Yeah, it's ok with me....I'm good until Jan 2006 also. The two in-stoer rentals are GREAT. They just raised game rentals $1, I believe they are $7.99 now. Thus, that's $16 free for me sorta.....it's a nice bonus.

I just noticed today that the games are indeed 7.99 per rental. Ouch.

Has anyone had any problems with BB.com lately? I've had two movies out and I've been waiting for 2 days now for them to ship my third....I sent an e-mail threating to cancel...although, this is the first time I've had any real problems.

i only have 1 out and waiting for 2 more. it's been two days.

I'm thinking they are having issues with their online site then.....I logged in the one day and it was totally down.

Slightly off topic but, I have blockbuster but I am going to cancel in three weeks. I have the 3 dvd plan but want to upgrade to the 5 dvd plan until cancelation. They say they do not bill for the upgrade until the next billing cycle. Since they bill for the month coming up, if I canceled before then will I get the extra 2 dvds at a time for free until I cancel?

You shouldn't.

"To modify your BLOCKBUSTER Online membership, go to www.blockbuster.com, go to "My Account", and request to modify. ..By modifying your BLOCKBUSTER Online membership, you are also agreeing and directing Blockbuster or its agent to continue to automatically renew your new BLOCKBUSTER Online membership on each anniversary date applicable to the new membership plan... The new membership plan will begin on the day which would have been the anniversary date of the prior membership plan. ... If you've upgraded, you can add additional BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals as of the effective date of your upgrade (which would be your normal anniversary date). For example, if you upgrade from a three movie BLOCKBUSTER Online membership plan to a five movie BLOCKBUSTER Online membership plan, and you have three BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals checked out, you may check out two additional BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals on the effective date of your upgrade"

So you can upgrade now, but it wont go into effect till your anniversary month, when the billing would go into effect as well.

I've tried out blockbuster.com for about 3 weeks now and it seems like the service is really slow. I live less than 20 miles from their warehouse and my turnaround time is about 4 days. Ridiculous. I think they are understaffed. Going to try Netflix next week.

I guess I'm lucky.
I put a disk in my mailbox yesterday, they got it today. Haven't checked today's mail yet to see if I have received the title they sent Monday.
Some of that can also depend on your local PO. My local PO is a 'small town' that seems to ship things very quickly except for one fluke around the holidays.
Now, the other issue is why they send what they send--for some reason they just sent me disk 8 on my queue, even though 6 of the previous 7 are 'available.'
Most of mine get sent back to the same place; I wonder if they are sent out from that one, and if so, if they try to send you the first Available title in your queue, that is available at 'your' distro center, in an effort to speed shipping, since it would obviously take longer if it was shipped from, say, CA to me in NC. Tradeoff, I guess.

Does BBV use warehouses to supply the movies? I thought this was actually done at certain stores chosen throught the nation, and if the store was out of stock of a certain title a subscriber wanted, the request would go to the next closest store and so on until the title was found. Or do they do a mixture of both?

I do not think my post office is slow. I sent a package to New York and the receipient got it in 2 days. It boggles me how Blockbuster doesn't get my dvd's the day after i return them. I'm thinking they might be doing it on purpose so I can get less dvd's. What I also find odd is that they ship dvd's at different times even though they get it at the same time. Something is not right with their system, if that.

If that's true, I would have a problem with that. Are you a real heavy renter? I can see not shipping out two disks at the same time, they might just be in different places/distro centers/filing cabinets [I've noticed this as well, with both BBO and NF, so I try to stagger my returns by at least a day].

Of course, here's where the fine print comes in:

"BLOCKBUSTER Online will automatically ship titles to you, up to your maximum number of outstanding BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals, from and in the order that you have listed in your rental queue, subject to availability. However, BLOCKBUSTER Online reserves the right to determine product allocation among members in its sole discretion."

Basically the same kind of 'throttling' that Netflix allegedly does for heavy users. Technically they could conveniently keep shipping every title on a users queue, to other users, and be within their ToS. Of course, that customer could and should quit, but still.

With the monthly by mail pass, do the 2 instore rental couplons include games - I've heard mixed opinions...

Assuming you mean Blockbuster Online, they do currently [at least on my sub], but there are reports that some people's coupons no longer apply to games, but are video only. They're probably transitioning away from allowing game rentals.

When I signed up in late October I was not able to rent video games. The coupons just said movie rentals.

If you look at their sign-up page it states "Two Free In-Store Movie Rentals a Month
Each month BLOCKBUSTER Online® provides you with two ecoupons for FREE in-store movie rentals. Print your ecoupons and take them into your nearest participating BLOCKBUSTER® store to enjoy your free movie rentals." It must be something they phased in since some current customers still can rent video games with the coupons.

So it's true that Blockbuster no longer offers in store game rentals? I thought there was a dispute about this, as in some were able and some were not?

For those of you on the 3 movie / $14.99 plan...Now that Jan. is approaching, will you be canceling your subscription?

I probably won't, as I hate driving to Blockbuster and they've been getting me new releases immediately on or after the release date. Not being able to rent games would definitely make me think twice, though ....

If they change my coupons so I only get games, *and* raise the price, I might cancel. Give me a chance to catch up on purchased dvd's. And odds are, if I cancel, they might send a 'come back' discount.
I wouldn't be losing anything since there's no contract and I would no longer be getting a discounted price.
I would not start renting from BBV, however.

If they do drop the game portion of the coupon I'll probably drop them. I emailed them a week or so ago asking about it, but I still haven't received any response...

Not sure if this belongs in this thread, but it is Blockbuster related.

Late Fees Return at Some Blockbusters By CARYN ROUSSEAU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 39 minutes ago



LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Blockbuster Inc. stores in several states are quietly resuming late fees for customers who keep movies too long, rejecting the video-rental chain's national advertising of "No Late Fees!" because they can no longer keep popular movies on their shelves.

Many Arkansas stores resumed the late fees Nov. 21 and charges will apply again soon at various stores in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Arkansas attorney general's office has heard complaints that the fees restarted without any notice.

Blockbuster last winter said it would drop late fees, but its fine print said the company would charge consumers if they kept the movies too long, then charge a $1.25 restocking fee if the movies were returned. In March, the Dallas-based company settled complaints heard in 47 states and authorized refunds for offended customers.

"At this point we are contacting the other states who we worked with before when we had the settlement with Blockbuster," said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe. "The first questions you'd ask in a situation like this is, 'What does this mean under the settlement we already have?' and 'Was this something that was publicized on their (Blockbuster's) part?'"

Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc., said the decision to cancel the "no late fees" policy is made by independent franchises. About 4,600 company-owned Blockbuster locations will continue the program, he said.

Tom Barzizza, vice president of Flicks Management Inc., which owns 30 Blockbuster franchises in the mid-South, said it stapled notices to receipts for 30 days prior to the late fees' return. Some customers said they did not receive the notice.

Barzizza said it was important to reimpose the fees.

"It's a mechanism by which we can get customers to bring the movies back," he said. "Our business is all about availabililty. If somebody keeps a new release that's in high demand out for two weeks, that means it's not there for someone else to rent.

"With the lack of any kind of late-fee structure the movies weren't coming back. Customers would come in and there wouldn't be any movies for them to rent," he said.

The late fee is equal to the full rental rate divided by the number of days in the rental period. For example, for a $4 movie rented for five days, the late fee would be 80 cents per day.

"This way customers pay for what they use and it helps customers return the movies in a timely manner," Barzizza said. "It's a completely fair deal. Customers understand that if they choose to keep the movie for a day, we're going to charge them for a day — just like a library has a daily rate."

DeCample said complaints heard by the attorney general's office center on Blockbuster not telling consumers that it will impose late fees again.

When the program started in January 2005, about 550 of Blockbuster's approximately 1,060 franchisees took it up as well. About 400 franchisees continue to run the program, with about 150 dropping it.

"What we have said is that the 'no late fees' program requires an initial loss of revenue because people are keeping the product out longer," Hargrove said. "Some of our franchisees can't afford this investment. It's an expensive program."

Hargrove said customers should contact their local Blockbuster to find out of the program is still active. Barzizza said his Blockbuster locations would be lenient with customers who do not know late fees were reinstated and will reimburse them.

Hargrove argues that the "no late fee" structure has worked well on the corporate end.

"During the third quarter of 2005, without late fees, we outperformed the store-based rental industry by 10 percentage points," he said. "We believe we accomplished that in large part because of our no late fee program."

This is going to turn out even worse for them... I see them losing the few customers who actually stuck around after the no-late-fees fiasco started. You have a nationally advertised campaign declaring no-late-fees, get people used to keeping stuff a week longer, then impose late fees again with little to no notice (unless stores are putting up a "late fees are back" poster)?

a-hem:
""With the lack of any kind of late-fee structure the movies weren't coming back. Customers would come in and there wouldn't be any movies for them to rent," he said."

DUH.

I don't inherently mind a late fee, especially a reasonably fair one such as this: "The late fee is equal to the full rental rate divided by the number of days in the rental period. For example, for a $4 movie rented for five days, the late fee would be 80 cents per day."

But they need to make *darn sure* people know about it. Staple things to the receipt, put big standees by the register, big posters on the wall/door.

Of course their financials took a nosedive, but "we're making it up in volume!"

I loved it when there was a late fee. I had a one movie pass for 14.99 plus tax a month. I could rent as many movies as I could watch and keep them for as long as I wanted. Of course I could only rent one at a time but I lived right across the street from the store so it was easy to rent a couple a night if I wanted to. Shortly after the NO late fee fiasco began Blockbuster raised the cost to 19.99. I was told at the store by a managerthe reason for the increase was that revenues were down and also that Blockbusters wanted to increase its online business. Although it was around a 30% increase it was still a good deal for me. In August I bought a new house also across the street from a Blockbusters. I could not get the one movie pass only a two movie pass for $24.99. I bought it because I knew I would be without tv for at least a month and I would be renting movies almost every day. After 2 months or so they raised the price again by 3 bucks making the total over 30 bucks a month. I cancelled. The manager of the store told me folks were cancelling in droves when I was cancelling and getting a 3 buck refund for the unauthorized charge to my credit card. Now I use the Redbox by Macdonalds at a buck a rental for new releases. The local Grocery store across the street rents dvds also for a couple of bucks and two for one specials tue and wed. During the summer I'll probably go with Netflix for a month or two to catch up on some of the older DVD's I like to watch. Blockbuster has lost me as a customer because of its stupidity and greed.