Blockbuster subscribers reporting problems

Better yet, the poorly treated customers should fill out a report with the Better Business Bureau. www.bbb.org This can do wonders for the customers when the business is not treating them right. It is possible to get out of that contract and not waste any more money too.

that has happened top me too. i got an email saying a movie was shipped then a day later i get an email saying it was recieved. and i have ben throttled with my dvds.

I talk to a customer service rep and I was told the computer system in one of there warehouses crashed and they just now got it operational.

haha oh yea??


...Get this; my uncle has blockbuster online; and I asked him if he could rent me this one Metallica DVD; and since I told him to get it fast; he put it at the top of his queue....

...and I waited for @ least more than four months; and still never got it......

...so in the end I ended up going out and flat out buying it from a store....

...so his account I can guarantee you is also being throttled....



....so; I guess this whole 'online' rental thing isn't as slick as I thought it would be ....lol

I subscribe to the BlockBuster total access and for the most part I am very happy with it. I do, however, receive many movies late but I think I have to blame that on my postal service. The reason I say that is because I have received movies with foot prints on the envelope, envelops that contained shattered discs, and sometimes just the envelope itself in a plastic baggy with a sorry note from the postal service. My other mail is also very late and I receive my bills and sales papers after they are due or when the sale is over or almost over.

But I constantly put new releases to the top of my list and 9 times out of 10 they are shipped out to me the monday before their release date and I get them on Wednesday a couple days later.

I had Block Buster Online once, and it sucked in comparison to Netflix, which is even bigger now than back a couple years ago when I had BB. Sometimes, in the case of a Metallica DVD, they only have a handful of those discs throughout the company and it can take awhile for them to come through. As long as you are still getting DVD's, then the system is not broken, just a long wait on that particular disc. Netflix has been really good at sending me stuff from their warehouses all over the country. Typically they are pretty fast too. I think their system is alot more refined than BB. I received Borat on release day this week. Whenever I do get a broken or damaged disc, Netflix will send out a replacement without even receiving the original back first. Overall, the only gimmick I see in the BB idea is being able to go to a brick and mortar store.

i got a free in store coupon for my troubles after one complaint..

they are usually extremely fast in my case, so i dont complain too much.

I think they have had issues for a while! I had too many problems with them (BB). The straw that broke it was a damaged disc they tried to charge me for, 3 calls to get that fixed and a disc that didn't even show up, again 3 calls to fix. I didn't eve try netflix after a friend told me they had the same trouble with netflix. I now keep getting emails from BB to come back to the service. I say no thanks I don't need the hassle!

i had blockbuster free for 5 months and it did its duties :D

Blockbuster just want to steal money from you. same with netflix but netflix sent you dvds more.

i will not start usuing netflix or blockbuster online untill i know they are no longer throttling peoples accounts. so what if i just copy the disk and send it back the same day, you promissed something and your not delivering, so you dont get my money, simple as that. i dont wanna just see any old fucking movie, i want to see A SPECIFIC MOVIE. what if i got a hot date but the movie they sent me that week is all tits and gore? i realize how cheap netflix is but i am not going to pay 7 bucks a month to get one dvd a week that i realy dont even get to pick out.

i gues the throttling is the biggest reason ill probably never get netflix, but all the customer service nightmares are definatly a contributing factor. the postal service has a tendancy to steal the dvds and they are smart enough to do it when the dvd is being "returned" so all the fault gets slapped on the customer, and the customer has to go jump through a bunch of hoops to get all the bullshit sorted out. id pay 7 bucks just to NOT have to deal with that.

georgeluv
I have netflix I can get about 3-9 movies a week on the 3 at a time plan.
mind you I ahve to be quick with the "watching" but ti can be done :P

Halen5150 You can get that from Netfix, I did and it came on time too. BallBuster REALLY SUCKS! they don't have a good selection unless you're a New Release Only type of person and then anywhere should do. The in-store thing is nice but again they have to have what your looking for to be any good and they will still screw up your cue issues.

Originally posted by Mr-Movies:

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Halen5150 You can get that from Netfix, I did and it came on time too. BallBuster REALLY SUCKS! they don't have a good selection unless you're a New Release Only type of person and then anywhere should do. The in-store thing is nice but again they have to have what your looking for to be any good and they will still screw up your cue issues.

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BB is cumbersome it works if you go to thier store weekly but in all they need to fix their site and polish their service,add games to thier online library make a 3-5 at a time plan that can have any mix of games/movies for 5 ore than their normal plans and just do something other than "look we have this...it dosent work but we have it!"

Netflix is nice but they rarely get edited and unedited released anime and their que page needs polish but still its a 7 compared to BB's 4.5.
if they offered unedited and edited anime(to tv anime get a dual release unless its 4kids then you just get waped by viewing it) then that would make them a 8,games would make them a 9 or 11 making the que system better and easier to adjust and keep things would be another point.

I worked for the company when they started putting stores into it about a year ago... Bad idea. It's a complete mess. Specialty DVD's like the Metallica one mentioned above are very rare rental copies. And they tend to be rented by walk-in customers almost year round. Which means that they're really hard to get for the online rental program...

Overall, it's not helpful to the customers who can't get the items they want. Most of the service does NOT rely on one central warehouse. It relies on stores, so the story about a warehouse issue is bunk. The fact that minimum wage disgruntled employees have been put in charge of the system has finally come back to bite the company in the butt.


Lol; I'm an ex-employee; and I would never consider BB online. I use netflix.

I have tried both Netflix and Blockbuster. I went went Blockbuster because of the free in-store rentals when you return your mailers to the store. That gives me 3 movies from the store for free plus the 3 movies they are mailing. That's a good deal, especially when you count the free coupon I can use each month to rent a game or movie from the store.
I have NEVER had any delays from Blockbuster. They actually seem to be a little faster than the service I was getting with Netflix - which wasn't bad service. Blockbuster just offers more for the money. If a movie is going to have a delay they will clearly say so by labeling it "short wait" or "long wait". I think this is standard for both companies.

Georgeluv wrote "i realize how cheap netflix is but i am not going to pay 7 bucks a month to get one dvd a week that i realy dont even get to pick out." ---

This never happens. You are the one that puts movies in your queue. You pick all the movies out.

yup you pick the movies you want when they are in stock they ship them,if not you will be notified to update your que so if you made your list a week ago and something is not in they will let you know and send the next item on the list out.

My only complaint is the Que system is a bit rough,you can change the numbers to rearrange them remove them or send them to the top of the que ,not useful when you are ditz who cant make his mind up >>

I've used them both,and neither have sent movies, on time after a few
weeks, 3 at a time is a joke, you may get one, one day, two a few days later. They both suck. So does the Post Office. I rate them both F.

Originally posted by loxley32:

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Georgeluv wrote "i realize how cheap netflix is but i am not going to pay 7 bucks a month to get one dvd a week that i realy dont even get to pick out." ---

This never happens. You are the one that puts movies in your queue. You pick all the movies out.

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i know this, but i watch movies based on how i feel. if i am feeling pissed off im not going to want to watch some chick flick. yes i picked the movie they sent me but i have no control over when they send which movie. how good is this service to me if i dont feel like watching the movie they send me at that paticular time? i guess id say that my movie taste is specific, and i am specific of when i want to watch certain types of movies. and i have hear horror stories about not getting your first pick for months, and im not talking about some random metalica dvd im talking big new releases.
i also have a great desire to get the best new movies ASAP, if i wanna see a movie realy bad i aint going to be too happy about having to wait ANOTHER month or two after it comes to dvd to see it.

Originally posted by ZIppyDSM:

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I have netflix I can get about 3-9 movies a week on the 3 at a time plan.
mind you I ahve to be quick with the "watching" but ti can be done :P

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not worth it if i have to pay for the 3 at a time plan. 1 at a time SHOULD be enough, logical thinking would dictate that if it only takes "about one business day" to get my dvd it should only take that long for them to get them back. if i get the dvd spend 30 minutas "watching" it then send it back the same day (my post office is very close and doesnt send out outgoing mail till 4 something and my mail comes to my box around 3 so this can be done) then i should get a movie every 3 days. i should be able to get 10 movies. netflix by thier own admision designed the 1 out program for people that rent "5 or less" dvds per month. netflix also admits throtteling people based on how often they rent and what plan they have. they need to have a better system and be way more upfront about their polocies.

i guess i just dont deal with companies that say one thing and do another.

This is why i actually go to the video store and get my movies.

Quote:

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Originally posted by loxley32:

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Georgeluv wrote "i realize how cheap netflix is but i am not going to pay 7 bucks a month to get one dvd a week that i realy dont even get to pick out." ---

This never happens. You are the one that puts movies in your queue. You pick all the movies out.

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i know this, but i watch movies based on how i feel. if i am feeling pissed off im not going to want to watch some chick flick. yes i picked the movie they sent me but i have no control over when they send which movie. how good is this service to me if i dont feel like watching the movie they send me at that paticular time? i guess id say that my movie taste is specific, and i am specific of when i want to watch certain types of movies. and i have hear horror stories about not getting your first pick for months, and im not talking about some random metalica dvd im talking big new releases.
i also have a great desire to get the best new movies ASAP, if i wanna see a movie realy bad i aint going to be too happy about having to wait ANOTHER month or two after it comes to dvd to see it.

[quote=ZIppyDSM]I have netflix I can get about 3-9 movies a week on the 3 at a time plan.
mind you I ahve to be quick with the "watching" but ti can be done :P

not worth it if i have to pay for the 3 at a time plan. 1 at a time SHOULD be enough, logical thinking would dictate that if it only takes "about one business day" to get my dvd it should only take that long for them to get them back. if i get the dvd spend 30 minutas "watching" it then send it back the same day (my post office is very close and doesnt send out outgoing mail till 4 something and my mail comes to my box around 3 so this can be done) then i should get a movie every 3 days. i should be able to get 10 movies. netflix by thier own admision designed the 1 out program for people that rent "5 or less" dvds per month. netflix also admits throtteling people based on how often they rent and what plan they have. they need to have a better system and be way more upfront about their polocies.

i guess i just dont deal with companies that say one thing and do another.

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so what you are saying is you want the them to send stuff overnight and not charge you 20 more?

ever get post cards? they take 2-6 days to arrive depending on where they start,so a 2-4 day wait is not bad if you like going to the store thats fine,but netflix is still the best online/mail rental system yet.

Netflix will sit on movies I just had them do it to me I have over 30 movies in my cue but I only received 2 of my 3 I haven't checked my que but most probably they are waiting for something coming back into their system. I wish they wouldn't do that and have complained about it to them many times but as long as it isn't more then a day or two max it's not the end of the world. If it goes longer then that I bit@h big time and they give me a 4th selection to make up for their idiocy. So Netflix is far from perfect but overall they are pretty good and definitely have WAY more movies to choose from. There WEB site is way better then BB and unlike Zippy the que doesn't bother me, once I learned a couple of tricks. Never use their email support, unless it fits there predetermined selections, it is the worst but if you contact them by phone you can get pretty good support.

I'm not real moody so adjusting my cue a day or two before they send my next selections is not a problem for me. You just can't get sh*t going into the store unless again your talking new release or a popular chic flick.

Mr-Movies

I tweak my ques every other day >>
LOL

Block busters has become the new walmart a large cramped space filled with nothing!
LoL

I tweak my queue often as well; but my experience has been much better with netflix than blockbuster online. Blockbuster online picks a store that it *thinks* has yout movie in, about 70% of the time, it's right. The other 30%, your movie just gets delayed until the next morning, when they re-send the list. The trouble is, they don't necessarily send it to another store. When I was working there, they re-sent a request to us for a Pink Floyd DVD for three straight weeks; but the copy was missing, probably shoplifted. So, some poor sap had that at the top of his queue for almost a MONTH. From what I've heard, there's still no fix for this.

As for netflix, I've had good experience, but it depends on how close you are to them. Our turnaround time is generally that I put my dvd in the mailbox in the evening, three mailing days later, I have the next one. That's one-two for them to receive, one to process(Because we know they can't just "know" to send out your next one until they scan them all), another to put it in the mail, and one for me to receive it. That's pretty speedy, they've got it down to an art; but you can only do so much when you're working with the mail.

I'm very pleased with it, but 'moodiness' isn't a problem for me. I own over 800 dvds, so if I'm not in 'the mood' for 'Blade', I can just delve into my collection and pull out 'The Meaning of Life'. Although, I'm generally a 95% comedy sort of guy, so if Blade is sitting in my queue, I either rented it for my wife; or I've been really craving it lately. So I may be a special case.

I'm not a big fan of rental stores anymore, because I worked there a long time, I've seen the mistakes and errors; and how the customer can get messed over, either due to employee error, or sometimes employee theft. I don't want to deal with that, it's not worth it to me. Netflix and Gamefly err on my side, and I like that, even if they do take longer. Blockbuster online and rental stores err on the side of 'screw you patron'; I'm not really down for that.

People are telling me they have unreal problems with Blockbuster's site, especially under Firefox. A queue will take a couple minutes to load with 90-100% CPU utilization (a DoS), and it'll often crash the browser. If I subscribed to an online service, this would be enough of a reason to consider Netflix. Although Netflix apparently is back to their old ways (throttling their shipments like you wouldn't believe) at least their website is functional.

correct, i just cancelled, movies were in my que for over 2 weeks

I use Firefox and Blockbuster.com and I have never had any problem with getting movies from my queue. 9 out 10 times I get the next movie in the exact order that I list them. I've never waited more than 3 days before the next movie arrived in my mailbox. I know 3 other people that have Blockbuster.com and they have the same experience with the company that I have - it is all positive. They all use Blockbuster for the same reason I do - the fact that you can return the sleeves back to the store for a free in-store rental, plus the monthly coupon to rent a game. As a matter of fact, I never had problems with Netflix, either. I swapped to Blockbuster because of the in-store bonuses.

Can someone explain what you mean by throttling means?

Quote:

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georgeluv (Member) 9 March 2007 9:36
"the postal service has a tendancy to steal the dvds and they are smart enough to do it when the dvd is being "returned" so all the fault gets slapped on the customer, and the customer has to go jump through a bunch of hoops to get all the bullshit sorted out. id pay 7 bucks just to NOT have to deal with that."

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Do you have proof of that idiotic statement? A postal service employee stealing a DVD worth twenty dollars? Losing a job paying $60,000+ a year for a $20 DVD! Please! You don't even subscribe to the BlockBuster so how can you make assumptions about the service.

My experience has been great regarding BlockBusters service. I have three rentals + another three rentals from the store + my free rental a month. I average about 24 rentals a month for the $18 so it works out to about $0.75 each. Service is about two days turn-around when I turn them in at the store and get what's in my queue usually. Very pleased with service.

Well; it would be simple for the post office to recognize a return, vs an initial send-out to customers. But I frankly don't think they'd care even if they were stealing them. Post offices tend to have a lot of cameras... Everywhere, not just the front. And your mailman just isn't that interested in procuring Naruto volume 4. lol.

Seriously though; I would blame error on the stores 10 over 1 in any 'missing return' situation... It's so disorganized, and the employees have to work so hard to rush those out in ridiculous amounts of time; not to mention that after working in one of those stores, I will say they harbor some of the most dishonest people I've ever met. Sure, some of them are really friendly; but I think in my two years there, I met one honest person there. I actually turned in an employee for stealing, had him on tape; and they refused to take action. That sort of thing happens a lot.

So don't blame the postal service, it's rarely them, it's the store employees being disorganized and/or dishonest. One of those two is the company's fault; the other is an individual person's fault. Unfortunately as a customer trusting the company, you can't filter out either of them, which is why I won't do business there.

Originally posted by FredBun:

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Can someone explain what you mean by throttling means?

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"Throttling" means intentionally delaying shipments so the number of movies you get in a month is less than what you could be getting. If you live in, say, Pennsylvania, Netflix would send shipments from California, since postage costs the same anywhere. Or they'd simply delay sending out shipments or processing returns. They were sued over this. But even today, people tell me that it's rare to get more than about a dozen movies in a month, at least not much more.

"Frequent Netflix renters sent to back of the line"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11262292/
"Judge approves Netflix ‘throttling’ settlement"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12584258/

I hope Moive gallery has a better online setup...BB's online looks horrid and is poorly detailed...

Dunker I've read everything, Unbelievable, them no good dirty bastards. I joined them when they first started, the first two years everything was really fast, after that it slowed down considerbly, I would watch my movies and send them out the very next day always, no wonder they slowed me down, well it was thier loss cause after the second year I dropped them like a hot potato.

im a member of a similiar company in the uk n i had roughly the same probs but when i complained about the service and told them i wanted to close my account with them they sent me 9 films on my " queue " at once with the condition that if it happened again they would give me 3 months free rental as long as i didnt terminate my agreement with them. so it helps to play your trump card when needed.

Originally posted by loxley32:

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I have tried both Netflix and Blockbuster. I went went Blockbuster because of the free in-store rentals when you return your mailers to the store. That gives me 3 movies from the store for free plus the 3 movies they are mailing. That's a good deal, especially when you count the free coupon I can use each month to rent a game or movie from the store.
I have NEVER had any delays from Blockbuster. They actually seem to be a little faster than the service I was getting with Netflix - which wasn't bad service. Blockbuster just offers more for the money. If a movie is going to have a delay they will clearly say so by labeling it "short wait" or "long wait". I think this is standard for both companies.

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I agree. I've not had any issues with BB online...so far. Other than the odd pricing plans it's a great deal. But only if you return the movies to the store in time. Otherwise they more than make thier money back in late charges :-P I'm in an outlying area so BB is faster because it comes from a local store rather than a warehouse in a far off city like w/ netflix. I had no issues w/ netflix when I had them. As long as I'm quick with my "watching" 17 bucks a month for 15 or so free movies is an excellent deal if you ask me!

I use both and watch movies every night I feel like it
the 71" Samsung DLP makes it all worth it
Both companies are slow sometimes

I'm sorry to say that I've had no problems with Blockbuster. Using the mail in and the drop of in the store systems, I'm getting movies, movies, and more movies.

"Total Access Premium" is nothing but a Total Scam 'n fraud perpetrated on consumers across America by Blockbuster's lying Corporate Weasels in their Xtian Bushland state of TexAss.

Blockbuster has been throttling, or holding back DVDs returned 'n scanned into the store for a full 6 days now. These TexAss corporate weasels are pulling a massive fraud on consumers by falsely advertising unlimited rentals on their total access BS..

I returned 2 of only 3 of the movies they were supposed to send on the same day to the store that were scanned into the system early Wed. Aug. 15. They finally shipped out 2 new movies 6 days later on Aug. 21st and STILL held back the 3rd movie....

Everything was peachy of course during the 2 week trial, but the very day that was up on Aug 10, they started to throttle usage down.

Both blockbuster 'n netflix are falsely advertising unlimited movies as a promotional gimmick that even the 'deregulated' FTA has warned them about.

Plus there's a TexAss tax of a $1.38 they collect from members all over the country. I for one refuse to support a corrupt Xtian Bushland state like Texass..

Off to Hollywood Video's in store membership that's 5 bucks less than Blockbuster for the same thing...

Sign me - A Lost Vegas Blockbuster Ex-Customer as of Today, August, 21, 2007

I just got an account alert in my e-mail from blockbuster, they now want to stop usage of unlimited on-line returns back to the store to only 3 per month, if you want unlimited you have to now pay $25 a instead of $17 a month, now I am really pissed, they had a nice thing going and now they blew it with me, has anybody else got this e-mail from them?

Quote:

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I just got an account alert in my e-mail from blockbuster, they now want to stop usage of unlimited on-line returns back to the store to only 3 per month, if you want unlimited you have to now pay $25 a instead of $17 a month, now I am really pissed, they had a nice thing going and now they blew it with me, has anybody else got this e-mail from them?

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That's the ironic part - I'm in total access 'premium' presented as unlimited and now even distinguished as 'unlimited' by costing 7 bucks more than total access 'limited' at 18/month. Total Access Premium is fraudulently advertised as a promotional gimmick to suck in infrequent users only. Nothing the store manager presented about 'DVD turnaround time' was true. They intentionally limit the number of DVDs by throttling Total Access premium members, yet they raise the price 30% or 7 bucks.

I left the in-store monthly blockbuster program because they just raised 2 movies at a time plan 5 more bucks for a total increase of 10 bucks in 2 years from 20/month, or a whopping 50% increase in just 2 years. Almost as bad as Cox basic cable that went up from 39 to 48 in 2 years but nothing like power here in Las Vegas that's gone up 80% since the start of the 21st century.

The concept behind any all you can eat or use service is that the number of people that do not eat/rent their money's worth are enough to offset the the smaller percentage of people that do. If they want to advertise unlimited, the FTA needs to force them to provide unlimited DVDs to members or stop advertising it as a promotional gimmick.

You can read more about that increase that took affect a week after I'd signed up on Aug. 3rd here on Blockbuster’s Not So Total Access

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You can read more about that increase that took affect a week after I'd signed up on Aug. 3rd here on Blockbuster’s Not So Total Access

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This time w/out the extra forward slash at Blockbuster’s Not So Total Access