The Blockbuster Online Discussion Topic

Altered Beast Returns

Altered Beast Returns

CAGiversary!
First, if there is a better topic to post this under, I appologize.

I have been a Blockbuster Online member for over a year now, and I was looking to discuss them with others who have experience with them. I also spent some time as a Netflix member, in order to get movies that were not available through Blockbuster.

When I first signed up with Blockbuster, turn over time was GREAT. I would get a movie on Monday, send it back Tuesday, they would get it Wednesday, and i would get my next movie by Thursday or Friday. At $20 (it was less when I started), at 3 movies at a time, that came to 12 movies a month. $1.67 a movie. I had an in store movie pass, which was great, until I tapped my local store dry of everything good they had.

Now, I recently moved, south of the distribution center, but equal distant to how far i was originally (I was north of it). In the month or so before this move, and all the time since, i have been having INSANE problems with Blockbuster.

First, I would get the wrong DVD in the correct sleve. I'd contact them, and they'd send me out the right one, before I even sent out the original. That was cool, but they won't do that anymore. Then I would get the wrong movie and wrong sleve. Then I would get huge delays in when I would get movies! I would ask them what was going on, and they'd say they are gonna ship it out to me. They ship out another copy, but then about a week after they said they shipped out the first, I get it in the mail. So I end up wasting one of my "3 at a time" rentals getting a moive sent out to me twice.

The biggest problem was with The Godfather Part 2. This movie is 2 discs. For some reason, they sent me out two copies of Disc B. I explained this to them, and they didn't understand. They said they would fix it, and I KEPT getting Disc B! No Disc A! I eventually got it through Netflix.

At this point, I am very frustrated with them as they are taking up to 3 days to send out a movie. A returned movie clears the queue, then there is no 3rd movie for up to 4 days, THEN one gets sent out. I am also currently waiting for a movie that was sent out on the 27th, and it is now the 2nd. Also, their in store coupouns are worthless to me, as I used to live next to a Blockbuster, now there are none within a reasonable distance.

I hear that Netflix practices "throttling", which delays the shipping of movies to those who rent too much. This is done by posting that they shipped out a movie even though they wont do it for a day or two more. Does anyone know of Blockbuster does this? This seems to be the case right now.

What is everyone else's experience with Blockbuster? I had not throttling problems with Netflix, but then again, I was only a member for about 2 months.
 
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I haven't had a problem with them until now (member 6 months). they are really slow with sending me movies....very similiar to the problem I had with netflix. Movies will be available and they won't ship for 2 days or more..
 
[quote name='almasy82']I haven't had a problem with them until now (member 6 months). they are really slow with sending me movies....very similiar to the problem I had with netflix. Movies will be available and they won't ship for 2 days or more..[/QUOTE]

So this might be a sudden hit that Blockbuster online is doing across the board, of dealying their products?
 
I've had few problems with them. About once every one or two months they may get slow or something, but nothing major. And as soon as I report a problem they send out another movie.
 
I have been with blockbuster about 4 months and I have noticed them getting slower as well. It was taking 3 or 4 days to get a movie and now it is like 5 or 6!
 
I have looked at my Blockbuster onilne rental history, to see the "shipped date" and "returned date" of each movie. Now, 90% of the time I send the movie back the next day, sometimes, it takes me 2 days. But here are the averages for a few months:

This is how many days it took from the day the "shipped" up to and including the day they "recieved" it.


April 2005 - 7.4 days on average. As low as 4 days at one point. Total of 10 movies.

June 2005 - 6.1 days on average. As low as 3 days at one point. Total of 15 movies.

August 2005 - 5.3 days on average. As low as 2 days at one point! Total of 15 movies.

October 2005 - 7.2 days on average. As low as 4 days at one point, as high as 13! Total of 13 movies.

Make of this pattern what you will.
 
About Netflix , I send back movies real fast too. I've been a member for about a year now, and I usually send back a movie the same day or the day after (I have a lot of free time). I've noticed some slowdown with them and I was about to switch to Blockbuster until I saw this thread. I've never heard of it, but I think it may be happening to me. As close as a month ago, I would get a movie on Monday, send it back Monday night or Tuesday, then get the next one on Wednesday or Thursday. Now I return it, say Monday/Tuesday, my queue wouldn't change for about a week. Then it would say that my next movie was shipping in a few days. I suppose they're losing money, and I've played around with that Netflix calculator that's been floating around. This is what the lawsuit was about, eh?
 
I've noticed some slowdown with them and I was about to switch to Blockbuster until I saw this thread. What kind of information do you have on throttling?
Click to expand...

First of all you should rely on more than a handful of opinions from one site to make a decision.

Secondly, as far as I know BB doesn't throttle. I've never been throttled and I always send back my movies the next day. I've done so since the first day I signed up months ago. I also report a movie if it doesn't get to me in 3 days and still no throttling.

Of course it stands within reason that BB may begin throttling at some point or even do it now to certain customers, but I'm not one of them even though I am a pretty heavy user. Even if BB is throttling it is in no way as widespread or consistant as Throttleflix.

BB has problems, yes, but I don't see throttling as one of them right now.
 
I did some more research after looking at this thread too. It seems that the majority of people blogging on Netflix vs. Blockbuster say that Netflix has better quality service overall. From personal experience and the stuff I've read, it seems that mixups are few to none, and the only problem is throttling.
 
It really is a tough call, if you'd rather deal with mixups, or throttling. A mix up can set you back two weeks on a new release. If you want something like, say, Batman Begins, then when you finally get it, someone switched what movie is in there, you have to wait for it to be sent out again and such. I have had problem free months, and problem filled months with Blockbuster.

Yesterday, I called in regards to the fact that no 3rd movie had been sent out since the 27th, which I've never had happen. The operator said she'd fix that (which today seems to be fixed), and would give me two additional in store coupons. THAT never happened.

Netflix has a bigger selection, at the time seemed to move faster, and gave me NO problems with DVD mix ups or broken/damaged DVDs like Blockbuster has.

But, I'd rather deal with those mix ups than have all my movies throttled.

I heard that Netflix doesn't want your renting to get to the point where you are spending less than $2 per movie, and if it does, they start throttling.

Now, I haven't read anywhere that Blockbuster has been throttling, but it just seems to have gotten very slow and messy lately.
 
I noticed some OLDER movies are a bit slower. All my new releases are here within a day or two tops. However, I noticed some DVD's coming and they actually have STAMPS on the envelopes. So, it does appear B&M stores are shipping them. I don't care....I just report it as NOT shown up and they send the next movie
 
BB throttles as well. I started fast and now I am lucky IF I get 3 a week. This is even while I am mailing them back the same day I receive them! I am going to switch to netflix when another free month offer comes up, then keep swiching back and forth from Netflix to BB in order to stay off their "omg this customer rents too many movies sh!telist".

I wouldn't have a problem with them if they would just be honest and up front about their limitations. The fact that they treat frequent renters like crap and wont admit it is just messed up.
 
dont know about netflix YET BUT blockbuster sucks.... if you use report DVD Issue too much you get blacklisted and your account cancelled...

wont have a problem with netflix since netflix says allow 6 days before reporting but BBO pushes (if your movie isnt there in 3 days report it)

BBO for them to send me a movie to get to me 3-4 days each way 6-8 days tot

NETFLIX 1 day each way maybe 2 days to get to me if they miss the early mailman (so 3 day total)

NETFLIX ALL THE WAY WOOO
 
I've had both Netflix and Blockbuster service (even had Walmart's while it lasted). Apparently for where I live Netflix is the way to go. It takes Blockbuster a good 3 days to get a movie to me and then most times when they get my movie back it will take a day or two for them to ship a new one out. That combined with the fact that it was nearly impossible for me to find a movie I wanted that didnt have a short wait. I keep going back to them for a month at a time every now and then over the course of the past two years just to see if they changed and they havent. The only good thing about them is that you can get 2 games in store with their coupons (unless this policy has been changed recently .. I dont know). But then again even that was a bit of problem for me as going to the nearest Blockbuster was like a 40 minute round trip drive. Netflix on the other hand has been getting movies to me with a 1 day turnaround time and selection and availibility have been good.
 
Right now im on the last week of a free month trial. THe service is pretty good. You can mark stuff as not received and they dont even question it, and you get to keep the dvd's.

Shipping for me is really quick. I get the dvd's Monday, send them out same day, they are confirmed received and new ones are shipped out on tuesday, and i receive the new ones on weds.

Only way for it to be quicker would be same day mail.

Havent tried netflix, looking around for a 1 month trial offer. TWo weeks just isnt enough.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Right now im on the last week of a free month trial. THe service is pretty good. You can mark stuff as not received and they dont even question it, and you get to keep the dvd's.

Shipping for me is really quick. I get the dvd's Monday, send them out same day, they are confirmed received and new ones are shipped out on tuesday, and i receive the new ones on weds.

Only way for it to be quicker would be same day mail.

Havent tried netflix, looking around for a 1 month trial offer. TWo weeks just isnt enough.[/QUOTE]
Heh, don't keep too many DVDs. If it gets to a certain point, as slidecage said, they'll cancel you. And if they're feeling really frisky, they'll have the postal service investigate to see if you really did receive them or not. I try to stay away from anything shady involving mail. Mail fraud/federal crimes kinda scare me.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Right now im on the last week of a free month trial. THe service is pretty good. You can mark stuff as not received and they dont even question it, and you get to keep the dvd's.

Shipping for me is really quick. I get the dvd's Monday, send them out same day, they are confirmed received and new ones are shipped out on tuesday, and i receive the new ones on weds.

Only way for it to be quicker would be same day mail.

Havent tried netflix, looking around for a 1 month trial offer. TWo weeks just isnt enough.[/QUOTE]

as soon as your REPORT DVD ISSUE = 20% or more of all DVDS you rented your account will be Cancelled and you will be blacklisted and wont be able to open another account for 6 months

o and after they cancell your account if there is any movies they didnt get back they will charge you 21.95 per movie
 
For those who want to STEAL movies from Blockbuster online....

I have not done this, but have been on the wrong end of this. It seems that people get a good rare movie from Blockbuster, then replace it with those dirt cheap DVDs you can find a Walgreens or Walmart or whatever (like Woody Woodpecker cartoons for $1.99).

They don't seem to check when they get it back.

I could be wrong, I dunno. Worst comes to worse, if they DO check and contact you, you say, "Wow, your right, it is still in my DVD player! Send me an envelope and I'll send it back!"
 
I've noticed it getting slower, but it's not enough to make me cancel outright now. I will switch to Netflix when my lower price is up at the end of the year (lower price at Netflix).
 
The terms for the Blockbuster trials say 1 per household. But do they enforce that?

My current free trial ends on monday. Ive got two diff cards to use, and i was going to use another name, would they still let me use the free trial after i cancel my current account and make another?
 
[quote name='Altered Beast Returns']For those who want to STEAL movies from Blockbuster online....

I have not done this, but have been on the wrong end of this. It seems that people get a good rare movie from Blockbuster, then replace it with those dirt cheap DVDs you can find a Walgreens or Walmart or whatever (like Woody Woodpecker cartoons for $1.99).

They don't seem to check when they get it back.

I could be wrong, I dunno. Worst comes to worse, if they DO check and contact you, you say, "Wow, your right, it is still in my DVD player! Send me an envelope and I'll send it back!"[/QUOTE]

SOMEONE please delete this post....what kind of asshat does this? You are dumb, your post was dumb, and I hope they slap you across the head.
 
[quote name='Scrubking']Gosh I wonder why? :roll:[/QUOTE]

what is stupid is they go "if you dont get your DVD within 3 days use the report DVD ISSUE" but then they go and cancell peoples accounts who do report the issue...

i might try BBO again after my netflix prepaid membership is over Feb 2006

nextflix used to be 1 day each way but since i started paying its 2 days there and 3 days back total BS
 
I've also been experiencing slow deliveries with blockbuster. When I first started back in july they were quick but now it takes about 2-5 days just to receive one or two movies yet when I mail them back it only takes one day for them to receive them. I've also been using netflix which only takes one day to get here and one day for them to receive. Recently I have two movies that are availble but still they never ship them out, which is confusing because I called them and everytime they say we'll ship it out tomorrow.
 
[quote name='doubledown']SOMEONE please delete this post....what kind of asshat does this? You are dumb, your post was dumb, and I hope they slap you across the head.[/QUOTE]

I'm certainly not suggesting doing that, just saying this is what some people do to steal DVDs from blockbuster. This is in reply to the person who said they keep DVDs from them, and say they never got it. That post is just as bad.
 
I was suprised how much BB has in stock, as far as rare movies go. I had no problems getting Cradle of Fear, Dead or Alive (Uncut) or Pauly Shore is dead. All 3 were available now.

Right now im bidding on a 3 month trial for netflix, $23, but still got 2 days left >
 
[quote name='doubledown']I noticed some OLDER movies are a bit slower. All my new releases are here within a day or two tops. However, I noticed some DVD's coming and they actually have STAMPS on the envelopes. So, it does appear B&M stores are shipping them. I don't care....I just report it as NOT shown up and they send the next movie[/QUOTE]

The stamps, as I enquired, are usually from the post offices themselves(after they have been sent out initially of course). The time isn't always taken to print out postage on envelopes, so all things of that size that have been opened(inspected, damaged, take home by that fat mailman you don't like & returned beforn noon), are sealed up with those little blue circle stickers & sent out again.
 
Did they change the e-coupons that you get to no longer be valid on Games ? I was going to start my subscription back up since those coupons actually saved me a bit at the local store. If they are only valid for movies now ? I seriously have no use for that and will go back to netflix instead.
 
i think im going to try to go back to blockbuster come Feb 2006 (when my prepaid membership at netflix is up.)

i was able to grab a 3 month prepaid for 45 bucks off ebay but after my free 2 weeks was up and went to a pay plan Netflix has nothing but been a pain in the ass

these last 2 weeks 4 of the 6 new release movies Went straight to long wait on my list even though if you look at these movies with a different account it shows ships now


hell maybe i just go back to hollywood video MVP card or Family video 50% off card
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Yea, the coupons say movies only, unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

I used my November coupons for games.
 
[quote name='slidecage']i think im going to try to go back to blockbuster come Feb 2006 [/QUOTE]

Dont know if Blockbuster will last that long, theyre on the verge of bankruptcy.
 
for some reason blockbuster likes to send me the movies i have at the bottem of my que sometimes its realy annoying not being able to truly pick the order of movies u get.
 
[quote name='slidecage']dont know about netflix YET BUT blockbuster sucks.... if you use report DVD Issue too much you get blacklisted and your account cancelled...

wont have a problem with netflix since netflix says allow 6 days before reporting but BBO pushes (if your movie isnt there in 3 days report it)

BBO for them to send me a movie to get to me 3-4 days each way 6-8 days tot

NETFLIX 1 day each way maybe 2 days to get to me if they miss the early mailman (so 3 day total)

NETFLIX ALL THE WAY WOOO[/QUOTE]

Why does BBO want you to report in 3 days? My movies never arrive in 3 days They usually arrive in 4. If I count the time it takes from when I return my movie it's like 8.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Yea, the coupons say movies only, unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

My coupons say Movies or Games.
 
Some of the recent slowdown at Blockbuster could be related to the fact they aren't making any headway against Netflix. When they first started they were doing anything they can to get off the fround and get customers from Netflix. More recently they have relized they can't bridge the gap so maybe they are reducing some items effective service. I prefer Netflix, but I ususally sign up for 2 months see everything I want and then cancel it for 6-8 months.
 
I always wondered why the Saw Uncut in my queue never was available.
Well, today they shipped me Saw R rated version and removed the Uncut from their site.
Nice!
I quickly created a shipping issue about it being a wrong disc but I'll lose a day for their mistake.
They tried this on Dodgeball Unrated. They had it available to queue, then they remove it.
At least that time, they asked me first if I wanted the regular version.

BTW, my November coupons include games.
 
Both BB & Netflix will be variable (immediately available or long wait) with foreign & independent films. My experience has been good with BB though, so I'm going to stick with them... I'm coming up on a year.
 
Perhaps this thread has already died, but I had to chime in anyway...

I'm a relatively new convert to BBO - I used to hoof it to the store, but recently decided I would give this a whirl.

...did a lot of research... read about the blatant throttling at Netflix, liked the 2 coupons/mo with BBO and finally settled on them.

The first 2-3 weeks were great. One day turnarounds. It reached a point where I could predict whether or not a dvd would be waiting for me, etc. I watch a fair amount of movies (I'm a PI; I sit in my car all day and watch... stuff. And movies).

The last week or so however, with no alteration in habit on my end, dvds are coming slower and slower. They're shipped (by me) and not immediately acknowledged, as they had been... dvds shipped by BBO on a Friday have still not arrived by Tuesday. Not a huge deal, to judge by some other postings, but hugely out of the realm of my recent experiences.

I'm assuming that I'm being throttled. Is BBO throttling and is this now a known and acknowledged state of affairs?

Welcome to the new paradigm I guess.
best, bezoris
 
[quote name='coldwine']Both BB & Netflix will be variable (immediately available or long wait) with foreign & independent films. My experience has been good with BB though, so I'm going to stick with them... I'm coming up on a year.[/QUOTE]


my last 4 Netflix movies all came within a day and got 2 extra rentals for some reason

2 weeks ago they sent me 4 movies
and
last week they sent me 4 movies

they said something about problem with shipping times so they gave me 2 free rentals
 
I don't know if its me but recently every movie that I have in my queue in netflix is always showing up as short wait and yet they are are always available now in blockbuster. One example would be the devil's rejects both discs showed up as short wait and it was monday the day before it even came out so I went over to blockbuster and it showed up as available now. I don't know if they are getting a short supply of movies but I haven't been getting any the movies I want on netflix when before I used to get every movie on my list except for maybe one or two rare dvds.
 
I've been really impressed wiht Blockbuster lately. Although I've noticed it tends to go in cycles, sometimes they are lightning fast and other times they're slow as hell. Take this past week for example. I sent two movies on thursday and sent one back on friday. I figured it would be the middle of the week before I got my next set but then I checked my mailbox and had 3 dvds sitting in there! I couldn't believe how quick the turnaround was this time around.
 
Any idea how blockbuster pulls titles from your queue?

I have 7 movies at the top of my list that are always "Available Now". But it seems that they skip them and select random ones from below. Do they pick from the ones they have the greater amount of dvd's available in their stock?
 
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