Occasionally, Blockbuster Online emails shipping surveys to subscribers. These shipping surveys are generally about a specific title recently returned by the subscriber. The shipping survey simply asks the Blockbuster subscriber to report the date the DVD arrived at the subscriber’s home.
The concern is over what Blockbuster intends to do with this shipping data from subscribers. Blockbuster claims to be using this data to improve shipping times; however, Blockbuster could also use this data for negative purposes. Since rapid delivery of DVDs can actually have a negative impact on Blockbuster’s profits, subscribers have a right to be suspicious of Blockbuster’s motives. Is Blockbuster actually striving to decrease shipping times thereby allowing subscribers to rent more DVDs, or would Blockbuster rather increase shipping times to limit the number of DVDs a subscriber can watch each month?
Have you received shipping surveys from Blockbuster Online? If so, did you respond? How did you respond? Since the day of your response, have you noticed any changes in the speed of your Blockbuster Online service?
3/16/2006
Contacting Blockbuster via Email Is Unproductive
When Blockbuster Online first began, the Customer Service Department did a more than adequate job of supporting subscribers via email. In those early days, a subscriber could expect thoughtful and helpful solutions to a wide range of account problems.
Blockbuster customer support via email began to show a noticeable decline in mid-2005. Currently, the email support system has deteriorated to a point where it barely serves an actual purpose beyond handling only the most routine problems.
If you have contacted Blockbuster Online via email in recent months, you have probably received overly generalized, boilerplate solutions that might leave you wondering if a real person actually read and understood your inquiry. It appears that the customer service associates are just glancing at customer inquiries and then pasting catchall solutions for the responses.
If your account problem happens to be a very basic issue, Blockbuster’s standard solutions might be somewhat helpful; however, if you have a problem that is slightly out of the ordinary, you will be hard-pressed to get it an appropriate response or solution from Blockbuster. If your account problem does not fit the common templates, you will probably have to send multiple emails to Blockbuster over multiple days to get a solution that actually solves your problem.
When you contact Blockbuster via email, you may receive a follow-up email asking you to critique the assistance you received. The comments will be recorded through a Web-based survey that takes a couple of minutes to complete. Make sure to always fill out those service quality surveys from Blockbuster. Currently, this is your main weapon against bad customer service at Blockbuster.
If you receive good or bad customer service from Blockbuster, make sure the company knows. Hopefully, Blockbuster will use your submitted data to weed out worst of the customer service representatives that answer customer inquiries.
Given that Blockbuster’s email support is currently so terrible, it is recommended that you call Blockbuster Online Customer Service directly at (866) 692-2789. For some unknown reason, the Blockbuster employees manning the telephones seem to be much more motivated to solve problems than those behind the keyboards.
Blockbuster customer support via email began to show a noticeable decline in mid-2005. Currently, the email support system has deteriorated to a point where it barely serves an actual purpose beyond handling only the most routine problems.
If you have contacted Blockbuster Online via email in recent months, you have probably received overly generalized, boilerplate solutions that might leave you wondering if a real person actually read and understood your inquiry. It appears that the customer service associates are just glancing at customer inquiries and then pasting catchall solutions for the responses.
If your account problem happens to be a very basic issue, Blockbuster’s standard solutions might be somewhat helpful; however, if you have a problem that is slightly out of the ordinary, you will be hard-pressed to get it an appropriate response or solution from Blockbuster. If your account problem does not fit the common templates, you will probably have to send multiple emails to Blockbuster over multiple days to get a solution that actually solves your problem.
When you contact Blockbuster via email, you may receive a follow-up email asking you to critique the assistance you received. The comments will be recorded through a Web-based survey that takes a couple of minutes to complete. Make sure to always fill out those service quality surveys from Blockbuster. Currently, this is your main weapon against bad customer service at Blockbuster.
If you receive good or bad customer service from Blockbuster, make sure the company knows. Hopefully, Blockbuster will use your submitted data to weed out worst of the customer service representatives that answer customer inquiries.
Given that Blockbuster’s email support is currently so terrible, it is recommended that you call Blockbuster Online Customer Service directly at (866) 692-2789. For some unknown reason, the Blockbuster employees manning the telephones seem to be much more motivated to solve problems than those behind the keyboards.
3/03/2006
Blockbuster: “Read My Lips, No Throttling”
In a March 2nd press release, Blockbuster responded to a large number of inquiries about throttling. Blockbuster has clarified their position on throttling and declared that the online DVD rental company does not throttle subscribers.
Apparently, Blockbuster did test throttling at one point, but decided to discontinue the program in 2005. Perhaps, they realized the repercussions from angry throttled customers exceeded the financial benefits of throttling.
Blockbuster left little wiggle room with their official statement on the issue. Shane Evangelist, Senior Vice-President and General Manager for Blockbuster Online, stated, “Blockbuster Online does not throttle. When we say our service offers unlimited rentals, we mean it."
With such a bold statement from Blockbuster, the company had better not dabble in throttling again at a later date. If they do, Shane Evangelist’s quote will certainly come back to haunt the company. The subscribers are watching, and this is one of those “Read my lips. No new taxes” moments.
Blockbuster Online Press Release
Apparently, Blockbuster did test throttling at one point, but decided to discontinue the program in 2005. Perhaps, they realized the repercussions from angry throttled customers exceeded the financial benefits of throttling.
Blockbuster left little wiggle room with their official statement on the issue. Shane Evangelist, Senior Vice-President and General Manager for Blockbuster Online, stated, “Blockbuster Online does not throttle. When we say our service offers unlimited rentals, we mean it."
With such a bold statement from Blockbuster, the company had better not dabble in throttling again at a later date. If they do, Shane Evangelist’s quote will certainly come back to haunt the company. The subscribers are watching, and this is one of those “Read my lips. No new taxes” moments.
Blockbuster Online Press Release
2/22/2006
Does Blockbuster Online Throttle?
Blockbuster Underground has been carefully monitoring Blockbuster Online’s business practices since late-2004. Specifically, Blockbuster Underground has been looking for evidence of throttling.
To date, Blockbuster Underground has found nothing that points to a practice of throttling. Even though Blockbuster Online frequently takes one or more extra days to turnaround some high-demand and unconventional titles, there have been no trends of unusual activities, delayed check-ins, or increased processing times.
The slight delays for high-demand and unconventional titles would seem suspicious; however, Blockbuster has always had problems getting these titles delivered the next business day, even for new subscriber accounts. The fact is Blockbuster Online was extremely slow when the service started. They gradually moved up to being a little slow, and they never progressed beyond that. Perhaps Blockbuster Online is now benefiting from the very low standards and expectations they created at the beginning.
At this point, Blockbuster Underground has found no evidence of applied throttling at Blockbuster Online, but this situation is being monitored closely. Any new information will appear here as soon as it can be verified.
To date, Blockbuster Underground has found nothing that points to a practice of throttling. Even though Blockbuster Online frequently takes one or more extra days to turnaround some high-demand and unconventional titles, there have been no trends of unusual activities, delayed check-ins, or increased processing times.
The slight delays for high-demand and unconventional titles would seem suspicious; however, Blockbuster has always had problems getting these titles delivered the next business day, even for new subscriber accounts. The fact is Blockbuster Online was extremely slow when the service started. They gradually moved up to being a little slow, and they never progressed beyond that. Perhaps Blockbuster Online is now benefiting from the very low standards and expectations they created at the beginning.
At this point, Blockbuster Underground has found no evidence of applied throttling at Blockbuster Online, but this situation is being monitored closely. Any new information will appear here as soon as it can be verified.
2/15/2006
Blockbuster Throttling Potential Addressed by Motley Fool
Never underestimate the seemingly boundless stupidity of Blockbuster. At the same time Netflix is getting pummeled with an onslaught of stories in the mainstream press about throttling, word surfaces at Motley Fool that Blockbuster has opened the door for their own throttling measures.
Blockbuster’s current Terms of Service allows them to throttle heavy users much like Netflix does. If Blockbuster gets caught throttling, they will suffer the same wrath that Netflix is experiencing now but only worse. The backlash will be worse for Blockbuster, because hatred for Netflix goes back only about two years. People have been hating Blockbuster for over a decade. People love to hate Blockbuster, and this will give them another perfectly justifiable excuse to bash the company.
It is simply astounding that, after Blockbuster spent all of 2005 trying to rebuild their corporate image, they would even think about taking a chance on something that could do irreparable harm to their reputation. If Blockbuster Online gets caught throttling, and the general public catches wind of it, there is going to be major trouble among its customer base.
It is true that throttling is a profitable practice, because it limits losses and focuses customer service on the most profitable subscribers, but the issue here is corporate good faith. People do not like to be tricked, especially when money is involved. Yes, Blockbuster can get rid of their most costly subscribers by throttling them, but those subscribers are going to tell everyone, and the word will spread. Even the light and moderate users are going to feel less than enthusiastic about paying for an unlimited rental plan that is filled with limitations.
Here is the section of Blockbuster’s Terms of Service that allows them to throttle users.
At this point, it is unclear if and how Blockbuster intends to apply throttling measures, but the company needs to be very clear about it before they earn the same reputation Netflix has now. Blockbuster’s Terms of Service suggests that Blockbuster Online might reserve more popular titles for its more profitable users. What is unclear is whether Blockbuster intends to actually limit the number of DVDs a subscriber can receive through the use of common Netflix throttling tactics like remote shipping locations and processing delays.
Rest assured that Blockbuster Underground is keeping a very close eye on throttling at Blockbuster. If Blockbuster Online begins throttling, the events will be chronicled here for the world to see.
Blockbuster’s current Terms of Service allows them to throttle heavy users much like Netflix does. If Blockbuster gets caught throttling, they will suffer the same wrath that Netflix is experiencing now but only worse. The backlash will be worse for Blockbuster, because hatred for Netflix goes back only about two years. People have been hating Blockbuster for over a decade. People love to hate Blockbuster, and this will give them another perfectly justifiable excuse to bash the company.
It is simply astounding that, after Blockbuster spent all of 2005 trying to rebuild their corporate image, they would even think about taking a chance on something that could do irreparable harm to their reputation. If Blockbuster Online gets caught throttling, and the general public catches wind of it, there is going to be major trouble among its customer base.
It is true that throttling is a profitable practice, because it limits losses and focuses customer service on the most profitable subscribers, but the issue here is corporate good faith. People do not like to be tricked, especially when money is involved. Yes, Blockbuster can get rid of their most costly subscribers by throttling them, but those subscribers are going to tell everyone, and the word will spread. Even the light and moderate users are going to feel less than enthusiastic about paying for an unlimited rental plan that is filled with limitations.
Here is the section of Blockbuster’s Terms of Service that allows them to throttle users.
Selection and Allocation of Product.
BLOCKBUSTER Online will automatically ship titles to you, up to your maximum number of outstanding BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals, from and in the order that you have listed in your rental queue, subject to availability. However, BLOCKBUSTER Online reserves the right to determine product allocation among members in its sole discretion. In determining product allocation, we use various factors including, but not limited to, (i) the historical rental volume for each subscriber, (ii) historical number of outstanding rentals relative to a maximum number of outstanding BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals allowed under a subscriber's plan, and (iii) the average rental queue position of BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals that have shipped to a subscriber in the past.
At this point, it is unclear if and how Blockbuster intends to apply throttling measures, but the company needs to be very clear about it before they earn the same reputation Netflix has now. Blockbuster’s Terms of Service suggests that Blockbuster Online might reserve more popular titles for its more profitable users. What is unclear is whether Blockbuster intends to actually limit the number of DVDs a subscriber can receive through the use of common Netflix throttling tactics like remote shipping locations and processing delays.
Rest assured that Blockbuster Underground is keeping a very close eye on throttling at Blockbuster. If Blockbuster Online begins throttling, the events will be chronicled here for the world to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
