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Blockbuster Online Problems
Posted in the category Movies, Rants and tagged as blockbuster online, Movies, Rants.This entire week Blockbuster has only been shipping me two movies. I have the three movies out at a time plan yet I’m only having two shipped. Today, I decided to contact customer support to see what is going on. Here is my email:
For a few days now only two DVDs will be out at a time, even though I have DVDs that are available to ship in my queue. I have the 3 at a time plan, so why aren’t 3 shipping?
I think it explains my problem well. I have DVDs available, they are not shipping. Here is the response I got:
I am sorry if we haven’t ship your DVD. I’ve reviewed your account and see that you are waiting for one DVD to be shipped. Here’s an explanation of why this happened. I noticed that your queue mostly contains box/series sets, which if added as a set (with the padlock), they are considered a as a group and treated as a single request when the system searches for available DVDs to ship.
In looking at your queue, this appears to be the case. “X-Files: The Complete First Season” is not shipping due to its availability of disc number disc one. Unfortunately, this prevented anything from being shipped. Based on the way our system searches for movies, we suggest keeping at least 15 “Available” titles in your queue at all times, keeping in mind that each set is considered as “one” during this process. I really hope this information helps, Mike. Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.
Ok, I would understand this answer if two things weren’t a factor:
- 1. I didn’t have movies that were available to ship that weren’t part of a boxed set at the top of my queue. I do. Why not ship them?
- 2. They already shipped 2 discs of The X-Files season 3 (the first season that is currently available). Since they’ve already started shipping those discs (last week) why not pick back up with shipping them since I have an empty slot? This makes no sense.
So basically I’m paying for a plan to ship 3 movies and Blockbuster only wants to ship 2. Great job Blockbuster. Maybe it’s time to go back to Netflix.
Update: I have canceled my Blockbuster account. Not just for this reason, but also other reasons (no streaming service, queue page problems, etc) and moved back to Netflix.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:14 pm
At least your queue works. Mine *still* breaks every time I move an item around and I have to refresh the page to get it working again.
I just decided over the weekend to sign up for the Netflix trial. Thus far the only impression I’ve gotten is about their communication. Not only do they tell you what will ship next, but they tell you when - and from where, if it’s not available at your normal shipping center.
With Blockbuster I sometimes don’t get notifications on things having shipped until after I’ve sent them back, I have no idea when something actually shipped, and it can take three plus days for them to let me know they’ve actually received a DVD.
Oh yeah, and the Netflix queue actually works.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
The kids gave us six months of the two movies at a time plan for Christmas. That worked great, but we really don’t have time to watch that many movies, so when our gift was over we dropped back to the one at a time plan.
DH is the one who manages the queue, but he’s never complained about any problems. We get the next movie on a timely basis after we mail one in. He completely re-did the queue last week after we bought a Blu-Ray player so we could take advantage of the capabilities. He said the selection was a little slim, but I think that’s probably true anywhere.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Go back to Netflix.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
We debated moving to Blockbuster since you can return to the store, but I’m glad we stayed with Netflix. Netflix is smart enough that if something in your queue is unavailable, it will just ship the next thing. We even got Dexter season two the day it came out in the stores. I’m pretty impressed with the lack of problems with Netflix. We’ve used them for around two years and never had a scratched disc, delay, or problem of any kind.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Well, I originally was with Netflix long ago. I left because they started to suck. I’m willing to give them another shot if they can actually ship the amount of DVDs I’m signed up for.