Blockbuster Total Access Unannounced Policy Change

NuclearCodeMonkey writes "Blockbuster Total Access has changed the terms of its user agreement without notice to users. Previously, users could return online (mailed) rentals in-store for free rentals. The next set of online rentals was immediately mailed out. Now, without notice, they have changed their policy so that the in-store free exchanges count against you, and no more online rentals are mailed out until the in-store rentals are returned. No wonder they are closing stores and losing to Netflix! Needless to say I am canceling my account in protest." Update - 3/15 at 11:55 by SS: NuclearCodeMonkey has sent new information about an email from Blockbuster which clarifies the situation. Read on for his follow-up. NuclearCodeMonkey writes
"A second email from Blockbuster Support admitted that a change in policy had taken place (the first didn't acknowledge it). And they stated I should have received a notice: 'We have updated your "Terms and Conditions" with regards to in-store exchanges. A week before March 2, 2009, notifications for this new policy was added as banners on the top of your queue page, announcements were also posted at your local Blockbuster store, and we have sent out emails to inform customers about the new change.' I did not see any of the aforementioned notices and I have double-checked and did not receive any email. At least one commenter did indicate he had received an email. So, maybe an announced change after all and I just got missed? I wouldn't want to mislead anyone."

Comments

It sounds reasonable to me.

[kalpol]

I never looked into the Blockbuster plan, but if you were able to exchange mailers for movies in the store AND get the next mailers, it kinda sounds like double-dipping. Someone probably overlooked that little detail when writing up the procedure.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[xwizbt]

Seems reasonable to me, too. Here in the UK, you can't return your mail-out DVDs to a store, anyway. Mind you, their main rival LOVEFilM is just the same, since they have no physical stores for you to return the DVDs to. Netflix hasn't made it to the UK, yes, and they'd have a hard time against LOVEFiLM if they did; aside from a few customer service issues (not to gloss over that...) they're doing pretty well...

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[MBCook]

It's not a loophole, it was calculated to get you into the store where they could sell new movies, used movies, new and used games, and consumer electronics (because that's never a desperate move to start selling CE stuff).

The fact that this didn't work out well enough is why they are stopping, but it wasn't a loophole. They used to advertise the fact.

Now the fact that Blockbuster has been dead for at lest 6 years and just doesn't realize it yet is kind of sad. But then again I lost what little respect I had left for them years ago, and they've only managed to baffle me with some of their stupid decisions since.

The ONLY reason I have left to go into BB is to rent games, but it's so expensive and such a pain, I only do it about once or twice a year max. With GameFly possibly opening RedBox style kiosks, I may never need to go in again.

Not that I've heard great things about GameFly. But soon digital distribution will make renting console games irrelevant anyway.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[ta bu shi da yu]

Maybe. But it's not reasonable to do this without notice. Kind of like Facebook with their third interface "upgrade" (I say this loosely).

After a while, people stop using the service. I know I've stopped using Facebook.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[commodore64_love]

Dead?

I just read that Blockbuster is one of the few companies experiencing growth in profit. Apparently during a recession, when people are cutting costs, they spend more time at home watching rented videos.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[cdwdwkr]

It was kind of like double dipping...it was great for a while. I subscribed back before they offered in store exchanges. It was basically equivalent to NetFlix. Then they started offering free in store exchanges. It was a great way to get a lot of movies a month. They were clearly losing money on me based on the number of movies I got per month...my monthly fee barely covered the mailing charges. Then the in store exchanges were icing on the cake. Of course that couldn't last very long. After maybe six months they changed their terms and you could only in store exchange 5 movies per month. They came out with a new, more expensive plan that offered unlimited in store exchange. It just wasn't worth it for me and I was getting tired of renting so many movies, so I wound up canceling. Recently I decided to join a rental service again, but after reviewing my options I went with NetFlix. Really glad I did now.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[MBCook]

That's not a sign of a healthy business, it just means they are in the right place at the right time. Look at the last few years, they've been diving.

• Netflix, online video, and Pay-Per-View have been killing their main business.
• Game rentals are being killed by expense, digital distribution, and lower cost games (in the form of things like XBox Live Arcade games to entertain for a weekend).
• They jumped into consumer electronics to try to prop up profits, because it's worked so well for Borders in the last few years.
• They've been annoying their mail-in customers with raised rates, reduced service, and other service changes.
• They've got TONS of overhead in all those stores (land, inventory, employees, etc.).

Any failing business could raise profits by hiking prices. The problem is that it only works for a short while. Once customers notice and stop shopping, profits dive faster than before.

One quarter of growth doesn't mean they are in good shape.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or perhaps they had to field too many questions from baffled customers who didn't have the mental capacity to understand such a relatively complicated policy. That gets expensive, and customers are happier with clarity, sometimes even if it's not in their favor.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[NuclearCodeMonkey]

It is not an unreasonable change. My beef is that it was an unannounced change. I am sitting at home waiting for movies and they tell me I won't get any until I take the ones back from the store.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[stfvon007]

Do in-store exchanges count towards my BLOCKBUSTER Online® membership plan?

On a linked page they have another answer that completely contradicts the answer linked in the article.

Do in-store exchanges count towards my BLOCKBUSTER Online® membership plan?

Free in-store movie rentals are in addition to the number of DVDs allowed out by your BLOCKBUSTER Online® membership plan.

one says they count against you, one says they dont and are an additional perk. They cant decide apparently. Im glad I have netflix instead.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[yiantsbro]

But they did announce it. I have a subscription and received notification of the pending change (via email).

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Hadlock]

Sounds like they're likely to just buyout LOVEFiLM just the same way Walmart bought out your major supermaket chains (Tetco, they're called I think?). Assuming they haven't already.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[egburr]

I am a suscriber, and so far this year, other than confirmation they they have received my returned movies and have sent new movies, I have received a total of 6 emails from them. All 6 of those are ads telling me to add certain movies to my list. This article on slashdot is the first I've heard of this change to my plan. Regardless of my feelings for the change itself (which I do find a bit annoying), the lack of notice really irritates me.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[mysidia]

That's not a sign of a healthy business, it just means they are in the right place at the right time. Look at the last few years, they've been diving.

Being in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between enormous, lucrative success, and trillions in profits, VERSUS bankruptcy, complete and utter failure, or years of languishing, before even breaking even.

Imagine, if you will, Linux and Gnome in its current form had hit the marketplace, and become widely available, before MS Windows 3.1 had emerged.

The opportunity for success, before the Windows hegemony had been firmly in place, would have been much wider.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Curunir_wolf]

I've been on the Blockbuster plan for years, and I love it! I've never been "throttled" like people on Netflix were, either.

No wonder they are closing stores and losing to Netflix! Needless to say I am canceling my account in protest.

Well that makes sense, I guess with Netflix you can take home as many DVDs from the store as you want! Uhhh... wait, what? Netflix doesn't have any stores? Well... um... so how is it better, again?

Actually, I don't have the "Total Access" plan. That's what I used to have, but then they went up on the price so I canceled. Well they immediately contacted me (I guess they figured I was probably ready to jump to Netflix, since it would be cheaper) and offered me a deal on the "mailer only" plan, which didn't include trips to the store, and was much less than I could get from Netflix, so I took it. I almost never used the store, anyway, it just wasn't convenient.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[tepples]

But soon digital distribution will make renting console games irrelevant anyway.

Not in places where the best available home Internet access has a 5 GB/mo transfer cap.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[afabbro]

Dead?

Not dead, but struggling to convince folks it isn't about to file for bankruptcy.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[PopeRatzo]

In our system, "growth in profits" does not have to mean that their business model is working. It could also mean that they're laying off a lot of employees, that they're closing stores, that their input costs have declined, or even that they are just giving your customers less for their money, which seems to be the case in this story. Hell, it could even mean they've changed some exotic accounting practice which lets them claim that they have more profits. It's a way lots of companies boost their stock prices, which by the way doesn't mean they are raising capital. In our system, a rising stock price could just mean that the management did some of the above shenanigans so that their stock option deals could be a little fatter, or to make everybody happier at their next shareholder meeting.

See, that's why we can never, ever have the pristine, glorious "free market" that we always hear about: because the entire system is designed to defeat any possibility of transparency. So, to summarize: stock price means nothing. Profit reports mean nothing. Hell, just a couple of years ago, General Motors had a year of "record profits" and suddenly, they're in the toilet.

It's all a game of bait and switch, from their in-store rebate gimmicks to accounting practices, to corporate governance and market capitalization.

It's a system designed to fuck everybody but the "house" and by design, none of us are the house.

That's why this system we have, call it "capitalism" if you're a fool or call it "corporatism" if you're not, is designed, ultimately, to fuck us.

So hop on board, if you want, and talk shit about organized labor, or consumer protection measures, or government regulations, while your credit card bills get bigger and your income gets smaller (don't go by the number on your check - trust me, it's getting smaller). Your grandparents and greatgrandparents are shaking their heads and thinking what putzes your are.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[xwizbt]

You mean Atda.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[MooUK]

Walmart owns Asda, who are not quite in the first rank in supermarkets.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[El Torico]

Asda is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco..

This may be out of date. I hope it is, since my favorite is Sainsbury's. I'm very concerned after seeing the Sainsbury's web site has a "finance" section. Either food has gotten VERY expensive in the UK, or Sainsbury's is getting involved in financial services. Both possibilities are unsettling.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[CronoCloud]

But soon digital distribution will make renting console games irrelevant anyway.

Oh? How big is your hard drive? BD-ROM's can hold 50GB, and even if they aren't full you aren't going to want to download and install too many of those suckers on your hard drive. You could also forget about having a large game library. In fact, if your ISP has a low bandwidth cap you simply wouldn't be able to download them. That's not to say that digital distribution doesn't have a place for "little games"

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of CD's/DVD's/BD-ROM's

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[David Gerard]

Lovefilm is the borg itself. Remember that Lovefilm bought out ScreenSelect, which bought out DVD365, who were who we originally signed up with. Customer service has been, ehh, variable.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Skim123]

The people who study businesses and evaluate their potential upside have clearly signaled that Blockbuster is dying. Their share price has dropped 96% since 2004, whereas Netflix has increased 20% in the same time period.

That's not to say that Blockbuster will go out of business anytime soon, but it does imply that over the past five years their business has been contracting rather than growing.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[MBCook]

True, but Blockbuster has been dying for years. I don't think this will be anything but a (very) temporary reprieve. If they can't turn themselves around, I'll be quite impressed, I wrote them off years ago.

But I doubt it will happen.

This isn't "we've been struggling but we suddenly our market found us", this is "we've been struggling for years and now we can remind people why they abandoned us the first time".

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[excesspwr]

I tried out Goozex per a suggestion from another user on Slashdot in a comment. Worked out a lot better than I had hoped. However, my hopes were low after dealing with GameStop for years. Goozex is a game trading site not a rental site but if you rotate games in and out of your queue you could easily use it as a rental site with no monthly fee.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Aranykai]

Free in-store rentals are handled differently from in-store exchanges.

You get x number of free rentals per month from the store. You are able to return your mailed movies for instant exchange, which does not count towards those free in-store rentals and they would immediately begin mailing your next movies. However, now they have changed that procedure somewhat, so that when you exchange your mailed dvd's you must return those before the next movies will be mailed to you. Its got nothing whatsoever to do with your free in-store rentals.

I am not a customer nor an employee, but my mother has the service and she enjoys it alot.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[hob42]

Facebook had a banner at the top of the homepage for at least several weeks giving people notice about the interface change. It even had a link to show you a preview of what it would look like.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Macrat]

Oh? How big is your hard drive? BD-ROM's can hold 50GB

And how much of that is actually the movie you want to watch?

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[mrmeval]

They offer cards and loans. Several US chains offer the cards but they can't offer loans easily or they'd do it. The card seems to have a reasonable rate and rules which is not the case with US store branded cards.

URL:

What bothers me about the site is the crap storm of IP addresses that have no reverse DNS listing. I think they're loading a bogus flash oject and doubleclick is buried in there.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[el americano]

It wasn't a loophole, it was the deal they were promoting to have a competitive advantage over Netflix. I assume it worked, but was too expensive for them. Time for customers to re-evaluate cost vs benefits.

When I look at which is better, a big part will be based on how easy it is to browse movies. The last I remember was that both of them make it difficult to browse the full catalog out of a desire to rent out their less popular inventory, but Netflix was worse.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[CronoCloud]

You're forgetting that one of the Big 4 gaming platforms uses BD-ROM's, and that they are the standard for HD pre-recorded video. I remember PC gamers saying that DVD drives were worthless for anything but playing DVD movies, because all games came on CD's and they'd never need 4.7GB (or more) of space for a game. Then PC gamers finally figured out that having to switch out multiple CD's for a game installation was annoying, that DVD-RW's made good backup media and that being able to play movies on their desktops and laptops on their nice high resolution screens (better than the SDTV they probably owned) was a good thing. The same will happen for BD discs. It won't be long before Blu-Ray drives are standard equipement, just like DVD drives are right now.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[schon]

Any failing business could raise profits by hiking prices.

Umm... WHAT?!?!?

No. A failing business which is charging the optimum prices for their products, and who raised their prices would find that they're *lowering* profits, not raising them, because their profits are already as high as they can get (by definition.)

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Alpha830RulZ]

Imagine, if you will, Linux and Gnome in its current form had hit the marketplace, and become widely available, before MS Windows 3.1 had emerged.

How could Linux have become as widely distributed or had the level of contributions it has enjoyed, if not for the consumer Internet which the Windows ecology enabled(for better or worse)?

Which doesn't eliminate the salience of your main point, I admit.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[DigiShaman]

Imagine, if you will, Linux and Gnome in its current form had hit the marketplace, and become widely available, before MS Windows 3.1 had emerged

That's a very bad example.

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps Linux and Gnome in it's "current form" came about *because* of the popularity of MS Windows (market wise, not technically)?

A better example would be between Microsoft and Apple. Both had a product in place, it was just about who was better at marketing.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[CronoCloud]

I don't know the exact details, good question, but I'm a PS3 owner so games come on BD-ROM's, which is a good thing. The PC version of The Orange Box came on 2 DVD's but on the PS3 it was one Blu-Ray disc. And with GOTY edition of Oblivion, the Xbox 360 version uses 2 DVD's while the PS3 version is one Blu-Ray disc. 2 disc special edtion of the film "A Christmas Story" becomes 1 disc on Blu-Ray.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[aztektum]

I have to agree with you there. Every time I goto a Blockbuster in my city I'm usually waiting in line to check out, popular movies are flying off the shelves...

The thing with Blockbuster is ... you pay when you rent. With Netflix you may not rent for a month, but you still pay. I reckon there are plenty of people that don't like the nickle and diming that we're taken for and stick with the tried and true.

Not to condone some of Blockbuster's BS over the last few years, but I don't think they'll vanish any time soon. I'm sure that sits just fine with Blockbuster, but also the media companies. They want people to want those lil discs.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[MooUK]

Ah. I'd always thought they were considerably fourth or fifth. Though with more thought, there's no way they can be less than third...

And I think all the supermarkets have been dabbling in everything they can think of for years.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[theheadlessrabbit]

Imagine, if you will, Linux and Gnome in its current form had hit the marketplace, and become widely available, before MS Windows 3.1 had emerged.

The opportunity for success, before the Windows hegemony had been firmly in place, would have been much wider.

yes, i can imagine it now....trying to boot a current release of a linux live CD on my 386.

wait....where can i put this CD? i dont have a CD-rom.
I'd better use the USB thingy instead...no...damn!

I'm sorry, but i really can't imagine that linux and gnome in it's current form would stand any chance against windows 3.1. it wouldn't load on anything.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Toonol]

Yeah, but online downloading has a long way to go before it's mainstream. Yeah, I know you do it, so do I. But most of the nation doesn't even have a broadband connection yet. There's still at least 5-10 more years before physical rental locations go away.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Toonol]

I agree. For a while, Blockbuster online was a FAR better deal than Netflix. I felt like I was taking advantage of them; you could get three movies in the mail a week, AND turn those in for three movies a week from the physical store. I couldn't keep that pace up for long.

All the advantages Blockbuster had have slowly faded away, though, and I will probably cancel soon. Netflix is pretty much the same value, but wider selection. Is there a rental place that has both a wide movie AND game selection?

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[smoker2]

Lovefilm are good until you have been with them a month or so, then you get all the second rate films from your list and none of the new ones. I was with them for about a year (this was around 2004), and I've lost count of the number of DVDs that simply "disappeared" in the post, or were unwatchable due to scratching when they arrived. I was on either a 3 or 5 movies a week deal, I can't remember now - but they are still sending begging letters asking me back. No chance.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[ta bu shi da yu]

I never got that notice. And it still sucks, even had I had a chance to see it, would I have been able to prevent the changes? I think not.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[tkrotchko]

It's not "double-dipping" and it was not "overlooked", it was an advertised feature of the plan, at least when they started. It made sense since Blockbuster was trying to take on an entrenched company.

I asked how it worked, and the store manager told me he would gather all the returned videos once a day and UPS them back to the Blockbuster's rental "central".

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Thornburg]

I like how they take a change which is 98% negative and paint it like they're improving your service.

That's why I hate companies like BlockBuster.

I used to give Netflix as an example of company with great customer service... but those days are gone, too.

Anyone got a better alternative?

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[IICV]

Have you ever even seen one of those RedBox stands that one of the grandparent posters mentioned? It's essentially an entire Blockbuster store, put into the form factor of a vending machine. Just think about it. They took the useful part of Blockbuster (renting out movies), and made it into something that can fit in your local grocery store, right next to the Coinstar. There's no way in hell Blockbuster can ever compete with that; the yearly salary of a single manager would probably buy one of those things outright. They're going out of business as soon as more people start franchising out RedBox.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[commodore64_love]

>>>if not for the consumer Internet which the Windows ecology enabled(for better or worse)?

Bzzzz. Wrong, wrong, so wrong. I used the internet for almost 10 years, first on Commodore OS, then Amiga OS, and finally on Mac OS before I ever touched a filthy Windows machine. To sit there and spout BS like "windows ecology enabled consumer internet" makes me extremely angry. Even if Windows never existed, the internet and web would still be here, you young whippersnapper! Oh. And get off my lawn. ;-)

>>>How could Linux have become as widely distributed

Through BBSes and 9.6 or 14.4 kbit/s modems. This may be shocking to one so young, but we shared LOTS of files before the web was born.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[commodore64_love]

>>>A better example would be between Microsoft and Apple. Both had a product in place, it was just about who was better at marketing.

If Apple would have ported their Macintosh OS to the IBM-compatible PC in 1990, they could have wiped Microsoft off the map. At that point-in-time the Apple Mac OS was so far advanced, it made Windows 2 look like a piece of shit.

But no. Instead Microsoft blatantly copied the Mac interface in Windows 95 (including the Finder/Start menu, and the Trashcan), and the opportunity for Apple to take over the PC market was lost.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Alpha830RulZ]

Wrong, wrong, so wrong. I used the internet for almost 10 years, first on Commodore OS, then Amiga OS, and finally on Mac OS before I ever touched a filthy Windows machine. To sit there and spout BS like "windows ecology enabled consumer internet" makes me extremely angry. Even if Windows never existed, the internet and web would still be here, you young whippersnapper! Oh. And get off my lawn. ;-)

I'm sorry for your pain. Watch out for who you're calling a whippersnapper, whippersnapper. Ever played Startrek on a teletype terminal? I was dropping decks of punch cards in physics lab before your Commodore was even thought of. I bought a modem that was an upgrade to my 150 bps model. I was managing business systems before Unix system V was even available, and have been using Linux since 1996. I repeat my assertion that if not for Windows, most people would never know of the Internet, and if that had not happened, the Linux community as we know just wouldn't exist. It would be a handful of computer scientists in universities.

Certainly the web would have existed, and certainly the internet would have existed. But Windows is, for better or worse, the platform on which it became popular. If that explosion hadn't happened, much of the infrastructure that we depend on for towards Linux ecology just wouldn't be in place, and much of the drive to improve Linux just wouldn't have happened, IMHO. Shit, Gnome probably wouldn't exist if not to provide an alternative desktop to Windows. It damn sure didn't exist back in the day.

Shoot, the 9.6 kb modems wouldn't even have been available as consumer devices, but for the growth of the PC market that was fundamentally driven by the Windows market. So sure, people could have downloaded linux, if they had a thousand bucks for a modem.

You can think what you want about windows as an OS, but it's just denial to doubt that windows use enabled the infrastructure that we enjoy today. Maybe something else would have filled the space had windows not been there, but it was there, and its features drove a marketplace of literally hundreds of millions of consumers of computer goods. Without those hundreds of millions of consumers, there would have been no market for cheap computers, cheap modems, and pervasive connectivity. This would have radically reduced both the demand for Linux, as well as the means for the Linux community to do development. So get angry if you want, but that is what the economist in me tells me about the marketplace.

So get off my lawn, punk. :-)

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[mysidia]

I said Gnome and Linux in its current form, not Knoppix or Redhat.

You can still get Slackware base (enough of A set and N set) to install from floppies, to be able to then install the rest of your desired disk sets from the network.

There are other floppy Linux install options, that provide the same.

You can use a CentOS netinstall image, and install completely from the network.

Admittedly, it wouldn't do so well if 100% in the same form as today, due to differences in the hardware.

I would expect faster minimalist distros like Gentoo would be more popular, b/c of the sluggishness of the hardware and small amounts of available RAM and disk space in the 1990s.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[im_thatoneguy]

But Linux and Gnome wouldn't be as good as they are today if they didn't outright copy/paste a majority of WIndows' look and feel. You've got yourself a chicken/egg scenario. Without Microsoft to copy where would Gnome be today?

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[cyn1c77]

I never looked into the Blockbuster plan, but if you were able to exchange mailers for movies in the store AND get the next mailers, it kinda sounds like double-dipping. Someone probably overlooked that little detail when writing up the procedure.

But with Netflix, you can get movies by mail AND simultaneously watch them online.

Would you consider that double-dipping?

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[Perp Atuitie]

There was/is a banner that reads: "No more due dates for Blockbuster Total Access exchanges". No hint that this might be a policy change that will be adverse for most customers, and that cancels a feature that the was part of the deal when the customer signed up. The notice fits somewhere between "sneaky" and "dishonest". It's still not a bad deal, but I'll be rechecking the comparison between Netflix and BB. It's kind of amazing that the only 2 US movie-by-mail services are both so much crappier than they need to be.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[hob42]

True. That's part of the transient nature of the internet, though, and that's what really bothers me about sites like Facebook. You lose control of your content. They could just decide to stop hosting the website tomorrow, and you wouldn't be able to prevent it either. And someday, it will shut down, and everything that's been shared and said will be gone.

Which has nothing to do with Blockbuster, where shutting down their service doesn't result in the actual loss of anything, so I'll avoid going off on my rant again. :)

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[NecroBones]

In a way it was double-dipping. However, that was the edge that they provided over Netflix, considering that Blockbuster has historically charged more for the same level of service from Netflix.

The advantage was that you could watch more movies while waiting for the new ones to arrive through the mail. That advantage has now been reduced to having quicker access to movies in the short-term only, since it now delays the ones you would receive through the mail.

I wouldn't mind the change in the rules, except that Blockbuster is notorious for intermittently and inconsistently sitting on the returned movies for a week or so before mailing your next ones out. Being able to exchange them locally in the meantime took the sting out of that. Now it's only going to make it worse.

Re:It sounds reasonable to me.

[LunaticTippy]

I remember when video stores were new. Most midsize towns had a video store and big cities had several. I think we're headed back in that direction. Download/streamed video will dominate, groceries and gas stations will have vending machines, but for a last minute non-top 40 movie there will always be room for a video store or two locally.

It was strange to see hundreds of mediocre video stores dominate every city. I'm glad to see them go.

!news

[Vertana]

Blockbuster has been dead for a while. The only thing they had going for them was their physical presence for those with slow internet or those who like brick and mortar stores. Now they've killed the interaction between the two and alienated those who will now go to Netflix (likely) and those who see themselves as being screwed and will go to Hollywood Video and other rental stores. This wouldn't have been such a shot in the foot if they had given notice to users, but now they haven't and costumers are going to feel like they got the short end of the stick. I haven't been to Blockbuster in years because of their prices alone, but that's just me.

Re:!news

[spire3661]

All the B&M stores are horrible overpriced. Hollywood video charges $9 for PS3, 360 games, its insane when the rental charge is close to 20% of the retail cost of the game.

Re:!news

[Vertana]

Wow. Last time I went to a Hollywood Video store specifically was some years ago when at the time Blockbuster was costing ~$5 for a video game rental while Hollywood Video was around $3. I don't see prices on their website (of course), but if it really is $9 for a video game for 5 days then that's insane.

Re:!news

[MBCook]

Amazing isn't it? When I first moved here about 10 years ago you could rent games from Blockbuster for like $4, the same as movies. They've hiked the prices at least 2 or 3 times since then, and game rentals are now quite expensive. Combine that with their moronic selection (we'll buy 2 copies of some great game, and 300 of The Matrix game, even after we haven't been able to rent the last 300 out) and they're terrible.

They have made it convenient to just buy games I want to play and sell them back to GameStop later. It may be a little more expensive but it's so much more convenient (since I get unlimited time).

They used to be my game quality solution. Rent the game, see if it was good, buy if it was. I didn't buy many games because they were so expensive. Now trying to rent games to see if they are good costs a ton too. So I buy fewer games.

Luckily demos are becoming more and more common and easy to get thanks to digital distribution.

Just like failing to adapt with movies, BB shot themselves in the foot with games. "Games are popular" means "raise the price on games" means "more money".

Of course in real life it was "games are popular" means "raise the price" means "drive away customers" means "much less money".

Re:!news

[Shadow of Eternity]

I don't quite get the link, sbarro is expensive yes but at least all the places I've eaten it's MUCH better than the McPizzaplaces.

Re:!news

[Belial6]

I haven't figured out why brick an mortar stores haven't gone to the buffet model. Having an all you can rent system makes WAY more sense for a physical store than it does for mail order. After all, every time BB, Netflix, or GameFly send you a disk, it costs them money. Local physical stores don't have that cost. If I only have three disks out of the store at a time, it shouldn't matter if those three movies change 6 times in a day.

Re:!news

[gadabyte]

i'd think that the cost of employees, rent, power, etc. at a B&M store would be FAR greater per rental than at a warehouse, even with the (small) price of postage added to the warehouse's operating costs...

Re:!news

[Belial6]

With their current system, they still are paying rent, power, etc. AND they don't get the benefit of income from a subscription model. Going to a buffet style of rental would in no way increase their rent, power etc. At most it could increase their employees, but even that seems pretty unlikely.

The cost of postage is certainly not small. Consider that if you rent 10 movies from NetFlix a month, at $0.47 each way, you are looking at $9.40 a month for postage. That is almost half of their revenue. Certainly a cost that amounts to almost 50% of your companies revenue cannot be considered small.

Re:!news

[scientus]

the selection numbers are because of corporate connections. Blockbuster was owned by one of the hollywood mega-companies, idk which one, and they have deals so they have unimited copies of those movies/games/etc and pat either flat charges or a portion of revenue.

I am a bit confused

[cortesoft]

So before you would turn in an online rental and get a new in-store rental AND be sent a new online rental DVD as well? So lets say I had a 2 at a time plan... I turn in one, get an in-store rental and a new online one sent as well.. I then turn in my new online one and get another in-store rental and have a new online one sent.. so I now have 2 in-store rentals and 2 online.. rinse and repeat and I can have infinite in-store rentals?

This makes no sense. It also makes no sense to expect this. Please tell me I am missing something.

Re:I am a bit confused

[demonlapin]

The number of in-store rentals was limited by how fast movies came to you in the mail. Additionally, the in-store rentals were - unlike the mailed ones - subject to due dates and late fees. It was just a free rental.

Oh well, over to Netflix. The in-store exchange was the only thing BB had over them anyway.

Re:I am a bit confused

[morgan_greywolf]

Video rentals are 5 days, 3 days for new releases, unless they've changed that since last time I went to Blockbuster.

It typically takes about 3 days to get DVDs in the mail.

So unlimited? No, not really.

Re:I am a bit confused

[NuclearCodeMonkey]

It makes sense to expect this when this is the way it has worked for over a year. It doesn't make sense to change the policy without notice.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Anonymous Coward]

This is plain business.

If you pay for two at a time, then that is what you should get, regardless of the source. It is simple business and I am completely surprised that they allowed it in the first place.

Canceling your membership over this is just plain stupid. You must look at it from both sides and quit wining about it.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Shadow of Eternity]

2 days for everything unless you join their special plan.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Registered Coward v2]

So before you would turn in an online rental and get a new in-store rental AND be sent a new online rental DVD as well? So lets say I had a 2 at a time plan... I turn in one, get an in-store rental and a new online one sent as well.. I then turn in my new online one and get another in-store rental and have a new online one sent.. so I now have 2 in-store rentals and 2 online.. rinse and repeat and I can have infinite in-store rentals?

This makes no sense. It also makes no sense to expect this. Please tell me I am missing something.

Basically, yes. Some plans had a limit to the number of in store free rentals; others do not. In addition, you got a coupon for a free game or movie rental once or twice a month.

Re:I am a bit confused

[jellomizer]

This is Slashdot. WE WANT EVERYTHING FOR FREE! If we do pay for it no matter how little We Want to be treated like KINGS and allowed to abuse the system as long as possible. Then when they finally realize that to many people are abusing the system and change the policy we throw a fit.

They don't understand the cost of inventory especially at the stores as well the opportunity loss if a movie isn't in stock.

I never knew why they didn't put a hold on the movies while you were renting some from the store in the beginning.

Re:I am a bit confused

[GizmoToy]

You don't get the coupon anymore, they discontinued that. If you're on a old plan that originally had the coupons, they let you keep them. New members can't get them, though.

They've been through a lot of plan changes trying to find something that worked:
1) Give away free rental coupons.
2) Unlimited in-store exchanges that don't count towards your online plan.
3) Limited in-store exchanges that don't count towards your plan + an additional plan with unlimited exchanges
4) #3, modified so that the exchanges count towards your plan

They're grasping at straws trying to find something that is attractive to customers and doesn't cost them too much money. For example, #2 was killed because the online users would rent all the new releases they could have otherwise charged $6 for.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Skim123]

The policy makes sense, as it touts Blockbuster's physical presence and gives consumers a reason to choose them over Netflix. This policy was the primary reason I chose a Blockbuster account, namely because we have a store down the street from us. So after watching a movie from the mail we could return it and pick something up in store, and get the next movie in our queue mailed out at the same time.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Achromatic1978]

Yep, and they're the same people who ran burning mills copying as many Netflix DVDs as they could, and forcing them to throttle things. I used to watch a friend on their 3 DVD plan who was fortunate enough to live in the same town as a distribution center - he proudly proclaimed that his record was 32 DVDS in a month. He'd often receive the DVD from the postman, have the discs ripped and on their way back to Netflix by morning (and made a point of delivering to a post office for dropping off) - and when not at work he'd have them ripped in order to have the discs at the post office for the evening pickup. Then he started bitching that they would sit on his mail outs for a day, then 2 days (though never more than that), refusing to see the correlation, and insisting that they 'were out to fuck him over'.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Creepy Crawler]

meh.

A real duper would have 3 dvd drives ready to rip to the multi-TB server. Hell, I have that. Just the 3 dvd drives are different machines on my network.

Re:I am a bit confused

[Achromatic1978]

Wait, nowhere in Netflix's contract with you does it say "We'll send out the next movie within minutes of it arriving back at our distribution center".

Re:I am a bit confused

[irtza]

um... I don't remember EVER paying a late fee. I will admit, I canceled my plan a few months back - and not because I have ANY plans to join netflix.

I still don't have too much issue with this because when I did have the service, the mail rentals usually sat around for a while and sometimes got exchanged because I wasn't in the mood to watch what came in the mail. I don't watch movies regularly enough.

I have resorted to signing up during periods of excess free time and canceling once I am caught up. The in store exchange satisfies my desire for instant gratification and the mailed items for the fillers. The delay of one day between shippings would hardly have put a dent in my movie watching ability in terms of turn-around (with the three at a time plan).

It sucks that they are reducing service, but Netflix (streaming vs. DVD??? esp w/ all Linux at home??) still doesn't offer this level of service. OF course the BB software doesn't work in linux either...

Re:I am a bit confused

[jazmataz23]

You are missing something. I pay a monthly fee for the privilege. I expect to receive what was agreed to. F*ck canceling my account, I'm calling a lawyer -- I'm sick to death of having companies changing their services without notice or consent. I'm also calling my congressperson, there oughta be a law.

Re:I am a bit confused

[interkin3tic]

I then turn in my new online one and get another in-store rental and have a new online one sent.. so I now have 2 in-store rentals and 2 online.. rinse and repeat and I can have infinite in-store rentals?

Infinite? No, they won't tell you, but Blockbuster has fewer than infinity movies. There's always a catch.

Re:I am a bit confused

[whoop]

A few years ago, Blockbuster stores did away with their outrageous late fees and stuff to better compete against Netflix. The catch was that they'd bill your credit card after like 2-3 weeks for the price of the movie (less rental fee), then refund it when you did bring it back. This was around the time I signed up for BB Online (about 2006). At that time, they gave you two coupons each month for free in-store rentals (game or movie).

Then they added the in-store exchange with a free rental. I'd get the three mail movies, turn those in for three in-store movies about once a week. That came to 12 movies a month, and two game/movie coupons in the store. The was was pregnant and on permanent bed-rest, so it worked out. After the baby was born and home though, we pretty quickly burned out on it. That was about the time Blockbuster realized they weren't making money from us no-good BBO customers. I'd look around while waiting in line to check out, and there were more people doing the BBO exchanges than there were paying cash to rent movies. (Nevermind they were doing their damn hardest to sign anyone up, right down to filling out the web form for the old ladies who never used a computer.) So, they took down the coupons for a bit, brought them back as one per month and movie only, no video games, and only if you subscribed to the 3-dvds-at-a-time plan.

In my experience, turning the movies in to the store did not cause them to ship out the next movies in the queue immediately. It would still take two or three days, just as if I mailed them in myself. The free rentals made up for it though, so I didn't nit-pick. Facing burn-out, rising fees, capping the in-store exchanges, no video games with coupons, I bowed out a couple years ago. Now, I see they're up to $20 for the 3-dvd plan. No, they are definitely not worth it anymore.

Re:I am a bit confused

[irtza]

$20 for the plan? That is a bit different and definitely would make me think twice about signing up once my workload goes back down. I looked at the netflix website and it keeps touting a two week trial but has no price. How much does it cost per month for three at one time?

Re:I am a bit confused

[Servo]

I don't think you are missing anything. Anybody who cancels in "protest" is just having a hissy fit.

Say what you want about Blockbuster, but they are still giving you over and above what Netflix offers since you can still return the movies and get one back immediately from the store. The original article submitter is a jack-ass.

Re:I am a bit confused

[morgan_greywolf]

Oh, that sucks.

I'm glad I canceled that membership, then.

Re:I am a bit confused

[ibbey]

Netflix has a variety of plans ranging from one movie at a time out plus unlimited streaming for $9/mo, up to 8 at a time for $48. Their 'default' plan is 3 at a time for $17.

Re:I am a bit confused

[clone53421]

You probably hate BOGOF promotions.

BBI Stock drops last week

[Rand310]

Check out what their stock did last week. It went from $1.00 to $0.22 in a single day - of course it rebounded back 'up' to 50-60 cent range a few days later.

Does not bode well for the company.

Re:BBI Stock drops last week

[MBCook]

That was on news that they were going to announce bankruptcy. It didn't happen, but the market took it seriously.

The market took it seriously because everyone knows that BB has been in deep trouble for years (see recent Circuit City / BB talks last year) and many expect them to go bankrupt any time now.

Re:BBI Stock drops last week

[larry bagina]

VA Linux, er, SourceForge, Inc, corporate overload of slashdot, is currently at $0.86/share, with a 52-week low of $0.32/share.

Huh?

[Frosty Piss]

I haven't been in a Blockbuster for years. The only reason I can think of to go to a B and M renter is if I all the sudden get that absolute need to view a particular film, and that doesn't happen. With Netflix, why go anywhere else?

Re:Huh?

[im_thatoneguy]

If I get a sudden urge to watch a particular film It's usually on VOD or XBox Live Marketplace.

Even sudden urges are going the way of the dodo.

Re:Huh?

[cthulu_mt]

I think they make a cream for that. Let me forward you some emails I've gotten.

Re:Huh?

[Deadstick]

I used to use my local supermarket as my emergency video rental source, but that died a slow death. As they lost business to Netflix and BB, rental revenues declined, and the management responded by manning the video room only a fraction of the time...you usually had to get somebody to come over from Customer Service. And that was pretty hard, because CS was downstaffed too, typically one lady selling lottery tickets and cashing paychecks for a long line of people. The little light bulb finally came on, and they closed the rental area completely.

rj

ZIP.ca

[Yvan256]

A bit off-topic for our american friends, but any Canadian care to comment about the quality and speed of the service from ZIP.ca?

Re:ZIP.ca

[Beardo the Bearded]

I've only just heard of it now. I'll have to give them a try.

I usually get my movies from the library. Same with games.

Re:ZIP.ca

[Yvan256]

What about the shipping speed? I can't seem to find anything about it on their website. Are they using Xpresspost or something slower?

Re:ZIP.ca

[Yvan256]

Never mind, all these infos are on the "Service Guarantee" page (which is a weird place to put such information IMHO).

No late fees

[EmperorOfCanada]

I made a tiny fortune shorting the parent of BB when they eliminated late fees. I could look back at my rentals and see that late fees made up a sizable portion of my total payments to BB and I doubted that I was different from the vast majority of people. I suspected that they would not clearly internally account for the massive profits of late fees due to the risk that this number could become public. So once they eliminated late fees they basically eliminated profits. After that when they started to reintroduce late fees they just ticked people off. So if one wants to point to a specific day that BB began to die from the wounds that Netflix were inflicting you could point to the day they eliminated late fees. Now the last hope they might have had was games, but things like Steam will just be Netflix version 2. AKA the other barrel of the shotgun.

I'm confused

[Morky]

You mean to tell me Blockbuster is still in business? Who knew?

Re:I'm confused

[LordKaT]

They're called "Blockbuster Media" in NYC now.

They don't want to be in business.

[straponego]

Long ago, I used to rent from maybe a couple times a month. One day a roommate grabbed my card and rented a couple movies with it. He returned them late; the late fee was something like $20. I wasn't aware of this, and obviously, they didn't check ID; fine, okay, whatever. The next time I went to rent from them, it was at a store in a different city; I'd moved. They wouldn't rent to me because I hadn't paid the fee. I told them I'd pay now. They said they couldn't take the payment for another store. I called the original store to pay with a credit card; no, they couldn't do that either. I had to physically pay, in cash, at the original store, for their mistake, or I couldn't rent from Blockbuster again. That was something like ten years ago, and I've never given them another dollar. Stupid companies like that can't survive in an open market. What do they think they are, a telco?

Re:They don't want to be in business.

[MightyYar]

My wife lost her keychain with the blockbuster card on it, and someone "rented" a bunch of movies before she could report it lost.

So yeah, they are wrong if they just accept that stupid little card - we certainly didn't pay for the movies taken by the thief.

Re:They don't want to be in business.

[straponego]

Well, like I said, it was a "whatever, fine" type deal for me until they wouldn't accept payment. I found out about the issue when I was ~1000 miles away. I'm always annoyed when a business doesn't want my money.

Re:They don't want to be in business.

[interkin3tic]

The next time I went to rent from them, it was at a store in a different city; I'd moved.

I've been confused by their tracking policy for a long time. I worked for them briefly in '01, one day a lady came in wanting to set up a new account. The computer pulled up her old account information, from Bulgaria a year prior. I guess they're just trying to make sure no one takes the easy way out and moves to a different continent rather than paying their late fees.

That same store about a month before I joined, a woman ran up a $70 late fee somehow. Her son got hired there and worked only one shift, during which time the fees mysteriously disappeared from the computer system. He quit at the end of the day. The rumor was that they had since been checking applicants for late fees.

There were many things wrong with that particular store, most of which were because of management at various levels. It was closed less than 6 months after I left.

Dude...

[Shmoe]

My account isn't even active anymore and I got like 3 emails about this change. You really received no notice? I'm not disputing the policy change (which sucks), just the notice..

Re:Dude...

[NuclearCodeMonkey]

No notice. I checked my account and my junk mail folder. They claimed I should have received an email and a notice when I logged into the site. Neither happened. I was even able to dig around their site and find an FAQ which showed the old policy. The first email to support got me a statement about the new policy. It took a second email to confirm that there had been any change at all. After I posted the article I did coax them out of two free in-store rentals.

Re:Dude...

[nacturation]

Since you've received restitution for their oversight in notifying you about the policy change, it's too bad you can't retract the story. Perhaps you can email the editors and ask that they update it to reflect this new information?

I suggest this because it appears you signed up for a Slashdot account just to post this story and comments, your comments are scored at 0 by default so it'll be hard for others to find them.

Re:Dude...

[NuclearCodeMonkey]

I have already posted an update.

Re:Dude...

[Albanach]

I certainly haven't received any notification email and was logged in to Blockbuster.com yesterday evening and received no notice then either.

I for one am glad this was posted - it seems Blockbuster had no intention of telling me themselves.

Still it doesn't necessarily kill the blockbuster deal. You can still get more movies for less than at netflix - if you have the time to watch that many movies. For some folk it's still going to be a deal.

Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[macraig]

Why did this submission from an oh-the-world-owes-me-a-livin' whiner make it to the front page? The change in policy could be argued as perfectly reasonable - assuming it's even really a change in policy - whether this person happens to approve or not. Clearly he feels some sense of entitlement; whether he had a right to feel entitled is another matter. In any case he's doing the right thing by voting with his dollar, but why is this such a blockbuster that he has to shout about it?

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[NuclearCodeMonkey]

I wondered that myself. I wanted to report the bad customer service but was kind of suprised when it showed up on the main page. Must have been a slow news day. I did get them to admit it was a change in policy and they claimed I should have received an email. I double-checked my junk email just to make sure I didn't get a notice.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Fnord666]

Why did this submission from an oh-the-world-owes-me-a-livin' whiner make it to the front page?

Posted by kdawson on Saturday March 14, @06:26PM

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how Netflix handles the in-store exchange?

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[macraig]

Maybe you can find out, if they ever open brick-and-mortar stores.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[aztektum]

No doubt. It is still the best deal out there. I have Blockbuster, my friends all seem to have Netflix. They also seem to whine about waiting for the mail, whereas I can goto the store, turn in my mailer flick and come home with one that day.

Netflix is like Google around here. Its virtues extolled by zealots what turn a blind eye to their shenanigans as it suits them.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Hognoxious]

They don't have them now? Wow. And the person you're replying to didn't know that? He must be such a fool. Lucky you were there to put him straight, good citizen.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Albanach]

The change in policy could be argued as perfectly reasonable - assuming it's even really a change in policy

They used to run TV adverts selling this as a primary feature of their subscription service.

To me that suggests it's not reasonable to change it without prior notice.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[macraig]

You don't have a very good grasp of dead-pan sarcasm, do you? Yep, good thing YOU were there to save the world from my too-serious literalism!

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[macraig]

It might be worth writing home about, if this were behavior unexpected of a business like Blockbuster. It's not unexpected. That's why they have a disclaimer disavowing any responsibility for prior notification of changes to policy or service. The very existence of that disclaimer demonstrates the degree of regard Blockbuster has for the other parties in its contracts; anyone who then acts shocked when they get quietly reamed from behind by Blockbuster is demonstrating their own poor comprehension of the agreement they signed. If you don't like their ability to modify the terms at their whim, then don't sign the damned thing in the first place. Do you have any idea how routine this practice really is? Credit card companies, banks, lenders, cable companies, telecoms, and virtually every other large corporation that offers a service have similar disclaimers in their contracts, and they all routinely manipulate the terms of those contracts to their benefit. The disclaimers certainly aren't present for your benefit.

The real news would be a service corporation that doesn't have such a disclaimer.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Hognoxious]

Yes, as does the AC you replied to. You have an excellent grasp of being a cunt.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[Atario]

Why does every post pointing out shenanigans pulled by a corporation immediately pull a cadre of replies accusing the poster of "whining" and having "a sense of entitlement"(tm)?

Answer: there is a certain segment of our population (even here on Slashdot) that always sides with the more powerful party in any dispute. These people are called authoritarians.

Re:Not a Blockbuster (the Article, that is)

[macraig]

I wasn't "siding" with Blockbuster. I have no more emotional attachment to Blockbuster than I do the OP. You're making the mistake of assuming that I must have such an attachment to one or the other. Just because I thought the OP was disproportionate doesn't mean that I favor Blockbuster in any way; in fact I don't. I've set foot in a Blockbuster store exactly ONCE, and that small number was not coincidental.

You've just committed a logical fallacy; welcome to Slashdot!

keep taking away

[bravo369]

I had blockbuster a year or 2 ago. It was great. then they knocked down my weekly free coupons to 2 per month. then they took them away completely. then they raise the price. i think i left at that point but since then I believe they started limiting how many in store exchanges you can do to 3 per month, raised prices yet again, and now returning to the store doesn't even send out the next movie. really...what good is blockbuster? why would anyone want it over netflix? if blockbuster's plan is to drive away all customers so they can declare bankruptcy then it's working. I'm no CEO but i would think you would try to build brand loyalty and bring in more customer rather than lose the ones you already have.

Netflix is not much better

[SupremoMan]

Netflix pulls it's own shenanigans all the time. It's gotten to a point that every few months I cancel my account and set up a new one using a different email. For some reason my movies are only mailed to me promptly if I am a new customer. Otherwise it could be that they get a movie back from me on Friday, but don't mail new one till Monday.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[fm6]

For some reason my movies are only mailed to me promptly if I am a new customer. Otherwise it could be that they get a movie back from me on Friday, but don't mail new one till Monday.

Netflix has been caught "throttling", that is delaying new movies for heavy users. But they lost a big lawsuit about that some time back, and I can't imagine them risking the loss of another. More likely you're just ordering a lot of popular movies. Your perception that things speed up again after you open a new account is probably one of those things that doesn't stand up when you track it carefully.

I have to say that I don't really see anything wrong with throttling, as long as they're honest about it. (They pretended they weren't doing it, hence the lawsuit.) It must cost over a dollar to put a disc through the mail/return/restock cycle. (Postage alone would be about 65 cents, counting the extra charge for prepaid return.) Suppose you have a $14 2-at-a-time membership, like me. When I'm in my worst video droid mode I can run through 10 discs a month, and they barely break even on me. (Lucky for them, I sometimes read a book, watch broadcast TV, or even get out of the house.) If I really watched a lot of videos (or ripped them to disc for later viewing), they'd be losing money off me.

So throttling isn't evil, it's just economics. Dishonestly pretending you don't throttle when you really do is another matter.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Achromatic1978]

"SERFS! WORK HARDER!"

Why would you expect that Netflix runs 24/7 catering to your needs? They employ people to sort and mail movies. They received your DVD back on Friday? Congratulations. Maybe that meant you were after Friday's delivery run (you are aware that USPS doesn't do on-demand delivery 24 hours a day, yes?), and maybe Saturday staffing at your delivery center is low. Maybe that's when most of their movies go out.

Christ, bitching that someone receives mail from you on Friday and has something on its way back to you by Monday is really stretching it a bit.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Dahamma]

This is because their entire business model is based on the idea that "the more you hate us (and the less you use us), the more money we make - until you cancel."

Like Netflix service, like movies, want to get 5+ per month? They lose money on you, and it's in their best interest to throttle you. Like their streaming service, and watch a bunch of movies on it? At some point, it's also in their interest to hamper your experience so you stop using it so much (they lose money on every movie you stream).

It's not too far off from Comcast throttling/termination - once you are a customer that costs them more than they make, why do they want to keep you?

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Achromatic1978]

As an addendum to my sister comment, QUIT WHINING. From Netflix's own agreement, shown to you prior to signing up:

Our 100 shipping points across the United States allow us to provide nearly 95% of our members with delivery of their DVDs within about one business day following shipment.

So throttle back your entitlement complex, seriously.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[SupremoMan]

Christ, bitching that someone receives mail from you on Friday and has something on its way back to you by Monday is really stretching it a bit.

Except that when I first open account with them, they have no problem with mailing stuff out the same day they receive it.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[SupremoMan]

If they are losing money selling me service why is that my problem? If they are not making enough money then they should alter the pricing, not try to "throttle" my service. Or they should state that 3 DVDs at a time really means 3 DVDs when they feel like mailing it to me.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Macrat]

For some reason my movies are only mailed to me promptly if I am a new customer.

It's just you.

I'm on the 1-at-a-time plan and I get 3 per week.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The only time I've had throttling be a problem is when I had the movie come on one day and turn around and mail it out on the next day for a sustained period of time. I was getting maybe 16 rentals for $16, which is quite a good deal, I think it takes a whiner to not see how good of a deal that was.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[fm6]

As a matter of fact, I almost always get same day turnaround from Netflix. (Watched "Generation Kill" disc 3 on Tuesday, forgot to put it in the mail Wednesday, remembered Thursday, Netflix got it Friday, sent out replacement same day, "Rome" Season III disc 1 arrived today.) I think the difference with me is that the discs in my queue are among the less popular, so the replacement goes out as soon as the return is scanned in. If a disc just came in, there's probably a delay while it's cleaned and re-enveloped.

Re:Netflix is not much better

[Dahamma]

If they are losing money selling me service why is that my problem? If they are not making enough money then they should alter the pricing, not try to "throttle" my service. Or they should state that 3 DVDs at a time really means 3 DVDs when they feel like mailing it to me.

It's your problem because you are giving them money for a service, and YOU need to decide if the service is worth it.

Otherwise, I agree completely, that was my point. They pretend it's unlimited, but apparently if you use it more than what they consider "reasonable" (ie profitable) they throttle you. Their service is what it is, if you don't think it's worth it why are you giving them your money??

Blockbuster needs to fail

[Dan667]

I have not set foot in a Blockbuster in 10 years. Right before I canceled my account, Blockbuster screwed me saying I did not return a movie, wanted me to pay for it, found it, and made me pay a huge late fee. This was not the first time they gouged me so I told them to shove it. Glad to know that I am still not missing anything. Netflix has been so much better and they are even adding new free services like streaming video.

Re:Blockbuster needs to fail

[Hadlock]

I just thought about this, I haven't set foot in a blockbuster in probably 7 years, 2003 being the last year in college we all went out to a video store to rent something. Back in high school however a group of 10 of us or so on Friday nights would rent an A movie (new release), a B movie (oldie but a goodie, usually a Kevin Smith type movie), and a C movie (killer clowns from outerspace, MST3K etc). Everyone came for the A movie, most would stay for the B and half the remainder would fall asleep durring the C movie. After 2003 I got a netflix account and used it for a few months before getting bored of it. Nowadays I'm lucky if I watch more than one movie I download a week.

Re:Blockbuster needs to fail

[Antique Geekmeister]

I only go by Blockbuster to see if there's anything I want in the $5 used DVD bin out front. Sometimes there's an old movie I'd like.

They probably figured

[iminplaya]

that a story on Slashdot's front page was announcement enough. And that the notice would spread faster this way, with more people likely to read it.

Re:They probably figured

[l3ert]

that a story on Slashdot's front page was announcement enough. And that the notice would spread faster this way, with more people likely to read it.

They must be new here.

Brick & Mortar Video / Dead & Buried

[wdhowellsr]

I've had Netflix for almost two years and Roku for about a year and there is no contest. I'm not a big fan of movies but with two kids and a wife we rent probably three videos a month.

My Wife would leave me and take the kids if I ever took away the Roku. Almost every show the kids watch on Disney is available for free plus almost ten thousand other movies. Amazon now rents movies on the Roku and I'm sure all of the other movies will be available very soon. PLUS! (No. I don't work for Roku or Netflix) We can take the Roku anywhere in the world with internet access and a TV and I can view anything in my queue.

Enough Said.

Re:Brick & Mortar Video / Dead & Buried

[wdhowellsr]

You may be right as I've not actually used the Roku unit outside of the US. However unless Netflix is actively filtering non US IP ranges there should be no reason why we shouldn't be able to use the service outside the US.

Re:Brick & Mortar Video / Dead & Buried

[wdhowellsr]

I had the opportunity, after graduating from Southampton High School in 1983, to spend my freshman and sophmore year at RIT with a guarantee that I could transfer to MIT in my Junior year. I said screw that because I was a 115lb 5' 8" computer geek and I didn't want to end up in some cubicle in the middle of the Pentagon.

I started building houses in the Hamptons right out of High School and became a geek in hunks clothing at 155lbs at 5' 8" with a 38" chest and a 31" waist. I met my wife in Miami after leaving NY and now have a hot wife and two incredibly smart kids.

A side note: The girls initially go for the hunks but at some point want you to make money, that's why I got back into computers in the early nineties.

old news

[socsoc]

Consumerist reported this on Feb 24th...

Re:One spoiled idiot from the crappiest generation

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude he's not pissed at the fact that now they have a no free lunches policy, he's pissed that he went to an all you can eat buffet that decided they were going to charge him for every plate after his 3rd one without even telling him. Not only that, they decided to implement this policy change while he was in the middle of enjoying his "all you can eat" buffet. Bad way to run a business.

Well...dying, not dead yet!

[ConanG]

They just hired legal advice for bankruptcy filings. Not exactly the hallmark of a healthy business, despite any transitory profit growth recently.

Blockbuster Said to Hire Firm for Bankruptcy Advice

Yawn

[93 Escort Wagon]

Back when video stores where the only way to rent videos (and later DVDs), I'd almost never go to the video store - they rarely had what I wanted, and you had to watch on their schedule or else pay big bucks for daring to return the video a day or two late. So I've never seen the "you can return DVDs to the corner store and get another" option as a significant advantage for Blockbuster. Since IMO Netflix wins the online rental experience, Blockbuster has never entered into the equation at all.

Re:Yawn

[Jerry Rivers]

I have the same feelings. Blockbuster also had a habit of losing my membership, forcing me to fill out their silly form multiple times. I complained and it took three months (!) to get a reply to my complaint. By that time I had given up on it forever.

They don't deserve to be in business IMHO.

Self-destruction?

[oldhack]

I had their service, and it was a superior offering to Netflix because you could swap out movies at their stores also. Their service was fine, and their online selection was decent. The tracking system was not perfect, but nothing that didn't get sorted out easily. But they keep changing their terms, first the price increase, second the limit on in-store exchanges. The slimy nickel-and-dime tactic put me off and I stopped the service.

Their large network of physical stores can give them an edge over Netflix, but they make me wonder if they actually want to stay in the business.

Is it me

[forgottenusername]

Or is this the most asinine "news" story since, well, the last idle story?

1) Blockbuster is a business. They have every right to change their policies to benefit them. You, conversely, have every right to cancel your subscription and STFU. You do have a further right to be a whining loser and post to /. about it. The moderator had a DUTY to not allow such sucky stories, but they have failed :(

2) If this was about them changing their policy and not informing people, I could maybe understand indignation, if not necessarily care.

3) Blockbuster is beating netflix _precisely_ because they have so many physical stores. The ability to drunkenly stumble in on a Friday night to rent some romantic comedy guaranteed to get you laid is a nice feature.

4) I use Blockbuster total access and I could care less about this policy change. I barely manage to remember or actually mail out more than 3 or 4 times a month.

In summation, I feel that you should go picket your nearest blockbuster, hand out pamphlets to customers walking in etc. Get the word out.

Wait? What?

[LifeWithJustin]

I don't like the new policy. In fact I'll be switching to netflix because of it. But saying that it was changed without notice is crazy.

Not only did I get an e-mail on this change, it was posted on the front page as an alert, and I was told when I returned some envelopes for rentals.

Maybe you just didn't pay any attention?

not suprised

[Anonymous Coward]

they've always been douchebags

i haven't used blockbuster in a long time, since i've been using netflix, but i can tell you that i don't have any fond memories.

i do remember you would return movies a day or two before they were due, and they would claim you missed the due date and most people with their busy schedules would just pay the fine so they could continue renting movies.

they're liars/thieves, and it isn't any suprise they have decided to act obnoxious again.

netflix is like a breath of fresh air, comparatively.

Re:One spoiled idiot from the crappiest generation

[Achromatic1978]

he's pissed that he went to an all you can eat buffet that decided they were going to charge him for every plate after his 3rd one without even telling him

Where's BadAnalogyGuy when you need him?

They did no such thing. They just said 'hey, slow down' as he was doing the equivalent of Homer just lifting out the serving bowls, rather than taking a plate at a time. No-one said he couldn't eat as much as he wanted, just off the plate, so other people could get more, not just wheelbarrowing the serving bowls straight from the buffet table.

There's no negative impact to his contract - he's not being charged more. He's just not being allowed to get away with things above and beyond what the contract entitled him to.

"Getting away with things above and beyond contract" also equals "bad way to run business".

Man, the entitlement mentality in this place is horrific.

BlockBuster Goes Bust.....

[IHC Navistar]

Blockbuster *IS* corrupt. I used to work for them, and know firsthand the slimy tactics used.....

The part that really pissed me off was when I worked 21 days in a row, and was told that I'd be getting overtime for every additional 7 days I worked. Overtime was every seven days: Regular time the first 7 days, then 1.5x the next, then 2x, and so on. The store manager kept calling me in, and told me that I would get overtime on this schedule.

When I went to collect my overtime pay, the DM said "It doesn't matter what you manager told you, we're only gonna pay you what we are required to under CA law", and paid me $111.00 for overtime.

When I called to explain this, the DM got really snotty. I told him I was now in a big financial spot since I had just paid for a brand-new M1A-1 semiautomatic rifle (which was followed by an awkward silence). He than just gave a smarmy reply and said he had to go.

Not only that, they still claim I owe them money for 3 movies I returned, but they lost, and I have to explain this to the collection company that keeps sending me letters.

Re:BlockBuster Goes Bust.....

[interkin3tic]

Well thats technically your fault for believing what a uninformed manager told you and not reading corporate policy.

Why would he not believe the manager? Why would he read corporate policy when the manager is answering his question? It's not like the manager said anything outrageous, like "it's okay if you steal money from the register." Pretty much everyone would accept the manager's word as authoritative, it would be weird to double check with corporate policy (which often isn't too accessible at retail jobs like that). The "fault" clearly lies with the manager and corporate, not the victim here.

Not defending them just trying to get the buyer/worker to be aware.

It sounds a lot like you're just pointlessly trying to rub it in and in fact defending the manager and blockbuster. Looking at the corporate policy isn't exactly a silver bullet, and it probably wouldn't have worked here either. There are probably a lot of contradictions between what is written on paper at blockbuster and what actually happens. It's not like America's best and brightest management works at blockbuster.

Re:BlockBuster Goes Bust.....

[nprz]

California's overtime laws are pretty simple in my opinion. http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_overtime.htm

If you work 7 days a week for 10 hour days, you will get 2 hours of overtime for the first 4 days. The fifth and sixth day are all overtime. Seventh day, first 8 hours are overtime and last 2 hours are double time.
Total of 36 hours overtime and 2 hours doubletime.

Sometimes the system works against you if you work the last 6 days of the work week and the first 6 days of the following work week (therefore 12 days straight, but not seven consecutive days in a work week).

Re:BlockBuster Goes Bust.....

[Atario]

Don't pay attention to these authoritarian morons telling you you're at fault. You were lied to and taken advantage of. Prime fodder for a small-claims suit, I'd say. Followed by a bullshit firing, no doubt -- followed by a juicy wrongful-termination suit.

Re:One spoiled idiot from the crappiest generation

[lordofthechia]

Maybe you should switch to Netflix, where they won't send you any movies until you return the ones you have.

Each service had it's own value added option:
A. Blockbuster had the exchange at the store deal.
B. Netflix has the instant view option.

Option A you have to drive to the store, pick out the movie (out of a limited stock), wait in line, drive back and then get to watch it.
Option B you need fast internet and a Windows PC, a Mac, or an X-Box 360. There may not be as many new releases available, but overall you have more choices and no chance of all copies of all the good movies being checked out. You can watch several movies/shows back to back without expending any additional time to acquire more entertainment or wasting gas.

So yes, now that using option A with blockbuster means a delay in getting new rentals in the mail it is a poorer choice than Netflix (at least to those that have tried the instant view).

Free since '99

[bensode]

I've been free of the Blockbuster fuster-cluck since 1999. A co-worker of mine that had the 3rd shift NOC watch told me all about Netflix and have been using the service ever since. If I need a new release right-now-immediately, I go to a Redbox for $1.05 a night. I can't believe that Blockbuster is still in business. I can't remember of any time that I had an experience that was any better than shitty while being a Blockbuster customer. In both the Baltimore and Miami area stores, the staff were lazy and always pushing a lot of crap at the counter. I recall lots of arguments with managers about bogus late fees. I recall walking along the external shelves looking at the amazing 6-8 month old "New Releases". Man that annoyed the shit out of me.

They told me

[Klowner]

Last time I returned my mail rental for an in-store rental the lady at the counter told me about the changes. My initial reaction was that the changes made sense. Now, if they take away my two free in-store game rentals, I'll be pissed, because that's like a $10/mo value.

Re:They told me

[ndavis]

at two fee that is a savings of $20 as at the store near me it costs $10 to rent a game. I have to say the one advantage of the in store return was when I received a damaged disk (3 times over 3 years) I could take it to the store and return it for that movie or another so I could still watch a movie. I could also go online and report the disk so they would ship out the next movie. If they get rid of this I will cancel as they are slow when sending movies and I'm not sure I will be able to wait the standard 3 days for turnaround when I typically watch movies during the weekend.

Traditional movie stores are dead

[Darkness404]

Traditional movie stores are dead. Netflix has the best plans for the best money, all with little hassle (well, so long as you have a supported system to watch the streaming movies...), Redbox is quickly replacing the physical movie store because with cheap rates ($1 per night), a sane late-fee system (once you have had it out for a month the movie is yours and the charges stop), many locations (in about a 5 mile radius from my house there are about 3 Redbox stations), the ability to see what movies are in at any given location online, 24/7 access, and the ability to return to any Redbox make them and Netflix the killers of the traditional movie stores.

Re:Traditional movie stores are dead

[cbowland]

I love the "Reserve Online" bit from Redbox, particularly for new releases. Just a little bit of foresight and I don't have to wonder what I'm going to be watching that night.

i'm cancelling. n/t

[Rooked_One]

no text.

MOD PARENT UP please

[ChrisCampbell47]

I've been a Netflix member for about 8 years. I get my movies extremely quickly, but I'm also an extremely light user -- maybe 1-2 movies a month. Parent post is right on everything.

And maybe mod grandparent down a little bit from the +5 it's at ...

I got notice.

[KrisJon]

I am a subscriber and they notified me. Perhaps the OP's notice got tossed by the spam filter.

I'm not surprised

[Osmosis_Garett]

This is just another of Blockbusters retarded decisions; I honestly think they're TRYING to get driven into the ground.

Re:One spoiled idiot from the crappiest generation

[pintpusher]

They marketed the contract by talking about how you could get movies from the store for free by returning your mail-in movies. That was part of the deal. They've changed the terms after the fact. There is no "entitlement mentality" in this. Blockbuster is providing less service for the same price. That's definitely a "negative impact."

The obvious solution is to walk away from Blockbuster. That's what you do when the other party doesn't live up to their obligations.

Huzzah another dying store

[MHPanruka]

Good I got fired from that hole for not attending a mandatory sales meeting scheduled during my network architecture professor's lecture. Maybe I should turn in my badge during their going out of business sale.

Re:What's that sound?

[macraig]

Oh, look, Mommy: another man with a poor grasp of dead-pan sarcasm!

You might wanna get some CBT for that literalism.

Re:One spoiled idiot from the crappiest generation

[Alpha830RulZ]

Man, the entitlement mentality in this place is horrific.

Perhaps the most insightful comment I've seen in a while.

It's a matter of perspective

[icepick72]

Too bad there aren't bigger things to worry about like a fledgeling economy. Anyway, back to the movie rental situation ...

one thing to say

[jgoemat]

Whine much?

It's a better deal, read the change...

[Divepadi]

Now you can keep the in-store movies as long as you like. Before you could keep the mailers as long as you liked but the in-store had to be returned in 5 days or pay$1 each late day. Now, there are no late fees for either method. Still whoops NetFlix.

No email received here...

[BlueF]

Appreciate reading this as a new story, despite the complaints of some. Have been a Blockbuster Total Access Subscriber for a few years now because of the in-store mailer swap. Nice having movies just about all the time. Haven't had cable/TV in years.
Too bad this change has gone so unannounced. I've received no email (don't use a spam filter).
I'll be putting in a complaint shortly. Unless this policy change is reversible, I'll be voicing my complaint with cancelled service.

Re:Fuck you and your blockbuster

[Curunir_wolf]

Blockbuster doesn't have any instant watching service?

Actually, they do.

And it was because assholes like you who have been cheerleading them, giving them business while they have no interest in serving their customers. I will be really happy when they go down.

Hate all you want. If you don't like them, don't do business with them. I'm subscribed with Blockbuster because it works for me and I like the value. I tell you this much that's true: as soon as Blockbuster is gone and Netflix is the only game in town, prices will go up and service will drop into the toilet. Guaranteed.

Typical Blockbuster Tactics

[fuzznutz]

It's been at least ten years since I've been inside a Blockbuster. I used to rent movies from BB every weekend. It was a 20 minute drive to the store for me. One night I was returning a movie and hit the store at 12:05. The clerk was still inside and I knocked on the window and showed my movie. He motioned to the drop box. The bastards charged me a $3.00 late fee. I spent 40 minutes on the road to return the damn move that night, when I could have driven right past it the next morning on the way to work.

I mailed a letter to the manager along with the check telling them that I had been a good customer, and that I thought the fee was unfair as they got the movie back that night before the clerk left the store. I also let them know that the late fee would be the last penny Blockbuster would ever get from me if the cashed it.

They cashed it and alienated a good customer. I've mostly used Netflix, the library, or Family Video ever since. I will never give BB another cent. I almost found it humorous when they "abolished" late fees. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars renting videos and games in the past 10 years and I used to occasionally buy used tapes from BB. BB decided their $3.00 nuisance fee was more important. I have never since had a similar experience or dealt with unreasonable or arbitrary rules with any of the rental stores I have used since.

Can't wait to see you go bankrupt.

[streetlogics]

I have been a loyal BB online customer since the program launched. What's not mentioned in this article is the fact that there never used to be the "limited" in-store exchanges program, you simply paid for your membership according to how many mailed movies you could have out at a time (IE you could exchange your movies in store for a free movie anytime, anywhere without limits). Interestingly enough, magically, the program terms were changed without notification and that's when the new "limited" in store exchange membership levels were introduced. I was pissed off then. This has taken it too far. The only reason I have chosen Blockbuster over Netflix to date was because I could exchange my movies in store and get the next movies in my queue faster since the dvd's didn't have to be dropped in the mail. Now they think they can just change it and all their loyal customers are just going to drop their pants and take it? Nah man, personally, I'm done with them - I'm going to Netflix and will be watching all of my movies instantly on my xbox. You'd think if you're about to go bankrupt as a company you would be doing everything in your power to at least KEEP your current customers, not piss them off and watch them go. As the subject line says "I can't wait to see you bumblef**ks cry like little babies when you go out of business."

Old behavior still in place

[KrisJon]

Maybe I missed the effective date for this policy change, but they just sent out two new mailers today (24 March) and I still have the two in-store exchange movies as well.