Total Access is true!
Written: Mar 25 '07 (Updated Mar 26 '07)
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A few weeks ago, while in the Blockbuster store picking up a movie for the weekend, the sales clerk starting talking up the “Total Access” club. She started to extol the club’s virtues, but finished her talk with “and you can cancel it and owe nothing if you do it by the 10th of the month.” I figured I had nothing to lose, so I signed up.
The trial membership is for the 3 movie plan. Basically it means you can have 3 movies out at a time, for as long as you want; and as long as you continue to pay, you can continue to hold on to the movies.
There are actually three plans available:
$17.99/month for 3 movies at a time
$14.99/month for 2 movies at a time
$ 9.99/month for 1 movie at a time
With each one of these, you also get a coupon every month for an additional movie or game rental.
How it works….
You log on to the Blockbuster web site and sign in. You then go through their vast array of movies and add them to your cue. You then generate a list of all the movies you want to see. The first one you pick is the first one to come, second you pick is the second to come, etc. As far as I can tell there is no limit to the size of the list you can create. They have a far greater selection of movies than compared to what they have in the store. This is a great benefit if you want to see something that is not as popular. Shelf space is limited but warehouse space is easier to get so they have more to choose from online. You can add current releases to your list as well, but since they are popular you may have those requests skipped over until they are available.
To start off, you are sent the first three movies on your list. When they are shipped you get an email telling you what they have shipped. They come in reusable mailers. After you have watched the movies you can seal them back up in their mailer and send them back. Within two days, you will get an email telling you they have received your returned disk. The next day you then get an email that the next disk on your list has been mailed. How many movies you get a month only depends on how fast you watch them and how fast you put them back in the mail. There are no late fees. You can hold on to a disk as long as you want. It seems like it takes about 4 days to send one in and then get the next.
There is one other feature to this club. Instead of putting the movie back in the mail, you can take the sealed return envelope back to the Blockbuster store and turn that in for a disk from the shelf! They put it in the mail for you while you are viewing another movie. So in a way you are actually getting movies even faster from them.
My thoughts….
I am actually very pleasantly surprised how this is working out. The way this is going I always have at least one movie to watch on the weekend, and usually more, depending on how many of them I watched during the week. Being able to pick up another disk at the store “ties me over” while I am waiting for my next delivery. On top of that, the coupon comes each month is an extra goody… it allows me to get my kids a game for their Playstation or Wii that I normally wouldn’t have wanted to spend for.
Would I do it again…. Yes. As long as I know my lifestyle is static for a while and that I usually have the time to watch the movies I get, I will continue the club. If my lifestyle changes and I know I won’t have time, I will cancel the club, or at least cut back the number of disks I take out.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Movie rentals
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Epinions.com ID:
psimon
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Location: NJ
Reviews written: 155
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
Engineer that loves Disney, computers, photography and anything that merges those hobbies!
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