All Narfed Up words and photography by Bryan Villarin

I just started watching 24 in the last couple of weeks and I’m halfway through season 2 right now. I’m really enjoying how the show is setup. It’s like a big long movie and always keeps you interested. You’re going to love it.

Posted by Nick on 3 January 2007 @ 12pm

Actually, a friend got us into it starting with Season 5, Disc 3. We watched them all the way through in a couple days, so yeah, we love it!

Posted by Bryan on 3 January 2007 @ 1pm

Starting December 19, 2006, Blockbuster Total Access (online) is giving customers 1 free video game rental each month plus the first month is free.

Sign up at http://www.blockbuster.com/bbfamily
First month free with promo code 1557TA

Facts:

1. Offer changes to 2-week trial beginning Jan 15 2007. 3 movies out at a time. So, signup now !

2. Members can exchange online movies for free DVD rentals at their local Blockbuster (online mailer/movie will work like a coupon). Also, as soon as the online movies are exchanged at the store, the next movies in your que will ship as well. You essentially double the # of DVDs you can watch by returning them to the store (you can’t do this with Netflix).

3. Members will also receive 1 in store coupon every month for a free movie OR video game (even during free month).

4. Only pay $17.99 per month (3 out) after the 1st month or downgrade to the $14.99 (2 out) or $9.99 (1 out) plans.

Posted by kte12 on 3 January 2007 @ 4pm

The key point I was wondering about was if the next movie in my queue shipped when I returned the mailed DVD in-store. Thanks for the clarification, kte12.

Posted by Bryan on 3 January 2007 @ 10pm

I have found that Blockbuster keeps little or no track of trials.

I cancel, and it seems every time when I think about signing up again I can just start a new 2 week trial.

Posted by Anthony on 4 January 2007 @ 9am

That’s fascinating, Anthony. I’d hate to abuse the system, though. If I don’t like it now, I’ll probably try again in a year. Personally, I tried Blockbuster Online before, but since they enhanced it to Total Access, that might be why I was able to get another free trial.

Posted by Bryan on 4 January 2007 @ 5pm

I just finished my 1 month free trial of Blockbuster Total Access and I am very happy with it. Even if Blockbuster doesn’t ship immediately or if we don’t get the newest releases right away, we can get 2-3 times the number of movies that Netflix would allow us to get on the 3 DVDs at a time unlimited plan.

We found that we could get the new releases in the store and the hard to find movies on-line. When we bring the movie back to the store, the fact that we returned it is registered immediately so they can’t say it took a week to receive, as Netflix did.

I find that we have too many movies and might spend too much time watching but the novelty will wear off soon and we can slow down. My daughter returns a movie to the store on the weekend and picks up something that she and her friends want to watch. That return triggers the next movie in the queue to be sent out as well. So everyone in the family has a movie to watch. I think its great.

The first month, we got 14 movies from Blockbuster on-line AND 14 more movies when we returned them to the store AND a free movie from the COUPON and an additional free movie from a COUPON that blockbuster sent me because I e-mailed them that my first movies hadn’t been sent out after 2 days. (They told me to put more movies in the queue and gave me a another coupon).

So in all, this plan really works for us. Everyone is happy.

Posted by Ellen on 9 January 2007 @ 10am

Hey Ellen, when you mentioned how Blockbuster gave you a coupon because you didn’t get your first movies after 2 days, I didn’t get anything. Blast.

Posted by Bryan on 9 January 2007 @ 11pm

i am just a week into my trial with blockbuster total access and i am totally disgusted.

signed up on the 1/7 and added movies. website said they shipped 3 of them on 1/8 with estimated arrival of 1/11.

only received 1 disc on the 11th.

again only reiceved 1 disc on the 12th.

still waiting on the 3rd disc which won’t get here till 15th at a minimum if ever at all.

emailed custermer support since website says there is a problem if discs don’t arrive within 3 business days. well 6 business days to me equals twice the problem.

i am basically told by customer service that i am delusional and there is no problem and this is normal as sometimes discs ship from different distribuion center.

nice customer service, at least acknowledge theirs a problem and don’t contradicting your website which i’m sure qualifies as a legal document.

and if this is normal and they ship from different distribution centers then why in the world does the website say estimated arrival date of 1/11. what are only 1 of the dist. centers connected to a computer?

very irritating in the least to have it say 1/11 and not get it till 1/15 hopefully?

pretty sickening that this is the way business conduct themselves nowadays.

1. advertise something
2. dont’ deliver
3. accuse customer of being delusional
4. profit!

so gross. screw u blockbuster u will never get my business again. i normally don’t have time to whail and moan but they’ve already wasted so much of my time i htought i’d spend a few more minutes warning others

Posted by me on 14 January 2007 @ 2pm

[...] While the new service is undeniably cool, after waiting so long for movie downloads, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Netflix didn’t offer something a bit more progressive. I love that they priced the service as part of a rental instead of making customer buy digital copies of films, but I still wish that the service offered more choices and was immedietely available to all subscribers. With Blockbuster’s total access program beginning to gain traction in the market, digital downloading can be a great way for Netflix to differentiate their program, but until it’s available to all subscribers and until we see more then just 1,000 movies available, and until we see an easy way to get these films to the TV, it will certainly limit it’s appeal. [...]

Posted by Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection - Forget Total Access Netflix Launches Instant Access on 16 January 2007 @ 10am

I also am on the free blockbuster trial. Twice now I have returned movies to the store, and it took 3-4 business days for the next movie to ship out from my queue. If they don’t fix this soon, there could be a class action suit on there hands. They are obligated to ship it out the next business day or 2 at the most!

Posted by gm on 19 January 2007 @ 9am

I’m having the same problem with the Total Access program. I switched to it from Netflix because I didn’t like how it took netflix anywhere from 2 to 5 days to recieve the movies I mailed out. I always thought it odd that when they shipped a DVD I got it the next day but when I mailed my DVD back it always took much longer for them to recieve. I didn’t care so much so that I could get a free in store rental, although that is pretty cool, I cared more so that if I returned the online rental to the store that the next movie would ship right away. Fact of the matter is if I return an online rental to the store it takes anywhere from 2 to 5 days for the next movie to ship anyway. For example, today is tuesday, I returned a movie to my local Blockbuster store last friday. Not only has the next DVD still not shipped out but the one I returned on friday has been removed from my que indicating that it has already been mailed out from the blockbuster store and recieved in the wherehouse. I’m on the 2 DVD rental program and right now it’s indicating that I only have one DVD shipped. And to add to the frustration that one DVD in my que I already returned to a Blockbuster store yesterday morning.

And yes I called their customer service center to complain. Their number was busy the majority of the times I tried to call and when I did get through the wait time was 22 minutes. The lady on the phone offered to send me a free in store rental coupon which I declined because that really offers me no solution to the true problem of the DVD’s shipping right away. I never use my in store coupons anyway because I don’t want to rent movies from the store because it’s a pain for me to return them on time. The only other thing she could offer me was a futal attempt to adjust my expectations. That kind of ticked me off.

To test to make sure that the people in the store are scanning my DVD’s that i’ve been returning i’ve been renting a movie in the store with the DVD return and just dropping the in store DVD in the return slot on the way out. That hasn’t helped.

So due to all this I intend on canceling my blockbuster account and going back to netflix not just because of these problems alone, but because i’ve had 3 DVD’s at the top of my que that haven’t shipped due to being on short wait availability. All these problems combined have caused blockbuster to be a much worse service for me than Netflix. Worst thing is I know that I could complain all day and all night to them and it would yield no result. Trust me I really really want what blockbuster says they’re offering. But they are promising something that they clearly are failing to deliver.

Posted by Brandon on 23 January 2007 @ 4pm

I cancelled the blockbuster free trial and they sent me a cancellation confirmation with a Feb 28 last day to mail back DVDs. I thought it was rather generous since it was 12/30 when I cancelled. However, I thought that it was some special promotion or something. Well Jan 30 rolls around and htey bill me for $21 per DVD that I haven’t yet returned. When I e-mail them they just quote that I should have DVDs back to them 30 days after the cancel date.
NOT ACKNOWLEDGING THAT THEY SENT ME A CANCELLATION E_MAIL CLEARLY STATING THAT I HAD UNTIL FEB 28 to RETURN.

Blockbuster is terrible, Netflix is much better. They better fix their customer service and resolve these screw ups as they are getting their lunch eaten by companies who know how to treat customers and prospective customers

STAY AWAY FROM BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE

Posted by Joe on 1 February 2007 @ 10pm

[...] February 2nd, 2007 in Movies and Review. Tags: No Tags. No TagsSo far in the comments in my experiences with Blockbuster Total Access post, 1 positive, 4 negative. I’m done taking detailed notes, so here’s a few points for [...]

Posted by Update with Blockbuster Total Access at All Narfed Up on 2 February 2007 @ 7am

I signed up for the one month free blockbuster trial even though I have netflix. I wanted to see if the service was better. I signed up on Monday morning, February 5th. It is 5:00pm cst now on Feb. 6th. Zero movies have shipped and I suppose they are not shipping today either.

I have been on hold with Blockbuster customer service for 30 minutes. Do I dare hang up??? I got a busy signal for 20 minutes. My account is new, they have all the information, credit card, name, address. I did get the welcome to blockbuster email. I checked my account and it has the movies in my Q all available.

***UPDATE. While typing, customer service answered and told me that Available doesn’t really mean available. It means they have the movies at Blockbuster but not necessarily ready to ship or at the distribution center. It could be at a customers house. It just means they have access to the movie. I have 12 movies in my Q. She said I needed to add more. She also said she could not tell me when/if my movies at the top of my Q are available for shipping.

Not a very good start. I asked her if any of the 12 would ship and she said she could not answer that. She said they like to ship movies to new customers within 24 hour of signing up. I’ll keep ya posted. Am I being to anal only having 12 movies in my Q? Now I am suspicious that none of my top 12 are available to ship. Gotta be careful how I use the word available for now on.
Cheers,
Annie

Posted by Annie on 6 February 2007 @ 3pm

I’d definitely add more. Have you seen “24″?

Kidding aside, I’m not sure about their customer service. As a mini-update/story, I returned some DVD mailers on Saturday, they probably got processed on Monday, and I’m pretty sure the DVDs shipped yesterday. Today, we got FOUR DVDs. (They accidentally shipped an extra one, I guess.)

Still happy. At this rate, my mom and I are going to get through Season 4 and 5 of “24″ at an incredible speed.

Posted by Bryan on 6 February 2007 @ 4pm

Actually I did see 24 season 5 through Netflix. OT: During season 4 of 24 I lost interest. It seemed like a repeat of seasons 1-3. I very rarely give up on a show and since season 4 was so blah for me I did not watch season 5 but heard a lot of good buzz about how great it was. When it came out on DVD I watched it. I loved season 5. Now I am back and watching season 6. Damn you Jack Baurer, you sucked me back in.

OT again…sorry. I also watched all the episodes of The Shield courtesy of Netflix. I loved that too. Can’t wait for the new season.

Posted by Annie on 6 February 2007 @ 5pm

Jack Bauer is my hero.

I’m a bit scared to add another show. I’m sure we kill lots of time already with “24″, and watching the latest episodes of CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Heroes, and House. I don’t count 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, The Class, Two and a Half Men because they’re all sitcoms.

Posted by Bryan on 6 February 2007 @ 6pm

Well, I’ve tried both Netflix and Blockbuster and I think they are both crap.

Netflix did well with timeliness during my free trial, but then after that they started “throttling” my movies, which is apparently their policy if they think you “rent too much.” What that means is the movies you return and the ones they send out are greatly delayed, and the wait gets longer and longer the more you try to rent. If they want to you only rent so many movies per month, they shouldn’t offer “unlimited” packages – strange how the word “unlimited” makes you think you can get as many as you want for one price. Movies that took only 1 day to be returned and 1 day to ship out to me strangely started taking multiple days to be returned and shipped once my free trial time expired. I thought I was loosing my mind until I found other people online who had the exact same experience that I did. Total crap!! I canceled after I found out what they were doing.

So then I decided to try Blockbuster. I had a better experience with them as far as timeliness, I never noticed a chance at all in how many days it took for them to receive and ship movies to me. That was very efficient. The problem with them is there are so many movies that end up in your queue with “short wait,” “long wait,” or “very long wait,” on them. Any actual difference in those terms seem to be just some corporate BS, since I waited 3 weeks to receive a disc that was listed as “short wait” in my queue. It was the start of the second season of a TV show I was tyring to view, and it was pretty frustrating to wait all that time considering there was quite a cliffhanger to the first season! I never did receive any of the discs for the second season after waiting weeks for them, as they continued to be listed as on “short wait” in my queue. About HALF of the movies in my considerable queue were listed that way, and the vast majority were not newly released titles.

The wait doesn’t mean that I didn’t receive any movies, Blockbuster just goes on to the next available title in the queue when something isn’t available, but frankly, It’s still annoying to wait so long for something when you’re dealing with a company that is supposed to have zillions of movies available. It wasn’t even a popular title (I’m sure most people have already seen “La Femme Nikita” about a zillion years ago) so, frankly, I don’t get the long delay.

The reason I ended up canceling the Blockbuster membership is the crappy customer service. They sent me the wrong disc in a 2 disc movie set, when they should have sent BOTH discs since the movie is contained on both and you can’t watch the whole thing unless you have both discs. It clearly states on their policy that when a movie spans more than one disc, all of the discs are sent together to more “mimic the theater experience.” Well, after complaining about being sent disc 2 of something I never got disc 1 for (which contained the 2nd half of the movie and was completely useless) and also including my frustration with the wait time for the other, I got absolutely nowhere with them.

It was almost comical if it wasn’t so aggravating. The replys to my emails didn’t even address my concerns. It was like they didn’t even read them at all. They never did rectify the problem with the 2 disc set, and after going back and forth several times with not ONE email reply from customer service actually addressing the problem, I got sick of the whole thing and canceled my membership.

The real kick in the pants is this. If you use Blockbuster you’d better have a malware program on your computer, because every time you go on their site it installs a data tracking cookie that isn’t taken off by something like CCleaner. I regulary run my CC, and it didn’t even detect the data miner that Blockbuster left on my system. I didn’t find that little jewel until I ran my AdAware (something I do every week or two weeks). After I’d removed it I tried going back to the Blockbuster site to see if it got put on my system again, and guess what??? YEP! So, along with the crappy customer service, Blockbuster puts unauthorized crap on your system to invade your privacy. I included that little factoid in my email, but guess what?? They didn’t even mention it when they replied.

Having said all of that (whew), driving through heavy traffic to get to the locally owned video store seems a LOT less annyoing. And that’s what I’ll be doing from now on!

Posted by Linda on 7 February 2007 @ 12pm

Good luck with the class action folks! From the Terms and
Conditions:
“DISPUTE RESOLUTION
… Because this method of dispute resolution is personal, individual and provides the exclusive method for resolving such disputes, you further agree, to the extent permitted by applicable laws, to waive any right you may have to commence or participate in any class action or class-wide arbitration against Blockbuster related to any Claim.”

In over a month with TotalAccess, I have NEVER had a movie that I return to a Blockbuster store clear my queue “immediately” as promised. I have had to use the Report a Problem feature to tell them I returned my DVD and to ship me the new one. Only now, when I try to use that feature it tells me “This issue couldn’t be reported, the movie is still on the way.”

No help so far with their email tech support. This was their response:
“Please be advised that when you return online DVD at your local store, it immediately clears up your “Shipped Movies” list and opens up a spot for us to be able to send the next available title in your Queue. However, I would like to inform you that it takes 1-2 business days for the returned title to clear from your list.”

Which is it, 1-2 business days or immediately?

Quite disappointing! My advice: Avoid Blockbuster.

Posted by Rob on 15 February 2007 @ 10am

Well, I am definitely not staying with Blockbuster when my free trial is up. This is what I have found and it is very disappointing.
First, they skip over DVDs in my Q even if they say available. I called and asked about this and customer srvc. told me that next available in my Q is based on which DVD is actually “closest” distance wise to my home. Once it was DVD number 12.

Then I received disc two of a made for TV mini-series because disc one was further away. Makes sense? Finally, 5 days later disc 1 arrives but surprise it is disc two all over again. So there I was holding on to disc two because Blockbuster said my disc 1 of series would ship in 2-3 days and when it comes it is the same disc I already have.

Also, for me timing has been a major problem. The netflix distribution is much, much better for me. The center is only 1 hour from my house so I get DVDs shipped in one day. I live in Florida, and I have never, EVER received a DVD from Florida. They have come from Georgia and South Carolina. So, I wait 4 to 5 days for a DVD. This is totally a waste for me. Oh well, I did get to rent a few DVDs!

I can get new releases easier at my local rental store. As long as I go on a Tuesday morning there is no problem. I have had a “new” release in my Netflix Q for 4 weeks now and it still says long wait. I know these new releases are going to new members. I still prefer Netflix because they don’t screw the Q. If the movie says available it will ship in order. Not based on how far the distribution center. Plus, Blockbuster’s website sucks. They really need to just copy Netfllix in that regard.

Posted by Annie on 19 February 2007 @ 8pm

Blockbuster definitely has an issue with their shipping logistics or distribution centers. My queue will sit full with ‘available’ selections, but none will ship for days. I sent customer service an inquiry and this was their response:

Unfortunately, the total number of “Available” titles in your Queue is a little low. If a title at the top of your Queue is not available at a nearby center, the system automatically searches for the title at other distribution centers throughout our network. If the top Queue selections fall outside of an acceptable shipping window, we will ship a title that falls lower in the Queue. This process looks for “Available” titles 30-deep within your Queue. We do this so your shipping times will be faster, and so there is no interruption to your service. On occasion, if your top selections are not available and you have few titles in Queue, a shipment may be skipped. Based on this process, we encourage our customers to keep upwards of 30-40 “Available” titles in the Queue at all times.

..which makes no sense because I had 40 available titles in my queue at the time yet none had shipped for 2-3 days. This has been a consistent trend for the past 3 months (since I first subscribed).

I’m cancelling my subscription with Blockbuster and staying with Netflix. Blockbuster really has touted some empty promises.

Posted by alice on 21 February 2007 @ 4pm

I too am disgusted with BlockBuster Total Access. I got more movies during the 2 week trial than I did an entire paid month. Also, during the trial was the ONLY time I received 3 movies at once. I return the movies directly to my local BB store, then I wait 6 days for 1 movie to show up, then 7 days for another, etc. Recently I have been getting defective discs sent to me. Cleaning doesn’t help. I told the first customer service rep I talked too about how the trial service was better (not good, just better) than the paid service… apparently its true about the service being ‘better’ as she exclaimed how ‘there is no difference’ and she sent me 3 ecoupons and gave me 1 month free.

If I’m lucky enough to get more than 1 movie at a time, I take it to the BB store the same day I receive them. It seems they know this, and so they make sure I don’t get more than 1 at a time.

Also, it’s boring having customer service continually tell you how it’s the stores fault for not sending the movies back to them, while the store says they send them the next day. Also, I have never had a movie clear the queue after returning them to BB.

Posted by Rich on 27 February 2007 @ 10am

I have a similar same problem, my shipping queue has been empty since 2-27, it is 3-4 now. I have emailed a couple times, first reply was basically tough ****, next was one that they were having technical problems, and today, reply was “hmm, we will look into it.” They did send coupon for 1 free in-store. Netflix never had a problem like this. Too bad the Total Access is such a great deal. If they don’t ship movies, it won’t be so great anymore

Posted by John on 4 March 2007 @ 6pm

I had tried Blockbuster’s through the mail rentals when they started. Canceled because they were so slow. I decided to try again with the Total Access near the start of August 2007. Still slow. Slow getting the movies to me, slow showing them getting back. Yes, you can turn them in at the store and get free rentals but the Blockbuster stores I go to have not that great of a selection. Also, when you turn it at the store, it simply shows on the website as turned in at a store. They still don’t send the next one out or remove it from your queue till they get it mailed from the store. If you rent something at the store that is in your queue, don’t forget to take it out because they are not linked.

And you gotta love this:
In my Queue right now are 3 movies that are supposed to get here Aug 22, but they got here today (Aug 21). Two were fine, but the other was cracked an unplayable. Fine. Happens. I’ll just report it and either ask for a replacement or send the next one when they get the bad dvd back.

NOPE.

I picked the movie that was bad. I picked the choice the dvd unplayable. Then I got this nice message:

Sorry.
This issue couldn’t be reported, the movie is still on the way.

uuhhh… Nope. It was already right here in my dvd player not playing. I’ve already mailed it back. Tomorrow, when it gets here according to the queue, I’ll report it broken. I am canceling well before my free trial ends to make sure I don’t get charged. Also, so I have to deal with them less.

Posted by Chuck on 21 August 2007 @ 1pm

Total Access Totally Sucks now!! I have actually been a faithful member for over 6 months now and just recently they changed all their plans. I was previously on a plan where I received 3 movies at a time with unlimited in-store exchanges for only $16.99 per month. Now since they changed their plans this month, I have to pay $24.99 PER MONTH for the SAME SERVICE!! I am so pissed off!! That is almost like doubling the price! It totally sucks. This makes me really upset with Blockbuster now. A couple of bucks wouldn’t have been so bad, but this is $8.00 extra PER MONTH….$96.00 extra per year!!….Oh and that is not the only part that sucks… Certain customers that they deem “Special” still get to stay on the Total Access Plan at the same price. Others have to upgrade to the higher price, and also, new members have to pay the new higher price. This is TOTAL DISCRIMINATION!! Guess I won’t be going back to Total Sucksess anymore.

Posted by Candace on 22 October 2007 @ 4pm

Blockbuster’s total access has gotten totally FUBAR’d. I had the 3 DVD at a time plan, yet for months could only get 2 DVDs at a time. I spent 3 email support attempts and one on over the phone…all painful. If you try to get them by phone takes nearly a hour of waiting, and the email support is nothing more than canned responses. I canceled my account with them today and have started to try Netflix.

Posted by E on 30 October 2007 @ 6am

Some advice about Netflix and the New Dvds. New dvds come out on Tuesday but Netflix ships them out on Mondays. If I know a movie is coming out and I want it, I make sure I ship my movies back on Friday so that I will have open slots on Monday morning and that way I always get the new releases right away. This has never failed for me.
Unfortunately, I forgot to do this with the movie “Knocked Up” and put it in my qeue to late. It says very long wait and has for several weeks now. I gave my daughter a netflix gift through a coupon they sent me and she got the dvd Knocked Up right away. So, they claim they don’t throttle? My daughter is at college, two hours away and has the same distribution center as I do. Funny how she gets it immediately as a new member and it still says very long wait for me.

Posted by annie on 30 October 2007 @ 7am

Like other postings, I am currently a member of both Netflix & Blockbuster Total Access Online. I like the “in-store” exchanges of Blockbuster, but they don’t seem to register the movie as returned as quickly as I think they should. Netflix is certainly better in terms of receiving & shipping available titles–I have never complained about that. Both Netflix & Blockbuster have way too many movies in the Category of “Long Wait” and “Very Long Wait”. This is the reason I am trying Blockbuster Total Access right now! In my 4+ years of being a Netflix customer, I never felt I was “Throttled”, call me lucky or non-observant; but that was never my problem with Netfix. Netflix has movies available for rent online, but I only have DSL and I felt the online movies to be slow and of poor quality. Perhaps if I had a Hi-speed cable modem it would be better.

My biggest problem with Blockbuster is their slow turn around for shipping movies. I have 50+ movies in my queue and 17 are listed as “available”, but they wait for days before they ship me movies. They tell me to keep 30 available titles in my queue, but why would I add movies I don’t want to watch just so they will ship them to me. Makes no sense to me.

Posted by Scott on 15 January 2008 @ 11am

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.”

Posted by Rogue on 7 March 2008 @ 5pm

When I first started using Total Access, it was great. Somehow they knew when their movies got postmarked for return and would send another one before they even received the returned movie. Now they wait at least a day after they receive the return to send a new one, which means about a week wait. If you trade them in at the store every time, this makes things quicker, but that equates to gas money spent. Also I’ve had a problem with a two-disc set only shipping with the first disc, oh well, no problems with any other movies. I just hope they speed things up again soon.

Posted by kash on 22 September 2008 @ 12pm