Blockbuster's Blu-Ray Disc Rental Figures May Be Flawed

If you are a Blockbuster Online subscriber and you exchange your online rentals at stores for store rentals, you may have noticed that, sometimes, your store DVD rentals show up as Blu-ray discs in the At Home section of your Blockbuster Online queue. This commonly occurring error does not necessarily prove an inventory flaw; however, the error strongly suggests that Blockbuster inaccurately records some store DVD rentals as Blu-ray disc rentals.

If you do a lot of store exchanges and typically choose the DVD format, look in your Blockbuster Online rental history. There you may find several titles tagged with the [Blu-ray] tag. Depending on your rental preferences, you may notice that few or none of these supposed Blu-ray discs you rented from Blockbuster stores were really Blu-ray discs. They were just improperly tagged DVDs. Even more curious, this error seems to occur disproportionately often among new releases. Perhaps this is just a recent problem affecting only newer titles.

What is uncertain is whether or not Blockbuster is tagging discs inappropriately on purpose for some reason or if this is just another example of Blockbuster's incompetence. Regardless, many DVDs are being tagged incorrectly as Blu-ray discs in at least one system. If these errors are being carried over into other systems, such as the systems that provide data for inventory reporting and sales reporting, Blockbuster's numbers could be showing dramatically inflated figures for Blu-ray disc rentals.

There do seem to be stacks of unwanted Blu-ray discs just sitting on the shelves at Blockbuster stores. The excessive Blu-ray disc supply could stem from improper inventory reporting, or the improperly tagged discs could be concealing that Blu-ray discs are not terribly popular among Blockbuster store customers. Regardless, Blockbuster needs to get their act together and consistently tag DVDs as DVDs and Blu-ray discs as Blu-ray discs in all of their systems.

Imagine if you lost a store DVD that was electronically mislabeled as a Blu-ray disc. Would the store charge you the lower DVD price or the higher Blu-ray disc price? That could be an unpleasant surprise. If you lost the physical disc, you would have no proof it was a DVD, and you would be at the mercy of Blockbuster's inaccurate computer system.

Blockbuster Spins Massive Reduction in TotalAccess Benefits

Click here to see Blockbuster's official statement about the massive reduction in TotalAccess benefits. This is basically what Blockbuster Underground previously reported. The humorous difference is how Blockbuster is pathetically trying to spin this subscription benefit cut as a plan enhancement. Blockbuster is trying to trick TotalAccess subscribers into thinking they are now getting some sort of an improvement to their service when the reality is that TotalAccess subscribers are about to get far fewer DVDs for their subscription price.

Why did Blockbuster not just come out and say,

“Congratulations! Because you have been a loyal TotalAccess subscriber, Blockbuster is rewarding you with far fewer DVDs per month for the same price you have been paying. Lucky dog! Now you have much more time to watch glorified teenage karaoke shows on primetime television. Enjoy!”

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.