Blockbuster BD rental discussion thread - Page 106

Why were they purchasing Sony titles at retail outlets? It couldn't have been a release delay since Netflix also had Dragon Tattoo shipped out on Monday.

Blockbuster started doing this late last year I believe. My local store is closing now, but when they were renting, the new releases would never be there right at open on release day. It was not just Sony, but it was pretty much all the movies they were purchasing. I first found this out when I went in and saw them taking a bunch of Blu-ray combo packs out of Target and Wal-Mart bags. At that time I was curious so I asked what they were doing and they told me that Blockbuster currently does not have deals/agreements with the studios and that they had to have the store managers go out and get them on Tuesday mornings. So, because of this there was no way we could get shipped out a new release on Monday if it were releasing on Tuesday.

Yeah I have nearly that many in queue. Some of them I would watch if there is nothing else to see (which hasn't happened since my son turned 2 because I dont have that much time). But the upcoming releases, I just look through IMDB and slashfilm and try to find as many future movies and add them to my queue as I can.

Maybe I need to move to Netflix and just enter movies in manually. That will help me cleanup the queue.

Also in case you are with blockbuster, use this link to see more of your movies on the same page. It used to work with 1000 too but now numbers above 500 crash the site:

http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/qu...1.pageSize=500

Ha, I got that one shipped too. The last new release I got was Twilight.

Even if there was an app, you wouldn't be able to transfer a queue that big.

Unless something has changed, Netflix queues are limited to 500 items.


It's not that they skipped it and sent the others, it's that they skipped it when it was available and sent the others. It still shows available.

I'm tired of movies that are available being skipped, something that happens way too often with BB.

BB must have an abundant supply of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as I had mine shipped yesterday. Way to lull me into a false sense of security ...

jidelite

They sent me Tinker Tailor but I still have two open slots in my queue and they haven't sent anything else. I was hoping that they would at least send The Sitter. I got Girl with Dragon Tattoo from Red Box this morning because I knew it would take like 6 months to get it from BB.

I have been using Redbox instead of BB for the last several months and have been very happy with it.

I clicked the link, but not all movies show up. Its still the same. You used to be able to click page 2 to see your titles, but now they do not give you that option it seems. Its a good thing I had the page 2 link in my history. I have 71 titles not available yet and have to go to page 2 to see some of them. What I was originally curious about was how to copy your queue over to Netflix or vice versa if there was an actual way of doing that.


I don't trust those wait times anymore. The wait times are a generalization and may be off from what your local distribution center has. Since there is no option to add all 3 movies as a set what I would suggest is adding 1 at a time. I know this may be a pain, but it would at least ensure you get them in order. I always do this with both Netflix and Blockbuster if I want to rent the earlier movies in a trilogy.

Yeah, hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I actually received both of those discs in the mail today as well. So, some fast shipping times to boot!

All the more reason to dump BB.

Their queuing sucks and their availability is suspect. They don't deserve my money. Cancellation final.

I think things will get better. Hopefully BB has agreements in place with the studios now. It seems that way since many people here, including myself, were shipped out new releases yesterday. If Blockbuster has deals/agreements in place then they will probably have more rentals in stock because before they were burning cash buying them at retail. I guess the future will tell to see how things go.

Plus now, they probably have less people to ship the rentals to.

Not in my area. Since my local store is closing they are pretty much signing everyone up for Total Access. I was curious to see how many people they had sign up recently and the employee said between 350-400 and that is just in a few weeks time he said. He had a binder with a bunch of paper in it stacked at least 4-5 inches high and 1 piece of paper = 1 sign up. You think with that many people in that little of time they would be able to keep that place operational on top of whoever else already was using the service. They are out of their freaking minds for liquidating that store.

But how long before most of them cancel? Unless they drastically improve the service I would think most people would start to drop it. I would still have the Blockbuster service if they could have even met two thirds of the quality of Netflix. But they fell far short of that. It got to the point of having a long list of times in my ques that were mostly unavailable. So I would have to add an item to my queue I had no intention of watching to receive a disc many days later, just to try and swap for a title in the store.

I think the problem is, it's the long time customers that are bailing while BB is left with a) fickle customers that jump from one thing to another and b) the free subs from dish.

That's not a good future. I see a lot of churn occurring in the next 12 months.

In my case, I'm out because, despite all the shenanigans, Netflix still does a far better job at getting me the discs at the top of my queue.

Wow to my surprise BB did in fact ship me The Sitter today. That's 2 new releases this week! Could it be that things are slowly turning around? **fingers crossed**

Some of those people will keep the program. They said usually around 50% of people who sign up usually keep it so that would be 150-200 people or so. The two problem is that they have not purchased extra discs to keep up with the demand and a lot of these people are signing up just for the free time and cancelling it like you said, but what is going to hurt them going forward is long time paying customers like ourselves who are being screwed over by the free loaders..at least up until these people cancel. I will probably keep both BB and NF. Each service has their positives and negatives and while one service may not have something that I like the other service may have it. I have found this to be the case with many TV shows released on Blu-ray although it looks like The Killing is not available on either NF or BB and the same looks to be true for season 2 of Treme.

Wow! They shipped another new release today! That's 3 this week! I don't think I've EVER had this happen.

I received Tinker, Tailer on Tuesday. Watched it, sent it back and BB received it today (Thurs.) They then sent out Hop to me. That makes two new releases the week they were released. I wonder if this is just the Mayans toying with me until they blow up the world.

Blockbuster has inside information that the world will end this year so they figure they would gear up for one last stand and delivery outstanding service.

Just as things seemed to be getting back on track is when movies such as A Dangerous Method, In The Land of Blood and Honey, and Carnage are all unavailable. I may be wrong, but aren't at least 2 of these movies up for some kind of award either this year or possibly next?

They shipped me Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close today. If they keep up I won't cancel my membership just yet. I've gotten new releases for the past 3 weeks in a row.

For me, the key to getting new releases is to get the return the disc in the mail on Saturday. If I do that, I almost always get a new release delivered by Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest.

If I wait until Monday, it's a crap-shoot. I may end up with a lower-queue movie, and may not get it until the following Monday.

My expectations may not be the same as others, though. I'm perfectly happy getting one disc a week, since there's only normally time to watch them on the weekend.

And, as a Dish Network customer with what used to be the Platinum Package, BD disc rentals are essentially free.

Scott

I tried that method for 2 months straight and never got a single new release by mail - ever. I could only get them by exchanging another disc at the store. I put up with it until the store closed.

Netflix, which I've officially gone back to, gets me a new release every single Tuesday (if I've got one ready at the top of my queue) if I mail a disc back on Saturday.

Hmmm, regional differences, maybe? Our nearest Blockbuster also closed, so in-store exchanges aren't an option anymore.

Good to hear that Netflix is working for you. Back when I was a customer, it took weeks for me to see any new releases. That was back in the DVD days, though. If this Blockbuster thing ever folds, I'll have to look at them as an option again.

Scott

I been with Blockbuster online for years and the last two weeks I've got nothing. Its been fair I guess since Dish took over but overall not very good. Once and awhile they will send 2 or 3 in a week but its becoming more rare.

I've been able to get most of what I want from either Redbox, or a local independent store that gets a few blu-rays in. But I'm not sure why I will keep Blockbuster now since it appears they are more interested in Dish customers or new members. Or, they simply aren't buying much.

Possibly. Annoying, regardless.


You have to have that disc back on Monday for release Tuesday or it will likely be two months before you get it.

To be honest, I wish BB had worked out for me so I wouldn't have to go crawling back to Netflix after all their foolishness.

This is why I still suffer with Blockbuster. It's a principle thing.

My principles only go so far.

At a certain point, I'm willing to drive an AMC Gremlin around if it gets me where I need to go.

What I won't do is hitch a ride with the weird, smelly dude who wears a "hang in there, baby" kitten T-shirt and who happens to also drive a Gremlin.

Netflix isn't quite to the uncomfortable hitchhiking stage yet.

BB, on the other hand, is like continuing to drive the car that becomes vapor-locked at every stop sign just because I refuse to drive the Gremlin.