As I explained above, I cancelled my account on Saturday evening (saving the screenshot of the cancellation confirmation and their emailed cancellation confirmation for proof), and today, Monday afternoon at 2 pm, Blockbuster sent me 2 emails saying that they had shipped me the first 2 movies in my queue. ...Their system is not very "real-time".
Given the problems some FW people have described here regarding erroneous charges' not being refunded, I will probably send these movies back with delivery confirmation so I can prove that they received them.
actorgersh
Senior Member
posted: Aug. 31, 2009 @ 5:53p
I just got an e-mail from Groupon about this deal. It says you have to sign up by 9/7/09. Just an FYI.
Firstly, not sure why my last post got a 'red' - I hardly said anything to complain about.
Secondly, I wrote Blockbuster customer service to ask why they mailed out dvds to me 2 days after I had cancelled, and they wrote back that their policy was not to *actually* cancel someone's account until 10 days AFTER the person had asked for the cancellation. So she said my account would be active for another week and a half.
That doesn't make any sense to me, and seems as if it's designed to trip people up.
Therefore, for those people doing the 6 week trial, I'd take this as a warning that you don't want to leave it to the last day or two of your trial to cancel your account, because in their system, your request to cancel is going to be shelved by them for 10 days, and in those 10 days, perhaps you'll start to be charged for the membership, and then have to get a refund, etc.
NantucketSunrise said: As I explained above, I cancelled my account on Saturday evening (saving the screenshot of the cancellation confirmation and their emailed cancellation confirmation for proof), and today, Monday afternoon at 2 pm, Blockbuster sent me 2 emails saying that they had shipped me the first 2 movies in my queue. ...Their system is not very "real-time".
Given the problems some FW people have described here regarding erroneous charges' not being refunded, I will probably send these movies back with delivery confirmation so I can prove that they received them.
tederick
New Member
posted: Sep. 4, 2009 @ 9:20a
I decided to sign up since it has been a while since I was a member. I'm watching my queue closely since others have reported that they are not getting their movies.
It's been about a day. Nothing has been shipped from my queue. In the past, the movies were shipped the same day that my membership began.
Are other people getting their movies?
Edit: Two movies were just sent out. Like BB said, it was one business day.
bingo325
New Member
posted: Sep. 4, 2009 @ 10:08a
I'm having the same problem getting my movies shipped in one day. It now takes two to three days. They are blaming it on a new software upgrade. Been going on for the last two weeks.
Thanks for the FREE six week trial OP, it's working perfect for me... no cancellation, no "scary stories" like everyone else on here who have NOT used this specific offer. I'm glad most of you passed though, it made it easier for those of us to get in on the deal.
FIWALY said: Jasonz06 said: hud500 said: Try this: Stop trying to Scam/Steal from Blockbuster.. That should work
Why are you here?
Please don't equate getting the most for your money here at Fatwallet with trying to "scam". In fact its quite the opposite. Its a challenge to try to get the most for your money in a legit way.
My point is why do people post useless information and not something about the actual OP post? Don't like it? Move on... this deal worked perfect for me!
I have a few questions for those of you with these Blockbuster Mail-Back programs, since I've never done one of these before.
1. I signed up on Friday; put my two titles in the queue; and still see them there on Saturday. One "Business Day" means that if I queued it in Friday, it ships . . . Monday?
2. Totally confused about the "5 In-Store Exchanges" deal. Let's say I've received my 2 movies; seen them; and now want to return them to the store. I'm entitled to 5 FREE In-Store Rentals during that visit, even though I've only returned 2? Limited to 5 per month? Including New Releases? I'd really appreciate someone explaining this to me.
These next questions relate to turnaround strategies. I'm trying to find the fastest way I can advance the queue with a 2-at-a-time checkout on a series of titles that are only available through Blockbuster's online queue, to get as many movies squeezed into this 6-week trial as possible. In your experience:
3. Which method of return advances the queue the fastest — In-Store or Mail? This question is essentially asking whether the return is logged on Blockbuster's servers at point of surrender in the store . . . or is there some crap the store can do to delay their report back to Blockbuster that you've surrendered the 2 movies.
4. If I've ascertained that my first priority is to get as many of the titles available online only, should I
• skip the 5 In-Store Exchanges since that invariably delays the advance of my queue; or • go ahead and take advantage of the 5 In-Store Exchanges since they have no effect on my queue?
I would return them in store, and as a consequence you will have a free slot each time and the next one in the queue will hopefully get shipped.
If you exchange some of the mailed discs with in store ones, you will not get a free slot. I have to mention a few things here (this 6-week promo was my very first experience with Blockbuster): - One rental is worth $4 and the 5 free rentals are then supposed to be worth $20. I guess this was for the in-store rental fanbase to switch to the Netflix-like product. - I am not impressed with this feature, since there are very few in-store movies that i wanted and could not get from other places. Still, I was pleasantly suprised when I found a few exclusives (meaning Netflix does not have them), and I also did what you suggested: rent in-store some movies that I wanted, if they were available. - the online inventory of the stores is not entirely reliable: check at the store instead. - even though the titles are far and between, I recommend you to check the foreign section in the store. You may have quite a few unexpected discoveries. - still, the $16.99/month plan with 2 discs at a time is not competitive when compared with the same price plan from Netflix, which has 3 discs at a time. It would pbe worth it, though, if you needed the titles in the store badly.
I'm attempting a TV series which clocks in at a staggering 128 DVDs each one four-hours in length. Various assorted libraries here in the Bay Area can net me 36 of the 128, and I'm (wisely) going to exhaust as many of the pathetic selection Blockbuster offers. Not one of them is available In-Store, surprise surprise. My two in queue are still there, two days later.
I'm going to have a lady friend sign up for her own Blockbuster 6-Week Trial to help us cull at least a few more before we have to cave and resort to Netflix. We're talking about close to $1800 worth of video, so I'm not blaming any of our budget-challenged libraries for managing the few they can afford. What would really make me happy is if Netflix would offer a 6-week promo. Do they ever do that?
Let me ask you something else. In your experience, when you surrender the DVDs In-Store is the queue advanced immediately . . . or is there some bogus delay?
Rambler said: I get 2 sets per week. That seems to be the best they can do.
Monday: I get dvd's in the mail.
Tuesday: Return them to store, trade in for more.
Wednesday: Return those 2.
Monday: Finally get more in mail. Start the whole process over. Rambler, I'm confused so help me out (and thank you so much for this intelligence!! geez you guys are just the best):
Are you saying that the 5 you get In-Store has no effect on your queue — in other words, that you can always have 2 Online+ 5 In-Store (total 7)? If I read g10ny's comments, I thought that taking 5 out In-Store automatically compromises your online queue — that you then would not be able to advance your online queue until those 5 In-Store had first been returned?
Getting this absolutely right is important given the volume I'm dealing with lol. I need the fastest strategy for turning around movies that are only available online, and don't want to inadvertently compromise that schedule by anything I do In-Store.
1. When you surrender the disc at the B&M Blockbuster, the "At Home" place empties. In my experience, I've had better results if the Bb visit was early in the morning, so that during that day another rental slot moved to the "At Home" place. Otherwise, generally it only moves there the next day. The good thing is that even though their estimates give a certain arrival date (2 days from the shipping date, in my case), it arrives a day earlier (eg one day after shipping). Obviously, in this case your mileage may vary. 2. I see a problem with your approach: an above post says the bonus is/was valid until Sept 7th, IIRC. So new sign-ups might not be six-weeks long, unfortunately. (I could have tried to double dip myself, but I'm already into other stuff and can't keep track of so many envelopes). 3. 2 online+5 monthly in-store exchanges means that: - you always have a maximum of TWO DVDs in your possession. Right now I have returned both my DVDs to the local store: one on Friday evening and another on Saturday, about noon. The queue did not advance so far, I have ZERO DVDs "at home". But from experience I can tell that on Monday morning I will get there two titles from my list. - These up to two DVDs you can choose to switch in store for what you can find there, but you can do this ONLY FIVE TIMES A MONTH. - An additional thing that I found out was that you need the mailer to do this exchange, the already exchanged DVD cannot give you rights to a new FREE exchange, you have to wait for another DVD to ship to your address, even though you haven't already exhausted your five free exchanges. You obviously still have the freedom to rent another one, if you are paying for the rental (duh!), in my case it is $4. - As a bonus, it doesn't matter if you return the DVD in another store than the one you took the DVD from.
Frankly, there's no way you can compress 100 DVDs on this. The best case would be if, say, in day 1 you are sent 2 discs, you get them in the morning of day 2, you somehow watch them instantaneously (no need for details here) and you return them in the same morning at the store and you are sent the next discs in the same day and so on. Six weeks means 2 discs X 42 days=84 maximum discs, IF all these transactions go smoothly and the assumptions taken are complied with. The next best case would be if you return the discs on day 2 late in the evening, and as a consequence on day 3 you will be sent the next from your list. In this case the max number will be 2 discs X 42 days/2= 42 discs. But I still don't know if they process discs on Saturdays (Netflix used not to, but recently they started doing that), so adjust your numbers accordingly. If I were you I won't be running for this impossible race, but settle for either a section of the show, for a selection of my favorite movies Blockbuster has, or a combination thereof.
Sorry if those findings of mine are already well-known to Bb aficionados, I am a new customer, and apparently won't remain as such for too long. But I'm surely enjoying the free ride.
Edited to add: there is a thread on DVDTalk discussing such sign-up promos, not only from Netflix, but it hasn't been updated for a good while (here).
TYTBUDGET said: I'm attempting a TV series which clocks in at a staggering 128 DVDs each one four-hours in length. Doctor Who? Gunsmoke? I can't think of anything else that would be remotely that long unless it's a soap or a game show.
g10ny said: I see a problem with your approach: an above post says the bonus is/was valid until Sept 7th, IIRC. So new sign-ups might not be six-weeks long, unfortunately. Thus, screenshots + PDFs confirming my trial is 6 weeks. And DISPUTE, if necessary. g10ny said: When you surrender the disc at the B&M Blockbuster, the "At Home" place empties. 2 online + 5 monthly in-store exchanges means [for the purpose of this Blockbuster plan] that you always have a maximum of TWO DVDs in your possession. Got it. I suspected that In-Store rentals would compromise my online queue and I was right. I'll only use the store for drop offs — and then, as you pointed out, the earlier in the day the better. g10ny said: Frankly, there's no way you can compress 100 DVDs on this. Ah. Well I'm obviously not trying to attempt the impossible with this Blockbuster trial g10ny. For one thing, their selection is a pathetic fraction of what Netflix's is; thus you work with the vendor with the narrowest selection first.
Using Rambler's estimate you should be able to move 4 DVDs a week with this plan. But my lady friend will do her own Blockbuster Trial, so 128 DVDs are reduced as follows:
That should leave 40 DVDs remaining which we can do in a couple months of Netflix. I'm also going to investigate Inter-Library Loan Fees, but . . . I'm all but certain that would be more expensive than Netflix. All in all, not a shabby day's work to cull 2/3 of the entire series FREE. And who knows, maybe by then Netflix will open up a longer Trial than 2 weeks. By the way g10ny, thanks for reminding me of dvdtalk. That's the Go To forum for promos. Meanwhile . . .
Does anyone know if Netflix has ever done Trials longer than 2 weeks?
Apparently they did, at least scouring through that DVDTalk thread I found such a thing having happened two years ago. And I think I remember some paper coupons that I received a few months ago, possibly they were good for a month (plus an extra rental for me) but I never used it. Next time I'll know where to ask
simmias said: Doctor Who? Gunsmoke? I can't think of anything else that would be remotely that long unless it's a soap or a game show. You'll either immediately recognize this theme or you won't. ENJOY . . .
mrredskin said: what do they expect for charging $10 to rent a game for a week. they can go to hell for the cancellation of the 3 month trial couple months ago, where they then reduced it to two weeks I will second that. I too had a three month deal that they changed to two weeks or was it three weeks. Al
Rambler said: I get 2 sets per week. That seems to be the best they can do.
Monday: I get dvd's in the mail.
Tuesday: Return them to store, trade in for more.
Wednesday: Return those 2.
Monday: Finally get more in mail. Start the whole process over.
There was a time where I could get 3 cycles per week.
I would receive movies Monday. Rip and return on Monday. Next movie batch arrives Wednesday. Rip and return on Wednesday. Next movie batch arrives Friday. Rip and return Friday.
Blockbuster is quicker where I live. Not only that, you don't have to wait 6-8 months for new releases like you would on Netflix.
riznick said: Rambler said: I get 2 sets per week. That seems to be the best they can do.
Monday: I get dvd's in the mail.
Tuesday: Return them to store, trade in for more.
Wednesday: Return those 2.
Monday: Finally get more in mail. Start the whole process over.
There was a time where I could get 3 cycles per week.
I would receive movies Monday. Rip and return on Monday. Next movie batch arrives Wednesday. Rip and return on Wednesday. Next movie batch arrives Friday. Rip and return Friday.
Blockbuster is quicker where I live. Not only that, you don't have to wait 6-8 months for new releases like you would on Netflix.
For those that are interested in Netflix, I received the following email this morning:
"Give them a free month of movies! Dear xxx,
Who wouldn't like a free month of movies? Forward this email to your friends and family, and they'll get a FREE month of Netflix. That's twice as long as our regular free trial!
This limited time offer for your friends and family expires 10/31/2009, so forward this email today.
–Your friends at Netflix"
If you're interested, pm me with your email addy, and I'll forward the email to you.
hoodwink said: What is the software to rip the movies? http://www.videohelp.com and start reading. Be prepared for a long (and frequently frustrating) learning curve as well as the inevitable coasters while you grope your way forward heh heh.
I believe the Netflix thread was yanked because all those codes were unique and looked like some kind of referrals (I'm not sure if they are). I still have a few unique codes for the 4-week trial. Apparently this is the way to go, not by clicking on a generic link.
TYTBUDGET said: .....1245 actually........Dark Shadows aired 1225 episodes during its run (1966-1971), they where numbered up to 1245 because ABC-TV assigned episode numbers to days when the series was preempted. Dark Shadows was preempted 20 times which accounts for the discrepancy between the number of episodes and the episode numbers.
TYTBUDGET said: hoodwink said: What is the software to rip the movies? http://www.videohelp.com and start reading. Be prepared for a long (and frequently frustrating) learning curve as well as the inevitable coasters while you grope your way forward heh heh.
TYTBUDGETmost people can't be bothered with editting out FBI and sneak previews. I will suggest AnyDVD or DVD Fab. Do one to one copies, burn away. or then you can transcode into mkv or whatever else you want to stream once it's on your hard drive.
psxzombie said: TYTBUDGET said: hoodwink said: What is the software to rip the movies? http://www.videohelp.com and start reading. Be prepared for a long (and frequently frustrating) learning curve as well as the inevitable coasters while you grope your way forward heh heh.
TYTBUDGETmost people can't be bothered with editting out FBI and sneak previews. I will suggest AnyDVD or DVD Fab. Do one to one copies, burn away. or then you can transcode into mkv or whatever else you want to stream once it's on your hard drive.
I use DVD Fab 5 (legit copy, got it free from FW) to rip ISO's. I no longer burn.
For the record, the latest beta of FAB PLAT will not recognize BB DVDs (in any event, not DS). This is when I'm grateful to have an obscenely huge capacity of (((hard drive space))) heh heh.
trips13 said: if they charge something they werent supposed to just file a complaint with your cc company, no need to pass on a hotdeal
Yeah, Blockbuster actually chaged me 26.99 3 times last time during the trial. I forgot to cancel, so it was my fault, so I just decided to take the hit for a paid month. I checked my CC bill and saw that I owed them 80 bucks and I was like what the hell. So I called and took 2 of the 3 charges off. They must be desperate.
actorgersh
Senior Member
posted: Sep. 30, 2009 @ 11:13p
I'm having an issue with shipping during this trial. I returned a DVD to the store two weeks ago and they have yet to send another disc to replace it. I've e-mailed customer service three times and each time they say there is some system upgrade going on (and they send a free rental coupon with it). Anyone else having this issue? Glad I'm not paying for it.
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