Blockbuster Stoops to New Low with Friday Sleeper Shipping Delay Tactic

Just when we think Blockbuster Online cannot get any worse, they surprise us with another delay tactic, which ultimately results in a reduction of subscriber benefits. The latest stunt in a long line of repugnant and sleazy corporate behavior is Blockbuster’s new Friday shipping delay. We will call this the Friday Sleeper shipping delay tactic. In this scheme, Blockbuster Online leaves one shipping slot in a subscriber’s queue open almost all week and then ships out a DVD to fill that open slot on Friday afternoon.

Here is an example of how this Friday Sleeper shipping delay tactic appears to work. Blockbuster Online subscriber, Bob returns Online DVDs A1, B1, and C1 to a Blockbuster store on Friday, January 9. The store clerk scans in the DVDs, immediately opening all three shipping slots in Bob’s queue. Now if Blockbuster were living up to their end of the subscriber agreement, they would ship out three DVDs (A2, B2, and C2) on Monday, January 12. In this scheme, however, Blockbuster Online will wait until Wednesday, January 14 to fill only two of the three open queue slots by sending out DVDs A2 and B2. Blockbuster Online will then leave the one remaining queue slot open until the end of the shipping week and then finally ship out DVD C2 on Friday, January 16.

In this scenario, Bob gets hit with the standard Wednesday shipping delay plus the new Friday Sleeper shipping delay tactic. Bob will have to wait nearly a week to receive the first two DVDs (A2 and B2), and he will have to wait more than a week to receive the third DVD (C2). He should have received all three DVDs in just a few days, so Blockbuster has successfully and dramatically reduced the number of DVDs Bob can receive during each month.

At this point, it is not clear if Blockbuster is using this Friday Sleeper delay tactic to throttle all of its customers or just its heavy users. Regardless, this is a blatant abuse of the Blockbuster shipping system and a likely breach of contract. Make sure to keep careful records of your DVD rentals and your interactions with Blockbuster. Blockbuster appears to be willing to do just about anything to systematically minimize the benefits of some subscribers. There is bound to be a class action lawsuit at some point. If so, having good records could be to your benefit. If you do take any sort of action against Blockbuster in the future, documentation will be your friend.

Wednesday Shipping: Blockbuster Online’s Weapon of Choice for Delays

In September 2008, Blockbuster Underground reported an apparent trend at Blockbuster Online.

Since then, Blockbuster has shown signs of experimenting with multiple delay tactics, but the Wednesday shipping delay tactic seems to be emerging as one of Blockbuster’s favorites ways to limit the flow of DVDs to some subscribers.

It appears Blockbuster Online has decided to ship few or no DVDs to at least some subscribers on Mondays and Tuesdays regardless of whether or not the subscribers have open queue slots. This delay tactic makes Wednesday the first normal shipping day of the week for some Blockbuster Online subscribers. Therefore, an affected subscriber could have all of his or her online DVDs checked in by Blockbuster on a Friday afternoon and possibly not see any replacement DVDs shipped out until Wednesday of the following week. Because of transit times, the affected subscriber would not actually receive those DVDs until Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or later.

At this point it is unclear if Blockbuster uses its Wednesday shipping delay tactic on all subscribers or just the heavy users. Regardless, there is a clear trend that Blockbuster is not shipping DVDs to at least some subscribers on Mondays and Tuesdays even though those subscribers may have had multiple open slots in their queues for days.

This Wednesday shipping scheme is the most flagrant and egregious delay tactic employed by Blockbuster since the company began its DVD-by-mail service in 2004. Look for Blockbuster to take more shifty courses of action as it continues to squeeze profits from its shrinking customer base.

If you have had any experiences with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday shipping at Blockbuster Online, please share your experiences here.

Blockbuster’s New DVD Shipping System Will Blow Your Mind

More details have surfaced about Blockbuster’s new DVD shipping system. The full truth is complicated and unbelievable.

The shipping system works on an expanding hierarchy search method. Presumably, every Monday, the shipping software searches the queues of subscribers with open queue slots. The catch is the software looks only at the first three positions (for a three-out plan) on Mondays. If you, the subscriber, have some immediately available titles in the first three positions of your queue, Blockbuster may ship DVDs to you on Monday. If you do not have any immediately available titles in your first three queue positions, Blockbuster may not ship a DVD to you on Monday. (Do not have great expectations for Monday shipping. Monday is not a full and legitimate shipping day at Blockbuster anyway.)

On Tuesdays, the software repeats the same process. The only difference is the software searches the first six positions of your queue for immediately available titles. If you do not have any immediately available titles in the first six positions, no DVDs are likely to ship on Tuesday.

On Wednesdays, the process continues by searching only the first nine positions of your queue. On Thursdays, the software considers the first twelve queue positions. Not until Friday will the software search your entire queue for immediately available titles.

This shipping system is confusing, so here is the breakdown.

Mondays – Only immediately available DVDs from the top three queue positions may ship.

Tuesdays – Only immediately available DVDs from the top six queue positions may ship.

Wednesdays – Only immediately available DVDs from the top nine queue positions may ship.

Thursdays – Only immediately available DVDs from the top twelve queue positions may ship.

Fridays – Any immediately available DVDs in your queue may ship.

This new shipping system is harsh enough, but here is where things get incredibly frustrating. You might think you can beat the system by keeping the first twelve positions of your queue free from titles with statuses of “Short Wait,” “Long Wait,” “Very Long Wait,” etc. Sadly, it is not that easy. Just because Blockbuster designates a title’s status as “Available,” it does not always mean the title is immediately available in your area.

In Blockbuster language, “Available” means the title is in reasonable supply nationwide; however, the status does not indicate availability in your region. For example, you live in Seattle and have Donnie Darko at the top of your Blockbuster Online queue. Donnie Darko may be abundantly available throughout most of the distribution centers in the eastern United States, but there may be no copies of Donnie Darko at distribution centers in your region. In this case, Donnie Darko could still have a status of “Available,” but since Blockbuster does not usually ship DVDs long distances, the DVD will most likely not be shipped to you.

Making matters much worse, if you had Donnie Darko and two other “Available” titles, which are not actually available regionally in the first three positions in your queue, these three titles could prevent shipments from your queue all day Monday, every Monday. If you had six such titles in your first six queue positions, Blockbuster might not ship to you on Mondays or Tuesdays. If you had nine such titles in your first nine queue positions, Blockbuster might not ship to you on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. If you had twelve such titles in your queue, Blockbuster might not ship a DVD to you until a Friday. Even on Fridays, you have no guarantees.

If you are thinking all of this is ridiculous and makes no sense, you are correct. This shipping system is absolutely ridiculous, and it is not supposed to make sense. The only logical explanation is that Blockbuster has found a way to systematically reduce the number of DVDs it sends to subscribers each week. This incomprehensible shipping system drastically reduces your ability to manage your account and receive your full subscriber benefits. Now that you know more about the system, maybe you can use the information to your advantage or, at least, gain some understanding about why you are not receiving DVDs from Blockbuster as quickly and frequently as you should.

Blockbuster’s Wednesday Shipping Tactic

If you have a Blockbuster Online account, you have probably noticed an unpleasant development recently. For months now, Blockbuster has been shipping many DVDs on Tuesdays, making Monday shipping an extremely rare occurrence. Now, Tuesday shipping is beginning to fade, and Wednesday is gradually taking its place as the first full shipping day of the week at Blockbuster.

This is an unwelcome development, which is significantly reducing the subscription benefits for which you are paying as a Blockbuster Online subscriber. If you exchange your online rentals at a Blockbuster store on a Friday night, it is quite possible Blockbuster Online may not ship new DVDs to you until Wednesday of the following week. In this case, the earliest you will get your online rentals will be Thursday, and having to wait on those DVDs until Friday or Saturday is very possible. So, with Blockbuster’s Wednesday shipping tactic, you could be facing a full week or more of waiting for your DVDs.

If your DVDs are not shipping until Wednesday, it will be nearly impossible for you to get more than one set of DVDs per week. Your only hope is that you receive and watch all of your DVDs on Thursday, exchange them at a Blockbuster store that night, hope Blockbuster Online will ship more DVDs to you on Friday, and then hope you receive the new DVDs by Saturday. This feat is going to be completely impractical for the vast majority of subscribers, and Blockbuster must know this. By limiting shipping on Mondays and Tuesdays, Blockbuster has found yet another way to reduce your subscription benefits while still charging you full price.