Blockbuster Online Rental Service Beta Site Leaked to Hacking Netflix

The link for Blockbuster's upcoming online DVD rental service, Blockbuster Online, was leaked to Hacking Netflix tonight.

http://beta.blockbuster.com/homepages/LoadBlockbusterHomepage.action

The service appears to be a clone of Netflix with the following differences:

Blockbuster claims 25,000 movies vs. 20,000 at Netflix.

Games are shown on the site, but appear to be for sale, not rental. They do offer a $19.99 per month in-store game rental program, so I would expect them to also have an online offering.

Blockbuster Online is $19.99 per month vs. $21.99 for Netflix.

Subscribers to Blockbuster Online will receive 2 free in-store rental coupons per month. This is a smart move on the part of Blockbuster.

There is a link for new releases. How will they be able to handle a large percentage of the membership requesting the same movie?

They have an interesting "My Queue" graphic that shows how many movies are in your queue.

Stay tuned for updates as this story develops.

Comments

[Jim Biancolo]

Wow, congrats! You know you've arrived when stuff starts getting leaked to you. :-)

[Jim Biancolo]

... and they have The Ow-Bow Incident, something I've been trying to get Netflix to stock for months! After some quick browsing, it looks like their selection is quite good. Availability and turnaround time will be the key factors for me, if I give them a try. I wonder if they'll offer a trial period?

[Jim Biancolo]

Ah, I can answer that trial period question by just looking at the home page. I'll shut up now.

[Sanjay]

Unfortunately, there is no Foreign category in their list of movie categories. They will lose out in this market segment of these very loyal customers. They better have a good collection of Bollywood movies.

Thanks for the heads up, hackingnetflix.

[roger]

They also have the Sorrow and the Pity, something I suggested to Netflix. Has anyone ever got Netflix to add a movie? And why are they so unresponsive with that? They're like, "If we add it, you'll see it. Now shut-up."

[roger]

They also have the Sorrow and the Pity, something I suggested to Netflix. Has anyone ever got Netflix to add a movie? And why are they so unresponsive with that? They're like, "If we add it, you'll see it. Now shut-up."

[Rocket Punch]

Well, now that Blockebuster are entering the arena, may be Netflix should starting to wake up from their "not so" beauty sleep anymore.

Yup I am a switcher when they starting raising fees with no added service. Wrote many many many emails to them regarding carrying games and movies, but got no response. I switched to Gameznflix for under $19 a month instead. Their service is bad but at least I got games too. It sorta worked out find with games vs movies, since you tend to keep the games a lot long than movies, so their lack of service, poor website and very long ship time doesn't affect me too much.

But I will switch to Blockbuster when they start their service, and try it out.

Nextflix's 23% stock price drop saids it all, I hope they start doing something.

[Bill]

It looks like they have a good selection. They carry titles that netflix doesn't like re-release special editions (vacation, pitch black, the good, bad, the ugly, lord of the rings extended). I did notice Badder Santa (unrated version) was not available for rent just to buy. Only the R rated version for rent. But then netflix has the unrated version to rent but I may need to wait 3 months to rent it.

[jason nickels]

I just signed up for the free trial. It never told me how long the free trial would be. I began transfering movies from my Netflix Que onto the blockbuster que. 4 out of 10 movies I could NOT find on the blockbuster site. 25000 my foot. Some one needs to tell Blockbuster that each movie title counts only once. They can't just list their entire inventory as the # of titles that they carry. So far I am unimpressed.

[David]

How did I find you? Today - after 17 months of being on their 8 out program - I had reached my limit with their progressive screwing of the customers. There have been significant changes in both their shipping and shipping problems protocol. I called them to discuss these issues and was on hold for fourteen minutes before a "representative" (who was just plain dumb) even answered! I got nowhere with this doofus so after that call, I did what I suspect many more people are doing lately - went to Goggle and entered "Netflix Sucks." Your site came up second. As background, it's important to realize that anything which Netflix can do to decrease disc use, just by an average of one or two discs per month per subscriber, adds millions of dollars to their bottom line for that month. My specific problems: within the last two months, more and more are my discs not shipping same day but shipping one or TWO days later. Their excuses are feeble; explaining that it must be shipped from another center. When asked why THAT center can't ship same day, they have absolutely NO explanation. Then, when you need to report a disc not received back by Netflix, they require a six day wait from the projected reception date - that means up to TEN days before a disc can be reported missing! Inexcusable. The doofus tried to explain that they "must" allow two to three days for shipping each way. When challenged that this contradicts their marketing which states precisely the opposite - namely that because of their massive distribution system over 85% of all customers get their movie the next day - the doofus had no answer except to constantly offer a meaningless "apology" and ignore my request to report it missing. I've had it with them. They do not care about their loyal subscribers; their pricing is now absurd; the service is the worst. I am going to the Blockbuster program because Netflix has now jumped the shark and, indeed, sucks.

[Brian]

Anyone else having trouble on the credit card page? I keep putting the number, my name and all the required info, but it just keeps going back to that page ... says I need to enter name and expiration date. This looks like a great service.

[anonymous coward]

Their credit card page only works with IE. The rest of the site seems to operate with alternate browsers, but not that one page.

[Brian]

I got in. Big weakness over Netflix ... inability to add upcoming DVDs. And, as previously mentioned, there are holes.

[anonymous coward]

They also are only promising 2-3 day delivery, at least to start.

[rw]

In the past, I have requested that Netflix add a title, which they subsequently did add. It would be nice if they would log the requests and then email you if that title should be added. I have also been having problems with the shipping of discs. My last 9 discs in a row have been received and listed as "shipping tomorrow" as early as 10am, but always before noon. So far I've gotten two "bonus" discs in the last two weeks by complaining.

Regarding Blockbuster - the foreign titles are mixed in with the rest. I found two titles that Netflix doesn't carry. Is it just me, or are there a lot of titles listed that you can neither buy nor add to your queue? On the whole though, Netflix's HK selection is better.

I will wait until I see a list of distribution centers and a better selection of HK titles before I move. I have a feeling that the cheaper subscription rate will be subsidized by late fees on the free in store rentals.

[qazwsx]

Nice bug - you can put the same movie in your queue more than once.

Also, new stuff like "Nip/Tuck" is listed as "coming soon". And so is old stuff like "American Grafitti". Not a good sign.

Also, we used the bonus coupons at a Blockbuster store. This only served to remind me how much I hate going to a video store. Especially one as craptacular as Blockbuste.

They haven't shipped me any movies yet either.

[rw]

Just got a response from Blockbuster. They said that they have ten distribution centers, but they did not indicate where they were located.

"Thank you for contacting Blockbuster Online Customer Service. We appreciate your feedback and will forward your suggestions regarding foreign films to the appropriate department. I apologize, but some movies are not available during the Beta testing process; that is the reason they are currently for purchase only.

In regards to the distribution centers, Blockbuster currently has ten distribution centers around the country. While we will do our best to ship from the one nearest you, that distribution center may not have the title you requested and would need to be shipped from a different location. No matter where you live, all DVDs should arrive within 2-3 days. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us."

[Video Guy]

Yeah but it's still beta so problems should be expected.

I got my first movies in a day. Returned one, it showed returned next day, next movie shipped same day.

The web part is a little quirky and is obviously unpolished. The recommendation engine needs some help.

As for the inventory, maybe they are still loading inventory? Surely when you have the resources of BB, that "25,000 titles" could easily become much larger as the service grows.

[lono]

Sorry Blockbuster, too little too late. You screwed me for way way way too long. I have been with Netlix for 3 years and the service has always been top notch.

[Keith Woods]

GameZnFlix.com has improved dramatically. Games and Movies. The yearly plan is only $222 for 6 movies or games out at a time. Normally get mine in 3 days. Purchase option coming very soon.

[mojo]

If the blockbuster online is still beta, The DAMN store shouldnt give out flyers to go to www.blockbuster.com/signup Not even a mention of why you can not get this service because it is still beta. I wonder if they are going to edit the movies online? I did see they had Spirt of 76 tho, So thats a big plus.

[Joseph]

I was fed up with Suckflix, I switched to rent-a-flic.com before the Blockbuster beta news, but actually I am quite happy with them. They have a wish list for subscribers who don't see what they want listed, shipping time is decent, and they are smaller, so it is only $16.95. Once BB becomes stable, I may switch.

[hey_you]

So far, my rental history shows I'm getting 35 DVds with 2 accts with the free trial, with still 23 days to go...alright Blockbuster!!

[anonymous]

I canceled service with Netflix because 1 out of every 3 dvd's that I received were cracked! What a waste of money and time!

[Ken]

I just heard that DVDBarn is opening up 30 more warehouses nationwide on Monday the 20th of Sept. Looks like they got some bigtime funding and are going head-to-head with Netflix. They also sent me an email with a promotion code that is supposed to give me a 3 out at a time plan for only $12.95 per month and apparently it is not just a promotional deal. They say if I signup I'll get grandfathered at that rate.

The code for that plan is dvd-4me if anybody wants it

Ken