Comments on: Experiences with Blockbuster Total Access

By: kash

kash — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:37:54 +0000

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.

By: Rogue

Rogue — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:41:27 +0000

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.”

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:42:25 +0000

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.

By: annie

annie — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:17:44 +0000

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.

By: E

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:35:30 +0000

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.

By: Candace

Candace — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:28:50 +0000

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.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:24:38 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:54:50 +0000

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

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:00:25 +0000

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.

By: alice

alice — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:47:44 +0000

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.