Mistakenly charged my card

I have been a loyal customer for Blockbuster for a good 6 years now. I always bring my movies back on time and always make sure if I don't, I pay them right away. I also have their rewards program that you have to pay extra for, and I've had this since I have been a customer.

Basically what had happend was, I rented a game. I made sure I brought this game back 2 DAYS before it was due back, that way I gave the employees ample time to get it from the bin, check it in, and put it back on the shelf. Well, I go to my bank the other day and deposit some money. My bank teller tells me I am negative $57. I look at her and go there is no way. I have nothing huge pending, and I haven't made any big purchases in god knows how long. She looks up my statement and tells me that Blockbuster took out $63.99 and then returned it the same day. But because I didn't have enough money in my account, I was charged an over the limit fee. Now, since I had things pending from before this happend, when everything from the previous days came out, there was no money in my account to clear it, so everytime one of my purchases came out, I was charged another over the limit fee. After everything had came out, I was charged a total of $150 in fees. I'm a fulltime college student, I don't work, and I just picked up selling Avon as a way to try to get some sort of money in my pocket until I can find a job. That is my only source of income, and now since my bank account is negative, when I go to put any sort of money in my account, it's going to just suck it up.

I was livid with the fact that they took this amount out since I know for a FACT I returned this movie myself 2 days before it was due. I get to the Blockbuster and tell them that there must be some mistake. They look up the account and tell me that the movie was checked in on 8/31/09 at 6:50 PM. I tell them there is NO way that somebody returned it at that time because nobody on the account was in town at the time, and nobody went to Blockbuster to begin with that day. I told them that this isn't the first time they had mistakenly charged mine, or my friends card because my friend is still going through a dispute with this SAME Blockbuster because they charged his card almost $80 for a game he "never returned". He went down there and looked at the shelf. The game he just so happend to rent only had two copies in the entire store and when he got there, low and behold, the 2 copies were sitting on the shelf. The representative apologized and said the money would be refunded, and that was over a month ago and he still hasn't recieved any sort of compensation for their mistake. The manager told me that it was there mistake but they don't refund any over the limit fees caused by their mistake. I calmy tell them that this is unacceptable and I'm not taking no as an answer. This was their mistake and I shouldn't have to lose that much money because of them. They tell me that they will call my bank manager and talk to them. I take that and leave.

They call my bank manager and my bank manager tells the Blockbuster manager that the bank is not going to refund any sort of over the limit fees because this was not a bank error, it was their error. The Blockbuster manager tells her that they don't do this and they are going to have to refund the money themselves. Again, the bank manager tells her no, she needs to. This goes back and forth and finally the Blockbuster manager hangs up.

I call the Blockbuster manager back and ask her what's going on with them refunding my money because something needs to be done soon. She tells me that my BANK needs to refund me, not them. I tell her, listen, you've talked to my bank manager already and you've talked to me. I don't know how many people need to tell you that the bank is NOT going to refund ANY money if it is not their fault. She tells me that that's the situation and that's it. I told her I will be contacting the district manager and headquarters. She hung up on me.

I then called the district manager 3 times within the week and have not heard anything back from him. I called headquarters twice and got the run around every time. I was told first that a district manager would call me within 24 hours. I didn't get a call so I called headquarters back the next day and was then told it could take anywhere up to 72 hours to get a call back. I am then told that if it was a Blockbuster error, they will pay back my over the limit fees, whereas 2 days earlier I was told that they don't do that and I will have to have the bank pay me back.

I am so disgusted with the amount of customer service I have recieved. They refuse to realize that this problem has arised because of THEIR mistake. They have openely addmitted to me, my boyfriend, my mother AND my bank manager that it was their fault, but they are not refunding me my money. I have reported them to both my state's Better Business Bureu, and the Consumer Protection Agency. I will keep calling back until I get an answer and if I don't get this issue resolved I will have no option but to file legal documents and take them to court to get my money. I think this is unacceptable for a company that is nationally known to act like this and have such poor customer service. It's not enough that they are charging people's cards as they see fit, but the fact that they act so non-chalantly about an issue that one of their LOYAL customers have. I will be taking my business somewhere else, and I will be letting everybody in my area know of this problem and referring them to other businesses as well. I really hope I get this issue resolved soon and hopefully I will get a call back ASAP. I would suggest taking your business somewhere else if you would like to keep your money in your account where it belongs.