Blockbuster BD rental discussion thread - Page 114

I don't disagree, but considering their financial situation they probably can't afford to do much better e.g. a month's free service or something (which we'd all be pestering them for when it got around on the 'net), and they probably don't have an easy way to alter their rental software to give a freebie or two there either.

We've spent many (MANY) thousands of dollars with our insurance company, over some 40+ years now (!), and a few years ago for our birthdays our local agent gave us a coupon worth $0.50 at a local donut shop. That's right, 50 cents! Now THAT was insulting--and we don't even eat donuts!!! I'm really glad they only did it one year!

Wow, a free donut? I would have tore that coupon up and started cussing out my agent. lol

One could also say that if they really don't have a way to alter their rental software that way, it would explain a lot of their other issues.

If someone has been paying a monthly fee and hasn't been getting the service promised, they are entitled to a refund or credit. They only exception is things out of the service's control, like weather, holidays or the postal service failing to deliver things. This is clearly BB's fault and their failure to make it right with some customers could be their undoing. It costs far less to give credit than give up the customer completely.
Ironicly, if you used the coupon, your insurance rate would likely go up for exhibiting unhealthy behavior....

My sister used to work for a company that, not long before she left for another job, was laying off people left and right. At the end of the year, those that were still around were given a year end gift: a pocket knife with the company logo on it. Apparently, they were hoping the staff would make its own cuts in the coming year. They're lucky the employees didn't use them to storm the CEO's office when they found out he gotten an even bigger bonus that year than the year before.

It always amazes me how some companies completely fail to understand how to make their customers and employees happy.

I rent 3 at a time. One has been returned since Thursday morning and of course, no new title sent, despite my top pick being available.

The other two arrived Friday so I have 12 titles in my queue but nothing is shipping and I expect it'll be that way for some time with all of the problems going on.

I'm sure plenty of other folks here did that! Me, I save my blood pressure for worthier causes.
Good catch--I hadn't thought of that!

Back on-topic; our distribution here in So Central TX was originally out of Austin (shipments in one day), then last year changed to San Antonio (little more than one day), and now are out of Houston (arrives when USPS feels like working, which seems to be rarely for sure). I'm sure BB is keeping all this moving-around well under control--or not!

Got shipping notice for 2 movies today. This hasn't happened in a few weeks now. Hopefully they're back on track..

I just received a disc but never received an email saying it was coming. I never had that happen before. BB is very random.

I e-mailed them last Tuesday and again yesterday with no reply yet. Been on hold on the phone for 30 minutes. Another day wasted.

LOL, I don't understand why anyone still bothers with Blockbuster even if you live thousands of miles from the nearest video rental store.....

Blockbuster does make it as difficult as possible for me to remain their customer. Netflix has been as reliable as the sunrise for me. Blockbuster treats mail order rental as an on-again off-again business. Sometimes discs arrive on time. Sometimes they take days for them to notice I sent them a disc. One time Blockbuster just disappeared for two weeks without explanation (I assumed they were about to file bankruptcy) then suddenly I started getting discs again.

I may have to admit that Netflix is the only company willing and able to offer this service seriously at this time and pay them whatever they want.

As others have said, I'm not getting email notices any longer of discs shipped or discs received-back by Blockbuster. So I look at my Queue and noticed a disc that should have arrived July 5 and I still don't have it.

Are others experiencing the same thing? I see I have two more scheduled for the 13th (and usually I'd get them ahead of the scheduled time) so I guess I'll wait a day or two longer and see if I have one problem or three!

I got 2 shipping notice on monday. Received 1 movie yesterday ahead of schedule. Went in and did exchange at store today and the instore exchange actually showed up on my queue. Returned it later to the store and it showed off my queue. The second movie is suppose to arrive tomorrow. I usually get the movie 1 day before the schedule arrival before this moving issue started. Crossing my fingers for tomorrow..

Customer support finally got back to me and nothing was actually done. They gave me a credit for my next bill, but the credit given to me was for another account that I am not using and not my current account which I have a current subscription. The 2 movies that are stuck in my at home that I asked to be removed so I can get more movies were not removed. The customer service person in the e-mail mentioned nothing about them so I had to e-mail them back about it. These are movies I returned more than 2 weeks ago.

Wow! It sounds like I left at just the right time. I'll need to wait awhile until their service gets back to their previous levels before I consider returning. The way things seem to be now, even a couple of free months wouldn't be worth it.

I can only hope that in some parallel universe, DISH owns Netflix.

As of right now Total Access isn't a service. They simply are not providing service.

I've had to call a couple of times the last few weeks to get my queue straightened out because of the miscommunications with the store. And each time was given a free in-store rental coupon. But the queue cleared itself out this week and is working correctly. So there is some hope out there. No matter how bad it gets, I won't quit because it's part of my BB@Home subscription with Dish and my wife and I don't want to lose those channels. But BB is so screwed up that I go to my local Family Video store for extras instead of the local BBV out of anger. And Family Video is cheaper to boot. So their problems are causing them to lose additional money from me. I can tell you that if I ever drop Dish Network, I will be running back to Netflix for discs (still have their streaming plan).

Or, in a much better parallel universe, D* owns BB...

As mad as I still am at Netflix for their messing around with rate hikes, service changes, etc, I couldn't get discs shipped from BB. It was tolerable until they closed my local store, but once that happened I realized I was wasting my money by not getting the service I was paying for.

I really wish they would get better if only to give me a potential out if Netflix goes sour again.

a member of bb through dish movie pass.


got a disk i ordered 4 months ago in the mail today.

wtf???

It looks like Blockbuster is starting a big promotion for Total Access where they are offering a free 6-month trial for 1-disc at a time service. Because I guess it's easier to throw yourselves at new customers than keep old customers from cancelling by providing a working service.

Six months free? Is that a typo, or are they getting that desperate? I cancelled like almost a year ago before all this madness happened, and since then my BB store closed, so I have even less incentive to come back. I put my account on hold and wanted to keep doing it until there were more movies I actually wanted to watch, but there was no apparent way to put on hold the account a second time. When I asked, the rep told me it wasn't possible, so I would have to reactivate (and pay) and put on hold again, or cancel. So I tried to cancel. On one of the dialogs that came up though, there was the option to put on hold one more time. I did. When that ran out, there was no more option to put on hold. So I just cancelled.

I don't know what's the difference though, besides that putting on hold the account will reactivate automatically. Even though my account is "cancelled", I can still log in and check out my queue, which is all I wanted really, if I came back that my queue was still there.

Thats when the service became hit or miss for everyone. When Dish was closing their round of stores earlier this year they were signing people up for free 2 and 3 month trials. At the very same time movies started to be either put on back order or they never got them. In addition to this was the beginning of long waits going to very long waits to almost nearing impossible to get new releases. Things will be even worse if what you said about the 6 months is true as a surge of free loaders will come aboard once again. Free loaders is what partially has ruined the service.

I was already a paying subscriber but I created a new account to sign up for the free six months. It worked with the same credit card.


I don't mind being a freeloader as I was getting bad service anyway. We'll see if it gets any worse.

I cancelled my service.

After several emails with no replies & never being able to get thru to customer service I gave up.

When I cancelled it asked me to fill out a survey about why I was cancelling.

I told them that I wasn't going to pay for an account when I couldn't get movies shipped to me. I also said that if there was a class action lawsuit started I would be one of the first ones to sign up. I asked for a credit for the month I only got 2 discs but haven't gotten any replies.

Good riddance!

We are about to cancel too. Been having significant problems since May. The first time I contacted them they told me to make sure we had movies in our queue. We had over 50, the majority of which were marked available. Eventually we got movies again, but now it is a week or more between movies. I too got the half off. Big deal. It doesn't solve the issue. I nearly went to Netflix right before Netflix decided to charge separate for online access. I originally went with Blockbuster because we had as store one block from us so with the unlimited in store exchanges, it was a no brainer. Well, we moved, and now I'm not getting my movies timely. Looks like a switch to Netflix is in order.

Here is what I have been noticing over the last several weeks. While BB seems to be getting their inventory in order, apparently it is mostly bad news. Previously available titles are now showing "unknown" availability. I have been adding a variety of DVDs to my queue to try to find stuff that could actually be sent to me. I am finding that MANY of the titles have that "unknown" availability. If that wasn't bad enough, within a week of adding the "available" titles to my queue, many of those titles change to "unknown" availability. I suspect this inventory problem is due to the unorganized sell-off of a lot of the inventory when stores closed, resulting in a LARGE number of titles being no longer available to rent. What a disaster. Considering the problems with new releases also, I'll be shocked if the online service isn't shut down by the summer of 2013.

I thought the store inventory was separate from what ships from the by mail distribution centers .. ??

I don't know if we have confirmation of that. But even if BB did/does keep those inventories completely separate, then what is the explanation for why so MANY previously available titles are now unavailable? Theft? Old, unplayable discs? They never had those titles in the first place? I think it is more likely that a large part of inventory was sold-possibly it was shipped off to some of the few remaining stores as "previously viewed for sale" items. Regardless how it happened, it has created a situation that makes the online rental service an even worse option compared to the competitors.

Another speculation:

The inventory was separate as far as shipping it was concerned, but it counted in total inventory - kind of like how it always misrepresented inventory between shipping centers. A title might show available, but since it's not actually at your shipping center (whether it be at a distant center or a store), it still won't ship.

I suspect, the big difference now is you're getting the real numbers actually available to you.

Sorry about hearing the shipping issues still persist for you folks. It happened to me also when this started but it seems my service has resumed normally since last week. I'm in the Miami area and no, I don't work for BB:D