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Why is Blockbuster at Home "very long wait" on so many movies?

7K views 53 replies 24 participants last post by  TheSpider 
#1 ·
This service seemed to work for me for a while. But then over the last few months there were more and more long wait and very long wait discs. Then this last month, my top 15 discs were all very long wait. Is there some short term buying problem or is my account messed up somehow or is this just some Dish belt tightening?

I turned BB at Home off for a while to look around. I went to turn on my old Netflix account, but I need to get streaming first to get Blu Ray rentals. I like the streaming, but I guess I have most of that on my Amazon Prime account anyhow. For the discs, Netflix has all except 1 ready to roll on Blu Ray (the 15 that were out of BB)

With the summer movies comming out, we have talked about how certain movies would be great on out big screeen theater, so just skip it. Right, but we haven't been getting though what's been out all winter!

I've been looking around for the best blend. The best bet woudl be if Dish got this service back working reasonably. I'm looking for 2-3 Blu Rays a month.

With all this streaming, and top notch OTA in Michigan, I'm not sure how long the Dish will stick around.

Any thoughts.
 
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#3 ·
There is not only a problem with the large number of "very long wait" movies, but also ones that are shown on the web site, but when added to your queue show up as "not currently available". A couple of weeks ago I spent a long time going through the terrible Blockbuster web site selecting movies. Most of these were classics. When I looked at my queue almost every one of them was not available. Why were they even shown on the site if they were not available? Once we upgrade our internet connection from this AT&T DSL slowpoke we will most likely be dropping Blockbuster at Home.
 
#4 ·
Thanks. Its too bad. I though the Blockbuster thing would work out. It was the perfect program for us. My wife even watched stuff on the extra channels.

Even thought its only $8, I hate to pay for Netflix streaming when I have the same basoc service on Amazon. Once we switched from DSL to cable, teh streaming really is pretty nice. The Hopper setup is better for FF and REW, but true streaming is workable.

My Netflix BluRay is already here and I only reactivated on Sunday.
 
#5 ·
I'm dropping BB next month. I've been on Amazon for a few months and like the british TV available, also almost all the movies on BB are available on Amazon (that I watch); using Roku makes finding stuff much easier. I probably pay for the Amazon account with all the free 2 day shipping I get. I do like the "newer" movies on DVD mailing, but as you pointed out, it's always a long wait (but it is nice when you get one!). All my 1st year promos run out next month and my bill goes from $75 to $115 (seems I saw a Dish ad a while ago "our rates don't go up like Direct does....", yeah right). Dropping BB is still over $100 (but still better than Cable!)
 
#7 ·
If the discs weren't a part of the channel package, I certainly wouldn't have the disc by mail service. I was able to get one disc by mail and one in-store every week. Now, since my local stores closed, I've only been able to get one disc per week, no matter how fast I send them back. And forget about getting any new releases when they first come out. Netflix has their shipping center in the same city as Blockbuster and I would normally get 3 discs every two weeks and could even get two discs per week if I pushed it.
 
#8 ·
I've talked to the BB folks twice and the true reason why the wait is so long now was revealed. When BB started closing many of it's stores Dish began to pull in the reigns. By that they mean "don't order so many copies for mail out". I was told that the reason the "HIGH DEMAND" etc is now the norm is simply that they are not allowed to order enough copies, which was not the case a year ago. It's not going to change but probably get worse.
 
#9 ·
I've got no way to back this up, so don't go asking me for a source or a link to back it up or anything. However I did hear that Dish was planning on doing away with the disc in the mail service entirely. That the Blockbuster package is going to become just the channel package plus what's available for streaming and download over the web. Like I said consider this an absolute internet rumor as I have no way to prove it but it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be true.
 
#11 ·
This is all interesting stuff. A bummer for sure. I'm stil in a jam on how to get a couple Blu-Ray rental a month for a reasonable price. For action movies with lossless audio, tehre really is no substitute.
 
#12 ·
RV Traveler said:
What I now do is order an older available movie, then take it in to my local Blockbuster for a current release. Beats waiting for something that isn't going to be available for weeks, if ever. As mentioned this service has declined and its value is really questionable.
Ha, that's exactly what I do. They just sent me "The Fly" which I've seen several times but never in blu-ray. I'll take it to the local BB store and exchange it this weekend.
 
#13 ·
I think it is perfectly fair to complain... but at the same time probably good to remember that Blockbuster was in bankruptcy and had Dish not bought them, they would probably be gone entirely. I'm kind of surprised Dish hasn't done away with the rental business at this point since it doesn't seem their "heart" is truly in keeping it viable. It's a shame... but it seems to be a business model closer to its end-of-days.
 
#14 ·
I guess I'm one of the fortunate that have a local Blockbuster nearby. If that wasn't the case, it would be a loud Adios. I pay about $135 a month to Dish. Maybe it's time to really cut back on my package. From April to October I mainly watch the Giants baseball games and a little local and network news. Could probably get along just fine with local channels and basic package and save some money. Trying to figure out what is actually in each package is probably going to give me a giant headache.
 
#15 ·
When my blockbuster was open it worked out ok. I could get one by mail, turn it in at the store and get one at the store. Usually a new or newish one. Now since most of the stores are closed, It has become a joke. I have 28 movies in my queue and only 2 are "now". Of course you don't know the status until you add it to your queue, so it is a "hope" that it will be available. What is even worse, they show movies on the home page that say get it. You add to your queue and then it says "unknown" availability. If you don't have ANY disks of a title take it off your website.
 
#16 ·
I just started using BB by Mail a couple of months ago and it was great. Then as time went on just like many others, the status on my selections are being marked High Demand/Very High Demand when they were normal not too long ago. This smacks of a "change". So if they did announce that this service was going away, I wouldn't be surprised. This is like something DISH would do and how they would do it.
 
#17 ·
I believe BB is on the way out, Dish most likely regrets the accretion. Stores are closing all over the country. The service is clunky, inconsistent and limited.....hence the long waits for recent B grade movies.
On the other hand BB's demise has been predicted for several years yet BB still has customers, just not happy ones. I'm to the point I wish they would either fix it or dump it....
 
#18 ·
I've recently gotten "We have shipped the next Blockbuster disc" e-mails within 24 hours of putting my previous dic in the mail. That's excellent. For instance, I returned a disc to the post office on Saturday afternoon and this morning (Monday) I found an e-mail from Dish.

Did Dish start doing something with the post office -- perhaps they paid for tracking of each disc envelope so they are notified nightly what discs are in the mail at the moment? Regardless, this is one improvement of the service.
 
#19 ·
BqWUDUDj said:
I've recently gotten "We have shipped the next Blockbuster disc" e-mails within 24 hours of putting my previous dic in the mail. That's excellent. For instance, I returned a disc to the post office on Saturday afternoon and this morning (Monday) I found an e-mail from Dish.

Did Dish start doing something with the post office -- perhaps they paid for tracking of each disc envelope so they are notified nightly what discs are in the mail at the moment? Regardless, this is one improvement of the service.
Not here....it the opposite, seems something has changed in the last couple of weeks. I have movies available in the Q but nothing has been sent in 10 days and the message in my account is, we're processing your next shipment. :down:
 
#20 ·
356B said:
Not here....it the opposite, seems something has changed in the last couple of weeks. I have movies available in the Q but nothing has been sent in 10 days and the message in my account is, we're processing your next shipment. :down:
Yep, that's about right. Order something older and maybe it'll arrive in 3-4 days. Netflix was never more than 2 days. Like a few others, I think this disk by mail is a dead horse. Charlie just hasn't put it in the ground yet.
 
#22 ·
Here is the main part of an email they sent me....... Generally, we work to send out the next title in your queue within 1 to 2 business days of our receipt of your return or report. However, there's a delay in sending your next rental because we are currently showing that you do not have enough "Available" titles in your queue to complete the requested shipment.


To ensure consistency in shipping, we recommend keeping 10 or more available titles in your Queue. You can also set your preferences for shipments based on Speed vs. Queue order. Go to Settings; select your Shipping Preference; and click on "Save."

To have 10 available in my queue, I would have to have 150 in my queue. Now I have 32 in my queue and 2 are available. The sad thing is you never know if its available until you add it to your queue. It should be that if you have one that is available, it gets shipped out! Why do you need 10?
 
#23 ·
"However, there's a delay in sending your next rental because we are currently showing that you do not have enough "Available" titles in your queue to complete the requested shipment. . . ."

That is rich. All the selections in my queue were available when I put them there. It was long after I had been getting routine weekly discs and they stopped that all my selections were recategorized. And I didn't do it. So . . . how can I choose available titles when they can be arbitrarily recategorized? :nono2:
 
#24 ·
I'm wondering why they bother with mailing disks at all. I have 14 movies in my queue. The last one was returned on February 4. I have not received another one since. One would think even a high demand movie would be sent out in three months. I have all the movie packages so once the movies hit HBO etc. I really am not interested in the disk any longer.
 
#25 ·
Echostar bonds were downgraded this week. I read the credit report. They are getting dinged for running an old business model. Sure. But what was interesting on the nagatives is - lack of differentation over competitiors, stinginessy on programming, money potentially due to Voom, a huge tax (1b) if the wireless spectrum gets the waiver needed to use it for intended purposes, and lack of opaqueness of management. On the plus is the even with the lack of opaquemness, they generally like Charlie's decisions. If the spectrun gets set into usable form, they figured 5-6b for a buildout, spread over years that is possible to finance with even more debt. All interesting stuff.

So not buying any disks is a bad sign that they are giving up a key to differentation - at least from Comcat and DTV. The idea was they would pitch us at Blockbuster for new cell phones when we were swappign out the movies. I they get a wireless broadband system with enought bandwith to stream HD, and cover my cell phones for less that Verizon, for a decent price, Charlie can have all of that business from me.
 
#26 ·
Got my first disc in weeks yesterday. Had Cloud Atlas in my queue as pending release and the second it was avaialbe I hit my queue and it said "availability" "NOW". So I move it to the top and it came yesterday. And it being one of "the" movies at the moment, I'm thoroughly surprised that the rest of the "old" movies in my list are still listed as "High" to "To Very High" demand. Even for Dredd that fell off the charts ages ago, is listed as "Very High Demand". The movie's junk so that makes no sense. So obviously something's up. Just happy to have gotten CA to see if it's worth it.
 
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