Blockbuster Total Access: In Store and Online Movie Rentals in One

Sam Stickle said,

January 14, 2007 @ 7:29 pm

I think Blockbuster on-line movie rental stinks. They advertise that if you wish you can turn your movies into a blockbuster store, and when the store scans them, that will release your next movies in your Q to be shipped out. Well, that don’t work, it even don’t work after they receive them in the mail from being shipped out by the stores. It’s days after that, that any movies get shipped out, then when they are shipped it takes days. I had one that they said it was shipped on the 8th of Jan 2007, I did not receive it until Jan 13th. The two movies I turned into the blockbuster store on the 10th of Jan 2007, they still have not shipped out my replacement movies. And yes, I have plenty of movies listed in my Q as available. It was a lot faster during my two week trial period, after that was over, it got very slow, it shipping out my next movies. If it had not been for being able to get another movie when I turned them into the store, I would have quit before the two week had beeen up. Thie has to be the worst movie rental service I have ever had.

What I really think is what is happening is, BLOCKBUSTER is limiting the number of movies we rent on-line by being very slow in the whole process. I read about this on the Internet as well, that if you start returning your movies too fast, blockbuster will start limiting the number of movies you get.

I found the best place to go now is Hollywood in store movie rental. For $19.99 the first month, you get 3 movies at a time, unlimited movie rental. After that fisrt month trial period, it goes to $29.99. They have a very good selection here in Tracy, Ca. There is no way you can beat that, since it cost over $4.00/movie to rent. If you only got one movie a day, that’s 30 movies a month. If you had to rent them, that would be over $120.00/month. This beats blockbuster movie rental by a long shot. Now don’t tell me about some movies you can’t get in the stores, that you can get on-line, because I know that, but it takes weeks and days to get some of those movies, I know, because they show up in my Q as short wait, long wait, not available now, then when they come available, and it’s time for your next movie or movies to be shipped out, for some reason the status has changed on those movies to Long Wait or Short Wait again.

It’s just a big rip off, blockbuster does not go by what they say on their web site. I will not renew with them.

JIm said,

January 29, 2007 @ 6:59 pm

I think Blockbuster Total Access is a very compelling offering. I’m on the one-movie-at-a-time plan. The free in-store movies effectively doubles the number of movies I can get each month.

Loretta said,

March 6, 2007 @ 2:54 pm

I also live in south Jersey & have recently started having problems and I have never returned a movie to the store. I am 1 at a time unlimited, but it’s going on over a week for the next movie to ship, and I have 28 in the Q, mostly available. I emailed customer service and they are blaming it on a “temporary glitch” and are unable to ship me a DVD at this time to fill the open slot. They also said my service should return to normal soon, but I’m still waiting. Usually the day they received my return the next was sent, now it’s later and later and now nothing at all.

Renee said,

March 30, 2007 @ 6:35 pm

I have been a blockbuster online subscriber for nearly 3 years. I have had good and bad with it.

With the total access plan…. I thought wonderful! I can finally get a movie while waiting the 3 days it takes to get a movie.

At first it worked perfectly. I would return my online movies to the store and exchange for another in store rental. My online movies would be scanned in and within a day or 2, I would get another movie shipped out.

In the last 2 months, it has been nothing but hassles. An example: I returned 3 movies to a blockbuster store just this last week. It was March 20th. Well today is March 30th. I still have not had any movies shipped out. And since they don’t ship on the weekends here, I won’t have anything sent out until some time next week.

I can continue and continue with examples like that. But for the sake of space and time, I won’t.

Since the last 3 months, I am averaging 6 or 8 movies a month from the online service. Which is really bad. I usually return the movie/movies the night or the next morning after I receive them. It takes an average of 6 days or longer for them to then MAIL a movie out. Then it takes about 2-3 business days to receive the movie. Sad thing is, I live about 22 minutes from the shipping station. My local blockbuster store is within 8 minutes from the shipping center. These long turnovers are really uncalled for and lame.

They only send things out lately, after I call or email to complain. Otherwise they don’t ship stuff out. I waited last month and it was 13 days after I returned the movies at a blockbuster store. Then I said enough and finally emailed. 15 days after I used the total access plan, did I finally get 1 movie mailed out. The others were on day 18 because it was friday and they waited til monday.

In the past I would give praising reviews of blockbuster’s online program. But in the last 3 months, it is nothing more than a rip off.

Markus said,

March 30, 2007 @ 9:26 pm

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It does sound like they have a delaying system in place for “too many returned movies” to control costs, but the fact that they don’t disclose it IS shady.

Sean said,

May 2, 2007 @ 11:14 pm

I would agree to a lawsuit, it’s b.s. is what it is. They make a mistake, they offer u e-coupons to shut u up. They tell me a movie stating: Available Now means it’s available nationwide. I find that they skip my movies and give me other ones in my list. Jay, u have your first suer for BB.

Tom A. said,

June 19, 2007 @ 2:35 pm

I have to agree with others that something is going on with Blockbuster slowing down shipments. The problem with canceling is that the other games in town, such as Netflix, which I have tried, do the same thing, and blatantly so. So, if both Netflix and Blockbuster are throttling in various ways, Blockbuster is still better because of Total Access…at least you can get free movies exchanged at a local store, in effect doubling whatever amount of movies you get shipped to you each month.
That said, it still is false advertisement. I’ve begun to experience the same problems with delays and the same excuses when I e-mail Blockbuster, and I’ve only been with them 3 months now. I am a heavy user to be sure. I’ve also received the e-coupons for a free movie (sometimes 2) for my “inconvenience”, but it doesn’t shut me up and in fact, I’ve asked them not to give me coupons but instead to fix their problem.
I rent tv shows on dvd very heavily, so the coupons don’t help me much in that respect since the stores carry few shows.
With Total Access I wouldn’t even mind paying a few bucks more each month for their 3-out plan, as it would still be a great value compared to Netflix.
I just don’t understand the problem with the online rental services. Somewhere I read that Netflix tries to get the equivalent of $2 per dvd rented to make a profit. On a 3-Out plan that means they’d start losing money (or make less profit) after the 9th dvd is shipped out, and the throttling starts before that is reached. Considering movies are $3-4 per rental at a store, why they don’t just charge based on around $2 a dvd and call it good I don’t know….then they can forget about throttling and people won’t complain. And it’d still be cheaper than renting from a store all around. The throttling from ALL the services just makes for more ill-will.

Rogue said,

March 7, 2008 @ 8:37 pm

I am looking for as many ways as possible to complain online about Blockbuster’s bait-and-switch tactics with their Total Access program. I figure it’s Buyer Beware, so we have to help each other beware.

I even emailed Blockbuster to give them a chance to try to make things right, asking how they expected me to stay with them after they had decided BOTH to give me LESS and to charge me MORE within 3 months of each other.

I even mentioned that, to make matters worse, all of the Blockbuster stores around me are closing, thus making the in-store exchanges even more difficult.

For anyone interested, here is the horseshit they fed me on my way out the door back to Netflix:

Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.

“I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. We previously sent out an e-mail communication informing you of the recent changes to our subscription plans. Perhaps this e-mail was automatically routed to a SPAM/Junk folder or possibly overlooked.

We’ve reviewed our pricing structure and found that to get a better balance of providing great value for Total Access subscribers while still making it affordable for us, as of December 27, 2007, we have restructured the prices of our Total Access subscription plans.

The vast majority of our Total Access customers will only have a $2 increase in their plans. We believe that even with this price change, we’re offering an excellent value for customers who prefer the convenience of in-store or on-line Total Access, while striking the right balance between providing great value to our subscribers and getting a fair return for the company and our shareholders. Plus, the price adjustment enables us to bring our online subscription plans more in line with our in-store subscription pricing.

You’ll still continue to get the same great benefits and value from Total Access such as free in-store movie exchanges valid on DVD rentals, including HD-DVD, Blu-ray, and even $4.99 game rental discounts with an online envelope.”