Blockbuster Puts Itself Up For Sale - Blu-ray Forum

Hunk Golden · 02-23-2011, 05:06 PM

Seems like the days of actually renting new releases on Blu are coming to an end soon. This blows. I know a lot of people don't care, and don't mind waiting 1 month. I do mind waiting. And Streamflix has really raised their prices. It's just under $26 now for 3 out with Blu-ray access. That's way too high. I wish they'd strip streaming from my plan and charge me less. If I want to pay more for the streaming I will. HD fans are subsidizing "free" streamers.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blo...-up-sale-22041

Icedburden · 02-23-2011, 05:39 PM

I'm more than happy with my 1 Disc W/ streaming plan right now. As far as I'm concerned goodbye Blockbuster, their rental plan is horrible (Had a few VERY BAD experiences exchanging in-store movies) and their stores are disorganized messes. Hopefully when they start closing out I'll get a few deals.

Hunk Golden · 02-23-2011, 07:28 PM

For me Streamflix is much better as an online-only option. If I was with Blockbuster TA online only, I'd hate it. I'd drop it in a second. As long as I have open spots in my Q, Streamflix almost always sends me that week's new releases. Blockbuster is AWFUL with that. Not sure if it's everywhere or just eastern Iowa. They just skip me over. I'll have open spots in my Q...the new release will show "Available" for a day or two. Nothing. They won't ship me anything until I add old/less-demanded stuff to my Q.

Given that I don't have a b & m Blockbuster in my town, I should hate it in total. But I don't mind making my "town" run (groceries) every Tuesday. I take the old crap the online wharehouse actually WILL send me, and exchange them for the new releases. I love that part of it. I don't think the store (at least not the couple I hit) are disorganized. I've never liked the company. They've tried to pull shit with me in the past too, claiming I didn't return something...trying to charge a late fee (as if extorting a late fee here or there is worth more than happy customers). I've always dealt with it though, and had the bogus charge(s) removed. They haven't done anything like that in a long time. Of course 95% of my store rentals are online exhanges, so there's no due date. There's no gray area for them to try to pull something (other than maybe stealing it and claiming I didn't return it).

Anyway, it's moot. At some point in the future they'll close up shop and I'll have to pay way too much for my Streamflix plan. It is what it is.

krazeyeyez · 02-23-2011, 08:06 PM

That sucks, one more option gone from consumers as well as jobs for college students. They always were my number one choice when it came to renting, and always had programs catered to whatever my rental habits were at the time.... BB will be missed. I am guessing they will still be keeping their online service? as i thought that was a separate entity, and i know we have more kiosks locally then we do redboxes, wonder what will happen with them as well.

BluPat · 02-23-2011, 08:12 PM

It's sad to see so many video stores closing. That used to be one of the hilights of my day.....browsing old VHS/DVD titles at video stores. I never rent anymore...only buy but, it's still sad.

OMG I forgot, there is still a local video store that STILL has ALOT of VHS titles for rent. It's in the next town away and we just stopped in out of curiosity and there were still VHS everywhere.

Hunk Golden · 02-23-2011, 08:18 PM

Yup. Hard to feel sorry for Blockbuster, as they killed the small chains (as is the case with Borders struggling to stay afloat). But anything that kills jobs sucks. Anything that kills choices sucks. This will do both. We'll be forced to Rebox, Streamflix, and Amazon (cable, Dish, Directv) POV.

joro78 · 02-23-2011, 08:52 PM

It is not a big deal in my opinion..I buy my movies and enjoy it whenever I like

HD Man · 02-23-2011, 09:04 PM

Remember the days browsing through record stores for albums (vinyl/CD's) and those stores are basically nothing but a memory. Now the video rental stores have followed the same path. Blockbuster killed off many of the smaller/independent stores and now that segment of the business will now be reduced to Redbox and the new darling of media consumption: video streaming.

MrSlr · 02-23-2011, 09:41 PM

My blockbuster sucks.. There is this ahole manager lady with a lousy attitude.. i have the 1 at a time online and 5 a month in store exchange system which works great for me.. I usually dont have a problem that much with it, i get what i need out of it for the money..

the problems i ran into are:

Lousy employees that are jerks and treat me like a moron
Everytime i rent a blu ray the manager asks me if i know its a blu ray, really lady the huge blue box with blu ray written in bold giant white doesnt give it away.. I said to her the first time its blue colored and says blue ray and she said well most people confuse them (in a snarky voice tone)
when i get my free a month coupon they try to bill my debit account saying it wasnt returned when it was.

there employees treat everyone like morons and they try to shove there popcorn and crap down my throat.. I dont want your 5 dollar popcorn, giant food stores is right beside you its 5 bucks there for 5 of them lol..

I dont mind paying more for a good product and service, but blockbuster doesn't provide that quite a bit of the time.

Blu-ray Fanatic · 02-23-2011, 10:13 PM

I'd hate to see Blockbuster go, they've always been good to me. If they go, where in the hell am I gonna rent blu-rays? I hate Netflix and Redbox. Maybe there'll be another service that has blu-ray and no 28 day wait. I'm certainly not blind buying unless I know its gonna be good.

U4K61 · 02-23-2011, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

That sucks, one more option gone from consumers as well as jobs for college students. They always were my number one choice when it came to renting, and always had programs catered to whatever my rental habits were at the time.... BB will be missed. I am guessing they will still be keeping their online service? as i thought that was a separate entity, and i know we have more kiosks locally then we do redboxes, wonder what will happen with them as well.

Another straw for cheapness and consumption. I mostly buy, but there was the odd deep catalogue title like the Red Tent or The Match Factory Girl that I could pick-up for the night. I'll miss the 1:1 with a knowlwdgeable associate.

Anthony P · 02-24-2011, 12:13 AM

anything that causes loss of jobs is bad, but the reality is that it has been over 10 years since I have rented so something like this won't affect me at all.

FREYMAX 3D · 02-24-2011, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hunk Golden

Seems like the days of actually renting new releases on Blu are coming to an end soon. This blows. I know a lot of people don't care, and don't mind waiting 1 month. I do mind waiting. And Streamflix has really raised their prices. It's just under $26 now for 3 out with Blu-ray access. That's way too high. I wish they'd strip streaming from my plan and charge me less. If I want to pay more for the streaming I will. HD fans are subsidizing "free" streamers.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blo...-up-sale-22041

+1 Amen to that! Streaming movies just flat-out blows.

ChuckT43 · 02-24-2011, 02:01 AM

Almost no more physical renting of media. Sad to see this part of our culture and times coming to an end. The boxes just aren't the same really. Not that I used Blockbuster but ... still sad.

Flatnate · 02-24-2011, 02:30 AM

Yeah this is a major bummer, with my location streamflix is pure crap, the ISP speeds here are horrible. I refuse on principle to pay for a service where the majority of my dollar goes towards streaming versus having a second disc at home. If Blockbuster by mail folds, I doubt I will transition to Netflix and will just stop renting.

Icedburden · 02-24-2011, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSlr

My blockbuster sucks.. There is this ahole manager lady with a lousy attitude.. i have the 1 at a time online and 5 a month in store exchange system which works great for me.. I usually dont have a problem that much with it, i get what i need out of it for the money..

the problems i ran into are:

Lousy employees that are jerks and treat me like a moron
Everytime i rent a blu ray the manager asks me if i know its a blu ray, really lady the huge blue box with blu ray written in bold giant white doesnt give it away.. I said to her the first time its blue colored and says blue ray and she said well most people confuse them (in a snarky voice tone)
when i get my free a month coupon they try to bill my debit account saying it wasnt returned when it was.

there employees treat everyone like morons and they try to shove there popcorn and crap down my throat.. I dont want your 5 dollar popcorn, giant food stores is right beside you its 5 bucks there for 5 of them lol..

I dont mind paying more for a good product and service, but blockbuster doesn't provide that quite a bit of the time.

You don't happen to live in Maryland do you?

MrSlr · 02-24-2011, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icedburden

You don't happen to live in Maryland do you?

Lol noooo, Pennsylvania.. I take it MD isnt to shabby?

Guydowood · 02-24-2011, 11:03 AM

I have no pity for the big gold & blue going under. They started off strong and did offer the best deals around. Eventually they did kill any chances for the small mom & pop stores that struggled to keep a float when the Blockbuster store was just around the corner. What "killed" them is their own greed and a few times trying to strong arm the Hollywood Studios. I gave 15 years of my life to that company beginning as a pee-on CSR and ending my Career as a Store Mgr. So many of my friends also worked for them and in the end got ****ed outta their jobs. They always seemed late in the game when it came to online renting and the eventual crossovers to DVD & Bluray. The end really started for them when they retooled the "NO LATE FEE" policy by charging full price for a movie if it wasn't returned within 30 days of renting it. In the end after they Monopolized the market, capsizing Movie Gallery and eventually Hollywood Video. In the end Netflix killed the Video Star................

MrSlr · 02-24-2011, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guydowood

I have no pity for the big gold & blue going under. They started off strong and did offer the best deals around. Eventually they did kill any chances for the small mom & pop stores that struggled to keep a float when the Blockbuster store was just around the corner. What "killed" them is their own greed and a few times trying to strong arm the Hollywood Studios. I gave 15 years of my life to that company beginning as a pee-on CSR and ending my Career as a Store Mgr. So many of my friends also worked for them and in the end got ****ed outta their jobs. They always seemed late in the game when it came to online renting and the eventual crossovers to DVD & Bluray. The end really started for them when they retooled the "NO LATE FEE" policy by charging full price for a movie if it wasn't returned within 30 days of renting it. In the end after they Monopolized the market, capsizing Movie Gallery and eventually Hollywood Video. In the end Netflix killed the Video Star................

I loved hollywood video!! Great customer service and they always had new releases in stock.. plus they were beside sheetz (sheetz in pa is a gas station with a built in order to go food station, i believe sheetz is only in PA)

Renting a good movie and buying a sub from sheetz, good times!!

Flatnate · 02-24-2011, 01:38 PM

You know ironically its the mom and pop shops and the grocery stores that are the only places to rent Blu-ray near me. Its like 1989 all over again. What goes around comes around. Karma is a B!***.

02-23-2011, 05:06 PM	#1
Hunk Golden Special Member Member since:Nov 2010 Location:IOW(BL)A(H) Home Theater Gallery:3 4K collection:20 Blu-ray collection:2399 DVD collection:608 MA collection:58 Digital collection:44 iTunes collection:4960 Prime collection:2353 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:5	Blockbuster Puts Itself Up For Sale Seems like the days of actually renting new releases on Blu are coming to an end soon. This blows. I know a lot of people don't care, and don't mind waiting 1 month. I do mind waiting. And Streamflix has really raised their prices. It's just under $26 now for 3 out with Blu-ray access. That's way too high. I wish they'd strip streaming from my plan and charge me less. If I want to pay more for the streaming I will. HD fans are subsidizing "free" streamers. http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blo...-up-sale-22041

02-23-2011, 09:41 PM	#9
MrSlr Active Member Top contributor Member since:Mar 2010 Location:Pennsylvania 4K collection:160 Blu-ray collection:377 Blu-ray reviews: 4	My blockbuster sucks.. There is this ahole manager lady with a lousy attitude.. i have the 1 at a time online and 5 a month in store exchange system which works great for me.. I usually dont have a problem that much with it, i get what i need out of it for the money.. the problems i ran into are: Lousy employees that are jerks and treat me like a moron Everytime i rent a blu ray the manager asks me if i know its a blu ray, really lady the huge blue box with blu ray written in bold giant white doesnt give it away.. I said to her the first time its blue colored and says blue ray and she said well most people confuse them (in a snarky voice tone) when i get my free a month coupon they try to bill my debit account saying it wasnt returned when it was. there employees treat everyone like morons and they try to shove there popcorn and crap down my throat.. I dont want your 5 dollar popcorn, giant food stores is right beside you its 5 bucks there for 5 of them lol.. I dont mind paying more for a good product and service, but blockbuster doesn't provide that quite a bit of the time. Last edited by MrSlr; 02-23-2011 at 10:09 PM.

02-24-2011, 02:30 AM	#15
Flatnate Power Member Top contributor Member since:Sep 2010 Location:Minnesota Home Theater Gallery:26 4K collection:14 Blu-ray collection:208	Yeah this is a major bummer, with my location streamflix is pure crap, the ISP speeds here are horrible. I refuse on principle to pay for a service where the majority of my dollar goes towards streaming versus having a second disc at home. If Blockbuster by mail folds, I doubt I will transition to Netflix and will just stop renting. Last edited by Flatnate; 02-24-2011 at 02:33 AM.

02-23-2011, 05:39 PM	#2
Icedburden Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Mar 2009 Location:Baltimore, MD Home Theater Gallery:87 Blu-ray collection:942 DVD collection:8 Blu-ray reviews:4 Trading Score:62	I'm more than happy with my 1 Disc W/ streaming plan right now. As far as I'm concerned goodbye Blockbuster, their rental plan is horrible (Had a few VERY BAD experiences exchanging in-store movies) and their stores are disorganized messes. Hopefully when they start closing out I'll get a few deals.

02-23-2011, 07:28 PM	#3
Hunk Golden Special Member Member since:Nov 2010 Location:IOW(BL)A(H) Home Theater Gallery:3 4K collection:20 Blu-ray collection:2399 DVD collection:608 MA collection:58 Digital collection:44 iTunes collection:4960 Prime collection:2353 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:5	For me Streamflix is much better as an online-only option. If I was with Blockbuster TA online only, I'd hate it. I'd drop it in a second. As long as I have open spots in my Q, Streamflix almost always sends me that week's new releases. Blockbuster is AWFUL with that. Not sure if it's everywhere or just eastern Iowa. They just skip me over. I'll have open spots in my Q...the new release will show "Available" for a day or two. Nothing. They won't ship me anything until I add old/less-demanded stuff to my Q. Given that I don't have a b & m Blockbuster in my town, I should hate it in total. But I don't mind making my "town" run (groceries) every Tuesday. I take the old crap the online wharehouse actually WILL send me, and exchange them for the new releases. I love that part of it. I don't think the store (at least not the couple I hit) are disorganized. I've never liked the company. They've tried to pull shit with me in the past too, claiming I didn't return something...trying to charge a late fee (as if extorting a late fee here or there is worth more than happy customers). I've always dealt with it though, and had the bogus charge(s) removed. They haven't done anything like that in a long time. Of course 95% of my store rentals are online exhanges, so there's no due date. There's no gray area for them to try to pull something (other than maybe stealing it and claiming I didn't return it). Anyway, it's moot. At some point in the future they'll close up shop and I'll have to pay way too much for my Streamflix plan. It is what it is.

02-23-2011, 08:06 PM	#4
krazeyeyez Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Dec 2007 Location:the guy on the couch Home Theater Gallery:18 Blu-ray collection:287 Blu-ray reviews:4	That sucks, one more option gone from consumers as well as jobs for college students. They always were my number one choice when it came to renting, and always had programs catered to whatever my rental habits were at the time.... BB will be missed. I am guessing they will still be keeping their online service? as i thought that was a separate entity, and i know we have more kiosks locally then we do redboxes, wonder what will happen with them as well.

02-23-2011, 08:12 PM	#5
BluPat Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2008 Location:Texas 4K collection:241 Blu-ray collection:1455 Blu-ray reviews: 80 Trading Score:4	It's sad to see so many video stores closing. That used to be one of the hilights of my day.....browsing old VHS/DVD titles at video stores. I never rent anymore...only buy but, it's still sad. OMG I forgot, there is still a local video store that STILL has ALOT of VHS titles for rent. It's in the next town away and we just stopped in out of curiosity and there were still VHS everywhere.

02-23-2011, 08:18 PM	#6
Hunk Golden Special Member Member since:Nov 2010 Location:IOW(BL)A(H) Home Theater Gallery:3 4K collection:20 Blu-ray collection:2399 DVD collection:608 MA collection:58 Digital collection:44 iTunes collection:4960 Prime collection:2353 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:5	Yup. Hard to feel sorry for Blockbuster, as they killed the small chains (as is the case with Borders struggling to stay afloat). But anything that kills jobs sucks. Anything that kills choices sucks. This will do both. We'll be forced to Rebox, Streamflix, and Amazon (cable, Dish, Directv) POV.

02-23-2011, 08:52 PM	#7
joro78 Junior Member Member since:Feb 2011	It is not a big deal in my opinion..I buy my movies and enjoy it whenever I like

02-23-2011, 09:04 PM	#8
HD Man Senior Member Member since:May 2008 Location:Wash, DC area Blu-ray collection:253 Trading Score:2	Remember the days browsing through record stores for albums (vinyl/CD's) and those stores are basically nothing but a memory. Now the video rental stores have followed the same path. Blockbuster killed off many of the smaller/independent stores and now that segment of the business will now be reduced to Redbox and the new darling of media consumption: video streaming.

02-23-2011, 10:13 PM	#10
Blu-ray Fanatic Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Aug 2007 Location:San Antonio Blu-ray reviews:1	I'd hate to see Blockbuster go, they've always been good to me. If they go, where in the hell am I gonna rent blu-rays? I hate Netflix and Redbox. Maybe there'll be another service that has blu-ray and no 28 day wait. I'm certainly not blind buying unless I know its gonna be good.

02-24-2011, 12:13 AM	#12
Anthony P Blu-ray Count Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Montreal, Canada	anything that causes loss of jobs is bad, but the reality is that it has been over 10 years since I have rented so something like this won't affect me at all.

02-24-2011, 02:01 AM	#14
ChuckT43 Expert Member Member since:Dec 2009 Location:Gizmonic Institute, Northeast PA Blu-ray collection:272 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:7	Almost no more physical renting of media. Sad to see this part of our culture and times coming to an end. The boxes just aren't the same really. Not that I used Blockbuster but ... still sad.

02-24-2011, 11:03 AM	#18
Guydowood Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Aug 2008 Location:Guydowood 4K collection:1430 Blu-ray collection:3246 DVD collection:74 MA collection:1255 Digital collection:1620 iTunes collection:1511 Prime collection:1266 Blu-ray reviews: 4281 Trading Score:53	I have no pity for the big gold & blue going under. They started off strong and did offer the best deals around. Eventually they did kill any chances for the small mom & pop stores that struggled to keep a float when the Blockbuster store was just around the corner. What "killed" them is their own greed and a few times trying to strong arm the Hollywood Studios. I gave 15 years of my life to that company beginning as a pee-on CSR and ending my Career as a Store Mgr. So many of my friends also worked for them and in the end got ****ed outta their jobs. They always seemed late in the game when it came to online renting and the eventual crossovers to DVD & Bluray. The end really started for them when they retooled the "NO LATE FEE" policy by charging full price for a movie if it wasn't returned within 30 days of renting it. In the end after they Monopolized the market, capsizing Movie Gallery and eventually Hollywood Video. In the end Netflix killed the Video Star................

02-24-2011, 01:38 PM	#20
Flatnate Power Member Top contributor Member since:Sep 2010 Location:Minnesota Home Theater Gallery:26 4K collection:14 Blu-ray collection:208	You know ironically its the mom and pop shops and the grocery stores that are the only places to rent Blu-ray near me. Its like 1989 all over again. What goes around comes around. Karma is a B!***.

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