[quote name='pwnthee']Okay so I did the 2 month trial and I'm going to tell about my experience.
But first, let me say that I've been a big Blockbuster supporter during the whole Netflix rise, especially back when I was a victim of Netflix Throttling back in the day, when I was an 8 DVD at a time subscriber (yes kids, they used to offer that). Anyhow, I loved Blockbuster Total Access when it first came out and I had their 4 DVDs at a time plan with unlimited exchanges, which was great for me because I had a store down the street from my house. I got my TV shows and harder to find/older DVDs from online, and the new release movies in-store. Had a great experience, never a problem. Then they switched it to something like 1 exchange per month or some crap, and I just got tired of it, so I stopped DVD by mail all together.
Fast forward to this Two month Trial.
It's very clear that Blockbuster is barely in business, and the online service is a lot worse than it used to be. Quality control is pretty bad now.
The first three movies in my queue - the Mad Max trilogy. I'd never seen them, and having played various Mad Max inspired games, I wanted to see the movies. The first two movies were pretty badly scratched. The first movie wouldn't play at all. The second movie had TERRIBLE picture and barely audible sound. It was a bad print transfer on the version of the DVD Blockbuster had selected as their rental copy. Not Blockbuster's fault for the bad transfer, but there are much better versions of this film out there (I know because of research). The third movie looked okay, didn't even bother because umm...I didn't see the first two movies.
I used the Report a problem system, did a little sharpie mark on the inner circle of the DVD (the donut hole part where it's the slightest clear plastic). They sent me the EXACT SAME two discs back, which I figured they'd do, hence why I marked the discs. I sent all three discs back and contacted customer service, but didn't get a response. (Note - I tried multiple DVD players - my PS3, my Xbox 360, my sony stand alone player, a desktop, and this laptop. They're all close together so it's easy to try them all).
My next sets of DVDs came and went, I don't remember what they all were, just that they were new releases, no problems. Then, I wanted the Mission Impossible movies. The first movie skipped a bit, but I got through it. MI 2 and MI 3...lived up to their names...impossible [to play]. Reported them as such and sent them back.
Out of 15 movies rented, 10 worked fine, no problems. I loved both Hugo (now one of my all-time favorite movies) and the last Harry Potter chapter (Went Blu-ray on both of these). Four movies were DOA and one movie skipped/froze a bit too much for acceptability. I contacted Customer Support again, indicated that I never received a response, told them my problem. I thought they should extend my rental period for two weeks since that's what the bad DVDs basically cost me in my trial. She credited $10 on my account (only useful toward a membership).
At the end of my free trial, I switched it to a 1 DVD at a time plan which costs $10. I'll cancel before June 24th.
The game selection is pretty poor. They also get games late.
Would I recommend paying for the service? Nah, not really. I would compare Blockbuster to the Titanic, a big old sinking ship, but it doesn't completely fit. It's more like a sinking canoe at this point.
Heck if I know why I wrote all that. Doubtful anybody does more than skim it, but that's okay, lol.[/QUOTE]
I actually read the whole thing, lol. That's an experience. I had one Blu-Ray that was cracked so DOA. (Sin City) Other than that, I enjoyed the 10-14 games/movies that I took out. I finally tried out Shadows of The Damned, and hated it. Glad I didn't pay for it. I was able to rent Driver, and finally finish it. If you haven't played Driver, you're missing out big time. I was going to have my gf sign up for this plan, but the closest BBV closed so that's a no go.
The funniest experience I had occurred in the store that was closet to me. The rep kept trying to sign me up for a plan because I rented four or five movies in one week. I had to tell that I had the membership to get off of my back. Free of course.
