Hollywood Video Still Charging Some Customers Late Fees

We hope you returned any Hollywood Video movies you may have rented before the film rental chain went bankrupt. If you didn't, you might owe them several months of phantom late fees. Thousands of customers have reportedly been contacted by credit agencies alerting them to compounded late fees owed to the company that doesn't exist anymore. Watch a video of the story and read more about an impending lawsuit after the jump.

/Film reader Lascelles L alerted us to the ABC 15 News in Arizona story on this craziness. Check out the video here or read about it below:

Pretty much all the information is in the story but, in case you can't watch the video, here's the info. Nicole Detmer of Arizona decided to check her credit report and noticed that she'd been reported to a collection agency over a $645 late charge from Hollywood Video. However, the store had long been closed and the fees were compounded from after their closing. Plus, Detmer said she never even remembers being late with a video (which is the one part of the story I don't believe, but I digress.) She contacted the credit agency to try and dispute the charge but, because Hollywood Video doesn't exist anymore, there was no one she could really talk to.

The Attorney General in Montana has already filed a class-action lawsuit against the collection agency, National Credit Solutions, saying that the charges are "exorbitant and unreasonable." This has also affected people in Kansas and elsewhere and everyone urges people not to pay the fees without getting documented proof.

Finally, it seems like the only way anyone will realize they owed Hollywood Video any money is if they check their credit report because no one is contacting these customers directly. So, if you went to Hollywood Video a lot, you might want to just double check and see if you've been getting charged for months.

As websites such as Hulu and Netflix completely make rental stores obsolete, these feels like the pitiful, final death grip on a once great institution.

Had you heard of this before? What's the most you ever owed in late fees?