Blockbuster Online's Processing Decoy Tactic

It appears Blockbuster Online has begun favoring a particular throttling tactic. This one is the processing decoy tactic. Blockbuster will tie up your queue for an extra day by holding a DVD in Processing status overnight and then canceling shipment of the DVD the following morning. Here is an example of how it works.

1. On Monday morning, you have an empty slot in the At Home section of your Blockbuster Online queue.
2. Later that day, Blockbuster will move one of your most desired DVDs (normally one with an Availability status of Long Wait or Very Long Wait) to the empty slot in the At Home section of your queue. This DVD will be tagged as Processing.
3. The DVD will sit in your queue for the rest of the day and into the night with the status of Processing.
4. The next morning, the DVD will have mysteriously been moved from the At Home section of your queue back down to its original position in your list of desired DVDs. This leaves an empty slot in the At Home section of your queue.
5. Later that day, the empty slot will likely be filled with a different DVD from you queue. That replacement DVD is likely to ship that afternoon.

This throttling tactic is bad for you for two reasons. 1) The delay automatically adds at least one day to your turnaround, reducing the number of DVDs you can receive during the subscription month and thereby reducing the value of your subscription. 2) By holding one of your most desired DVDs in Processing status, Blockbuster is discouraging you from renting that title from another source for at least one day. You will probably not rent a DVD from a Blockbuster store, Redbox, etc. if you believe Blockbuster Online will be shipping that DVD to you in the immediate future.

Blockbuster might think they are being clever with this tactic, but they are only annoying subscribers. We all know Blockbuster Online generally knows whether it can ship a particular DVD or not. Those DVD envelopes and sleeves are barcoded and tracked through their inventory system.  Yes, sometimes returned DVDs arrive damaged or in the wrong sleeves or envelopes, but generally Blockbuster knows what DVDs it has in its shipping centers.  If Blockbuster is going to throttle subscribers, Blockbuster needs to stop playing games and just be straightforward with it.

Come on, Blockbuster, don't be such a tease. Just leave those shipping slots empty until you are satisfied with how much extra money you have milked from the subscribers. Irritating your last few loyal customers is not a good way to pull yourself out of bankruptcy.

How Blockbuster Is Throttling You to One Set of DVDs per Week

If you are a Blockbuster Online subscriber, you may have noticed a curious pattern of delays on your account. Sometimes, you will return a DVD to a Blockbuster store, and it will take a surprisingly long time to clear your queue. Often, you will have DVDs--that are apparently being processed--sitting in your queue for multiple days. Frequently, your DVDs will take days longer to arrive than they should have.

If these strange events are routinely occurring on your Blockbuster account, you are not just a random, unfortunate Blockbuster customer. You are most likely a victim of throttling. Blockbuster may be systemically limiting the number of DVDs you receive by employing a combination of delay tactics against your account.

Below is a summary of Blockbuster Online's more common throttling tactics. Each tactic creates only a small delay, but when Blockbuster uses two or more of these tactics together, they can easily place tight limits on the number of DVDs you can receive in any given month.

Delayed Store Check-In
If you are being throttled by Blockbuster, you may have noticed you can return a store DVD to a Blockbuster store, but it might not clear your queue for hours (or days). You may have noticed the returned store DVD almost never clears your queue in time for another DVD to ship that same day--even if you returned the store DVD as soon as the store opened. Blockbuster can use this delayed store check-in tactic to slow down your DVDs by at least one extra day.

Processing Delays
One of Blockbuster's favorite throttling techniques is the processing delay. Blockbuster may indicate they are processing your DVD for shipment, but they will actually not ship it out until the following day. Blockbuster just claims to be processing your DVD so you will be less likely to complain. If you do complain, they will just defend themselves by saying, "We are processing your next DVD. We will ship it as soon as possible."

How long does it take to process a DVD anyway? How could it possibly take a full day or more to turnaround a DVD? There is no legitimate reason for this type of delay. The purpose is to slow down your shipments by an extra day or an entire weekend, therefore decreasing the number of DVDs you can watch for your monthly subscription fee.

Long-Distance Shipping
If you are being throttled by Blockbuster, you may have noticed, when Blockbuster ships a DVD to you on a Monday or Tuesday, that DVD takes an extra couple of days to arrive. This is because Blockbuster is shipping DVDs to you from shipping centers far from your house. Blockbuster could be intentionally exploiting USPS transit times to ensure that your DVD takes longer to arrive at your house. Blockbuster pays the same whether they ship a DVD to you from down the street or 3,000 miles away. By shipping DVDs from remote shipping centers, Blockbuster can add days to your turnaround time and then blame USPS for the delay.

What This Means for You
By using a devious combination of multiple throttling techniques, Blockbuster has made it nearly impossible for throttled subscribers to get more than one set of DVDs in any given week. If you are being throttled by Blockbuster, expect to be hit with a variety of delays. No matter how quickly you watch and return your DVDs, it appears Blockbuster has stacked the deck against you. Blockbuster is simply not going to send as many DVDs to you as they should.

If you are a Blockbuster subscriber, know that you are dealing with a shady company that is willing to take your monthly subscription fee while providing very limited benefits. This is just what Blockbuster is doing to subscribers now. Imagine what other sorts of unscrupulous business practices Blockbuster will be employing in the future as this increasingly irrelevant company continues to lose market share to its competitors and finds it more difficult to generate enough profits to sustain its outdated and bloated business model. For Blockbuster subscribers, things are bound to only get worse from here on out.

Blockbuster Tries to Confuse and Distract Complaining Customers

If you email Blockbuster with a legitimate question about unexplained delays on your account, there is a very good chance a customer service representative will attempt to confuse or distract you with irrelevant information while completely failing to address your question.

You may have a simple question about why Blockbuster has not shipped any DVDs to you even though you have had three empty slots in your queue for two days. Blockbuster will probably not address your question. Instead, they will try to bombard you with extraneous details about your account. Perhaps they will hope you will think they have sufficiently answered your question even though they ignored it.

Try this out by contacting customer service (http://www.blockbuster.com/help). Ask them a simple question in an email like:

Dear Blockbuster:

I have had empty slots in my queue for days. Why has Blockbuster not shipped any DVDs to me all week?

Than You,
Joe Customer


Most likely, Blockbuster's response will be something like this:


Dear Joe (Sucker),

You returned DVD A on __/__/____, DVD B on __/__/____, and DVD C on __/__/____. We shipped DVD X to you on __/__/____.

We will ship you the next available title in your queue within 1-2 business days, provided you have enough "Available" titles at the top of your queue.

As a reminder, always keep 15 available titles at the top of your queue to ensure prompt service.

Thank You,
Blockbuster Customer (We Don't) Care

Notice that Blockbuster used data from your account to give the illusion that someone actually investigated your issue; however, Blockbuster did not actually address your question or provide any useful information. They simply just mixed some easily obtained facts with boilerplate text to fake an answer to your question.

Do not be fooled by these confusion tactics. When Blockbuster does this to you, hit the reply button and tell them they did not address your question. While you are waiting two to eight hours for a response to your email, consider picking up the phone and calling Blockbuster toll-free at (866) 692-2789. Maybe the Blockbuster employee on the phone will not be as bold about evading your questions. The important thing is to make Blockbuster explain why they are screwing you. If a company is cheating you, they should at least be forced to come up with some sort of a direct explanation, even if that explanation is a total lie.

Blockbuster Gives Subscribers the Finger with the Delayed Weekend Delivery Tactic

The latest in a seemingly unending string of brazen delay tactics employed by Blockbuster Online is the Delayed Weekend Delivery Tactic. In this sneaky little scheme, Blockbuster limits shipping to at least some subscribers during the first part of the week to DVDs which are likely to spend long times in transit and not arrive until Friday or later. Here is an example of how this tactic works.

Bob returns all three of his online DVD rentals to a Blockbuster store on Sunday. As soon as the Blockbuster store clerk scans in those three DVDs at the counter, Bob will have three open slots in his queue. If Blockbuster were honoring their obligations to Bob, they would ship three new DVDs to him on Monday. When Blockbuster Online uses the Delayed Weekend Delivery Tactic, however, Blockbuster ships to Bob only DVDs from shipping centers outside of Bob’s standard shipping area. Since these DVDs travel greater distances, they take longer to arrive at Bob’s house. The result is that Bob may not receive his new DVDs until Friday or later. Since Blockbuster’s last shipping day of the week is Friday, Bob will find it impossible to return his DVDs to a Blockbuster store in time to have more DVDs shipped that week. The situation forces Bob to wait until the following week for any more DVD shipments. Unfortunately, Blockbuster will, once again, delay Bob’s DVD shipments during that following week. Essentially, Blockbuster has made it virtually impossible for Bob to receive more than three DVDs from Blockbuster Online in any given week.

If your DVDs are consistently not arriving until Friday or later, Blockbuster Online is probably throttling the flow of DVDs to you using the Delayed Weekend Delivery Tactic. Even though, you are paying full price for a full subscription, Blockbuster has cut your benefits roughly in half.

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 New DVD Allocation System Could Leave You High and Dry

According to a Blockbuster employee, Blockbuster Online has recently implemented a new DVD allocation system. Under the new allocation system, subscribers may receive DVDs from any distribution center in the country as opposed to the apparent previous standard of regional distribution. Supposedly, the purpose of the new system is to allow subscribers to gain access to titles which may be in short supply in some regions but available in others.

The surprising aspect of this allocation system is the way DVD availability can dramatically affect shipping times. Monday through Thursday, the new allocation system generally selects titles from only those toward the top of your queue. If none of the titles near the top of your queue are available, Blockbuster will not ship any DVDs to you. Only on Fridays, will Blockbuster Online ship titles which are not high in your queue. Therefore, if the top of your queue is loaded with DVDs which are tagged as anything but “Available,” Blockbuster may not ship a DVD to you until Friday even if you have had empty slots in your queue all week.

This new allocation system is going to be very frustrating for you if you have been waiting months to see titles which are in low supply. You may be able to finally get those titles, but they could come from almost anywhere in the country and take a long time to arrive. Also, their presence at the top of your queue could tie up shipping on your account for days at a time.

The best way to beat the new allocation system is to keep a few Available titles at the top of your queue Monday morning through Thursday afternoon. At the end of the day on Thursday, move the titles with waits back to the top of your queue or just arrange your queue to reflect your actual wishes. Rearranging your queue twice per week will be a headache, but it appears this is the best way to work the system in your favor until things change.

Received at Store but Not in Cyberspace

When you return your Blockbuster Online DVD to a Blockbuster store, Blockbuster’s computer system is supposed to update your account immediately to record that you have returned an online DVD. Theoretically, as soon as a Blockbuster store employee scans your DVD into Blockbuster’s system, a queue slot should become available, and another DVD should ship in the near future.

The problem is, when you return a DVD at a store, you cannot always count on Blockbuster’s system to acknowledge the return. Even though you can stand at the counter at a Blockbuster store and watch a Blockbuster employee scan your returned online DVD into the system, sometimes the DVD’s status will not be updated in your queue. It would be fair to assume that, if your queue shows the DVD as not returned, one of your queue slots will remain occupied until the system is updated or the DVD is eventually scanned at a distribution center. This delay could last for days, meaning you will not be able to use your full subscriber benefits during that period.

To make certain Blockbuster’s system has recorded the return of your online DVD, check your queue after you return each online DVD to a store. If the system has recorded your return, a “Received at Store” tag should appear next to the DVD’s title in the “MOVIE(S) SHIPPED” section of your queue. If you have returned a DVD and you do not see the “Received at Store” tag, assume the system has not recorded your return. You will have to contact Blockbuster Online to resolve this problem or report it by clicking on the title’s “Report” link under the “DVD PROBLEM” column.

Duplicate Title Notification Is Not Reliable

Under normal circumstances, if you rent a DVD from a Blockbuster store and that same title happens to be in your queue, a duplicate title notification should pop up on your computer screen the next time you log into your Blockbuster Online account. When you get the notification, you have the opportunity to delete the title from your queue or leave it there. You also have the option of having titles automatically deleted from your queue as you rent them.

This is a nice and convenient account feature, but use it with caution. This duplicate title notification is not reliable. It seems to work most of the time, but the software often misses some rentals and can mistakenly leave a title in your queue. The risk is that you could rent a title at a Blockbuster store and then have that same title shipped to you from your online account the next day. Assuming you do not want to watch the same title twice in a week, you will want to take some precautions.

When you get home from your Blockbuster store, log into your online account. Hopefully, you will get a duplicate title notification, and you can delete the title from your queue. Otherwise, you will need to manually delete the duplicate title from your queue. If you do not make sure the title is out of your queue, there is a very high chance the duplicate title will be shipped to you before you realize the mistake.

Very Long Wait Could Mean Months or Never

If you have any DVDs in your Blockbuster queue tagged as "Very Long Wait," do not be surprised if Blockbuster takes months to ship them to you. Blockbuster defines "Very Long Wait" DVDs as those that might take six weeks or longer to ship; however, the key to this definition is the "or longer" part. "Or longer" may mean six weeks plus one a day or months.

Some "Very Long Wait" DVDs can sit in your queue for months and then suddenly convert over to "Coming Soon." Even worse, sometimes Blockbuster will remove these DVDs from your queue and explain the title is no longer available. In a sense, "Very Long Wait" can sometimes mean "Never."

Blockbuster needs to add another classification for DVDs that may take months to ship or never ship. Perhaps, Blockbuster needs to add a classification such as "Rare Title" or "Extremely Long Wait." If Blockbuster is going to keep a customer waiting for months to see a DVD, the company should just be up front about it. If more than three months pass before Blockbuster ships a DVD, they should email the customer to explain the delay and inform the customer about what Blockbuster is doing to fix the problem.

Monday Shipping Is Elusive at Blockbuster Online

A Blockbuster Underground test account began revealing some unusual activity in late 2007, and the problem has consistently persisted throughout early 2008. The problem is with the shipment of new DVDs on Mondays. Blockbuster used to almost always ship DVDs on Mondays. Now, however, it appears Blockbuster almost never ships out DVDs to at least some online accounts on Mondays.

The Blockbuster Underground test account commonly has multiple empty queue slots throughout most of each weekend and Monday. It has become standard that the earliest shipment of DVDs does not occur until Tuesday afternoon each week. This means that a queue slot may open on a Friday afternoon, and the replacement DVD will not arrive until Wednesday, Thursday, or later. This is a substantial delay. The absence of Monday shipping causes a significant decrease in the number of DVDs a customer can receive in a week. This delay must be very profitable for Blockbuster, but it is a substantial blow to the customer’s subscription benefits.

Are you experiencing similar problems with Monday shipping from Blockbuster Online? If so, please report it here. If this shipping trend is consistent, we may be on the verge of discovering a way that Blockbuster has managed to limit (or throttle) the flow of DVDs to some or all of its online customers.