Shoddy customer service; they won't get my business again
Written: Jun 19 '07
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I joined Blockbuster Online for a month's trial at a reduced price of $9.99, to go to $17.99 after the first month unless I canceled. I was allowed to have 3 movies out at a time for these prices.
I signed up, and encountered my first glitch, which told me my email address was already in use. It was possible that I had previously intended to sign up, but I knew I had never completed the process. Regardless, I went back and entered another email address. Same message. I tried the first one again and it went through.
Navigating the site was a little clunky compared to other sites like Netflix. I found the new releases especially to be sparse, and most of them I had never heard of! I managed to find some movies that I had considered renting at a local store and decided to go with them. If I didn't like them, no big loss, as I intended to get my money's worth during the month. I put 8 movies in my queue and went on my merry way.
Two or three days after signing up, I was doing our banking, checking online statements. I noticed two charges for Blockbuster Online at $9.99 each. My online statements have different codes for transactions; both of the Blockbuster transactions were shown as completed. I contacted Customer Service via email and was told that one of those charges was just an authorization and would drop off shortly. I replied with what I said above; if one of them was a pending authorization, it would have said just that. The CSR replied with the same thing -- It will drop off, it is just a temporary authorization.
I gave it a couple of days and nothing changed. I called Blockbuster's customer service and explained the situation. The CSR basically argued with me and said the same things that the email rep had said. I described how both transactions had cleared and there was not a credit from Blockbuster in sight. The CSR said they would be glad to do a conference call with my bank to discuss the transactions. Anyone else sensing a severe lack of customer service here?
After that I had had enough. I got in touch with a bank representative. They confirmed what I had known all along, that both charges were completed transactions. I opened a dispute through the bank, and quickly received a permanent credit. Customer service & satisfaction. I like it!
On to the rental experience!
Two movies arrived within 2-4 days, which was fairly quick and I was impressed. The return envelopes were a little flimsy for my liking, and one of them I accidentally ripped a bit too far when preparing to send a movie back. I worried that the disc would arrive, but it apparently did, and I received an email when each movie was checked in at Blockbuster. I also received notices when a new movie was shipped.
It seemed to me that it took about twice as long for movies to be marked as returned at Blockbuster as it did to receive them. In other words, if I received a movie in 3 days, viewed and mailed it back, about 6 days elapsed before I got the email notification that it had been received by Blockbuster. This worries me now that I have cancelled my membership, as I am wary that they will say the 2 movies I still had out at cancellation haven't been returned by their deadline. We shall see.
Due to the poor selection of movies (or the poor organization of their site, which led to my not *finding* the movies I wanted) in addition to the shoddy customer service detailed above, I decided before the month was up to cancel the membership. My renewal date was 6/17/07. I canceled on 6/15/07 and mailed back the remaining 2 movies that same day. I received an email from Blockbuster noting my cancellation date, saying in part:
"We have processed your request to cancel your BLOCKBUSTER OnlineŽ First Month $9.99 plus tax, 3 at a time membership.
We will go ahead and process your cancellation effective 06/16/2007. Please be sure to return all BLOCKBUSTER Online DVDs by 07/16/2007 to avoid additional charges."
Yet, tonight I open my online banking statement to see, you guessed it....a Blockbuster Online charge for $17.99. I promptly emailed customer service. We'll see how far *that* gets me. I wasn't impressed the first two times around. Fortunately I know that my bank will stand behind me if need be.
I was willing to let bygones be bygones, and just not give them any more of my business. Then they went and messed up with billing me, and I got mad. I will never rent from them again, either in-store (we don't have one here anyway) or online. It's not worth the hassle, and I would much rather rent from my local Hollywood Video, where the people are friendly, I can easily find what I want, and I get useful coupons every month. All that makes a 5 day rental time worth it to me!
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Blockbuster Online Rental Service
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About the Author
Member: tami pelles
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 1 member
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