Blockbuster has bait and switched again

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by foots

My plan has gone from $17.99 to $34.99 in a span of four months and I've lost my free game rental.

Canceled!!

Same here!!! Frikin pissed...they just lost another customer.

[LynxFX]

That blows. My netflix plan actually decreased in price this year. Guess I won't be going to Blockbuster anytime soon.

[Bigdog]

Rival Netflix saw an immediate gain from the decision, with shares jumping nearly 10% yesterday to $27.24. Blockbuster shares barely moved and closed at $3.55. Blockbuster has 3.1 million online subscribers, compared with 7 million for Netflix.

I think Blockbuster is trying to drive online customers away -- and into its stores. Online rentals is a niche market, one that Netflix has successfully dominated. There just isn't room for another big competitor, and Blockbuster found that going toe-to-toe with Netflix was too expensive and distracting.

Get ready to say goodby to blockbuster, it's only a matter of time before everyone of their chains goes under, we have already seen about 4 out of the 10 in my area close it's doors for good.

[Footloose301]

Originally Posted by Rup_Muk

Despite getting the movies I want on the queue very early (about 6-8 weeks), I still have to wait very long for Netflix to deliver... May be Footloose has a "sweetie" looking out for him...

Rup.

haha

[statikcat]

Yeah Netflix has only decreased in price. My plan is like 17$ for 3 movies at a time. I have only ONCE had the shipping to and from netflix be more than 1 day! They are very consistent in this reguard. Blu-ray availability is good considering what you should expect. New releases take a bit to flesh out sometimes. Older Blu-rays are rarely on hold.

A few times Netflix has sent me the wrong disc and they easily fixed this for me. I also had a broken disc once from USPS and Netflix took care of it no hassle and no questions.

[inaz4sun]

Industry is noticing Blockbuster's problems.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/to...s-packing.aspx

http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...rpc=44&sp=true

And indeed they are. Its a stupid decision by them. They are going to go out of business before long when its much easier to download movies or use PPV. For movies you really want to see on Blu-ray etc...people will just buy them.

[Jim L]

. . . found out that it's way cheaper than Blockbuster.

I just hope they can keep me supplied with Blu-ray rentals.

[jkwest]

"Our scenario analysis assumes that half of Blockbuster's total subscriber base will migrate," Wible said in a note.

CLICKY

OUCH!!!

Blockbuster really screwed up on this, IMO...

[Amon37]

My e-mail said that my plan was going from 17.99 to 19.99 a month for:

3 out at a time
Unlimited in-store exchanges
one free game/movie rental coupon a month.

[Collectors Set]

Originally Posted by Amon37

My e-mail said that my plan was going from 17.99 to 19.99 a month for:

3 out at a time
Unlimited in-store exchanges
one free game/movie rental coupon a month.

This is definitely a lame move. I have heard from a few different people that the $19.99 plan now either gets unlimited in-store exchanges or only 5 per month. If you keep the in-store exchange for more than 24 hours, they start charging you daily for it until it is returned.

Now regardless of this fact, if you happen to be lucky and live very close to a blockbuster that actually stocks Blu, it is important to keep an open mind. I have a buddy who works from home and he can watch one or two movies every single day and he complains that he gets throttled by Netflix on brand new releases.

This coming week War & Resident Evil both hit on Blu. What are the chances if you are with Netflix or Blockbuster online and one of these is in your movie Q of you actually getting one of them?? I kind of like the in-store exchange as a hedge, because if you show up their on Tuesday as the new releases are hitting the shelves, you have a much more higher probability of getting them the day of in person instead of hoping for online mail delivery.

Plus if you crunch the numbers, this is giving you 5 extra Blu rentals per month for only a $3 bump from your current plan. That comes out to only 60 cents each.

I guess what you really have to do is look at your monthly rental activity. Now if you do not live near a Blockbuster Blu location for in-store exchange, I can see why you would go with Netflix, especially since I think they have 100+ more Blu titles in their library.

[jurassic_pork]

Well I have a blockbuster right by the house but they don't have blu's. I already scaled back my plan to 2 movies by mail and 3 in store changes a month and they raised that plan again. I think I'm now paying 3 or 4 dollars more for this plan than what I was paying on my originial of 3 out at a time and unlimited in store movie & video game rentals.

I'm so thinking about dropping them but the instore exchanges are really the key.

[Mark J. Marshall]

I was reading one of the replies from Blockbuster posted above, and one of the sentences sounded like it was worded strangely. This is the one...

We've reviewed our pricing structure and have found that to get a better balance of providing great value for Total Access subscribers while still making it affordable for us, as of December 27, 2007, we have restructured the prices of our Total Access subscription plans.

Anyway, something about that seemed off, so I started dropping prepositions and other expendable clauses, and got the sentence down to this...

We've reviewed our pricing structure and have found that to get a better balance of providing great value for Total Access subscribers while still making it affordable for us, as of December 27, 2007, we have restructured the prices of our Total Access subscription plans.

So it seems that they have just discovered that they have restructured their prices. Apparently they didn't know that they restructured their prices. It's a good thing you all have brought this to their attention.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by inaz4sun

Well BB did it again. They have now jacked their price by 20% for the plan I had. First they took away my two free rental coupons a month, then they put limits on in-store returns and now a 20% price increase. I immediately cancelled. If they are going to screw me, I will return the favor. I will either pick up Netflix now or do without for awhile. I got tired of having to have 80 titles in my queue just to get a movie and then taking months and months to ever get the blu-rays I wanted.

This is the second price increase in 3 months. I can't stand Blockbuster anymore either. It's time to cancel my membership with them for the second and most likely final time.