NSS: Blockbuster Online

[whitak24]

I signed up for the Blockbuster Online 2-week trial a few days ago, and I just wanted to give them a big thumbs up for anyone considering signing up with them.

i signed up on monday, and my first two dvds were sent out on tuesday. i got one on wednesday, one on thursday. (i got the third one on friday). i sent the first two back last night, and at 9:00am this morning, i received email confirmation that they had been received, and a couple hours later i got email that said my next two movies had already been shipped out.

i'm just very impressed with their turn-around time....it's almost like overnight delivery. and they seem to have a ton of movies immediately available.

so :thumb: to blockbuster

[Jenny]

Yeah, I agree. :) I still like my Walmart cause of the price but they are definitely very good, too.

[ski]

:thumb: from me too

I was on Blockbuster Online for 6 weeks (2 free trial and $20 at the time for the other 4) as part of my freeipods thing.

I signed up for Netflix now, but I don't like it.

Blockbuster:
+ Now a little cheaper than Netflix
+ RELIABLE shipping
+ 2 free in-store rentals per month
- Don't usually have a lot of movies in stock, even new releases show "Short Wait"

Netflix:
+ Big selection
+ More often to have movies "Available Now"
- Costs more
- TERRIBLE experience with shipping... I "watch" all 3 of my movies right away and send them out on a Friday let's say. They get them Tuesday usually, but they don't get to me until Saturday! 8 day turnaround is unacceptable when Blockbuster was 6.

[ski]

Another thought, if you know a few people that are interested in Blockbuster DVD trial, you can get about $280 pretty easily if you are an organized person -- check out any of the free offers sites, freeipods.com is probably a fave since I've gotten one through them. Sign up for the Blockbuster DVD trial, then have your friends that want to try Blockbuster sign up through you, sign the FedEx man's delivery pad for the iPod, sell it, and split the $280 or so amongst the 6 of you. It requires about 5 more minutes of work than actually signing up at Blockbuster.com, and with the $45 you each get, it will pay for a few months of the DVD rental if you like it :) That, or you can buy blank DVD's :hehehmm:

[hapoo]

8 days????
I have netflix and from the day i send it to them it takes 3 days at most (4 counting sunday). Usually it takes 2 days.

[ski]

I had a 5 day turnaround time with Netflix as well as the 8 day one

[whitak24]

8 days????
I have netflix and from the day i send it to them it takes 3 days at most (4 counting sunday). Usually it takes 2 days.
i think the shipping time varies a lot based on how far you live from the nearest distribution center. i'm lucky b/c my center is in flushing, which is really close by.

[hapoo]

True,
Both blockbuster and netflix have distribution centers in my city.

[Cubsfan]

I signed up for blockbuster for two reasons:

1. Free Shrek 2 DVD
2. Two free in-store rentals a month.

I figure, that since I rent about two games a month, the two in-store rentals are worth about $12 themselves, so if I get just two or three movies a month, I'm still ahead (although this month I've gotten my two games and about 10 movies, so I'm way ahead).

Since Netflix didn't have the game rentals, I went with blockbuster, and I love it.

[johnnymk]

Amazing. I just caught this thread. I was going to ask which was the best.

BTW, how is walmart's selection and turn around time?

[hapoo]

Amazing. I just caught this thread. I was going to ask which was the best.

BTW, how is walmart's selection and turn around time?

they both have two week trials for free, go for both and see which ones faster for you.

[Jenny]

I love Walmart's. They have a great selection and normally it is 2-3 days for me. Most has been 5. :)

[ski]

2-3 days turnaround?? So if you send it out in Monday's mail, you got 3 new DVD's on Wednesday?

[Jenny]

Well, maybe more like 3-4. But yeah, it's been that quick several times. I may just live really really close. lol

[ski]

I guess I should give Wal Mart a try (for free, or even a month since it's under $20)

[ray]

I've used Netflix on and off before. Delivery time is 1 day. So if the shipping center sends the DVDs out on Monday, I will have them Tuesday. If I return the DVDs on Wednesday, I would have my new ones on Friday.

[caribiner23]

I'll have to check out Blockbuster online. If they offer free in-store rentals as part of deal, that would be great. My kids rent GC games as well, so that might be a cool thing.

Netflix opened up a distribution center in Carol Stream, IL, which is really close to where I live. My past few rentals have turned around in three days (drop DVD in mailbox --> they receive it --> they send out new DVD --> I get new DVD= 3 days).

[ski]

I will never give Netflix another try.

They sent me my 3 last movies out on Thursday for Saturday, but surprise surprise, they're not here. Hopefully they'll get here Monday, I have to bur... I mean... watch all 3 of them on Monday afternoon, hope they get out on Monday's mail so they can receive them on Wednesday, latest Thursday. I cancelled at the end of this work week, since I was going to be billed on Monday, and they told me I needed to return my unreceived movies 1 week from my cancellation date. That's poor business. With Blockbuster, they waited until the approximate date I would receive my movies before giving me 10 days to return them after I cancelled.

I'm giving Wal-Mart a try, and I would definitely recommend Blockbuster now that I've tried Netflix.

[INeedAVacation]

I don't watch a lot of movies but I have always been very satisfied with Netflix and the turn around time. I would watch one, send it back, then receive my next one in the mail about the same time as I was putting my second movie in the mail to be returned. Basically, I always seemed to have 1-2 unwatched movies as my third was arriving.
I used Blockbuster (to qualify for one of the offers in the spam forum) and was a little less impressed with their service. It did seem to take a little longer to get my movies with them.
I will never try Walmart because I really do not appreciate the way they do business. They would purposefully break even or even lose money year after year on a segment of their business (i.e. renting movies online) so that the competition has to lower their prices to try to compete. As their competitors don't have the huge monitary resources to lose money every year Walmart basically outlasts and squashes their cometitors. When the competition is eliminated, then they will raise their prices to a profitable rate and have a monopoly over the market. No thanks, I'll support Netflix.

[eSDee]

Blockbuster is evil so I am sticking with my Netflix.

[OC]

I didn't have good luck with Wal-Mart. I think among the 12 discs I got from them, three actually arrived and were undamaged. Five of them were unplayable because of being damaged in the mail, and four discs never arrived. I dropped them and have been mostly happy with Netflix ever since.

Question about BB - do they have a 5-disc plan? I did a cursory search on their website and couldn't find anything but the 3-disc plan.

[Jenny]

Ouch, I've never had that problem with Walmart! :(

[Cubsfan]

Ok, ran into my first real dislike with Blockbuster. I have a whole bunch of movies in my queue, and I returned 3 this week. 3 and 4 were available, 5 was "coming soon", and 6, 7, and 8 were also available. Instead of shipping 3 4 and 6, they shipped 6,7, and 8. I called, and they said that if the nearest distribution center doesn't have the movie, they then send out the first one in your queue that your nearest center has, which sounds completely stupid to me.

However, during the course of my conversation with the representative, she said that they will be "shipping out of our 4100 stores soon". Not sure what that means, but hopefully I can just go pick a new one up.