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Blockbuster Online

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J of Sherman Oaks, CA March 8, 2009

J of Sherman Oaks CA (03/08/09)
Blockbuster changed their in-store rental policy without notifying their customers. Instead of getting your next rental in your online que when you took your mailer into one of their stores for an in-store rental (which we pay extra for) they decided that now those in-store rentals counted as part of your online rental que! The only benefit of this was to keep our in-store rentals as long as we wanted, which cheats us out of the extra rentals we paid for, and gives us less rentals. I don't believe any customer in their right mind would want this.

I complained, but the same corporate response was given over and over. I finally canceled my account. I encourage all Blockbuster online customers who are outraged at this change to cancel their accounts and tell them why in the email. Their pocketbooks are the only thing they'll listen to, because it sure isn't their customers.

Dan of Minneapolis, MN March 6, 2009

Dan of Minneapolis MN (03/06/09)
I re-activated my Blockbuster Online account on Jan 28, 2009. The contract was that they would supply me with 3 movies at a time via mail, allow me to swap mailed movies for in-store rentals free of charge 5 times per month, and I would pay them 19.99 per month, plus taxes. On Feburary 16, with all movies having been returned to them, they failed to send any movies out. On February 26, when they should have sent out 3 movies, they only sent two. I returned movies to the store on March 1, and tried to use the first of my second month's in-store exchanges, and was told that I had no exchanges available. On March 2nd, with all movies (other than a cash rental I'd taken from the store on the first) having been returned, they failed to send any movies. I complained to their customer service line on March 3, and they shipped my 3 movies.

I returned 2 of those movies to their store on March 4, and got an in-store exchange. I was informed at that time that the in-store exchanges would now be counted as if they'd been mailed - until returned, it would count as one of the 3 movies they had contracted to have shipped to me - a change from their previous policy, and the contract I had paid for. By their new rules, I had 2 movies out at the start of the business day of March 5, yet they again failed to send the third movie they'd contracted for. In background, when one requests movies from Blockbuster Online, one adds movies from their online menu to a queue, in the order in which the customer would like to have them shipped. Each movie has one of four availability ratings - available, short wait, long wait, or very long wait - these ratings reflecting Blockbuster's available stock and expectations of when they'll be able to ship movies that are not currently in stock - a fairly standard practice in the industry.

When I talked with their customer service rep on March 3rd, I was told that they would only ship movies if the movies at the top of my queue were currently available - if those movies were in one of the wait categories, that they would not ship movies. In a followup email from an web site complaint that I entered on the third (answered via email at 2:42am on March 4), it was explained that they would not ship in order to improve service, so that if one of the 'wait' movies became available, I would have empty slots and they could then send the movie that had been previously been unavailable. I am not aware of any time at which at least 5 of the top 15 movies in my queue have not enjoyed 'available' status. They also claim that their system simply malfunctions if there are less than 30 movies in the queue, or less than 30 'available' movies in the queue, depending on current circumstances.

I understand that I'm a high-traffic customer for Blockbuster, watching more movies than the average customer. I understand that their profit on such a contract is higher with lower-traffic customers. I also understand that they promise an unlimited number of rentals per month, with 3 movies shipped from them at a time, with shipping restricted to standard business days - and they are not living up to their end of the contract.

My claim rests solely on the fact that they have 1) altered the contract without any advance notice, after receiving money for said contract, and 2) failed to deliver what was promised when the contract was agreed to. Not, with only one customer, worth going to court over - the damages would not be as high as the court filing fees, and punitive damages are not to be counted upon - nor would I ask for any. However, if there are enough complaints (and there are many people complaining about this and other abuses of their contracts on several web sites), and this could be made a class-action suit, the expenses could be considerably less than the total actual damages, making such a suit worthwhile for a lawyer to pursue.

I expect that the emotional satisfaction of having their complaints validated would be of more value to the potential plaintiffs than the actual cash settlement, but that's an intangible oft worth considerable effort. If, under current law, such a suit isn't feasable, I guess that all I can do is cancel my contract when it becomes due at the end of the month, and hope I don't become one of the many people complaining about being charged for contracts that had been canceled. Thanks for reading my venting, in any case.

Susan of Concrete, WA February 15, 2009

Susan of Concrete WA (02/15/09)
I purchase a gift subscription for my mom for Christmas 2008. 6 mos for a cost of 129.53. My mom had 6 problems with delivery the first 30 days & cancelled the gift subscription. There are 5 mos remaining or 107 left on the contract. Blockbuster refused to credit my blockbuster account or refund my m/c. They are stealing 5 mos of payment & not providing services for this money. As you can see I have dealt with several people and spent several hours on this issue. Not only is this a breach of contract, they did not provide the services to mother, and they are stealing the remaining funds. Additionally their customer service reps are very rude.

This is bad business and gives the online movie business a bad name. Netflix is a much better company that stands behind their contracts & performs as stated. Stay clear of Blockbuster.

Natasha of Brunswick, OH February 11, 2009

Natasha of Brunswick OH (02/11/09)
I returned a dvd and canceled my account. They claimed they never received the dvd and charged my credit card 21. I called to fight the charges but they said they wouldn't return the money unless it showed up at their center. I see many more people are having the same problem. Will never go back to them

Joel of Excelsior, MN January 29, 2009

Joel of Excelsior MN (01/29/09)
I was a long time subscriber to Blockbuster on line and received many DVDs via the mail. They are provided with a postage paid envelop that is used to return the DVD after viewing. About a month ago, I dropped my subscription as I had received many free rental coupons from another source. I faithfully sent the last DVD back to them. They have now informed me that they are charging me 21.32 because they claim they did not receive the DVD. Because the DVD is mailed back to them in their own return envelope, I of course have no tracking number or any way to confirm that they did indeed receive the DVD.

I have sent them an email to dispute this charge, but they are refusing to refund the charge. I have contacted my bank and have filed a dispute through the bank. This is certainly not the way I would expect a customer of many years to be treated

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