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.

Blockbuster’s Not So Total Access

Blockbuster Online is changing their pricing structure. The most significant feature of this new structure is placing strict limits on free in-store exchanges for online subscribers.

Under the new plan, regular Total Access subscribers will be limited to five free in-store exchanges per month. Once the subscriber reaches the allowance for the month, the subscriber can then pay a discounted price for each additional in-store exchange. (This is unconfirmed, but it appears additional in-store exchanges will cost approximately $1.99 per DVD.)

Those Blockbuster customers wishing to have unlimited free in-store exchanges will need to subscribe to Total Access Premium. The Premium plan is an additional $7 per month.

What do you think about this new Blockbuster pricing structure? How does the new structure affect you? If you are an existing Blockbuster Online subscriber, did Blockbuster automatically grandfather you into Total Access Premium, or did you get downgraded to a lesser plan like Total Access?

Blockbuster Online Throttling

For those new to the world of DVD-by-mail, throttling is a practice where DVD-by-mail companies intentionally limit the flow of DVDs to subscribers who are on flat-rate subscription plans. That insidious, red industry leader invented the practice, but other companies have been accused of copying the greedy and sleazy tactic to maximize profits.

Are you a high-volume DVD renter and being throttled by Blockbuster Online? If so, please post the specifics here by clicking on Comments.

Make sure to include details about your subscription plan, past and current turnaround times, quantity of online DVDs per month, and any other details that show evidence of an intentional throttling pattern at Blockbuster Online.

Please note that slow service alone does not necessarily indicate throttling. Also, if you were not consistently receiving at least four online DVDs per week at some point, you have never been a high-volume renter and probably have not used your account enough to witness a substantial throttling trend.