Blockbuster Changes Total Access Policy

[admin]

Blockbuster has changed its terms of service for its Total Access DVD-by-Mail-or-Store service. As far as we can tell it's potentially a good or bad change depending upon how you typically use the service. Currently, users of the $9.99 and up service plan can exchange DVDs in-store for a new movie (from 2 to 5 exchanges are allowed depending on the plan). This movie can then be returned within 2 days to a week as per normal rental periods. That plan is now changing as of March 2, 2009.

Discuss "Blockbuster Changes Total Access Policy" here. Read the article.

 

[davidtwotrees]

Hmmm. Not sure what this is supposed to be. Blockbuster got rid of late fees...("No More Late Fees") so now if you have an instore movie at your home for more than like ten days you get a call saying you will be charged for the cost of the movie.......and you actually have like 30 days to return it before you would be charged.......even then I think if you bring in the movie, they will refund the money. So now you can keep the instore movie forever? I don't get it. What's the point?

 

[GlocksRock]

I don't like this at all, I have the one at a time with instore exchanges, and I like having my next movie ship as soon as I exchange my current movie in-store. Now I won't get my next movie shipped until I return the instore exchange. I may have to up my plan now, which I don't really want to do.

 

[j_garcia]

Hmmm. Not sure what this is supposed to be. Blockbuster got rid of late fees...("No More Late Fees") so now if you have an instore movie at your home for more than like ten days you get a call saying you will be charged for the cost of the movie.......and you actually have like 30 days to return it before you would be charged.......even then I think if you bring in the movie, they will refund the money. So now you can keep the instore movie forever? I don't get it. What's the point?

What they are saying is they are losing money anyway, so they are going to try to build a system that they can more easily track what you have (not so that you can track yourself) so they don't ship you something when you already have a movie from the store. They are basically trying to limit what you can have out at once and get you to upgrade if it doesn't meet your needs.

 

[GlocksRock]

When you have a particular movie in your queue, and you rent it in store, when you go back to your online queue, it asks you if you want to keep the movie in your queue since it knows that you already rented it in the store.

 

[niget2002]

I don't like this. We like to drop ours off at the store and usually pick up 1 while were there. The way it used to work, we'd get our two new movies about the same time we'd finally get around to returning the first one. Now we'll have to be more diligent in returning the in-store movie quicker so we'll get the new ones sooner.

I guess that's one more reason to start considering netflix.

 

[j_garcia]

On a complete side note, I just started up with Netflix 2 months ago and I have to say I am satisfied with them, including their Blu-ray selection. Their selection isn't as great as I hoped, but should keep me busy for a while.

 

[GlocksRock]

I was thinking of stepping up my blockbuster plan so that I can get another movie in the mail at the same time I do an in store exchange, but now I may consider having both blockbuster and netflix, that way I can at least get the streaming movies from netflix with my xbox, as well as the possibility of getting blu ray new releases a bit quicker since Blockbuster always seems to have a shortage.

 

[jamie2112]

I hate blockbuster. I will be using Netflix from here on out.

 

[darien87]

This sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to BB because Netflix kept throttling me. What I would usually do with BB was watch the movies that came to me in the mail, and then take them to a store on the weekend and exchange them for a couple more. Then I would watch the in-store movies some time during the week and then return them along with the ones that arrived in the mail, the following weekend. So I would generally be holding on to the in-store movies for a week.

So now if I get some movies from a store, I have to return them right away to get more in the mail?!?!? Basically they're discouraging the whole in-store exchange process!!

Screw this. So now I have to choose between being throttled by Netflix or being throttled by BB?!?!? Forget the whole thing! Guess I'll be cancelling my BB account. Oh well, I guess that will save me $20 a month.

 

[cgnewman]

I am not very happy with the new on-line rental policy effective March 2. From what I understand, the policy was changed because of complaints about late fees from customers who kept their in store exchange rentals to long. Those late fees effected only the few customers who did keep their in store exchange rentals to long, but the new policy affects everyone. From a cost point of view, giving up the late fees charged to a few, vs. mailing out fewer DVD’s for the entire on-line service is a much better deal for Blockbuster. I am sure the savings for Blockbuster with the new policy, is much greater then the late fees collected from a small number of customers. I would like an explanation as to how this new policy is better for me, I have never had a late fee from my local Blockbuster store, and why this new “no late fee policy” was not offered as an option.

 

[darien87]

Well BB lost out on my money. I cancelled my membership last week. I told them that the reason for my canecllation was specifically this new policy. Kind of a bummer, but oh well. Guess I'll just go to a store every once in a while when there's a movie that I just have to see.

 

[robbie3600]

Switching to netflix

I've been with Blockbuster for a while now and have always enjoyed their service. But, lately they've been dropping the ball. I rent a ton of movies. There was always an advantage to being with Blockbuster instead of Netflix because they would ship my next movie as soon as I returned the mailer to the store. At that time I would also get a movie from the store. So, in essence, I was getting double the movies.

Lately, they've been waiting up to a week to ship your next movie after you return one to the store. And now they aren't even going to ship your next movie until you return the in-store rental? They've given up on the only reason I chose them over Netflix. Plus, Netflix offers downloads for free as an added bonus to your rentals. And the downloads will play on a Mac (or through your TV with a Tivo or Xbox 360), unlike Blockbuster's downloads which cost $3.99 and only work on Internet Explorer.

I'm going to do the 2 week free trial with Netflix to see how I like it, but I have a feeling that I will be canceling my blockbuster account.

 

[darien87]

I've been with Blockbuster for a while now and have always enjoyed their service. But, lately they've been dropping the ball. I rent a ton of movies.

I'm going to do the 2 week free trial with Netflix to see how I like it, but I have a feeling that I will be canceling my blockbuster account.

That's going to be your problem right there. If you rent a ton of movies, Netflix isn't the service for you. I've been with Netflix 2 different times, and got throttled both times. I would watch my movies right away and return them the next day. I guess Netflix didn't like that. More and more often, my movies started shipping two or three days after I had returned the last one. Then I started getting movies shipped from the other side of the country!

My guess is that Netflix will seem great for that 2 week trial period, then once you've had them for a while and you start renting what they think is too many movies, you'll start seeing your service slow down. You're kind of screwed either way.

 

[j_garcia]

I've had Netflix for 3 months now and still no issues. I suppose it also depends on what the movies are that you want and how popular they are. I tend to watch about 3-4 movies a week with them, watching it the day it comes and sending it back the next day for the most part. Only once has the movie shown up a day after they said it would so far.

Their selection is decent, but it seems less impressive than I expected.