[Chris Gohlke]

 

Dear Blockbuster,

It's not me, it's you.  I really liked you, but you just seemed to stop caring.  Today's phone call was the last straw, as soon as I can copy my queue to Netflix I'll be gone.  Here is what happened.

I've been fairly happily using the Blockbuster service for a while now.  I really liked that I could return movies to the store and get free in-store rentals in return.  Plus, they automatically cleared the queue when returned to the store, shaving at least a day off of the ship time for my next movie.  I returned my last three movies to the store on 7/23.  I received one movie in the mail to replace it on the 7/26.  By 7/30, I started to wonder where my other two movies were, so I went to check my queue.  I had over 70 movies in my queue, about half of which were available.  Since I've been with Blockbuster, I have quite a few movies that are Long Wait or Very Long Wait such that these have started to accumulate at the top of my queue.

So, I made a call into customer service.  I spoke with David (Badge 11547) and was told that because none of the top thirty items in my queue were available, nothing would ship.  I asked where this information could be found on the website and after stumbling around for a while could not tell me, but said he was telling me now.  I was on-line at the time and read back to him from their website, which says (bold added for emphasis):

"We want to offer you the highest level of service by shipping DVDs in the order you have requested them, while ensuring that you receive the best value for your membership each month. Whenever a rental slot is open, we review the first listing in your Queue to determine whether or not it can be shipped from the closest distribution center to you. If the title is not available at this center, the system automatically searches for the requested title at other distribution centers throughout our network. If the top Queue selection falls outside of an acceptable shipping window, we will ship a title that falls lower in the queue. This process helps you receive more titles each month, based on anticipated shipping times, and allows you to experience fewer delays."

and

"BLOCKBUSTER Online® is committed to keeping your rental experience uninterrupted. Because our goal is to ship movies as quickly as possible in order to meet an estimated shipping time of 1-3 business days for delivery, the system reviews all "Available" titles in your Queue and determines which movies are ready for shipment from your nearest distribution center. If the estimated shipping times for your top selection(s) fall outside an acceptable shipping window, they may be skipped over for other DVDs further on your list."

To summarize, this says if item one is not available, we move on to item two, etc., until they find an item on your queue that is available and then ship it.  Clearly, this contradicts what David was telling me.  I asked to speak with a manager, and he said he was the supervisor on duty.  I asked for his boss and he told me that while he does have a boss, for customer service purposes, he was as high as I could go and would not put me through to his superior. 

So, I've got three basic problems here:

• The fact that 30+ items in my queue are Long/Very Long wait.  Some of these items have been in my queue for over a year.  I wonder if they even actually have them.  If there is demand for the DVD, then they should acquire more copies.  No customer should have to wait that long to get a DVD that is carried by Blockbuster.
• Given the situation in the above bullet, it is natural that Long/Very Long wait items are going to float to the top of the list.  Logically, I would want them there to ensure I get them when they do become available.  I believe David when he said they won't ship past the first 30 items because that is exactly how it appears in my account.  However, this clearly contradicts how the Blockbuster site indicates the process works.  Sounds to me like a lazy programmer that stopped his search loop after 30 attempts rather than coding it to work through the entire queue. 
  
• Finally, there needs to be some kind of supervisor available to talk to customers.  David seemed like he was reading from the script and could not seem to step outside the box to understand that there was a problem here.

I would think Blockbuster would at least be trying to retain the customers they have.  I'm imagining that customers will begin flocking to Netflix when XBox 360 streaming officially starts in the fall.  Too bad for them, they will be loosing me sooner.

Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.

[Chris Gohlke]

 

Dear Blockbuster,

It's not me, it's you.  I really liked you, but you just seemed to stop caring.  Today's phone call was the last straw, as soon as I can copy my queue to Netflix I'll be gone.  Here is what happened.

I've been fairly happily using the Blockbuster service for a while now.  I really liked that I could return movies to the store and get free in-store rentals in return.  Plus, they automatically cleared the queue when returned to the store, shaving at least a day off of the ship time for my next movie.  I returned my last three movies to the store on 7/23.  I received one movie in the mail to replace it on the 7/26.  By 7/30, I started to wonder where my other two movies were, so I went to check my queue.  I had over 70 movies in my queue, about half of which were available.  Since I've been with Blockbuster, I have quite a few movies that are Long Wait or Very Long Wait such that these have started to accumulate at the top of my queue.

So, I made a call into customer service.  I spoke with David (Badge 11547) and was told that because none of the top thirty items in my queue were available, nothing would ship.  I asked where this information could be found on the website and after stumbling around for a while could not tell me, but said he was telling me now.  I was on-line at the time and read back to him from their website, which says (bold added for emphasis):

"We want to offer you the highest level of service by shipping DVDs in the order you have requested them, while ensuring that you receive the best value for your membership each month. Whenever a rental slot is open, we review the first listing in your Queue to determine whether or not it can be shipped from the closest distribution center to you. If the title is not available at this center, the system automatically searches for the requested title at other distribution centers throughout our network. If the top Queue selection falls outside of an acceptable shipping window, we will ship a title that falls lower in the queue. This process helps you receive more titles each month, based on anticipated shipping times, and allows you to experience fewer delays."

and

"BLOCKBUSTER Online® is committed to keeping your rental experience uninterrupted. Because our goal is to ship movies as quickly as possible in order to meet an estimated shipping time of 1-3 business days for delivery, the system reviews all "Available" titles in your Queue and determines which movies are ready for shipment from your nearest distribution center. If the estimated shipping times for your top selection(s) fall outside an acceptable shipping window, they may be skipped over for other DVDs further on your list."

To summarize, this says if item one is not available, we move on to item two, etc., until they find an item on your queue that is available and then ship it.  Clearly, this contradicts what David was telling me.  I asked to speak with a manager, and he said he was the supervisor on duty.  I asked for his boss and he told me that while he does have a boss, for customer service purposes, he was as high as I could go and would not put me through to his superior. 

So, I've got three basic problems here:

• The fact that 30+ items in my queue are Long/Very Long wait.  Some of these items have been in my queue for over a year.  I wonder if they even actually have them.  If there is demand for the DVD, then they should acquire more copies.  No customer should have to wait that long to get a DVD that is carried by Blockbuster.
• Given the situation in the above bullet, it is natural that Long/Very Long wait items are going to float to the top of the list.  Logically, I would want them there to ensure I get them when they do become available.  I believe David when he said they won't ship past the first 30 items because that is exactly how it appears in my account.  However, this clearly contradicts how the Blockbuster site indicates the process works.  Sounds to me like a lazy programmer that stopped his search loop after 30 attempts rather than coding it to work through the entire queue. 
  
• Finally, there needs to be some kind of supervisor available to talk to customers.  David seemed like he was reading from the script and could not seem to step outside the box to understand that there was a problem here.

I would think Blockbuster would at least be trying to retain the customers they have.  I'm imagining that customers will begin flocking to Netflix when XBox 360 streaming officially starts in the fall.  Too bad for them, they will be loosing me sooner.

Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.

[Jason Dunn]

That's totally crazy - they should be going down your list, to the very bottom, until they find something to send you. And if they don't have anything in stock at the moment, a few hours later it should try again. That's the way that Zip.ca works...although they too have the same problem as Blockbuster in terms of not shipping my top five movies after months and months.

[Chris Gohlke]

I've already canceled my subscription and signed up with Netflix. When canceling, I put a link to this thread in the reason field. I'm watching a movie on-line over the watch now feature on Netflix. Also of interest, most of the movies that were Long/Very Long Wait on Blockbuster were available now on Netflix.

[ptyork]

I'm really surprised by that. I've not tried Blockbuster online (never will I guess), but I've never had to wait more than a couple of weeks for ANYTHING on Netflix. Granted, I'm not too far off the beaten path when it comes to movie tastes, but to wait a year for any movie is utterly ridiculous. Sounds like Blockbuster is its own worst enemy. Too bad. I'm one of those that generally root for Goliath, but in this case David seems to be the clear winner.

[Bob Christensen]

Not surprised by your story. I really liked the in-store trades, but I went through similar routines with Blockbuster several times: random, unexplainable long delays between shipments, even when most of my queue showed as "available." Occasionally, they would send me a movie coupon to appease my complaints. The last straw was when they raised rates and limited the amount of in-store trade-ins. They do seem to try hard to lose customers. I'm a happy NetFlix member now.

[Rob Alexander]

Well, I went the other way (Netflix to Blockbuster) and I won't be going back until Blockbuster goes out of business. Both the Netflix and BB hubs are in the same nearby city, one-day's mailing time away. I tried Netflix first and that managed to reduce my 'unlimited' movies to about 6-7 a month. I'd mail them back and they would wait four or five days to say they'd received them. Then they'd wait another couple of days to mail out the next one. I'd sit there for days at a time with no movies at all.

With Blockbuster, I mail the movie back and they send me the received email either the next day or the day after and the next movie always ships the same day. It always arrives to me the day after that so my total turnaround is generally 3-4 days. (Less if I turn them in at the store.)

I have had a couple of long wait movies, and they do take longer than they should, but there is always something else to watch. I'm surprised about the 30 limit thing since it makes no sense to make such a limit in the first place. Of course, it would also be easily solved by just dropping a few available titles somewhere in the first 30. Anyway, they do seem to be making some poor decisions lately and they may not make it. If so, then I'll be sorry to see them go, though I may be the only one.

[Ed Hansberry]

That is totally absurd. I've been with Netflix since 1999 and have NEVER had any movie on wait for more than a few weeks. Even those with a "very long wait" usually ship withing the month and I can't think of 5 movies I've rented over the years with that kind of wait. "Short wait" usually means later this week or next week.

I see that blockbuster doesn't perform any better onlne than they do at their physical locations.

I happen to live close to a Netflix distribution center, so I routinely mail a movie back and two days later, a new one has arrived.

[onlydarksets]

I also dropped Blockbuster a while back, but it was the Netflix streaming service that won me over, not anything in particular that Blockbuster did. Oh, yeah, except for constantly raising their rates.

[Phillip Dyson]

Not too worry about canceling Blockbuster. My GF canceled hers a couple of months ago and created a Queue on my account. She loves it.

But every so often she gets an email from Blockbuster offering her stuff to come back. Like free rentals. I think the last gimmick was the ability to use pay with PayPal.

[onlydarksets]

lol - i got those too!