Blockbuster opinions

11253 Views 56 Replies 26 Participants Last post by fudpucker, May 16, 2012

tcatdbs

Discussion Starter · Apr 13, 2012

After having Blockbuster and Netflix (DVD only) for a month, I am very happy with BB and will be dropping Netflix. I attempted to mail/watch/mail both DVD's the same day of the week... Netflix does a slightly better job getting DVD's to you (in 4 weeks I got 8 Netflix and 7 BB DVD's). I found that more recent movies (with long or short wait) became available faster with BB. Nothing lost or broken with either. Netflix does have better email notifications (I get nothing from BB letting me know they received or what they mailed).

And the fact that BB gives you on-demand MGM, Sony, Epix, and bunches of others, and Sling adapter access, just makes the $10/mo WAY more of a deal than Netflix at $8/mo.

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Ray [email protected] Network

· #2 · Apr 13, 2012

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying Blockbuster @ Home. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Thanks.

tcatdbs said:
After having Blockbuster and Netflix (DVD only) for a month, I am very happy with BB and will be dropping Netflix. I attempted to mail/watch/mail both DVD's the same day of the week... Netflix does a slightly better job getting DVD's to you (in 4 weeks I got 8 Netflix and 7 BB DVD's). I found that more recent movies (with long or short wait) became available faster with BB. Nothing lost or broken with either. Netflix does have better email notifications (I get nothing from BB letting me know they received or what they mailed).

And the fact that BB gives you on-demand MGM, Sony, Epix, and bunches of others, and Sling adapter access, just makes the $10/mo WAY more of a deal than Netflix at $8/mo.

koji68

· #3 · Apr 13, 2012

You may want to check your spam folder or maybe your account settings.

I do get notifications from BB when they get my returns and when they sent another disk to me.

bnborg

· #4 · Apr 13, 2012

I get the notifications from BB also. It is curious how the shipment notice comes before the returned notice--as much as half an hour.

I would swear that I've received DVD's the day after I put them at the top of my queue.

tcatdbs

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 13, 2012

Looking back at my emails, I did get them the 1st 2 weeks, I got 4 "shipped" and 3 "received", of the 8 that have actually shipped. Nothing in spam (and I just white-listed them just in case). They do show up in my queue properly, so no real complaints.

mdavej

· #6 · Apr 13, 2012

I'm generally happy with BB as well. With in-store exchanges I'm averaging 2-3 discs per week. But the streaming portion is a far cry from Netflix streaming. If you are expecting that part to be comparable, you'll be greatly disappointed. Also, I never get any of the games in my queue, so you can't count on that either. But with exchanges, no blu-ray surcharge, and the old Dish Platinum channels, it's still a great deal.

The notification emails are a bit flakey for me too. Although I get them all, some come immediately, and others are days late. It's good that I do get them because once the store failed to log one of my returns. So I knew I had to call and straighten it out.

barenjager

· #7 · Apr 13, 2012

I am glad some of you are having a good experience with BB. I did also with rapid turnaround. I have not had a DVD shipped in over 3 weeks. I have over 25 in my queue and several are listed as avaliable now. I have written them twice but only received a stock reply back.
I check my queue everyday and they did receive the last DVD I returned.

garys

· #8 · Apr 13, 2012

barenjager said:
I am glad some of you are having a good experience with BB. I did also with rapid turnaround. I have not had a DVD shipped in over 3 weeks. I have over 25 in my queue and several are listed as avaliable now. I have written them twice but only received a stock reply back.
I check my queue everyday and they did receive the last DVD I returned.

Under your settings, did you select Order or Speed? If Order and several at top of you queue might explain your delay. Also, fast answers by calling at 1-800-333-DISH.

Paul Secic

· #9 · Apr 15, 2012

mdavej said:
I'm generally happy with BB as well. With in-store exchanges I'm averaging 2-3 discs per week. But the streaming portion is a far cry from Netflix streaming. If you are expecting that part to be comparable, you'll be greatly disappointed. Also, I never get any of the games in my queue, so you can't count on that either. But with exchanges, no blu-ray surcharge, and the old Dish Platinum channels, it's still a great deal.

The notification emails are a bit flakey for me too. Although I get them all, some come immediately, and others are days late. It's good that I do get them because once the store failed to log one of my returns. So I knew I had to call and straighten it out.

I won't waste my money for a WiFi plug for my 722. I'll wait for a few years and get a Hopper & Sling.

BqWUDUDj

· #10 · Apr 16, 2012

garys said:
Under your settings, did you select Order or Speed? If Order and several at top of you queue might explain your delay. Also, fast answers by calling at 1-800-333-DISH.

I've had a poor experience with the BlockBuster service, as documented here http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=200769.

1. Unless things have changed in the past month or so, don't waste your time calling Dish Network for support on BlockBuster.

2. The web site has a terrible search engine. They should take a cue from www.imdb.com and provide a way to browse and search without lots and lots of hits.

3. The stock is poor. I don't watch recent releases. Wait a month and they will be on FX or some other channel anyways. There's no reason to rent those. I rent for things that are unlikely to be on -- an old TV series, a remake (or original) of a movie that I enjoyed on TCM. Something that I saw years ago and want to rewatch... I've got eight items in my queue (wish I had more, but see point #2) and, like a poster above, I've been waiting for weeks to get something in the mail.

4. Poor queue status. The items in my queue are all "unavailable" except for one item marked "now". But it's been marked now for days. I'd like to know where I am in line for the DVDs. Does BB only own a single copy of the DVD I want? Am I the 10th person in line for that? Was the copy broken and they are re-ordering/burning it? ... I'd like to know an ETA for each DVD in the queue.

FYI. I'm contradicting what garys wrote because you'll only end up penalizing yourself if you call Dish Network about BB. Dish support will only walk you through the BB web site and cannot resolve problems. You have to call BB directly 1-866-692-2789. Just bypass all the prompts when they ask for BB account numbers and get to a person, then they can help you.

When I was having my problem (broken DVD sent out after broken DVD), I followed the instructions at DishNetwork (and also what was printed on the envelopes) and called Dish for help. They told me how to go online to report a broken DVD (which I had already followed twice) but were unable to do anything about the underlying problem. They gave me a pittance ($5 credit on my account or some other trivial amount) but did nothing to get me the DVD. I then later found out that when you call Dish, again, per their instructions, you get a black mark in your account. I used to get a "Hey, you're one of our top customers" while on hold waiting for a Dish Network support rep. That meant you were a good customer and eligible for preferred service and accomodations. I don't get that silly message anymore. I lost my preferential treatment for $5.

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RasputinAXP

· #11 · Apr 16, 2012

BqWUDUDj said:
1. Unless things have changed in the past month or so, don't waste your time calling Dish Network for support on BlockBuster.

In other news, don't call Comcast for support regarding NBC.

garys

· #12 · Apr 16, 2012

Sorry, just reposting what phone was on @home site. Only problem I have had was a dirty disc that played once I cleaned it. If your major problem is cracked disc's, I'd contact the postmaster at your PO and have them check there, if nothing you need to backtrack to the USPS District office (I'm sure Blockbuster should be doing this from their end with the number of disc's you had delivered that were damaged.
As far as the selection, I have not been impressed with any of the providers. Sounds to me that you want to get everything from one place, I do not see that happening anymore since one company wants exclusive rites to certain titles, 2nc co gets exclusive to another set of titles, 3rd co. get exclusive to yet another set of titles, ect. ect. ect. As far as searches, unless you have a better idea of how to do a better one, lets hear it. We all have the same problem there, search by title, genre, star, tag, keyword ect. I have that on Blockbuster, YouTube, Hulu, Google and on and on and on.

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MCHuf

· #13 · Apr 16, 2012

I've been getting decent service from Blockbuster. 1 disc by mail and 1 trade-in per week. The fact that the streaming selection is really weak and you can only receive it through a Dish dvr (unless you go to Dish Online) makes streaming a far worse option compared to Netflix. But the addtional channels kind of make up for that. And you can get the Starz/Encore stuff that Netflix no longer has.

But there are a lot of "wait" and "long wait" titles, especially with games. And many older movies/tv shows that Netflix has aren't available from either online or the b&m stores. The state of the b&m stores is really depressing. For a while there the stores were taking away floor space for rentals and giving more to selling used product. It has stabilized, but it does make the trade-in option viable for only newer releases. If I wasn't a Dish Network/[email protected] subscriber, I would have stayed with Netflix.

inazsully

· #14 · Apr 16, 2012

The thing with the short wait, Long wait thing is a pain but over all the deal is a good one. Most of the hard to get ones are available in store and you can pick it up when you return your movie to said store. Of course if you don't have a store available then that benefit goes out the window. I'm lucky to have a store within 5 minutes. If you watch a lot of movies you soon realize that there just aren't that many good movies released each week. It's really hard for me to keep 10+ movies in my list.

BqWUDUDj

· #15 · Apr 16, 2012

RasputinAXP said:
In other news, don't call Comcast for support regarding NBC.

Dish Network actively advertises their 1-800-333-DISH as the phone number for BB support. See the customer care "Call Us" page at http://www.blockbusterathome.com/help. The numer is also boldly written on the mailing envelopes. That's the number Dish wants us to call for problems. The customer service number for BB also knows nothing about Dish customers. There is no prompt (at least in Feb when I called) for Dish and you have to drill through to a person to get assistance.

If Comcast advertised "Got a problem with NBC -- call us". Call us about NBC. Here's the # to call 1-888-COMCAST. Need help for NBC? Call Comcast. I would not fault any Comcast customers for calling Comcast.

You'd think that Dish would just add a button to their phone system ("Press 5 for [email protected] support") that sent callers over to BB.

Of course if you don't have a store available then that benefit goes out the window. I'm lucky to have a store within 5 minutes.

There used to be several BB stores around but they are all closed now. The BB site says "The 0 Blockbuster stores closest to XXXXX are". Another bit of info which would be nice to post of the queue web page would be in-store availability (I wouldn't know if the page does that already or not).

If your major problem is cracked disc's, I'd contact the postmaster at your PO and have them check there, if nothing you need to backtrack to the USPS District office

The customer's are supposed to do this? BB should be doing this and make their packaging more resilient. They are the ones who are paying (directly) the postage. In my case, I suspect that BB was just sending the same cracked disc out over and over again. It was not a problem with my local PO. I don't think individual people should pester their postmasters over a broken disc until they have worked with the senders first.

As far as searches, unless you have a better idea of how to do a better one, lets hear it.

I gave mine -- model after IMDB. Even if I could just paste the URL of an IMDB movie page into BB and check availability would be a plus.

Another idea is to tie BB with the channels that Dish Network offers. SciFi channel used to have something called AniMondays where they showed Japanese Anime. I caught the tail of that and enjoyed some of the programs. I'd be interested in renting the other programs that were broadcast. BBCA sometimes changes their broadcast lineup. How about if BB lets us rent what dropped off? Or pop up a "Hit Select" to get a related DVD while I'm watching a movie on Dish (and make this a user settable option).

Unfortunately, I think Dish/BB is not really trying to get my business. Why should I upgrade my service to three DVDs out when they can't even deliver one?

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DoyleS

· #16 · Apr 16, 2012

In general, I am pleased with the service. I only get Blu Ray. My biggest complaint is probably their search engine. I find it easier to use the NetFlix search engine and then add the movies to my BB queue. Unfortunately the 2 stores near me closed even though both were very busy. Probably more to do with the amount of rent they had to pay for a storefront in the Bay Area. Somewhat understandable as the store never really made any money from me because I was just doing the disk exchange.

tcatdbs

Discussion Starter · #17 · Apr 16, 2012

I use Rotten Tomatoes to search, then copy and paste title to my queue. But, yes, the streaming search suX.

Kevin Brown

· #18 · Apr 17, 2012

I have both Netflix and Blockbuster. Netflix has a better mail disc selection, and a better streaming selection ... but that ain't saying much. (Over 300 movies in my Netflix queue, and only 37 are available for streaming, and [email protected] has even less than that. BB by mail is missing about 10% of the discs I have in my Netflix queue when I spotchecked recently. More obscure stuff.)

BB has closed the 2 closest BB stores to me, so that makes swapping discs at a local store useless now. So I'm now thinking about dumping [email protected] and just using Netflix. The interface on a 722k also sucks for BB streaming.

ehb224

· #19 · Apr 17, 2012

Actually, I am not very happy.
Every Bluray I have received had deep circular scratches and did not play. (I only had one bad DVD so far) but the big problem is that I have 22 disks in my queue and out of 12 recent (wtihin the past 3 months) blueray only 2 are available, 7 are short wait (some have been short wait for over a month now!) and 5 are long wait).
4 dvds are available now (all several years old), the other 6 are listed as unavailable, which makes me wonder why I can even queue them. I leave them in just to see what happens.

It's a nice idea but it sucks in practice. If I want to watch a bluray I guess I still need to buy it since the ones I buy new locally play just fine!

I find it very interesting that the last damaged disc I reported seems to flag my account saying that I had too many damaged discs. I am not the one putting deep circular scratches and multiple fingerprints on them right out of the envelope. I guess they have no quality control and just keep recycling the disks until someone complains. In the past when I used to rent movies in their stores, Blockbuster tried to say that my VHS or DVD player was the problem but I have always had multiple players so that excuse never worked! :lol:
It's really a much worse rehash of their old problems.

If it was not basically a free add on for the old HD platinum tier (which has programming I want) I would be very upset. It's really a no value add on that Dish can use for advetising hype but don't expect anything from it unless Blockbuster changes it's tactics, which if you check online, has had problems since they started their mail service and the complaints are well documented.

my 2 cents!

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tcatdbs

Discussion Starter · #20 · Apr 18, 2012

Looks like better luck for old farts like me who will never buy a Blueray player. I really can't see the difference on an upconverted DVD. So far 2 per week for 10 weeks, no issues at all. Yes, I consider it a freebie to 20 channels I pay 50 cents each for... so if I ever do get a bad disk, I really won't care. I only put 2011 and 2012 DVDs in my Queue, have 1 long wait (Skin I Live In), all the short waits seem to get here within a week.

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