blockbuster.com

I have been a BlockBuster (BB) online rental customer for several years. I have not had any major issues with them. Occasionally, about 1 in 15 discs, I receive a cracked DVD. But this is due more to rough treatment by USPS than BB. USPS runs all mail here through their automated system and sometimes it cracks the disc. I guess the USPS machines were designed before mailing DVD's became popular. We're probably going to have to put up with cracked discs until the USPS machinery is too old to repair and must be replaced. ;^)

One problem I've had with BB is with ONE DVD title: "The Thin Red Line", 1964. I rented it 3 times. Unfortunately, the first one they sent me was cracked and the last 2 they sent me were the 1998 version staring Sean Penn. BB has since fixed this problem by no longer offering the 1964 version. Thanks to USPS, I'll probably never see the 1964 version. Apparently BB only had 1 in stock.

One irritating feature of BB's queue is when they say "Coming Soon", "Very Long Wait", and "Long Wait." For DVD's I have added which have these availabilities, their status has never changed. Essentially, this means "YOU'LL NEVER RENT THEM." Even DVD's which say "Short Wait", their status do not change for a month.

Luckily, most popular movies show as available for rent.

Last month, I also started a Netflix membership trial. I wanted to rent "ER - Season 7" and the BB status was "Very Long Wait", meaning I'd never rent it. Nearly every single Netflix title has an availability status of "Now." Netflix has a much larger selection of DVD's which are available for immediate rental.

The most notable difference between Netflix and BB is speed. Both companys' DVD's return to #25,xxx PO Boxes, same zip code. They are probably in the same USPS building! BB claims when I return a DVD to their retail store, they will ship faster. Yet, if I return them in the morning, NOTHING HAPPENS until the next day. It's the same when I return them via USPS. NOTHING happens for 2 days. When I return Netflix DVD's, they receive them the NEXT DAY and immediately mail the next DVD the same day. Netflix is ALWAYS one day faster.

Finally, Netflix's website Queue is much quicker and easier to use than BB's. When you change a DVD's position by dragging and dropping, it's immediate. For BB's Queue, when you do the same, it redraws the entire page and your CPU usage jumps to 100% for several seconds, causing FireFox to freeze or stutter. Netflix's Queue is far better.

If you want to exchange DVD's in a store for an immediate rental, then use BB. If you don't want to pay extra for this or don't have a BB store near you, use Netflix instead.

we used bluckbuster online for 7 months. we always returned our three online movies to the store every friday. the first two months our new movies arrived every tuesday. the second two months our new movies would arrive every wednesday. the third two months our new movies arrived every thursday. then they cancled us and said that plan is no longer available. would you like to sign up for our new plan? its the same thing you had but the price has increased by 39%.

I dont see how they could be in business for this long and do something so fishy to teir long time customres. we will never ever rent a single movie from blockbuster again. I couldn't care less about a few extra dollars, what I do care about is not being screwed over by some corporation.

try netflix, they have some issues too but the overall rating is much better than blockbuster.

heres a lawsuit:
http://www.state.nj.us/lps/newsreleases05/pr20050218a.html

complaint files with comsumers affair: you have never seen this many complaints agains one company:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/entertainment/blockbuster_late.html

blockbusters better business beura track record. so many complaints, just scroll down!
http://www.dallas.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=3000020

I had ordered three Wii controllers, all of which were listed as being in stock and ready to ship out. Two weeks later I receive an email from Blockbuster, stating that they cannot fulfill most of my order. During this time I had passed up deals on the same items, as I had trusted Blockbuster to fulfill its part of the transaction. The long delay in notifying me that they couldn't fulfill their end of the deal is completely unsatisfactory, and I definitely will not ever do business with them in the future!

Blockbuster seems to be getting worst after the first month. First time I've gotten a wrong disc in a sleeve. Alot of the discs are really scratched up but I believe that it's the fault of the people that rent them and the post office people. At the moment I am getting 4 movies at a time but they only sent me 3 and there's been a free spot for 2 days now. I emailed them about it and they sent me some bs about available movies in my queue being low but I have over 200 in queue which most are available. They also said something about some movies may not be able to reach me in the allotted time, which I think is more bs. If you can't get it to me in 2 days because it's too far, then when will it ever be close enough? Does blockbuster ship it to different branches then send it to me? Why not just send it to me and it'll get to me in 3 days at most even from the other side of the country. Blockbuster and all the other online retailers and service provides need to stop lying to their customers. This will be my last month with blockbuster, I'm going to netflix.

have been with Blockbuster about 3 months now. When it first started, it was pretty good, had an average movie turn around time of about 5 days. Watch a movie send it back and receive new one for one you sent back in 5 days. When getting 3 out at a time this provided a steady stream of movies.

That was then, and this is now.

Blockbuster over the last month and a half has slowed down, selection has become more limited, many new releases are out, and you get them 2 weeks later than when you wanted them. And forget about kids titles, they are just not in stock. Average turn around time in between 7 and 9 days. now I am lucky if I get to see one or two movies a week from them. The one that I do receive are scratched and dirty and a few have been unplayable.

Customer service just answers with a copy and paste answers from their FAQ page. No real help there. When asked about their turn around time they simply said the mail was slow. So I performed my own test and sent them back on my own dime with delivery confirmation from the US post office. They received the movies back in about a day, however took another 24 or 48 hours to acknowledge there return and reissue new ones. Once they said they sent them out it took 3 days from Pittsburgh Pa to receive. average delivery time from Pittsburgh via USPS is one day. So they are sent out later than they tell you they are sent.

The store coupons, so what they do not have the movies in the stores anyway, so what good are they?

I have just Started netflix, and currently they are sending about 1.5 movies to blockbusters 1. so they are able to deliver at the speed of which Blockbuster is no longer able to maintain.

All items posted here are personal experiences and experiments. your results may vary from mine. And God I hope they do because I am cancelling my membership.

Have been long-time Netflix member but decided to try Blockbuster's online DVD service because of the 2 free in-store rentals per month. Service has been awful from the beginning when I joined in November. I live in the Atlanta area and I can barely get 1 movie averaged per week. Most times it is about 8-10 days from the time I sent movie back till I received the next one. A few I received in 4 days. Tried doing a spreadsheet to track send dates, receive dates, etc but it was getting to be too much and the pattern was the same - very slow turnaround times. Started with 2 out at a time, then downgraded it to 1 out at a time just to keep the 2 in-store rentals. Also, have many multiple DVD sets in my queue and they keep sending them out of sequence even though they are 'Available Now'. How can I watch disk 3 before disks 1 or 2? Called customer no-service, when finally got them (sometimes you can get a live person thru phone menu, sometimes not) was told that only series added to queue as a block set will ship in sequence. Well, guess what, many of their series you CANNOT add to your queue as a block set, you have to add each individually. Customer no-service offered no solution when I pointed this out. It is a database problem, THEIRS! Last straw was e-mail I received today notifying me that I will receive disk 3 of 'Berkeley Square', before disk 2, which is at the top of my queue. I've already watched disk 1, and this is my 4th attempt at getting disk 2 (last two times I had to ship back disk 3, eating up about 10 days before I received another disk). Of course, I can't get a live person today on their toll-free number to VENT. Final decision - the 2 in-store rentals are not worth the frustration dealing with Blockbuster. I'm firing them and sticking to Netflix. Thank God I can at least cancel Blockbuster over the Internet!!!

I had netflix for a year and was quite happy with them (except for the occasional throttling). But then came blockbuster with free in-store rentals when you turned in your dvds. I think the greed twisted my mind. I thought with blockbuster online I could do two things that netflix can't offer:

1. I can personally hand over my dvds to a store associate, no "lost in the mail" crap that netflix claims from time to time when they throttle you (it will happen a few times until they've slowed you down enough and then just start sending the movies out at a normal speed)

2. More free rentals for impulse moving watching

I did the 30-day 3 at a time trial. Everything was great; dvds came on time and in order. Then the free trial ended. The first movie was sent to me cracked in half with what looked like superglue on it in a poor attempt to fix the movie. When I reported it missing and returned the dvd to the local blockbuster store, it took 4 more days for it to be removed from my "shipped" category. Then my "shipped" section had an empty slot for 5 more days. I emailed "customer care" stating that if it is a high demand movie (the lion king) that they can just ship me the next movie in my que. I received an email that made no sense (i think they sent me the wrong email),thanking me for my support. And this was just the first disc of my first paying month.

The other 2 discs I was sent were number 12 and 16 in my que. I currently have a 32 disc set series in my top que. During the trial, I received discs 1-6 of the series in order. I am ending my first month as a paying customer and I have yet to receive disc 7 (yes it's all listed as ‘available’). I became annoyed over the next couple of weeks with receiving out of order dvds, so I called their customer service number. I sat on hold for over 35 minutes and when I talked the associate, he stated, in a very snotty tone, "if you want a series in order, you have to add the series as a block, not individually." When I told him that blockbuster didn't offer that option for my series, he stated, "sucks to be you."

And then there’s the "ship out the next dvd in your que the next business day." Every disc that I return to a blockbuster store takes 2-3 days to clear my "shipped list", then a day of an empty "shipped" list and the following day they will ship out my dvds- with a 3 day delivery time. The same dvds in the series I received during my trial were received and shipped back out, all in about 2 days. Now it’s a 4-5 day process.

Being a web programmer, I can tell you that their website is awful. There are loads of functions that do not work correctly. The interface is slow. There are a lot of broken links and dead pages. Little to no information on dvds (I have to look up the series' volume numbers on wikipedia to find them on blockbuster website and to keep them in order (some of the dvds are listed my volume number, some by the volumes title).

The customer service is a joke. You can send them any kind of email and they'll send a generic email stating that they "value your support" and give you another coupon. You could probably send them an email that simply reads "what are you wearing right now" and you would get a coupon back with a "thank you for your support" message.

All in all, if you could combine nextflix's website and shipping operation with blockbusters return to store policy, you would have a killer operation. Trust me, save yourself the aggravation and just go with netflix with its next day delivery and returns. You can time your returns correctly and never really be without a movie. Me, I'm heading back to netflix at the end of this month.

I've been a Netflix member for 6 years, and last week, I decided to give the Blockbuster free trial membership a shot. I will not extend the membership beyond the trial...

Strike 1: Website problems. Site does not support Firefox.

Strike 2: Customer service problems. They send "Copy & Paste" generic replies to customer inquiries, and requests for additional help were ignored.

Strike 3: Product & service problems. I placed 6 titles in my queue, all of which were listed as "available." The first DVD they sent was in position #6, while numbers 1 through 5 were "available." The second DVD they sent was in position #3, and 1 & 2 were "available." That's pretty bad, but what makes it worse is that the DVDs in positions #1 through #5 were part of a series (part 1, part 2, etc.), and locked together, so what good is part 3 if I have yet to see parts 1 & 2?

No support for Firefox is something I could live with, but I'd never PAY for a subpar product, with subpar support.

Charged immediately for two Xbox 360 games that I purchased and then waited over two weeks before canceling my order without reason. This is not an acceptable way to treat your customers. It does not take two weeks to make sure you can fulfill your order, and even if it does you should not charge immediately for the purchase. This is very disrespectful and borderline criminal in my opinion on the part of Blockbuster. I can say that I will not purchase from Blockbuster again and I will be canceling my in-store unlimited rental plan that I've had for the past year. If Blockbuster doesn't value me as a customer they can look elsewhere for business.

I have had blockbuster before the total access bullshit and it sucked because even though i was on the 3 at a time plan i would only have two or one movies shipped in my queue and they would ship movies halfway down my queue instead of shipping from the top three priority ones! said fuck them and went to netflix. total access came about and i got a free trial as soon as that motherfucker ended they started with the bullshit again. im thinking to myself i get a free store rental i get to send movies back in the store while exchanging each one i give back for a in store rental plus the online rentals for like 20 bucks and for some reason i threw all that away and stuck with netflix, why? cause those motherfuckers wont clear your queue even when you return them in the store there is no new movie shipped to you right away it takes a couple days just like mailing it anywhere else only benefit is you get a free store rental but store selections are only so much and after a while you've seen every damn movie in the store that you want minus the new releases if you're interested in any of them. customer service blows balls you get bullshit respones and if you cancel your account before your next billing date they just stop sending you movies i got screwed out of my last week because i cancelled before the next billing period so im not getting movies for a whole week that i already paid for. fuck blockbuster i hope u all fucking die and netflix runs u sorry swindelling fucks out of business!

Like rest of reviews below, ordered a game (Orange Box) and waited 2 weeks for delivery. Received an e-mail today stating that the order had been cancelled (not able to fulfill). This is not how you do business! Don't make the customer wait 2 weeks before cancelling. I will never do buy anything online from them again.

Placed Order for Orange Box on December 24th and they canceled my order 14 days later.

They charged my credit card immediately for a game I purchased, and two weeks later the order was still "in progress". So after calling them and waiting on hold for nearly an hour they determined they were unable to fulfill the order. Had I not called I'm sure it'd be a long time before they decided to fill the order, if at all. Poor customer service as well. Definitely won't shop there again.

I recently just join this online rental. And they suck. I have rent close to 50 DVD w/ this online company. And recently I have a problem w/ them. I rent an anime, Inu Yasha, Vol. 15: Broken Fang. The problem is, I never get the correct disc. I return the disc and request them to resent the correct DVD. They sent the disc out 7 times. 6 out of 7, i got the wrong disc. And the other time, i never receive the disc. This isn't the first time, i didn't receive the DVD i request.
And they don't even have a real customer service. I can't even call them??? I made another request to resend the DVD yesterday(6/4/2005), and instead they ship out the next movie inline. They are ignorance, and didn't want to solve the problem that they have and the frustration that they cause to the customer.

So far so good, i've been with blockbuster for about 10months now and so far everything have been good. The turn around are faster than netflix.

I ordered 16 Previously viewed HD-DVD's from Blockbusteronline.com After I placed the order, I realized that one of the items, 16 Blocks, was a new DVD, that carried the same price as the previously viewed HD-DVD, and was ordered in error. I quickly tried to call them to switch it, but their phone number is nowhere to be found on the website. So I emailed them about it asking them to switch it. They emailed me back telling me to return the item when I got it. Again I told them to switch the item before it shipped, and to not ignore my request, and again they told me I could just return it when I got it. This was not doing what I asked repeatedly, and instead just trying to place the workload on me, which is very lazy and could have been rectified with a couple of clicks of the mouse. After realizing they had no desire to help me at all, I canceled the entire order. They responded by shipping items. The only item that they shipped, was that new version of 16 blocks that I didn't want. I called them demanding to know why they sent items that I had cancelled. They kept repeating that the problem is that the item was already shipped. I asked for a manager, they hung up. I kept demanding that the rest of the order be cancelled, they refused saying that even though the rest of it wasn't shipped, they couldn't cancel, because it was in process. I was finally told that they would refund the 16 blocks if I returned it. I asked if I would have to pay shipping costs. They assured me that I wouldn't. There is no prepaid postage on in when they sent it, so it appears they lied to me. The rest of the order hasn't been shipped, yet they "assure me" that it cannot be cancelled. This is some of the worst business practices that I have ever seen, and should be illegal.

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