Blockbuster.com Price Hike: A Single Data Point
I'm canceling my Blockbuster.com account in light of today's price hikes, their second price increase since August. (I am not alone.) There is a Blockbuster store literally a stone's throw away from my apartment, but I'm done dealing with the creeping prices and decreasing service. For just $4 more a month, I can move to a three-discs-at-once plan at Netflix—and Netflix won't push my rental history to Facebook without my permission.
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I am doing the same. I would have even considered staying with Blockbuster until I read the condescending email announcement they sent, pretending like nothing was happening. Netflix is now like three bucks cheaper, and I never actually go to the store to trade in movies. Jackasses.
I've always been a Netflix fan. I briefly tried Blockbuster then quit because of the relentless emails, surly cashiers and political leanings of the company. Netflix has always treated me well, has faster mailing times and decent used DVD sales (which they mail to your home gratis). I even like their 'watch it online' service. Great for documentaries and shorter running time DVDs I might balk at dropping into my queue. Plus the user comments are so much more intelligent than BB.
i gotta say that i won't be dropping my blockbuster subscription. they've changed there plans several times leaving mine untouched but this is the first time they made a change that effects me. i gauss I'll go from 18 dollars to 20, but since i get three out at a time, unlimited trades for in store movies, and drop offs that result in them sending me another right away (don't have to wait for it to be sent back thru the mail). all in all it really beats the pants off of netflix, for me... for note i am almost always getting six movies a week ( including the ones i get for free trading in ) netflix was always slow for me and i could never get that many movies in a week.
I canceled as soon as I got the email. I would have rather stayed with Blockbuster because I live right next to a BB store, but after 2 price hikes in only a few months, I was fed up. I refuse to pay 30$ for 2 dvds at a time.
I am now a proud Netflix subscriber.
A friend we spoke to last night said he'd written to cancel his Blockbuster acct and gotten several phone calls from them to reconsider. In one of the calls, they finally admitted they had the power to switch him to another kind of acct that basically gave him the same features as he'd had before for less money ;)
So maybe a bit 'o bitchin' to their Customer Service is in order. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...
I dropped BB when the email hit also. I liked it but it cost way too much per month. I rejoined recently because the writer's strike has sent a bunch of my shows into reruns. Their greed disgusts me.
I've never rented videos online, but the last two I got from a Blockbuster B&M store were scratched up and wouldn't play. (Oh, and I had to install some stuff to even try to play them on Linux. That was nice. Thanks again for stomping on my face, forever, studios.)
Blockbuster OKed and exchange, but not a refund, and I was out of the movie mood by then, so I lost my money. Bah.
This doesn't surprise me at all. I stopped using Blockbuster about 10 years ago. They decided to automatically charge a late fee to the card I used to open the account rather than hit me with it the next time I was in the store. (Which is what every other rental place I've ever used has done. Hell, it was what that very BB branch had done up until that moment.) I have no doubt that they were completely within their rights to charge my card, but it was a boneheaded from a customer relations standpoint. It pissed me off, and that $3.50 late fee was the last money they ever got from me. 10 years @ 2-3 rentals per week equals... well, more than $3.50, that's for sure.
I see that they haven't gotten any better at customer relations in the intervening years. People can handle the occasional price increase. But when it's one price increase on top of another, and decreased service levels too? No wonder people are leaving in droves.
Personally I've been using Netflix for years now and couldn't be happier with their service.
I agree that Blockbuster's fees are outrageous now. I have the unlimited mail/store return plan for three movies out at a time, but many times they will send the same video in the mail that you had rented the week before at the store. They are supposed to email to see if you still want the movie sent, but never do. So then we have to drive 20 minutes away to get yet another movie and have lost out on a new movie for a few days while they send another. Also, it is impossible to get good movies because it says they are available, but once you add them to the que, it says long wait. I am billed nearly $38 a month and the store clerks are so rude it's not funny. In fact, the local manager of our BB store is more concerned about his Yahoo personals add looking for new boyfriends. I give up. HBO/Starz is looking good on my end.
last year i signed up for blockbuster online the package i signed up for was amazing 3 out at a time unlimited online unlimited in -store exchanges for $17.99 a month. i had it for only a month when an e-mail came through and voluntarily with out my permission cancelled my subscription unless i wanted to pay $24.99 for the same package. that package now less than a year later has gone from $17.99 to 34.99 i think it's practically criminal, but i am sure they are not breaking any contractual commitment to their customers. Capatalistic society i guess.