Blockbuster online problems

[mattysemo247]

Hey guys, is anyone else having problems with their online Blockbuster account? Every time I try to access my queue, I keep getting the same error message:

Error 500--Internal Server Error

It's kinda weird because I can add things to my queue, but I can't view it, delete anything, or rearrange anything. Is anyone else having this problem?

[Doc Moonlight]

I've been getting a message that the site is unavailable all weekend. I can't access the site or my que or anything.

[Dean Kousoulas]

Just checked mine...seems to be working just fine.

On a side note, anybody else always run into huge amounts of lag when they access their que...adding/deleting, moving, etc? I swear sometimes it takes 30 seconds for me to bump a title up or down. Netflix was always super fast.

[TheOne]

I can get in fine and normal "speed" within the site.

The only thing was nothing was shipped for me today. I had 3 movies returned at the store Saturday and usually I would have 3 movies shipped today. But nada got shipped today.

I know they are shipping because the #1 movie in my queue, The Next Avengers, shows Short Wait now.

Anyone get anything shipped today?

[mattysemo247]

There was no mail today (Labor Day). But I still can't get to my queue. I e mailed them, and they said to delete some items and that I may have too many in my queue. But that doesn't make sense (And how can I delete item when I can't access my queue)

[EdTheRipper]

I can get in fine and normal "speed" within the site.

The only thing was nothing was shipped for me today. I had 3 movies returned at the store Saturday and usually I would have 3 movies shipped today. But nada got shipped today.

I know they are shipping because the #1 movie in my queue, The Next Avengers, shows Short Wait now.

Anyone get anything shipped today?

As it has been explained to you numerous times in the past, there is no mail on a federal holiday.

When I had my Blockbuster Online account, I used to encounter a lag in my queue all the time. It wound up freezing Firefox 90% of the time.

[TheOne]

Hmmm.

As I mentioned before as well, on Federal holidays in the past, I had movies checked in (removed from queue) as well had movies shipped which I would get the next day. Maybe I was just lucky. :)

Anyways, I too did have Firefox freezing as well for me and had to use the dreaded Internet Explorer. Didn't freeze but version 7 was slow. Version 6 was better.

Having upgraded to Fireforx 3.01, I've noticed that it doesn't freeze anymore and better than IE 7.0.

[Blag Ripper]

1. Confirmed, same here.


I wonder if it has anything to do with large queues.

[TheOne]

Noticed something else.

For movies coming out next Tuesday, it used to be "available" in your queue area. Like movies coming out 9-9-08 such as The Forbidden Kingdom, you can put it as number 1.

Now it's in the Not Yet Available section so you can't move it to number 1.

That sucks. Do we have to wait till Tuesday before we can move it?

[Blag Ripper]

1. Give them a call...

when going into "My Queue" is affecting only certain customers whose account resides on one of their problem servers.

They obviously are trying to fix the issue but have no eta.

An extremely friendly and courteous rep should offer a couple of e-coupons due to the issue and ask you to call back later in the week if the issue is not fixed for some more e-coupons.

; )

[TheOne]

Good idea.

Since I've emailed them and even pointed out from their FAQ that upcoming releases are move to My Queue 2 -3 weeks before the actual release date and got a canned response.

[TheOne]

Just called. No free ecoupons.

But he did say it should be fixed next week and alsot here are other problems like people not even able to see their queue.

[mattysemo247]

I called them as well. Got 2 free rental coupons for in store rentals and they added an extra free week on my account. That was a lot more then I thought they would do, so I'm pleased with that. And they said it should be fixed by next week. Looks like they are still checking in movies and sending them out. But you can't mess with your queue.

[TheOne]

Wish Blockbuster would get their act together.

The Forbidden Kingdom that is out September 9 is still in the Not Yet Available section.

Email them again for the heck of it. At least I am not getting a canned response. Said still researching and will get back.

The response to my first email said I was changing my subscription and he will look into it. Changing my subscription? I didn't mention anything about my subscription plan; only about the issue that upcoming releases within the next 2 or 3 weeks are not showing up in My Queue like before.

[Quatermass]

Fortunately, I haven't had any problems with my queue. I've only been a subscriber for 2 months but the service has slowed down tremendously. There's a week's turnaround time every time I mail back a movie. No matter how I try to stagger my 2-at-a-time, they always keep getting back in sync. I guess because they don't process anything on Sat, Sun or Mon. I was having much better luck with Netflix. I think I might cancel on my next billing cycle.

[TheOne]

Hi Quatermass,

Not sure if you have upcoming September 9 releases in your queue. If you do, are you experiencing my problem where it is still stuck in the NOT YET AVAILABLE section of the queue?

Thanks.

[Quatermass]

Hi Quatermass,

Not sure if you have upcoming September 9 releases in your queue. If you do, are you experiencing my problem where it is still stuck in the NOT YET AVAILABLE section of the queue?

Thanks.

No, I've got mostly old stuff in the queue, so I wasn't having your specific problem - I just wanted to vent about slow turn-arounds.

[Jim]

I can't access My Queue either. I can see about the top 6 titles on the My Blockbuster page and I can move titles within that little frame, but that's it. It's pretty ridiculous for an online company to have this problem for over a week.

[TheOne]

Thanks Quatermass.

Just trying to see how widespread the problem is.

The CSR did say some people couldn't get into their queue.

Funny thing is he said that they are improving (ha ha ha) the website; like you can now download movies and did you notice that. And there are some problems and should be resolve over the weekend.

Wanna bet that over the weekend, we'll get "Site Unavailable due to maintenance. Try again later."

[TheOne]

Hmmm.

The September 9 releases are still in the Not Yet Available.
Emailing them over the weekend gets the answer there is not enough copies.

CHecking around the website. one person said there is a new allocation system. For instance, if the top 4 title is not in available in your queue, nothing will ship on day 1. If no titles in top 8 next day, then nothing will ship for day 2. By day 5, then the whole queue will be searched.

Something is fishy or BBonline as one person suspects is starting to throttle like Netflix but different. Or maybe going broke.

[mattysemo247]

Looks like they are starting to fix the problems. My queue is back up and running. Is everyone else fixed yet?

[TheOne]

Called and talked to a CSR.

Said there is a problem with the Not Yet Available releases moving to In Your Queue. Said it should be fixed tomorrow.

Glad your problem is fixed Mattyesmo247. (Should have a higher priority).

[TheOne]

Guess still not fixed. The September 16 releases are still stuck.

CSR said it was fixed and no one was complaining. Put in a request for their IT department to check into it.

Said it could also be they don't have the movie in stock yet so it is still Not Yet Available. Speed Racer? not in stock?

[mattysemo247]

Ya, looks like they don't hit the queue until the day they are released. That sucks.

[mattysemo247]

Alright, the queue seems to be fixed. Even with future titles. But their shipping sucks. It could be up to 3 days for them to send movies out. Anyone else having this problem?

[fujishig]

yes. Returned a movie to the store this weekend (status updated almost immediately) but still nothing is shipped out. Sure, a lot of the top of my queue is not available, but there are available titles below. I know they don't ship out over the weekend, but geez.

[TheOne]

Found this in another forum and not sure if this will relate to you (from my previous post):

Googling BBonline problems, this one website had one person said there is a new allocation system. For instance, if the top 4 title is not in available in your queue, nothing will ship on day 1. If no titles are available in your top 8 next day, then nothing will ship for day 2. And so on. Then on day 5, the whole queue will be searched.

[fujishig]

Found this in another forum and not sure if this will relate to you (from my previous post):

Googling BBonline problems, this one website had one person said there is a new allocation system. For instance, if the top 4 title is not in available in your queue, nothing will ship on day 1. If no titles are available in your top 8 next day, then nothing will ship for day 2. And so on. Then on day 5, the whole queue will be searched.

That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I know they're trying to make a profit for their online business, but geez... it doesn't help that sooo many titles in my queue are not available (and they were available or at least had a wait before).

edited to add: i wonder if this is a way of stopping people from griping that they always receive movies at the middle of their list. If so, it'll still cause more problems than not. If there's something that's listed as "short wait" or "long wait" they should know ahead of time if someone is returning the movies (as I think they still get scanned at the post office or the store). I can see NOT shipping out a movie further down my queue if they know that a movie with a wait is on its way back to them. But just waiting a day, then moving further down my list, up to a whole week (considering they only ship four of five days out of the week anyway?)

[mattysemo247]

Ya, this is just stupid. Because some of their movies say in Short or Long status for a LONG time. So what are you supposed to do if you can't keep them at the top and hope that they ship out at some point?

[eigafan]

I started getting the "error 500 - internal server error" on August 29th. I emailed customer service and received an email with instructions on how to get rid of my cookies/cache on Internet Explorer when I clearly stated what browsers (Safari, Opera, Firefox) I used, and what operating system (Mac OS X 10.4.11) and computer I was using. I replied back that resetting my cookies and deleting the cache didn't solve the queue problem and they wanted me contact another department on a toll free number. At this point, I decided that I didn't want to get billed on the first of September without having full access to my queue, so I canceled my BB online account. I'm totally happy with Netflix and glad to finally get rid of BB online (rate increase, slow shipment, bad customer service).

[Quatermass]

FWIW, I deleted the only movie I had in my queue that said "Very Long Wait" and it sped things up tremendously. No more 8-day turnarounds.
That's really a crappy algorithm, my local library is able to handle a waiting list for DVDs and I don't think I've ever waited more than two weeks for a title, so it's hard to believe blockbuster can't figure out a better way to manage queues.

[mattysemo247]

^^^

I did the same thing, and 3 movies shipped out the same day. It sucks, but I guess it works for now. Hopefully they get their shit straight soon...

[fujishig]

Err... how is "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" still not available?

[bigtedshred]

I've noticed a ton of movies now have not available.. Just looking at their top 100 rentals most are now 'We're sorry: this movie is not available for rent by mail.' No clue what is going on.. I'll email them and see if I get a reply.

edit: just to add confusion, even movies that I currently have out are listed as 'not available for rent by mail' Who knows.. I think my queue got cut in half just now with this issue.
edit2: 10/2, everything looks back to normal, although I'll need to re-add stuff to my queue. blah!

[SI78]

Ruh-roh. I went in to do my Oct. exchanges (well, 2 of them) and was told that the computer isn't letting anyone do trade ins anymore and that there is some sort of new policy and to check my email.

Well, I have no email...

Was that particular clerk on crack? Or is another policy change approaching?

[fujishig]

Ruh-roh. I went in to do my Oct. exchanges (well, 2 of them) and was told that the computer isn't letting anyone do trade ins anymore and that there is some sort of new policy and to check my email.

Well, I have no email...

Was that particular clerk on crack? Or is another policy change approaching?

I got a movie trade-in on Oct. 1. I also don't have a new email... I doubt they can just change the policy whenever they feel like it, considering we pay in advance for this.

[Quatermass]

Err... how is "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" still not available?
I just sent it back this morning. Maybe they only have the one copy.

[SI78]

I went to a different Blockbuster yesterday to attempt a trade, and again, the register would not let me.

This clerk was more friendly and knowledgeable, and called around trying to figure it out. However, he never did. His theorey, which seems plausible is that Blockbuster has switched from Calendar month to billing month without telling anyone.

Anybody else having trade in problems yet?

[TheOne]

Hi SI78,

I was at my local Blockbuster today. I was going to do a trade in if there was a movie I wanted to rent but it was still out. So I couldn't test if the "October" trade in is working.

One thing I've notice in my Sept 30 trade. Usually on the receipt, I would tell you how many trade-ins you've used. Last month, it would say, used 5. But it wasn't there this month. It may be because I also used a free rental coupon on the same receipt.

[fujishig]

I went to a different Blockbuster yesterday to attempt a trade, and again, the register would not let me.

This clerk was more friendly and knowledgeable, and called around trying to figure it out. However, he never did. His theorey, which seems plausible is that Blockbuster has switched from Calendar month to billing month without telling anyone.

Anybody else having trade in problems yet?

I just got an email today verifying this:


We just wanted to let you know about a change to your BLOCKBUSTER Total Access™ subscription. Starting this month, your in-store exchanges will now reset on your billing date, rather than on the first of each month. For your reference, your billing date is XXXX, 2008.

Remember, once you have used your included in-store exchanges for your billing period, you can still bring in your DVD mailers and exchange them for $1.99 movie rentals. It's just another benefit of being a BLOCKBUSTER Total Access subscriber!

Thanks for renting online with us,

Your friends at BLOCKBUSTER®

[tbwmp88]

I choose the American Gangster and James Bond Blu-ray's, but when it gets added to my queue, the format says DVD. Has anyone received the Blu-ray's when you did it this way?

[TheOne]

Thanks for your heads up fujishig.

I didn't get an email but check the faq online and it did say the exchange is based on billing period instead of calendar month.

I would have lost 1 exchange since my "billing month" is coming up and was going to do my last of the 5 exchange on that date. Now it should reset to 5 on that day.

[fujishig]

Thanks for your heads up fujishig.

I didn't get an email but check the faq online and it did say the exchange is based on billing period instead of calendar month.

I would have lost 1 exchange since my "billing month" is coming up and was going to do my last of the 5 exchange on that date. Now it should reset to 5 on that day.

yup... note I got this message right AFTER my billing date, which is probably intentional.

[TheOne]

I didn't even get an email. But it did reset right on the billing date.

[nemein]

Shows you how much attention I was paying... I thought it was already based on billing date :o