This is the problem I've been having with Netflix. It seems that over the last month the movies at the top of my queue showing "Now" availability are skipped over and movies further down in the queue ships. In one case I was rearranging my que when my selections were pulled and the titles at the top showed available before and after and yet they pulled titles lower on my queue. The other problem I've been having with Netflix is how they throttle your account if you return too quickly. I get my mail in the morning and I have put those same DVDs in the mailbox at the post office in the afternoon, same day. It doesn't matter, they won't show up returned until three days later. Then they don't ship for 24 hours. Best I can do with Netflix is 3 discs a week

I'm trying the trial period with Blockbuster to see if they are any faster.

I signed up for the free trial of Netflix (it just ended yesterday) and I'm very happy with them.

My turnaround has always been a day (so far). Say I receive a disc on Saturday. Watch it Sunday. It's in the mail Monday morning. They receive it Tuesday and ship out another disc. I receive it on Wednesday.

Works for me. Although, I am fairly close to a distribution center, in the form of Cleveland, OH or Pittsburgh, PA. I'm thinking of trying the Blockbuster free-trial, just for kicks. See how much better/worse it is...

I'm still not having trouble with Netflix, after having them for a year and a half. Most of the time the movies are shipped out the same day they are received, sometimes the next day. It's not enough of a problem for me to throw up my hands and go to that devil of a corporation, Blockbuster.

I'm noticing a weird thing in which Netflix doesn't seem to be adding titles that Blockbuster is. And they seem to be pretty mainstream titles.

For example, Netflix doesn't have King of the Hill: Season 4 (though they do have the first three seasons).

And, thus far, they don't have the following titles up that Blockbuster has being released on 5/31:

Bedtime for Bonzo (Ronald Reagan's most famous movie)
Home Movies: Season 2 (they have Season 1)
The Late Shift (HBO movie about the Letterman/Leno thing)

Just seemed weird to me to have all these titles at once be unavailable through Netflix given that Netflix usually has almost anything I could possibly think of.

I got Blockbuster one year free trial.

I wasn't able to get the Blockbuster year free trial, but something strange is happening. I'm on my one month free trial for 3 movies at a time & today a 4th movie shipped out before they'd gotten one back. So now it looks like I'm getting 4 movies at once instead of 3 for my free month. I'm happy & I'm not complaining. I just thought it was strange. So far I'm getting dvds delivered quickly, but that seems the norm with your free month to get you in.

I did the blockbuster three at a time-one
month free promo from usa today and put
40 movies in my queue, 33 are "available now"
and nothing has shipped since last thursday.

I wrote to CS but got a e-mail with a
bunch of links but no reason for the
delay.

Bleh, I'll stick with netflix as my
turn around in hawaii is a day and I
can get 5 movies a week on the three
out plan.

as of now i have netflix, though i am thinking of trying blockbuster due to the free in store rentals and cheaper price. I was very happy with netflix for a bit, but i've received three cracked discs within the last month and when i returned them it took them about a week to come back to me. Turnaround times in general have just been dragging.
i'm just worried that title availability and selection will suck at blockbuster, as i've learned from their in store selection.
i'll probably just give blockbuster a shot and see how it works out, eh?

Movies get scanned in at the post office when you return them, so your new ones get shipped out as soon as they receive notice from the post office that they are on their way back to them. So technically your account could show you have 6 movies out at a given time. They don't take them off your list until they are officially checked in when they receive them.

This may be true but I experienced the same thing as Emma311. When I signed up, BB sent out the first three movies in my queue. The next day, while the first three were still in transit to my home, I got an e-mail stating that a fourth movie was also being shipped that day. The next day I got the three movies and the day after that the fourth arrived. I never had a chance to send back the discs nor did I report any problems with the DVDs. -confused-

I have another question regarding movies that are not "available now." If a movie at the top of your queue has a "short wait" or even a "long wait," how does Netflix and BB handle it? Does your account activity freeze until the first disc is available? will they instantly skip it and move to the next available title? or do they wait a pre-determined number of days and then move on to the next title? Inquiring minds want to know... ;)

They skip it and go to the next available one, though Blockbuster has often sent me movies they had listed as "Short Wait".

Bbo
 

Has anyone else had this problem? I have the Blockbuster Online - 3 out ... Free trial month - never had a problem, all movies shipped one day, arrived the next. Once I started paying -- shipped one day, arrived no earlier than two days later.

Just curious

Blockbuster in-store movie pass is what I'm doing. Netflix is great, they have a huge selection and if you're doing the mail thing I definatly suggest Netflix since the turnaround is probably fastest. However, here is why I like Blockbuster in-store movie pass.

1- I decide the turnaround time. Currently, I go everyday. Also going to the store everyday isn't a hassle at all. If I know what I want I just walk in and pick it up, I'm out in less than 5 minutes.
2- What I want is what they'll have. I'm not going to be looking to rent something obscure.
3- I get exactly what I feel like watching. I'm not a slave to the queue.
4- New releases are usually there. With Netflix, new releases were usually on Very Long Wait.

Blockbuster for me

I got the intentional slowdown treatment from netflix after about a year so I dropped them at the start of the year. For about the first six monthes with netflix if I sent something back on a Monday I'd have my next disc Wednesday. At the time I dropped if I sent a disc back on a Monday I wouldn't have my next disc until Friday or Saturday and sometimes the following Monday. I had several that took almost 2 weeks.

Blockbuster has been much better and now that they have a hub in Chicago my dvds are getting here quicker

The reason I don't like the in-store pass is because all the freaking movies are gone, ever since they instituted this no-late-fees thing that lets people rent stuff an extra week. This combined with the monthly passes makes finding stuff even harder than it used to be.

It's much, much worse for videogames, though. I usually use the 2 free instore rentals I get from the online service on games, but they literally never have any new releases in, unless I'm really lucky.

I'm curious if you've seen this happen, or if your store remains unaffected by it? Or maybe your store just buys increased volume or something? This is the main reason why I'm trying out the online service...

I tried the BB game pass for one month, and in that one month, i tried everything I wanted to try.

I would not be able to do the BBV in-store movie pass. I think I'm paying more for BBO, but I get 2 free video/game rentals [which means I can pretty much have someting rented from the store 26 days out of the month, with the NLF thing]. Basically I'm part of why fushijg can't find anything to rent ;)
Also, I'd be surprised if 1/2 the stuff on my queue is even carried at a local BBV, much less in stock at any given time. Plus, it's just way more convenient, personally, for me to manage my queue and drop stuff in the mailbox--I'm willing to pay for that extra convenience.
My shipping time for BBO is fine, probably equal or slightly worse [but not much worse] than Netflix; but I don't churn and burn through disks anyway.

You're the culprit!

You know, I was going out of town this past weekend, and I still had four games I had rented. I could've kept them for another week, even though I knew I didn't have time to play them, but I made the trip to BB to return them anyway. It's so easy to just keep it out even if you're not using it, just because you can. So people can have new release movies for two weeks long now, until they finally get around to watching it (maybe longer if they're willing to spend an extra buck and a half or so). If I watched it the first night, but don't feel like going back to BB until next week, oh well. I can't see how this is good for anyone trying to find even the latest movies, much less the ones they only have one copy of anyway...

My BB online experience has been pretty good, though I'm not a paying customer yet, and that seems to be when the service starts suffering (ironic as that is). Still, all the turmoil BB is going through may yet spell doom for the online division...

When I was with Blockbuster, I found that eventually, the shipments started taking longer in transit. I countered this by reporting everything as returned after three days.

I've recently started with Blockbuster, and noticed that the discs get returned to a local (Rochester, NY) PO box. Does that mean they have a distribution center locally? Or are they now to the point of having stores receive the returns?

I've been with BB for three months now and it seems like service is getting slower but I havent been keeping accurate records to say for sure.

When I first started I would get three on the same day and send all three back at the same time the next day and then get three more a few days later. This went on for almost the entire trial period. At some point one of the three arrived back to BB two days later than the others.

I'm beginning to notice a pattern that has happened for the last five orders. I will get one by itself. The other two I still get on the same day but one will be a day late and the other will be a day early according to their estimated time of arrival.

Now that I've tried both, Netflix's website BLOWS away Blockbuster. After my Blockbuster trial I will probably go back to Netflix. A bit quicker shipping.

Longtime Netflix user here. Frankly I just love their service. I've read a lot about "intentional slowdowns" and other mysterious practices, but I've honestly never experienced any of them.

I did sign up for BB's service (for a month) just to compare ... and there is no comparison. Netflix blows BB away in every conceivable fashion. And no amount of shiny "coupons" are gonna change my mind. ;)

I had Netflix and quit because of the delays alone.

While I think Netflix has a bigger selection, Blockbuster has no problems sending out new releases right away (this was a huge problem with netflix).

But, I'm still a new Blockbuster member and we all know what happens after you sign up for a while....

Has anyone in Massachusetts tried Blockbuster Online rentals?

Back in October or November I tried their free trial and it was MUCH slower than Netflix. Although now with the cheaper price, the free in-store rentals, and Netflix slow down in turn-around time. I am considering switching, but I wanted to know if anyone has had good luck with them in Massachusetts. I had heard rumors that they have also added a return hub in Worcester. MA, can anyone confirm this? What are average turn-around times?

I'm in RI (Which is pretty close) and yes Blockbuster does have a shipping center in Worcester. But they are still slower than Netflix. If it was only Oct/Nov when you tried them, then I am pretty sure they already had the Worcester hub at the time, so you would not see any difference now.

Although, I have noticed some more slowdown with Netflix since a few weeks ago when they started taking on Walmart accounts.