mmconhea

Anyone notice the new BBO site is slow almost to the point of useless.
It takes forever to delete Queue items or just to click the searchbox. How could they let this through testing?

Brett

yep

I have found that the site seems to work better with ie than firefox.
I didn't know if it was just because I have a really large queue, or if the site behaved this way, regardless of queue size.

spainlinx0

The other day my girlfriend and I went to Blockbuster just to rent some movies, and we waited in a backed up line FOREVER as it seemed like every checkout person was busy giving the BBO hardsell, and didn't have time to ring people up. They would actually walk them over to the laptops, and sit there and watch them sign up while everyone who wanted to get a movie just stood there waiting. It was so obnoxious that I was ready to start grabbing candy off the shelf and whipping it at them.

Maybe it was a good plan of theirs though because I just signed up for a month free since it costs so much to rent a movie at the store anyway, and this way I'll actually be saving money.

the Chief

I agree that they shouldnt put in-store renters on hold just to sign someone up for the online service...

But I definately agree with you on the saving money part...

ds6161

I remember back about 10 years ago.. we were suppost to give out write-ups if the CSR's forgot to ask customers if they wanted not only candy & pop but specificly what ever was not selling over the last week!!!
& how about that hello when you walk in...

dist. managment makes them do this crap & they do it so much it comes off stale & repetitive....

TheOne

I think Blockbuster Online in-store return is fixed. Last week after return in store, the next movies shipped the next day without me having to complain to BBO or reporting it as a problem. I shall see if in-store returns this weekend would have my next movies shipped Monday.

Anyone else noticed that it is working like before? Or are you still encountering the no next day movie shipped after returning in-store the day before?

ds6161

last Wen. it worked OK for me... but its been 50/50 anyway..won't do my next returns to Tue.. we'll see

phattyphat69

My returns have been a little spotty as well. Earlier last week I had to wait until the 2nd business day after my return to get movies sent out. Then I returned my 3 mailers in-store on Thursday and only had 2 movies sent to me. Not sure what the deal is with my third movie.

DJ_Longfellow

So, I take it blockbuster does NOT ship out on Saturday anymore? I keep getting delayed. Also, they refuse to ship out any Blu-Ray/HD-DVD lately as some actually say AVAILABLE, but they ship movies farther down the list.

Plus, if you look by Collection -> Blu-Ray they added a bunch more movies, but when you try to add them, they say NOT AVAILABLE TO RENT.

Weird.

the Chief

They are in the process of adding these titles. Give them a little grace period on the new style products before giving up on them.

From what i've heard, they(BBO) are discussing issues with people sending back regular DVDs instead of the HD DVDs they were suppose to... Not sure what methods they use to check this, but if it isnt checked closely and if the customer doesnt notice that it isnt HD, the DVD could be passed along to about 2-3 customers before it is caught...

EdTheRipper

I'm under that assumption as well. I had 2 slots available for shipping over the weekend and nothing was shipped until Monday.

I'm also a bit frustrated with their Weinstein Company Exclusives. Every press release/news article said that there would be a section on their site devoted to these titles. It's been a few weeks and I've yet to find anything like that on the site. How can I know what titles they have exclusively if they're not really indicated?

EDIT...I e-mailed them about that last night and now right on the front page, there's a section specifically for these titles. Excellent.

Big Worms

The problem with AVAILABLE titles is very annoying. Available means they have it in their system. The problem is that they may have it in another distribution center that is not near you. There policy is that they will ship out movies that will get to you faster so they will ship out the next Available movie in the closets distribution center to you. There is no way to change this option. Personally I can wait an extra day to get the movie I really want. Don't decide for me that this is the best way.

FILMCZY

If there is a movie you want really bad, make that the only available title in your queue. It has worked for me numerous times.

Big Worms

Any easy way to remove 50 titles and then add them back?

FILMCZY

Since I can only have three out at a time, I just keep the three I want the most in my queue. When they ship, I add the next three available I want, etc.

FILMCZY

BBO has this listing of "exclusive" dvds, so why does Netflix carry the same three movies?

Blockbuster Exclusive
Prey
The Gathering
Unknown

EdTheRipper

Netflix CAN purchase copies of the exclusive titles but have to go through different channels, thus making it less likely to have many copies. I know the first week out, The Protector was listed as a Very Long Wait. Prey has been listed as a Very Long Wait from Sunday on.

mmconhea

I talked with my local BB manager... apparently since the new year, roughly 90% of all their rentals are now free-rentals from the online crowd. This is of course their impression for their store.

ds6161

sounds about right..
I wonder if by pushing this so hard in store they might be take themselves out of business.. If they are loosing all of thier in store money to $20 a month online rentals.
(thats 1 new release rental a week...) they would need to get a lot of completly new online business from Netflix to make up...

fujishig

From the beginning I thought this was some kind of get-Netflix-out-of-business scheme, even if they lose some money doing it for some time. I just cannot fathom how they can stay afloat if they keep this up permanently.

TheOne

Just a new report.

I guess it's still not working. Return in store still take 2 days instead of next day to ship. And that is when I either email to complain or report movie as returned but not cleared queue yet.

I think that early last week I thought it was next day but I reported it as returned but not cleared yet really late in the day and later that night the next movies shipped.

The interesting thing is that before Total Access, if mailed back, I would see the movie clear my queue by 10 AM the latest and next movie shipped out 5 PM the latest. Now, I see movies received like around 4 - 6 PM and next movie shipped around 6 PM - 9 PM. And that is west coast time.

I wonder if BBO added a swing shift or something.

BlackSol

Hmmm, last week I had a returned movie checked in 12:45 AM. So something must be going on.

I have also noticed that my dvds are being shipped between 5 and 6 PM now, never earlier. Seems like a sneaky way to throttle to me.

FILMCZY

Well get this: I returned 3 in-store then went home and checked the boxes stating I had returned the movies but they had not yet cleared my queue to speed things up a bit. The next day they email me that 3 dvds have shipped. Then the in-store returns showed up as "received" and they have now sent me THREE more dvds. Oops! Me thinks me broke it...

DJ_Longfellow

Yeah, they said I returned a movie already, and I never shipped it back. So, I'm taking my time to watch it....I was going to keep it, but that is just wrong, so I'll eventually ship it back. But, I always get shipping notices now at like 9PM here in MI. Sometimes I still get the next day, but other times it takes 2-3 days.

Also, I hate the AVAILABLE titles not shipping either (because of Distribuition center locations). I REALLY want HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and it's rare when they are AVAILABLE, but they never ship them. Damn THEM!

TheOne

More info from my email inquiry into the delay of in store return not shipping the next day:

Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.

I'm heartily sorry to hear that we still haven't shipped your next movie after your return(s) was scanned in-store. I empathize with your worries. As stated in our advertisement, once the store checks in your Online rental, the next available DVD from your Queue shall be shipped within the next business day with the exception of Sundays. However, some inevitable circumstances can induce service interruptions that impedes the allocation of your next movie. I want you to know that this is a known issue and we are indeed working hard to improve on it.

As we allocate your next movie(s), there are different factors that can cause the certain delay you are now currently experiencing. Any of the scenarios below may be applicable to your situation:

1. SYSTEM ERRORS - The scanning system in store and our check-in system in our Return Center may encounter technical difficulties at times causing the service interruption. It may be possible that your local store still doesn’t have the ability to check-in titles right away and what they do is to bring the DVDs to the distribution centers or have the distribution center people pick them up from the store to have them checked in. If this is the case, a movie may get shipped once we receive your return(s) in our Distribution Center. Please note that even if you return the movies to be checked in at the store, our estimated arrival time from the local store to our distribution center is still 3 business days.

2. THE NUMBER of MOVIES IN YOUR QUEUE - (This does not apply if you have more than 30 movies in your Queue) Our program relies solely on your requested movies, and it’s the utmost important factor we consider when sending something to you. Due to unavailability reasons, there might be times when some of your selections won’t be in stock at a nearby shipping center, therefore, to reduce service impediments, the system then searches your Queue for other requested movie(s) to be shipped. If you’ve got very few available titles, this could result to DVD delivery failure leaving the slots in your "Shipped List" unoccupied. If this is the case, you may opt to add 20 to 30 available movies to avoid the unwanted latency in shipping your next movie.

3. THE NUMBER of MOVIES IN YOUR SHIPPED LIST - As stated in our policy: "While reviewing your Queue, you may notice that DVDs exchanged or checked in at the store will remain in your "Shipped Movies" list until received by the Return Center. This does not prevent additional DVDs from being shipped; it's simply our way of tracking when a DVD is physically received by the Return Center." However, if you've got more than double of your limit, be sure to review them, and report the necessary title that needs to be reported so that slots are freed to make way for your next movie to be shipped. Always remember that if your return(s) has not been checked in within 3 business days from the time you brought in the store, you may report the issue in our website. If you're not sure how to report service issues online, please click the link below to learn how:

http://www.blockbuster.com/help/faq/694

4. OTHER FACTORS - When shipping your next movie, there might be intervening factors as well that might less contribute with the delay in allocating your next movie such as movie availability, other member's requests for the same titles, distribution center location, receipt of damaged discs, and postal service performance.

Hmm. It was working before. So I'm not sure if any of these scenarios apply to me.