Blockbuster @ Home Still Su%ks - Cancelled Again

[hemway]

First let me say that I was a long time Blockbuster customer but that all changed after Dish bought them and turned the service to crap. Additionally, I only used Blockbuster for the DVD mail service, and I only request new releases. I never watched videos on my computer, didn't stream video to my TV, and never watched the additional channels that came with Blockbuster once Dish purchased them and incorporated it into Dish. Last December I got sick of the crappy service, so I cancelled Blockbuster and switched to Netflix.

After being away from Blockbuster for 11 months, I wanted to give them another try to see if their mail service got any better so I started up service again. I still didn't see anything that interested me on the additional channels included with the package and the interface to stream video to my TV is still crap. Once again, the only service from the package I'm interested in is the DVD/Blu-ray by mail service. After I restarted the service, I added a bunch of new DVD releases to my queue and of course, everything I added that was already released was on 'Short Wait' so I didn't get anything the first week.

Because I did have a couple of titles on my queue that released the second week of service, I was shipped one the titles, which I watched, and then took it to a Blockbuster store for an in-store exchange. I returned that DVD to the store last Friday so my 'at home queue' was empty abut nothing was shipped to me because everything else was on 'Short Wait' or hadn't been released yet.

This week, third week of service, I still had titles in my queue that showed a status of 'Short Wait' but had a couple of other new releases that were scheduled to release this week. Monday came and went without getting an email notification of a title shipment. I checked my queue today (10/9) and it still showed that I didn't have any titles out and the top two titles in my queue were 'Available' (because they just released). When I contacted Blockbuster to find out if they were going to ship me one of the 'Available' titles, I was told that both titles were showing as 'Long Wait' on their system and that I hadn't been shipped anything.

It's good to know that the Blockbuster @ Home service still suc%ks and I wasn't missing anything. Fortunately I didn't cancel my Netflix account and have received some of the tiles that were in my Blockbuster queue with a status of 'Short Wait'. I've come to the conclusion that Dish doesn't care about their Blockbuster @ Home service. If they did, they would have done something to improve all of their services. Just cancelled my service again, what a waste of my time.

 

[hemway]

To backup my claim that the Blockbuster @ Home Suc%ks, at 2:35 pm this afternoon (10/11) Blockbuster sent me an email letting me know that they received the returned DVD they mailed me last week and said they will send me the next available title in my queue. The sad thing about this is this is the same DVD I used for an 'in shore exchange' last Thursday (10/4), which for the record, has already been watch and was returned to the store last Friday (10/5).

No wonder they can't keep me as a customer. If Dish was smart, they would allow BB@H customers a choice of unlimited (one-at-a-time) DVD's by mail or from store.

 

[dare2be]

No wonder they can't keep me as a customer. If Dish was smart, they would allow BB@H customers a choice of unlimited (one-at-a-time) DVD's by mail or from store.

If Dish was smart, they never would have bought the bankrupt Blockbuster in the first place. Seems they only did it for marketing purposes and brand recognition. The closing of hundreds of stores and consolidation of distribution centers just to get back in the black was never going to be a winning proposition service-wise.

 

[hemway]

If Dish was smart (jury's still out on that one), they would have offered their Blockbuster @ Home customers, not regular Blockbuster customers, unlimited rentals by mail and/or in-store plans.

Unfortunately I found out that if you do an in-store exchange, the DVD that was mailed to you that you used for the exchange gets removed from your 'at home' list (the one you see) but doesn't get removed from the internal list the mailing system uses to send out titles, until the store sends the exchanged DVD back to the distribution center. They mail/UPS the exchanged DVD's to the center and that doesn't take place until the day after the exchange. So if you do an exchange on Friday and if they do over-night shipping (we should be so lucky), it would actually go out on Monday and get to the center sometime on Tuesday. My local store also said that they don't always ship everyday which would cause a longer delay.

If they gave BB@H customers of mail or store rentals, I'd go back (again) but until them, I'll stick with Netflix.

 

[Skee7ix]

Does anybody knows if DIRT members can fix the problem with BB. The discs?

I had BB before and cancelled it, and sent my last disc after I cancelled. of course when you cancel you cannot access to your queue anymore, so I reactivated today, and that disc is marked as I returned it, but didn't clear my queue, so they can't sent me another one, but I already sent the disc back, and it even says that they have it, but at the same time it still says that is at home, so queue is not cleared.

 

[gpollock87]

Does anybody knows if DIRT members can fix the problem with BB. The discs?

I had BB before and cancelled it, and sent my last disc after I cancelled. of course when you cancel you cannot access to your queue anymore, so I reactivated today, and that disc is marked as I returned it, but didn't clear my queue, so they can't sent me another one, but I already sent the disc back, and it even says that they have it, but at the same time it still says that is at home, so queue is not cleared.

I have asked DIRT about BB before and they said i had to contact BB.

 

[Pepper]

Obviously the service is not worth it if all you want is new release DVDs.

In my case, I enjoy the channels in the package, occasionally download something, and am using it to catch up on older stuff I haven't seen in years or ever. So I consider it a good value for what I'm paying (zero additional since I already had the Platinum package).

 

[satjay]

I enjoy the package as well, I like the channels that are offered and the DVD's are a bonus. Now with that I have a BB close to my home that adds value to the package, I can understand the frustration a bit if you don't have a BB close to you