Nope, I'm afraid not..one DVD that was received by me on 3/1 and another that was received by me on 3/3, I mailed both back to them on 3/4...as of last week, I noticed that it was still in my queue..I sent an email to them and they stated that it was received back by them on the 14th, but when I checked the queue on the 16th, the titles were still in the queue..I had to manually remove them by clicking the 'report DVD issues' button.

Again, it shouldn't take two weeks for titles to be received back to them, much less having to go through the tedious task of manually removing them from the list myself every time. Maybe it is the DC that is assigned to me that is inefficient, but I'm not going through the aggravation of dealing with them anymore. Too much headaches.

I know..that was weird. I sometimes get a Tuesday release sent out on Monday, but yes, that's what I got. I watched it Saturday...good movie by the way.

Good to know. I'm hoping Netflix gets it out to me for tomorrow. I've been looking forward to that one, and Capote. That's cool that you got to see it a week early.

Well this is something new... I tried reordering something in my BlockBuster Q and everything got dumped, it's now completely empty. I only had about 60 titles in there and maybe overall it's not a bad thing to clear it out once in awhile. I'd rather it be my choice though

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I signed out, signed back in: it was completely there, nothing changed.

Yeah it keeps showing up whenever I do that. If I try to reorder anything though it all goes away again. I guess they tried some sort of upgrade that didn't work out too well (or it's something strange on my computer). So far I've tried it w/ Mozilla, Netscape and Opera all w/ the same result.

How about IE?

if I must


Same problem & I've tried multiple machines at work. I'll try from home later night and see if I get the same results.

Can anyone here say if Blockbuster has gotten better in terms of throttling (over the past 6 months or so)?

Netflix's service is (for me) at its peak of excellence right now, service wise, but man, I would sure love to get that free instore BB coupon every week as I have a store right down the street...I'm really tempted.

I have also noticed the reordering problems with BB. I tried rearranging my queue and none of the new changes were reflected. I use IE so I thought it was the browser. Despite cleaning out the temp files, cookies,etc. and even using FireFox to try rearranging the queue, the problem still persist. Ugh. BB is a mess. Aside from Netflix and BB, what other online DVD rental companies are there to try?

So now Netflix is suing Blockbuster.com, trying to shut them down for patent infringement:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060405/...ockbuster_dc_5

Basically, they're suing them because of the concept of shipping a new movie out when someone returns one, not having late fees, and having a prioritized wishlist.

Chronicles of Narnia was showing as Short Wait.
THey shipped it out yesterday, I got the email 11:21 AM yesterday. Got it in today's mail, 1/2 an hour ago. No complaints here.
I'm not a huge speed watcher, most of what I get are tv series which take me a couple days to watch, so I haven't experienced throttling.

Patents; I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds stupid.

here's an odd one: I signed up for Netflix almost a month ago and I got the first three discs of the tv show "Huff" soon after they were released in March. I had no problems, but I've been waiting on disc 4 for a couple of weeks and it's always been on Very Long Wait for some reason. Now, I check my queue and it's gone altogether from the top spot and been moved to the 'saved' part below the queue with availability as 'unknown.'

I saw that too! Anyone on the 'inside' who can offer an explanation?

Weird.

That's interesting...

The DVDTalk Review lists it as a 4-disc release.

Amazon.com, however, says it is only 3-discs.

I just signed up for Blockbuster Online last weekend. So far, so good. I intend to be quick with the rentals so we'll see if they throttle me at all.

I read through most of the posts here, and I did not see the answer I was looking for. How do both services offer Series sets? For Example If I wanted to get Season 1 does the whole season count as one rental or is it 1 disc, 1 rental i.e. 3 rentals for one season of an average show?

I am leaning in favor of netflix, 3 discs at a time unlimited.
I am mostly interested in documentarys, being as I would not want to spend money to own them only to watch them once, also I was wondering do subscribers of these services find that there purchases of DVDs have decreased with the ability to rent them? or does it still compel one to physically own the DVD to watch at any time?

Thanks

1 disc, 1 rental

as for Huff disc 4, it reappeared in my queue with "very long wait" but a couple of days later it was available and they shipped it to me. One other odd thing that happened to me was that I was unable to cancel online. It told me to call a phone number, which I did and was offered two months at half off which I accepted.

I know I buy far fewer DVD's than I would if I didn't rent so many, not that I was such a big time purchaser before. I also occasionally pick up something that I saw first via Netflix. I like having my small (by this board's standards) collection, but renting allows me to see so much more than buying would.

And, as was answered above, 1 disc = 1 rental, with the rare exception of a very long movie split onto two discs (ie, Gangs of New York).

Thanks for all the info!

I am in the same boat as you kitkat, I have what I think to be a decent collection, but I still want so much more. The reality is I am not going to watch a lot of movies more then once so I do not see the need to own as many. I own around 75, which I know is nothing. But lately I have way more free time then I know what to do with, so I figure netflix will be a good hobby I am planning on signing up sometime this week. I am also always up for suggestions on netflix

im almost done with my free month at blockbuster and i have decided to cancel netflix and stick with blockbuster. BB has been MUCH faster and more reliable and netflix has been throttling me up the butt and sending me DVDs from far far away shipping facilities, another way to throttle.

im sure BB has only been great because i am a new customer but i will stick with them for awhile until things change.

I'm not impressed with BB other than the free weekly coupon. I'm with others who frequently have their top choices continuously bypassed for lower priority dvds. What's the point of a priority queue if BB continually picks the dvds THEY want to send you? They might as well have a random list and go from there. I don't care if it takes an extra day or two as long as I get the dvds I want. I keep receiving emails telling me a "new" BB is on the way. Well, it better be better than what they have now. If not, Netflix will surely shut them down with their recently won patents and better customer service. Also, BB's dvd inventory cannot compare to Netflix. It's time to step up to the online rental plate guys...

Okay...but I'm all outta patience...


Our goal is to ship your movies as quickly as possible in order to meet the expectation of 1 to 3 business days for receipt. We review all "Available Now" titles in your queue, and determine which titles are available for 2-day shipping at your nearest distribution center(s). If the requested title is outside the 2-day shipping window, it will be skipped over for a title further on your list.

We understand this may be frustrating if you are waiting for a specific title that is continuously being skipped. We are currently reviewing this process in order to improve in this area. We appreciate your patience as we do this.

I actually prefer this method to Netflix's. Netflix will take the next available film in your queue, but often won't ship it until the next day (or sometimes two days later). Blockbuster's method allows for receiving more films. It certainly did when I was a member.

It's definitely a trade-off: getting the title you want, and possibly waiting a couple days for it to get in stock, or getting a title shipped quickly, but it might be in the top 5 of your queue. I don't mind BBO's method, I manage my queue pretty well and am usually working on one or two tv series and a movie at the same time, so I don't *have* to have certain titles immediately.