Blockbuster Total Access Looks Good So Far
As I mentioned a week or so ago, we’ve decided to try out Blockbuster Total Access. While I realize that it’s been just a week, I have to admit that I’m already in love with this service… It started on Sunday, April 1st, when I signed up, put some movies in our queue, and then printed out the once-a-month free rental coupon so I could grab a free movie when I was over near Blockbuster later that day.
On Monday, I received e-mail notification that they were shipping three movies with a projected arrival date of Wednesday. As has always been the case with Netflix, however, they under-promised and over-delivered — the movies arrived the next day. We promptly watched a couple of the movies and then, this past Saturday, dropped them off at our local Blockbuster in return for two free movie rentals. The beauty of this is that we were able to skip the delay from mailing the movies back in, which greatly increases our throughput. Sure enough, the movies shipped out on Monday, even though they hadn’t received the others back at the warehouse yet.
Another thing that I like is having the freedom to pick up an extra kid or grownup movie on a whim depending on what came in the mail that week, the kind of weekend we’re having, and what sort of mood that we’re in. All in all, I’m a happy camper so far, and I’ve now transferred the contents of our queue from Netflix to Blockbuster. We still have a movie or two from Netflix, but will be canceling our membership before the next payment is due.
Anyone else out there care to share their experiences with Blockbuster Total Access?
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We love it too. We have never had Netflix but we love the total access over the old blockbuster. We are going thru 6-8 movies a week and we love not waiting for the next ones.
Comment by rob — Apr 12th 2007 @ 7:23 amMy brother used the blockbuster service, but I’ve been happy with NetFlix. I don’t have time to watch 6 to 8 movies per week; 1 to 3 is enough for me, plus tv shows on DVD that the wife can watch while she uses the treadmill seems to work out fine for us. We haven’t had service issues with Netflix either.
We did cancel netflix while we had cable installed during football season, though.
Comment by Blaine Moore — Apr 12th 2007 @ 10:02 amMy wife and I love it. We are saving at least $10 per month, and that’s just counting the movies we get shipped. If you count the free in-store rentals we get with every return envelope, it is crazy. The only problem now is that we’re running out of movies to see, although my wife was happy to catch up on some TV shows that she wants to get in to.
Comment by Don — Apr 12th 2007 @ 11:36 amI’m delurking to thank you for posting about this. I think you have sold me and my husband. We have been in-store Blockbuster shoppers, but hate shopping in store and hate the money we’re spending. Hearing how easy it has been for you online is great news. Thanks.
Comment by Abigail — Apr 12th 2007 @ 11:58 amMy wife and I love Blockbuster total access. In Alaska the turnover typically took a week, but cut in half with the in-store option. Highly recommended for out of the way locales.
Comment by Dave — Apr 12th 2007 @ 12:07 pmI haven’t tried Blockbuster, but we were on Netflix for a while, and were not happy with it. Quite a few of the movies were so scratched that they didn’t play with out lots of skipping. And that’s after I cleaned all the finger prints off.
Maybe Blockbuster is better. At least you could run it up to the actual store and swap for a good one, if they send you one that’s too scratched up.
Comment by Tony — Apr 12th 2007 @ 1:39 pmI have been really happy with Netflix so I won’t consider switching. I have had two broken discs out of maybe 200. Never had one skip. I probably watch only 2 to 3 a week so this works great - saves on gas, and I find Netflix’s turnaround time pretty amazing. Netflix, you rock!
Comment by Kim — Apr 12th 2007 @ 1:58 pmI’m on the $9.99 plan and I’m quite happy with the service. I receive on average two DVDs per week, but make that four since I return at the store. That’s makes it about 16 DVDs per month for $10. Not a bad deal in my opinion.
Comment by Alain W. — Apr 12th 2007 @ 7:41 pmQuestion for the Blockbuster people….I was looking at their terms and conditions. And it says that there are no late fees or due dates for movies rented online.
So the question is….
if I get a DVD through the mail….
take it to the store and trade it in….
do those terms apply to the “store” DVD?
Will that DVD have due dates and late fees?
And, can I return a movie I got from the store to the online store (i.e. return it in the BB envelope even though I got it from the store?)
Thanks!
Comment by Karen — Apr 12th 2007 @ 10:47 pmKaren, the movie you rent from the store will be the typical 2-day or 1-week rental like you would normally get from the store. The only difference: it’s free! Also, you must return a movie that you get from the store to the store that you got it from. You cannot mail it back in the Blockbuster envelopes. (It wouldn’t fit anways
I also am on the $9.99/month plan and am getting about 10 movies (new releases)/month. I always return movies to the store so I can pick a new movie up at no additional cost.
Comment by Jason — Apr 13th 2007 @ 6:34 pmIt’s a great deal.
Also remember, if you do want to sign up to get the promo code from your local Blockbuster or sign up in Blockbuster.
Not only will this give you a free two-week trail for the 17.99 plan, the employee who helped sign you up gets credit for doing it.
Since blockbusters corporate as been pushing the employees like crazy to sign people up, it helps the employee out.
Comment by Bunnyhat — Apr 13th 2007 @ 9:23 pmI got the blockbuster service after being upset with the throttling that netflix has implemented (we don’t have cable, so watch a lot of movies). I love the return at the store feature, but have two major gripes:
1. They NEVER send me the movies at the top of my queue. The ones they send are always several choices down (which is very irritating when I want something specific they don’t have in the store such as a TV show).
2. They’ve started getting slower in sending movies out. They say they’re supposed to send movies out the next business day after you return them to the store, but it’s starting taking 2 or three business days for them to send out the new movies.
Comment by amy — Apr 14th 2007 @ 3:42 pmI’m a Netflix customer who was thinking of jumping ship, until I saw this article on Consumerist about how Blockbuster is thinking of levying an additional charge for Total Access. Now I’m waiting.
http://consumerist.com/consume.....242596.php
Comment by seth — Apr 14th 2007 @ 8:10 pmHaha….
Blockbuster is a joke. You think Blockbuster has a larger selection and more shipping locations than Netflix?
Sure you can drop the movies off at the store, but guess what?… if you don’t turn that DVDs in on time, then you get charged late fees.
Like Amy said, they do throttle you, and as I said their selection is less.
If they get more customers, the service will get even worse.
I’m glad that Blockbuster has revamped themselves so it makes Netflix work harder to be better, but Blockbuster is about 1/5th as good as Netflix.
Enjoy the good service you are receiving now, I don’t expect it to last.
One last comment to the person that says Blockbuster doesn’t send out the top DVDs in your queue. The same thing occurs on Netflix. If the DVDs are new releases and are not available they go down the queue until they find one which is. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s basically how it works. Netflix has more titles available, so therefor you normally receive newer releases faster.
Comment by Ray — Apr 16th 2007 @ 10:27 amAbout Blockbuster not sending out the top DVDs, I meant that they don’t send out the top available DVDs. They say my top five choices are all available and then send me my sixth choice!
Comment by amy — Apr 17th 2007 @ 11:32 pmI’ve been using Blockbuster for years. Never had an issue.
I also just signed up for another service they offer, where I paid $5 which allows me to get a free snack (soda, pop corn, candy, etc) every time I get a movie from the store (even free movies).
Comment by After Bankruptcy — May 8th 2007 @ 10:37 amInteresting. What must you sign up for that they pay you the $5 for?
Comment by AMMBD — May 25th 2007 @ 8:01 pmI pay for Blockbster Total Access, 3 at a time, unlimited….the whole thing. Checked in 3 movies on Tuesday, and now it is Friday and they still have only shipped 2. This is terrible service. I am heading BACK to Netflix.
Comment by bob — Nov 30th 2007 @ 12:58 pmI have had netflix in the past and both times, throttling was involved. I called customer service and they said “we can not comment on throttling” and that I should provide my details in writing. Yeah, right! I do not do business with deciteful companies. I since moved to blockbuster and have enjoyed their service ever since. With turning in movies to the store we can see almost twice as many movies. I hope they can sustain this for many years to come. I gave netflix two attempts and they screwed me both times. Telling me my movies were shipping from NY and it would take a week. Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me. Do your research before spending your hard earned money and you will find blockbuster the better choice!
Comment by ck — May 6th 2008 @ 6:14 pmIf you love Blu-Ray you will hate Netflix. Their envelopes
Comment by Steve — Jul 15th 2008 @ 3:01 pmdon’t protect the easily cracked DVD’s. I have turned off the Blu-Ray option because out of the last 9 Blu-rays 7 of them have a small crack on the edge of the disc, therefore the disc will not play. I’m not the only one having a problem with this (Mars Box website discusses this in detail). I’m signing up for blockbuster this week because they have different envelopes.