Time for Some Toll-Free Complaining - (866) 692-2789

Blockbuster Online’s service is getting horrible. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it. You can just cancel your subscription or stick it out and try to make your subscription work.

If you are going to try to hang in with Blockbuster, you will need to become very proactive to make certain Blockbuster does not take advantage of you by charging your credit card for subscription fees while failing to ship DVDs to you. Of course, you need to keep track of all of your business with Blockbuster, but you are also going to have to stand up for yourself and the subscription benefits for which you are paying. The easiest way for you to make sure Blockbuster hears you is to pick up the phone and give Customer Service a call at (866) 692-2789.

A phone call appears to be just about the only way a customer can get results from Blockbuster. The email-based support system is insanely deficient. The vast majority of the customer service representatives responding to email inquiries are incompetent, slow, apathetic, and clueless. If you attempt to resolve a problem through email, you will almost definitely be led around in circles until you give up or happen to get lucky and find someone who cares. Regardless, the email-based support system is abysmal, and you should not expect to get your problems resolved through that outlet.

The customer service representatives working the phones at Blockbuster appear to be far more competent than their cyberspace counterparts. Each and every time you have a problem with your account (shipping delays, poor title availability, etc.), you might want to consider just picking up the phone and getting the problem resolved. Making the phone call is a pain, but it often works. Besides, toll-free phone support is expensive for Blockbuster. Every time you call, you cost Blockbuster money in tolls, time, resources, etc. If customer support begins to get costly for Blockbuster, the company may decide to improve their service to avoid all of the expensive phone calls. (Of course, Blockbuster could also just further reduce benefits and/or raise their rates, but they are already doing that every chance they get anyway.)

Sadly, there is not much you can do about this decline in Blockbuster’s service. If you are not going to cancel your Blockbuster subscription, you are just going to have to heat up the phone lines and fight for yourself. Good luck.

Preparing for a Blockbuster Lawsuit

With Blockbuster raising prices, cutting back on subscriber benefits, expanding shipping times, etc., customers are bound to become outraged at some point. Hundreds of thousands of outraged customers are going to create a hostile consumer environment, which is almost certainly going to lead to lawsuits against Blockbuster.

If you do not trust Blockbuster to deliver the unlimited DVD rental service for which you are paying, you will want to prepare for the possibility that you, one day, will be furious with Blockbuster and want some justice. A little bit of effort on your part now will help you build your case against Blockbuster should you need to take action in the future.

The most important thing you can do to build your case against Blockbuster is to keep track of each Blockbuster DVD you receive. As Blockbuster sends each DVD, make a note of the title, the date Blockbuster shipped it, the date you received it, the date you returned it, the date Blockbuster acknowledged receipt, and the date Blockbuster shipped the next title. You can record this information on paper or digitally. The easiest way to record this data is in a spreadsheet.

Recording all of this Blockbuster shipping data may seem like overkill, but if you think there is even a remote chance you may want to sue Blockbuster, participate in a class action lawsuit, or have Blockbuster investigated for fraud, this data will be very useful to the attorney or investigators. If you do not have this data available, the only source for the data will be Blockbuster. They, of course, will be reluctant to provide it and may not do so without a subpoena. If you record the data yourself, you will have it readily available, and it can eventually be used to crosscheck and verify the accuracy of whatever data Blockbuster releases.

Also, keep track of all of your communication with Blockbuster. Keep copies of every letter, email, etc. If you call Blockbuster, make a quick note about when you called and what was discussed. This information will be valuable later when you need to establish you have been a responsible, concerned, and proactive consumer.

Lastly, log in to your Blockbuster account and copy your entire rental history. It is important you do this as soon as possible, because Blockbuster controls this information and has the power to remove it at any moment.

To copy your rental history, follow the steps below.

1. Click on My Account on Blockbuster.com.
2. Verify your login information.
3. On the My Account page, click on View Rental History.
4. The My Rental History page will appear.
5. With your mouse, highlight all of the titles and dates. (Note: Speed up the process by setting the Results Per Page to 100.)
6. Copy the data by pressing [Ctrl + C] on your keyboard.
7. Paste the data into a document or spreadsheet by opening the desired application and pressing [Ctrl + V].
8. Make sure to save the data.
   

This easy process will take only a few minutes. If Blockbuster ever does anything shady and despicable like concealing your subscriber data, you will already have it.

In summary, you can protect yourself as a consumer by taking a few simple actions. By tracking your rentals, recording your correspondence, and copying your account history, you can build an arsenal of information, which will become useful if you should ever need to sue Blockbuster or have them investigated by a government agency.