Very High Demand Status at Blockbuster

If you have checked your Blockbuster Online queue recently, you have probably been surprised to see a lot titles marked as Very High Demand, High Demand, Medium Demand, etc. This seems like something new, but it really is not. The is just Blockbuster's way of putting a positive spin on a bad inventory problem.

The title statuses used to be Very Long Wait, Long Wait, Short Wait, etc., but those terms sound negative. The terms automatically imply there will be a wait, and waiting for DVDs is no fun.

Demand, however, is much more positive. Everybody loves demand. Demand implies desirability, as in "We're terribly sorry, but Disc 3 of Happy Days Season 2 is in Very High Demand. We have only one copy of that disc for the entire country and Gus from Grand Rapids has been hanging on to it for months while he is perfecting his Fonzie impression for the community center talent show."

Don't be misled by the slick change in terms. You are not getting those DVDs that have been sitting at the top of your queue for over a year, because Blockbuster does not have them in sufficient quantities. Blockbuster could buy more copies of those titles, but that would cost them money. As long as you are loyally paying for your subscription each month and not threatening to cancel, why should Blockbuster be concerned with meeting your needs as a customer?

This is the point we all realize the new Blockbuster has already jumped the shark.

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.

Blockbuster Prominently Displays False Statement on Web Site

Once you have returned all of the DVDs allowed by your Blockbuster Online subscription plan, a message will appear in the At Home section of your queue. This message reads,

To have movies shipped, just make sure you have added movies to your queue that are Available Now.

There's nothing else to do. We will ship your next available DVDs within 1 business day.

This statement is false. In fact, Blockbuster may not ship another DVD to you in one business day. They may take days to ship another DVD to you. If you call Blockbuster and ask why they have taken longer than one business day to ship a DVD to you, they will give you a variety of excuses. Blockbuster's favorite excuse is that the delay is your fault because you do not have enough available DVDs at the top of your queue.

How does Blockbuster get away with insisting subscribers have certain quantities of Available DVDs at the top of their queues? As long as the subscriber has at least one Available DVD anywhere in his or her queue, Blockbuster should ship something.

The fact is Availability is a very vague concept at Blockbuster. Just because a DVD shows up as Available in your queue, it does not mean the DVD is actually available. A title may be in abundant supply for the rest of the country, but if that title does not happen to be in ample supply in your shipping area, you could wait a long time to receive an "Available" DVD.

Also, why is availability such a ludicrous problem at Blockbuster? If DVDs have wait statuses of Short Wait or greater for month after month, doesn't that mean Blockbuster's supply is insufficient? Most of these DVDs are readily available for sale on the Internet. Many of them are available for very reasonable prices. If these Internet retailers can stock these titles, why can't Blockbuster?

Blockbuster’s Availability Excuse Is Ridiculous

When Blockbuster fails to ship a DVD to you, their favorite excuse is that you do not have enough “Available” titles in your queue. This is a ridiculous and insulting argument. Title availability is clearly an inventory issue, making it Blockbuster’s responsibility. As a customer, Blockbuster’s lack of DVDs should not be your burden. You have no control over how many copies of a title Blockbuster has in stock. As a paying customer, you should be making the demands and Blockbuster should be supplying those demands.

If Blockbuster offers a title and a lot of people want to see it, Blockbuster should not skirt around the problem by making subscribers wait for weeks or months. Blockbuster should simply purchase more copies of that popular title. What’s the problem with that? Blockbuster can easily use queue data to gauge subscriber demand. If people are waiting months to see a particular title, is it not reasonable to assume this is a title that interests a significant number of subscribers? Shouldn’t Blockbuster be focusing on stocking the titles their customers want to see?

The next time you complain to Blockbuster about failure to ship a DVD to you and Blockbuster tries to put the blame on you for not having enough “Available” DVDs in your queue, tell them availability is Blockbuster’s problem not yours. Tell the customer service representative to go upstairs and wake up the people in the Purchasing Department so they can take care of Blockbuster’s ridiculous inventory problems, which happen to be limiting the subscriber benefits for which you are paying.

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.