Very disappointing. I went elsewhere, and recommend you do too.
Written: Mar 18 '05
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My experience with Blockbuster Online was colossally disappointing. While their selection was certainly adequate (and better than Walmart's mailing service) it wasn't quite as varied as Netflix, which is what I use now. Blockbuster was mailing DVDs to me in Eugene, Oregon, from the Seattle area, and they took forever. Soon after I joined, the sent me an email that said my turnaround time on the discs would shrink, as the post office would scan a barcode on the discs to let the company know they were in the mail, and they'd send my next disc before the even got the old one! This never happened. Or if it did, it never made the mailing time any faster. I called them about this, and they told me it was completely up to my post office, and to call them, which didn't improve my disposition any.
I got several discs that skipped horribly, one that was actually cracked, and when I sent them back, I reported them as so, according to their system. Four months later, I'm still getting emails that say 'Hey, we got that DVD you sent us!' That tells me that their turnaround time on replacing or fixing discs is that long. Which means if I hadn't asked for a replacement when I sent in the faulty disc, I would have had one of my three rentals null for the whole time.
When I cancelled my subscription, they tried to charge me for a DVD that I had reported returned. Instead of taking my word for it, as Netflix does, they wanted to charge me for it. I'd changed my credit card, so I dodged a huge bullet there, I'm sure, but I was very annoyed about that.
I tried to write to their customer service email several times, because I was told that they knew more than the phone people did (who were mostly useless) and I only ever got emails back that had something that looked like this:
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and told me to put my concern in the space between the lines. I always did so, and always got three emails back saying I'd done it wrong. I never got any help from ANYONE via the email customer service.
Finally, I screwed up something with my bank, and my account got held up for a day, instead of automatically renewing, I paid a day late. And my 150 movie cue was deleted. Completely. If they want clients at all, I should think they would keep the cue around for a while, just in case you change your mind and come back. That was the last straw. I left my account unrenewed after that.
The only thing I can say that I liked about this service was the free rentals. I got coupons every month to walk into a Blockbuster and rent movies right off the shelf, which is a pretty nice freebie. My biggest complaint with Netflix is I still have to pay when I get the hankering to see a particular movie RIGHT then, so that solved that problem for me right away.
I understand that this is a fledgling system, and Blockbuster is only getting into it, but I was disappointed almost constantly. The shipping was poor (it might be great in huge towns, but not in little ones), the support system was non-existent, and I was never treated like I was valued. I'm much happier with Netflix, even if it is a few bucks more a month.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? I used the service for several months.
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Epinions.com ID:
xgollum
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Member: Beau Prichard
Location: Seattle.WA
Reviews written: 261
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
You will read. You will find Very Helpful. You are powerless against me...
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