Blockbuster Throttling Total Access Customers?

I'm a high-volume Netflix and Blockbuster customer (do you really think I'd be doing this if I wasn't?). I pay Netflix $16.99 per month, and I pay Blockbuster $34.99 per month for the 3-out unlimited Total Access plan.

Three times since late January I've waited days for Blockbuster to ship the next movie in my queue, and in each case I finally had to call them. This week I returned 2 movies Sunday night, and I had to call customer service today to have them release the movies (they'll ship tomorrow). In two cases I was offered several in-store coupons for the trouble. I was told that the movies hadn't arrived in the warehouse, but they had been checked in at the store, which is why they hadn't shipped.

Blockbuster issued a press release in 2006 stating that they don't throttle, but if the movies were checked in at the store why are the next movies in my queue being held for days until they are received at the warehouse? Until recently, Blockbuster would receive the movies at the store and ship the next movies in my queue the following day. Is this another technique that Blockbuster is using to get rid of high volume customers?

The Blockbuster customer service representative told me that this will be fixed soon. Has anyone else had this problem?

Comments

[MaraBlue]

Oh, HELL yes. Oddly it seemed to get worse right *after* they would raise prices! The higher prices wouldn't sting so badly if good service came along with. Blockbuster seemed to have followed a different business model.

Oh, and btw, I'm an *ex* Blockbuster customer. This is one reason why. I'm very happy with Netflix...they have yet to piss me off in ways that Blockbuster did.

[GrumpyG]

BB has been throttling me since about the 4th week after I signed up last Sept. At first I could return DVDs to the brick and mortar and voila' - overnight, if not later that same day - they'd show the next batch shipped although the first still appeared in queue as 'checked in at store' ... "UNLIMTED"? Horsepucky! They do one turn-around a week and that's it, period, end of story.

... have to wonder aloud: Is this something that is controlled at the store level? It seems that Buffy or Slick that "works" there could easily have access to an account flag of some sort, right?

[astoworf1]

It seems to happen about billing time each month. BB still hasn't shipped replacements for two returns I made Tuesday, so it will be at least Monday before I get them. That's when my billing cycle ends, so should I decide to drop them, I wouldn't get the in-store rentals. Happened last month, too. I may just drop them anyway. I'm tired of the titles I most want not being available for a long, long time. A doc on the Smothers Brothers has been atop my queue for 5 months and still is listed as very long wait.

[NETFLIX MOVIE BURNER]

it happend to me a few times and it sucks i was to recieve 2 movies this past weekend and i was gonna cancel my netflix account on monday and ofcourse return the movies but they didnt show up so i just decided to end the account that saturday ... it happend twice before that aswell

[Duane]

Yeah, I'm an ex-blockbuster customer too... I did a spreadsheet using their ship dates, and on the 3-out plan I was averaging about 18-21 movies per month, even though I usually returned the movie to the store within 24 hours (often before closing time the same day). And if you go 4 or 5 days without them shipping anything, they'll happily explain to you that you don't have enough available title at the top of your queue.

One other beef I had with them is the way they constructed their database. When they entered the rental-by-mail business, they apparantly had many of their stores sign up as micro-sized shipping centers, or send in their oddball titles. Then, any title that those stores had even a single copy of, magically became available for online rental. Then, when someone "loses" the one copy they had, it goes to "long wait" for about a month or two until some flunky finally decides that the movie will never show up. Since many of these older back-catalog titles are no longer available for purchase, they won't ever have them again, but people like me who wanted to see them have to put up with the stuff oscillating between "long wait" and "coming soon". almost half of my queue was like that when I left. Hell, I was a subscriber for about 18 months, and I bet there were a couple of titles that never cleared my queue from day one.

Back to throttling and slow system performance, I had someone in customer service tell me (not in exact words mind you, this has been months ago) that the process of shipping your next movie involves checking to see if each movie in your queue is available, one-by-one, from the top, until they find one. I also go the impression that since the movies are geographically diverse, people at different locations (stores and/or shipping centers) were involved in that process. This was offered to me (in my role as unhappy subscriber) as explanation why it takes more than 24 hours to find out which movie is going to ship next.

All in all, I don't know if any of the impressions I was left with about how their company is organized and operations are run were correct, but even if not, the whole operation is about as efficient as screen doors on a submarine.

I'm currently not doing any rental-by-mail, though I will probably sign up for netflix again at some point. Currently, I'm just visiting my local mom-and-pop video store, which is associated with our local art and indie cinema. They carry a lot of rare and unusual things, and it's more like going to an old book shop than the McDonalds-esque experience that is a Blockbuster store these days. "DO you want popcorn with that?"... "have you signed up for online?" ... "How about blockbuster rewards?" ... I mean, these people saw me 3 or 4 times a week for over a year, and some of them still spewed that crap in my face.

[Howard]

I never had a problem with BB UNTIL I got 2 titles stuck at the top of my queue both currently 'very long wait'. Up until then I would drop off my DVDs at the store and the next day, or sometimes the day after if it was late at night, the next videos would ship. In fact right now there is 1 DVD showing as 'Dropped off at store' that has yet to get back to the shipment center for at least 2 weeks yet I have been getting DVDs on a regular basis.

Now however about every other week I get a delay. My guess is they are looking to see if my top of queue DVDs would come in. Since I am about to have another disc, currently on 'Short wait', hit the the top of queue; and another TV series to likewise hit not long after that, I wonder how long the delay will be then.

[David]

I'm not a TA customer, but i return movies to my local BB store. It's hit or miss. Mostly, if I return a movie to the store in the morning, the next one in my queue will ship _that night_. Which is awesome -- when that happens. Other times, it's the next day. I've noticed that trouble happens when you have unavailable movies at the top of your queue (and as we've learned, sometimes "available" movies aren't available from your shipping center, so they skip it).

So far, I've been pretty happy with how it's working. I like it better then Netflix's habit of shipping from far off distro centers.

[Bruce]

BB absolutely throttles, but so does NF. I don't have a problem with the idea of throttling. The way I go through movies both companies would lose money on my account if they were truly "unlimited." I don't expect them to lose money just because I can tell in 5 mins if the low budget horror disk is the turkey I feared it would be(and am willing to drive to the PO just before the last pickup).

I would welcome some honesty by them telling me up front how many movies I could expect to get in a month, but I'm sure the legal department would have kittens over such a disclosure.

BB's acceptable turnover seems to be about 6 movies per week (3 by mail, 3 from the store). This works out to about $1.57 per movie($37.70/(6*4)), which I think is a good deal and is very similar to NF's cost per disk. Plus if you go in on a Tuesday or Wednesday, you have a pristine selection of that week's new titles.

That being said, BB's queue management and "releasing this week" is the worst sort of bizarre fantasy. Well over half my queue has been "coming soon" for over a year, and I have some "very long waits" on movies that have never been released on DVD. But that's the topic for another thread.

[Edward R Murrow]

Of course BBI is throttling. And we've known for years that NFLX throttles as evidenced by the fact that NFLX lost a court case around this issue.

As documented in another thread on this blog - to get the fastest turnaround, your top 20 or so rentals in your BBI queue should be in "Available" status and you should *ALWAYS* drop the movies off at your nearest BBI and choose a movie off the shelf while you're doing your other errands. NFLX can't compete with this value proposition.

[Gir]

"I would welcome some honesty by them telling me up front how many movies I could expect"

I don't think they can. It's far too variable, depending on how many titles you selected are available locally, how heavy usage is from other users in your area, and a variety of other factors. They'd have to say "it might be 22, or it might be 16, or it might be 12". I don't think they need their lawyers to tell them it's probably better to just not say.

[Laddy]

I'm having that same problem right now. I send disks back and they send me emails that they've received the disks yet they don't ship any new disks. I have 60 titles in my cue. All are listed as available except for a handful and they are not at the top of the queue. Heretofore the service has been very good. I've got the not enough titles runaround from one or two of the CSR people which is BS. This same thing happened to me a year ago as well. I think there is a glitch in their computerized system that messes up accounts from time to time based on some unknown event.

[Kodai]

This is why I canceled my BB account, along with the rate increases. I had openings for them to send movies for a week and available movies in my queue. Nothing was being sent.

[Peter]

How hypocritical the way the copy-and-return set continually complains about throttling. Bully for Netflix and Blockbuster too for holding back DVDs to those who return them the same day of receipt! They've got a business to run; this is not a free for all. You copy addicts are not fooling anyone. Let's hear it for throttling! MORE throttling is needed to keep you obsessive law-breaking lowlifes in check.

[Adam]

I'm cancelling Blockbuster right before my billing period is up for this very reason. I returned my 3 films to the store on a Friday. Nothing shipped until the next Wednesday. I also have about 45 films listed as "Coming Soon". They've been Coming Soon since I started my membership a year ago. Also, many new releases are listed as Coming Soon, and they just never come.

Bad Blockbuster. Netflix, here I come.

[Adam]

Hey Peter,

My father is unable to leave the house due to a medical issue. He watches movies most of the day, as he states it gets his mind off of the pain. Three films takes up about 5 hours. Before you start accusing me of being a criminal, maybe realize that different people have different situations, eh?

[Michael]

I work at BB. You ever think they ask you about popcorn, rewards, etc. because it's there job? Maybe you forgot you wanted popcorn, the fact that you've been in the store 4 or 5 times a week suggests you would be a good candidate for a rewards membership, and no, we have no special button to flag anyone's accounts. Have you seen our computers? Even the new CEO makes fun of them! He's charging more money, so he can invest in the stores to help improve the customer experience. That is what a company is suppose to do. Right?

[Old Timer Too]

Okay, once again... BB's failure to ship is all in the way your queue is handled... I think this is the third of fourth time on how to get the most from BB...

This applies to the three out plans, but if you make allowances, it works for the one- and two-out plans, as well.

1. Any wait-state titles - get them below the top 30 titles (or behind the last "available" title).

2. Any titles that are passed over once, drop them out of the top one or two.

3. Any titles that are passed over two or more times, even though they say "available," treat as if they are a wait state title - they are not available locally. Move them down and let them drift back up. By the time you ask for them again, they may have become available locally.

4. BB runs its computer selection early in the morning and again about 10:00 am. If you check a title into a store well before 10:00 am, you could have another title shipped that day. But don't hold your breath.

5. Any top titles that are not available during the first computer run are not shipped.

6. Any that are not available at the 10:00 am run are not shipped and the system will search down through the first 30 titles only. If none are available, none will ship.

7. Avoid having your returns hit on Mondays unless you have titles releasing that week at the top of your queue. Monday's are absolutely the worst for receiving and shipping discs. There are strong possibilities that titles returned on Monday will not even be checked in because of loading vs. available people to process the titles.

I've toyed around enough with several accounts to pretty much validate this information.

New information: Move titles right after your shipment is made. Don't wait until you turn them in. For some reason, BB's database remembers where the titles were located for at least some period of time. I'm not sure what is going on, but their system has some serious flaws in it.

And, in case you're wondering, I've had NF ship titles out of order, which is rare. But it happens once, about every other month. BB is far worse for this practice.

BB could really work to make some things better:

1. Make their web site Firefox friendly. The system still hangs when there are a lot of titles in the queue.

2. They've split large queues into two parts so they load faster. It plays havoc because you won't see all your titles on one page. It is a bad feature.

3. They need to allow their computer to do a deep search so they ship whatever is available locally.

4. They need to flag titles not available locally so that you know they are at least in some kind of wait state. They should not list titles as available if they aren't going to ship them to you because they are not available locally.

5. It would not hurt for them to allow a customer to flag their account for local or distance shipping - in other words, if I want my titles shipped, no matter where the titles are located, I should be able to tell them and they'll ship from that location.

6. They need to dump their advertising on the site. It just gets in the way and slows down the loads.

7. They need to offer more-out at a time plans, even if they are mail only. That, and the option to have an available title ship, no matter where it is in the country.

8. Any coming soon title that is out of print needs to be pulled from the catalog. This is true for both NF and BB. While it will reduce the number of titles they "Carry," at least it will be honest.

Although I no longer get more than one turn a week (I have other things I'm doing, so don't do returns until Monday from the post office), you can easily get two turns a week from BB if you are actively managing your queue and returning the titles to the store (or have one-day service back to the center).

[Larry Michals]

If NF and BB want to throttle, why don't they simply state the limit per month and avoid all the ill will they are creating by throttling and the other games they play?

[Corey3rd]

blockbuster's computer system was buggy from the start. I remember when I first joined it somehow sent me 6 DVDs for the first few weeks even though I was on the three plan.

CEO Keyes has already gone on record saying that he wants to do all he can to get rid of people who actually use the Total Access plan instead of merely letting the discs collect dust on top of their TVs.

I had plenty of times when Blockbuster would take a few days before shipping my next titles for a various series of lame reasons. But it was always their buggy system's fault.

[john nicholson]

This is one of the two reasons I am now back with Netflix---major delays in sending out the next movie(s)when I returned some to the local store; and the increase in price a few months ago. At first BB was really great and for a reasonable price. Then they raised the price and began throttling---either intentionally or due to sheer incompetence, it matters not. Netflix is a better value and have never throttled to my knowledge.

[rjm]

Between NF & BB, I can ALMOST get the movies I want.

Would I pay full price for either ?

No.

If I was paying full price, I would swap NF accounts every month or two so that they forget Im a heavy user.

Im not sure BB is competent enough to throttle ! Their website is bushleague.

I simply use the "I returned the DVD" button most of the time.

[Dave]

Try dumping all of the movies from your NF queue except for the new releases, you know what I'm talking about, the movies that you saved to your queue long before the films were even released to theatres? These are the movies that say long wait, very long wait and how old are you really? Maybe if enough people did this, especially on the heels of this outage, it might move something.

[d3vkit]

I am a former (long-time) employee of a Blockbuster B&M. Towards the last few months I was there, I had a few customer not receiving anything for weeks, and at the store level it's tough since we don't know anything about the customer, their queue, or what's been happening.

I've had TA off and on for the last year or so. I had it all last summer until the first price hike, and never had any trouble; I canceled though since I couldn't afford it. Now that I no longer get the free rentals, I went back and am in my second week of the 3 at a time 5 in-store for $20. Since the 03/18/08, I've received 6 movies and my 5 in-stores. So 11 movies in 9 days, or almost 1.5 per day. I should have at least 2 more tomorrow and then a 3rd on Friday.

I don't think they have ever throttled me; I receive and send them out same day, and usually new titles arrive in the next day, maybe 2. If this ever changes much I'll try Netflix out, but so far, in-store exchanging makes it very worthwhile.

Biggest complaint is the site in Firefox. TERRIBLE. The queue just destroys the browser.

[Regis Allison]

Lets not act like Netflixs doesn't do the same thing. I've movies like the MIST in my queue for three weeks before it was released. And I never get the movie. I've been on Netflixs for at least five years.
And they'll hold back movies, if you go over the amount of movies you've paid for the month.
Netflixs expects if you pay for 7 at a time to rent on move than 28 per month. If you watch them quick and send them back in the same week. You'll not get the good releases for a few weeks.

[dale]

I've been a TA customer for 1.25 years now, never had a problem with throttling. I'm even doing 10-20 in-store exchanges a month since it's the easiest way to get a new release. I can only recall one time that I was expecting a movie and nothing was in the mail - I checked my queue and found I didn't have any available titles at the top (it does annoy me that they just don't ship the next available title).

Oh yeah, I'm not paying 34.99 either since I didn't start doing in-store exchanges until late last year. I don't expect my old price to stay this way for next year.