[1] Blockbuster changed their strategy last year in a way that they don’t have due dates for movie rentals anymore. A 2 day movie rental has a 7 days grace to return it (essentially giving you about a week and a half from the time you borrow it), and a 7 day rental thus gives you 14 days. However if you keep it long enough, they have the authority to charge you for the purchase of the DVD.

The poor checkout clerk probably has a hard time trying to explain how the setup works to customers. 2 days actually means 9 days, 7 days actually means 14 days. And didn’t they say there isn’t any due back date anymore? Sounds confusing just talking about it.

In the another case, my father-in-law pointed this out to me about a $50 restaurant gift card he had. If you don’t spend it within 12 months, the card will depreciate after a 6 month grace period by the % of what is stated in the small print and expires after 5 years. So you’ll have 12 months which really means 18 months till it starts depreciating and 60 months till it’s worthless. Confused?

Funny how businesses work, they say something, sell you something but somehow they don’t always say what they mean.