You current or former BB online rental folks - do you know what determines if your return gets scanned at the USPS or not.

My first 2 movies were scanned the day I dropped them off and a rental shipped to me from BB the same day.

Since then, it has been very sporadic. Any insight?

I thought every movie was supposed to be scanned to help speed up the shipping process of the next DVD in your queue. At least BBV sent me an email claiming they were doing that to improve the speed of their service because of an arrangement with the post office. The reality for me was it didn't appear to happen very often, and most of my DVDs were not checked in as returned for several days or more after being mailed. One of several reasons I decided to quit their rental service.

I've been trying BB for about 3 weeks. The distribution center is in my state but about 90 miles away. The quickest I've had a movie recieved has been 3 days, movies coming back to me are taking 2 to 4 days. I put a couple movies in the mail last weekend, they were received Wednesday and I still haven't recieved any replacements.

I decided to try BB because netflix was receiving my movies and not shipping out new ones until the next day, but I still get a 3 day turn around with them (dist center in my town). Guess I'll be sticking with them.

I have seen no evidence they do this.

Same here.

I've received and shipped back about 8 movies and only two of them have I received a notice the exact same day I dropped it off at the post office. All of the other times, I never hear back until the movie reaches the dist. center 2 days later. So I think it's random and probably an issue with the USPS not paying attention or getting the memo that they are supposed to scan these things. If the USPS doesn't scan them and just mails them, then it's not going to expedite anything. On the two that were scanned at the USPS, BB shipped me two new movies a full day before they received the ones I shipped to them.

So in theory it works, but only if the USPS actually scans the item.

I never saw Blockbuster do this during the 2 months I used them.

Thank you for contacting Blockbuster Online Customer Service.

You won't have to wait for our distribution center to receive your returning DVD before your next movie starts making its way to you. Once the post office notifies Blockbuster of your return, we'll check your Queue and ship the next available DVD title as soon as possible.

Our new system may cause you to have more movies in the "Shipped Movies" section of your Queue than your plan would typically allow, but we think you'll agree that this is a good thing.

As usual, you will receive an email acknowledgment once your returning DVD arrives at our distribution center. You will not receive this e-mail when the post office scans the DVD.

Here are some tips for making the most of Blockbuster Online:

• In order to maximize the number of movies we ship to you using this new technology, please return only one DVD per return envelope.
• Keep at least 10-15 movie in your Queue
• Rating Movies helps us recommend titles that are tailored to your tastes. The more you rate, the better our recommendations.

If you still have additional questions, please feel free to check out the FAQs.

Your Friends at Blockbuster Online

--------------------------------------------

Our goal is to ship movies to you in the order you request them. In order to do this and give you a high level of service, your movies may ship from multiple shipping centers. This could result in your movies arriving on different days, even if shipped out on the same day. As we continue to grow, more movies will be available in each shipping center and shipping times will continue to decrease.

The USPS scans all mail and once it is verified we are notified. If for any reason you do not receive a dvd please report an issue, this can expedite shipping.

Always here to help,

Your Friends at Blockbuster Online

Either the USPS isn't contacting BB or this is bullshit. I'm starting to see a trend where they are getting my movies back in three days and then they don't even ship me another one until the next day. It's getting a little annoying.

I've been telling em I shipped it out the day I send it. Today I "sent" back Ladder 49, it cleared the queue and they shipped out my next dvd.

Actually this has improved greatly. Last 3 were scanned and replacement shipped day after drop off.