce my efforts to remember the 'Block Buster return calendar chart' found on the back cover. I hope these money sucking companies adopt this plan and be of help to the renting public.
Kudos!
I can think of two ways to do it.
The first way would be to create a disposable adhesive integrated circuit. (Just what it sounds like...Not the "computer chip" kind. Embed your bare components in nonconductive plastic.) Unfortunately, this adds, at minium, a per-rental cost.
The other way would be to build a reusable device into the plastic rental case.
The companies apparently make a lot of money on late fees and would have no interest in doing this. You can use the Windows calendar, which puts reminders on the screen. There are various services that send reminders. Google on reminders for a collection. These, of course, can serve all reminder needs.
The issue is obsolecent. Even Blockbuster is shifting the the Netflix model, which eliminates late fees. (In this case, a low tech solution is better.) But for those who prefer hitech solutions, several vendors (including Starz) rent movie downloads. These simply self-terminate after their allotted time.