Blockbuster losing its luster

May 11, 2005

Blockbuster losing its luster

customer adventures — by TDavid @ 10:45 am PST

Delighting in another business suffering is sort of cruel and unusual punishment, I agree, but as a former ignored customer (by the corporate machine), I can’t be more happy to see Blockbuster misfiring.

Until recently, Blockbuster was the company to beat in home video rentals. With some 9,000 stores worldwide, the company has enjoyed a dominant position as the leading provider of home video and games in the U.S. and 24 other countries, taking in $6 billion in revenues last year. But from virtual obscurity six years ago, online rival Netflix has delivered a serious blow to Blockbuster’s business.

You go, Netflix, you go!

I still remember having problems in one of the local Blockbuster stores (which was handled very well by the store management). I wanted to contact the corporate office to compliment how the store management handled the issue. We were once gold customers of theirs (which means we spent lots of $$$ on rentals and merchandise). This is somewhat reminiscent of the recent situation with CompUSA, except at least at CompUSA we could reach somebody with Corporate affairs and in that case we wanted to complain about management, not compliment them. In Blockbuster’s case the only thing we could do at the time was fill out an online form.

And that online form we filled out — multiple times — and never received a reply to our inquiry. Not a form letter, email or phone call. Yeah, we kept getting their generic “you are a great, loyal customer” spam but nothing in regards to our direct inquiry. That was it for us as Blockbuster customers and we started taking our business elsewhere.

Online form only communication is the ultimate middle finger from any company. If you want to look in business like a total a-hole to your prospective and existing customers then make the only way to contact you via a form online. That’s like 1995 or something. These days with VOIP like Skype, dozens of different IM programs, email, blogs, etc, there are too many ways not to limit customer communication to only online forms. I’m sure Blockbuster has changed this policy now but at one time that’s the way it was. If they had more contact info beside a form then it was hidden very well. They made it very difficult for customers to contact their corporate office. Too bad.

Netflix, on the other hand, embraced the online world. Just one example of two different web business philosophies converging on the web. I’m sure Blockbuster would love to have a time machine right about now and get into the online DVD rental biz sooner.

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18 Comments »

Did you check their privacy statement online? Don’t they have to put contact phone numbers there?

Comment by FranciscoIV — May 11, 2005 @ 10:48 am PST

This was a couple years ago, mon, and I believe the number listed there didn’t lead anywhere productive, even if there was a number. I really don’t remember, except that they certainly didn’t have the corporate phone number easy to find. Today it could be a much different story, of course, I don’t shop there, and don’t visit their website.

Comment by TDavid — May 11, 2005 @ 10:58 am PST

I found your article because having been to the blockbuster site I found none I live 2 miles from a corporate office and that number when looked up by address and using the 411 info line both show as unlisted and do not call
I finally took my paperwork and questions in written form walked in and asked to speak to someone the first five minutes of the conversation were about how i tracked them down as the corporate office
since then the outside sign has been removed
like you say in the article giving the customer the finger, It is now against my company policy to use them and we give discounts to customers that cancel any accounts they have with them

all over 13 dollar bill mistakenly put on my account through a misspelling ..

Comment by RVirostek — June 21, 2005 @ 3:07 pm PST

Hi i dont like your no late fee thing cause people are taking advantage of it so when me and my family go in to rent sumthing nothing new is ever in cause these morons with no responsibility dont wanna return the stuff they rent for like 3 months its annoying i just want to say that no late fees suck and you know people jus like to rent stuff and if thye have no responsibility wont learn cause they dont have to worry about anything they rent.

Comment by Ben — July 13, 2005 @ 10:19 pm PST

[…] What caught me in this article wasn’t the success of Netflix despite Blockbuster’s competition, I’ve doubted they would do much for some time now. Remember Wal-Mart trying to make a run at this market and going nowhere? No, it was actually the sentence about the proxy fight launched by none other than “dissident investor Carl Icahn.” […]

Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Netflix 1, Blockbuster 0, Icahn alert — December 27, 2005 @ 11:28 pm PST

There was a charge made on my account from blockbuster on-line that I did not make..I canceled my service months ago and tried to find any # to call but there was no number on the website…after finding a corporate # on-line I called and they directed me to a toll free # to call…this number actually worked and I was able to call make my complaint and have the issue resolved…the number for on-line issues I called was 18666922789.

Comment by sam muhammad — March 20, 2006 @ 10:51 am PST

I just tryed to contact blockbusters corporate office to make a complaint. I searched the website. There is no way of contacting them except by e-mail.

Comment by Jordan — May 23, 2006 @ 4:44 pm PST

I am just hopping mad right now… I have been attempting to cancel and stop this rip off corporation from taking monthly fees from my checking account. I started this effort in August/Sept of 2005… I returned all DVS\’s by mail, putting notes on and inside saying I am canceling my account, do not send further DVD\’s. I moved from CA to WA and they still take out the monthly service fee. I send in on line complaints and requests for assistance. I get back, go to your local store or store you opened the account. RIGHT.. I moved 2 states away from my LOCAL Store.. and I had signed up on line….. But I go to the now local stores and they tell me to send in my complaint, requests through the on line web page……. I finally put a challenge on my bank account, but they still managed to get another month\’s service fees out of my account. I am posting on sites for others who have been ripped off… Perhaps in a group of numbers and a class action suit Blockbuster Corp Offices will wake up and do something about proper Customer Service… They have taken $220 from me for 11 months that I have not received service. They have ignored all attempts to correct this problem!! OKAY Yes I am upset..!!!! susansalt at pureromancefashions dot com .. drop me a line if you are in the same large boat….. Ohh my banking institute, who I can not name since I promised not to…. says, the only way to get out of this is to close my account and open another and force them to sue me for the future payments they will go after but not get…….. If a bank has to tell customers this…. how big a problem is this????????????

Comment by Sue Salt — June 15, 2006 @ 5:42 pm PST

This is the ONLY place I was able to find a phone number to call Blockbuster Online. Used Google. Thanks to sam muhammed. The web site link to Contacts is broken, as is the Customer Service link.

Comment by Peter Parker — July 28, 2006 @ 1:07 pm PST

This is a comment to Sue Salt and her on-line billing problems. I am not stating that Blockbuster is a good company or anything, but ummmm….cancelling your on-line is one on the easiest things to do. You sign in at blockbuster.com, click on the link that says my account, then click on the link that says, cancel. They will ask you why choose one of the buttons and then submit. That is always how it has been, so if you are having trouble still try that.

Comment by Victor Blasiol — December 6, 2006 @ 3:00 pm PST

I think that Blockbuster is making a ton of money because they don’t get back to their customers. My father and I, two months ago, signed up for the On-line account at the local blockbuster. As soon as we did that we were in trouble. My father put in his password and it was incorrect. WE SIGNED UP TWO SECONDS BEFORE THAT! How the hell could it be incorrect. So we waited until we got home to try to reset the password. Well in order to do that we had to wait for an email. Two weeks later, after the trial period was over, we still had no email from Blockbuster. Through the website I told them to cancel the account but the money still came out of my fathers account. I have repeatedly called the local branch who keeps telling me to call the toll free number (18666922789). I decided to try the password reset option once more and it went through. They send you a link to the site where you can resent your password. Well we tried that and It said that the email address that we were using isn’t valid. How can it be invalid if Blockbuster just sent us a link to that very page through that email address? I have called this number that was given to me by the local branch everyday for the past two weeks and I have gotten no where. The first week I was stuck on hold listening to Spanish women ramble. When asked what language I prefer I chose English but yet Spanish was what I got every time. I do not know what to do. I dint think that my father should have to cancel his account because we cant get ahold of corporate. Its a bunch of bull!
What should I do now? Wait until Blockbuster takes $220 from my father?

Comment by Deanna — December 8, 2006 @ 2:44 pm PST

Blockbuster Online Experience
I cancelled my account, removed all DVDs from my queue, and returned all movies within the specified time period. Blockbuster Online, a week after I canceled and with nothing left in my queue, sent two DVDs without my knowledge. I did not request the DVDs, and I never wanted to use the service ever again. I have now been charged for the two DVDs forcibly sent after cancellation.

I only used the Blockbuster Online service for two months, and I cancelled because of extremely slow service, and missing, incorrect or broken DVDs. The Blockbuster Online website shows an Internal Server Error when I try to make contact, and when I call, I am put on hold for over 20 minutes only to be disconnected. Now almost two months after I cancelled, I have to deal with unauthorized billing because my financial information is still on record. I have to change all of my financial information at my bank because Blockbuster states that it is impossible to remove it from their records.

Do not use this service.

Comment by Horrible Experience — December 28, 2006 @ 1:28 pm PST

I\’ve had some similar problems with Blockbuster, their customer service through their online website is a joke!… I\’m pasting in my emails so everyone can see what dimwits they are and how unresponsive they are to customer complaints! I\’ve taken out my personal email address and a link to two coupons (I am not going to use) to protect my privacy, but everything else in the text is verbatim. Keep in mind as you read it it\’s pasted in most recent email first, so you\’ll have to scroll from the bottom up to get the chronological gist. There\’s nothing worse as a customer, I think, than not being heard. This is such classic big corporation ignorance I\’d laugh if I wasn\’t so irritated with the whole thing.

From:

To: \”Blockbuster Online Customer Care\”

Subject: Re: Problem with disc and with \”short wait\” issue. [Incident: 070206-003003]

Date: Wed 02/07/07 02:34 PM

Yes there\’s something else you can do for me.. you can actually READ THE EMAIL I SENT YOU. Your reply doesn\’t even address my concerns in the slightest. You have GOT to be kidding me with this! Frankly, I don\’t care because I\’ve CANCELED my service with you, but really, this has got the be worst customer service I\’ve seen in a long time. Why even bother to reply if you aren\’t going to address the problem???

— blockbuster@custhelp.com wrote:

From: \”Blockbuster Online Customer Care\”
To: xxxx@netscape.com
Subject: Problem with disc and with \”short wait\” issue. [Incident: 070206-003003]
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 04:39:13 -0600 (CST)

formId: 1026
txtFormName: BLOCKBUSTER(R) Store Feedback Contact Us

Subject
Problem with disc and with \”short wait\” issue.

Discussion Thread
Response (BLOCKBUSTER Online) 02/07/2007 04:39 AM
Hello Linda,

Thanks for clarifying the issue. I\’m sorry for any misunderstandings regarding our wait statuses, Linda. The availability indicators you see are actually global indicators as opposed to local. What I mean by this is that we have a network of shipping centers across America, 35 in all. BLOCKBUSTER Online calculates how many physical copies we have and compares that number to how many requests we have for those DVDs. If our system determines that we have enough inventory to meet demand, then we will display \”Available\” in your Queue.

Please know that our goal is to deliver your DVDs in less than 3 business days, so we will consider your closest shipping centers to determine which DVD to send next. Unfortunately, sometimes this means that the copies we have in-stock are at shipping centers that will take longer than 3 business days for you to receive. This is why we may send DVDs lower in your Queue, or on rare occasions we may not ship anything at all. I hope this information helps, Linda. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Respectfully,

Jan
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online

Customer (Linda Kennedy) 02/06/2007 11:56 PM
II don\’t think you\’re understanding the problem as I related it to you. You did not send me the right disc. You sent me the 2nd disc of the movie BEFORE you sent the first one. If you would have looked at my queue you would have seen that, but apparently you didn\’t bother to do that in the process of offering me this shoddy customer service.

Since the 2nd disc has only the second half of the movie on it, and not the first part, it was completely useless. It clearly states in your policy regarding sending sets, that you send BOTH discs if the entire movie is on BOTH discs, not one disc with the movie and one disc with extras, or whatever. So, not only did you send the wrong disc (as I said you sent disc 2 before you sent disc 1) you\’re also telling me that if you had sent disc 1, as you should have, I would have to wait until I received disc 2 to watch the second half of the movie? That is not your policy according to your website, which is supposed to send both discs when the movie is on both so it \”mimcs the theater experience.\”

As for the extended wait time on \”La Femme Nikita\” frankly, I\’m tired of waiting for it. I have the sets in my queue correctly, but apparently you never looked at my queue or, again, you would have seen that. Your email to me seems to imply that I didn\’t put the sets in my queue correctly, which is rude, since it\’s obvious that you never bothered to look. The problem here isn\’t ME.

On top of these problems and your useless customer service, I\’ve located a data mining cookie on my system that has been set more than once on my computer by your website. I\’ve had to delete it repeatedly from my system using an anti spyware scanner program. Frankly, I\’m very disappointed that Blockbuster would deposit a data mining object on my system without my okay - and in a location where my usual cookie cleaner did not detect it. My web surfing habits are none of your business, and I object to this invasion of my privacy without my consent.

For all of these reasons I\’m going to cancel my membership effective this evening. The whole point of having the mail in service is it\’s supposed to be an easy way to rent movies. Your service in this matter has not been satisfactory to me, and I really don\’t feel like having to run my spyware program every time after I go to your site to update or manage my account. I will never rent from Blockbuster again, not online and not in any of your stores. I\’ll just go back to renting from Hollywood, and save
myself all this aggravation and the sacrifice of my privacy.

In the future I encourage you to provide better customer service.

— blockbuster@custhelp.com wrote:

From: \”Blockbuster Online Customer Care\”
To: xxxx@netscape.com
Subject: Problem with disc and with \”short wait\” issue. [Incident: 070206-003003]
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 16:45:34 -0600 (CST)

formId: 1026
txtFormName: BLOCKBUSTER(R) Store Feedback Contact Us

SUBJECT
Problem with disc and with \”short wait\” issue.

DISCUSSION THREAD
RESPONSE (BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE) 02/06/2007 04:45 PM
Hello Linda,

Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.

I do apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused you. I would like to inform you that when we are ready to ship a new DVD to you, the discs in the unbroken set will be sent in order for that set. For example: disc one will be shipped before disc two and so on. If there is more than one set for the series, all the other sets are considered their own group. For example: Season One is its own group and Season Two is another. If Season One is skipped over due to high demand and disc one of Season Two is available for shipping within a three-day window, it will be shipped although Season One has not been completed yet. For this reason, BLOCKBUSTER Online recommends putting the season sets further down the Queue or not adding the later seasons to the Queue until we finish sending the next one you want to see. I know the way this works could stand some improvement and may not be very convenient for you. We hope to develop a process soon that will make it better and easier for us all.

Also, I have reported the issue about \”Femme Nikita: The Complete Second Season\”. Rest assured that we will review and take care of it.

To make it up to you because I greatly value you as our customer and to compensate for the lost time, please accept this additional e-coupon for a free in-store movie rental at your local BLOCKBUSTER store. Click on the link below to print your coupon.

(link deleted by me for obvious reasons)

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with, Linda.

Respectfully,

Renen
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online

Want an answer faster? You can always visit the
FAQ section on our web site after clicking on the
\”Customer Care\” link.
CUSTOMER (LINDA KENNEDY) 02/06/2007 01:28 PM
I\’m trying to report a problem with a disc that was sent, but I\’m not presented with the correct option on your \”problem\” menu. You sent the 2nd disc of \”The Unbearable Lightness of Being\” to me instead of the first disc, which I did not receive first. That\’s the first problem. The second problem is I thought if a movie was spread over 2 discs they would be shipped at the same time, instead of being shipped as a \”set\” where one disc contains the entire movie. The second disc of this title that was sent to me contains the second half of the movie. So, problem being, even if you had sent me the first disc first, I still would not have received the entire movie.

I thought there was a difference in how you sent sets if the totality of the movie was on more than one disc.

The third problem, which has nothing to do with this particular movie, it\’s just a general complaint, is I\’ve been waiting for weeks for the second season of \”La Femme Nikita.\” It keeps appearing in my queue with various \”short waits\” attached to various discs depending on the day I look at it. To me, waiting several weeks for a series is not a short wait. I\’m not trying to play semantics, I\’m just frustrated because I would like to move on and watch the other seasons of the show, but instead it just keeps saying I have to wait.

Part of the reason I got the Blockbuster online is so I could order things that wouldn\’t readily be available in the store, like several seasons of TV shows. Frankly I\’m pretty frustrated that I\’ve been waiting this long for the second season discs of \”La Femme Nikita\” and I\’d like to know how long it\’s going to be before I get a chance to watch it, instead of some general \”short wait\” message that really is\’t a short wait at all.

Thanks for your time and for addressing these issues,
Linda Kennedy

BLOCKBUSTER Online

==================== text File Attachment ====================
Attachment 1.txt, 8368 bytes, added to incident
Response (BLOCKBUSTER Online) 02/06/2007 04:45 PM
Hello Linda,

Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.

Also, I have reported the issue about \”Femme Nikita: The Complete Second Season\”. Rest assured that we will review and take care of it.

(coupon link deleted by me for obvious reasons)

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with, Linda.

Respectfully,

Renen
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online

Want an answer faster? You can always visit the FAQ section on our web site after clicking on the \”Customer Care\” link.
Customer (Linda Kennedy) 02/06/2007 01:28 PM
I\’m trying to report a problem with a disc that was sent, but I\’m not presented with the correct option on your \”problem\” menu. You sent the 2nd disc of \”The Unbearable Lightness of Being\” to me instead of the first disc, which I did not receive first. That\’s the first problem. The second problem is I thought if a movie was spread over 2 discs they would be shipped at the same time, instead of being shipped as a \”set\” where one disc contains the entire movie. The second disc of this title that was sent to me contains the second half of the movie. So, problem being, even if you had sent me the first disc first, I still would not have received the entire movie.

I thought there was a difference in how you sent sets if the totality of the movie was on more than one disc.

Thanks for your time and for addressing these issues,
Linda Kennedy

BLOCKBUSTER Online

Comment by Linda Kennedy — February 7, 2007 @ 11:49 am PST

Blockbuster is the worst company on the planet. Store manager at council bluffs iowa location very rude laughs in your face on the phone saying nothing will be done for you and that its your fault because they lost the movies you returned. Customer service “customer care” passes the buck and said the account was closed and I would be getting refunded. Thats not the case. Company is full of lies!

Comment by itsnotfair — June 7, 2007 @ 9:54 am PST

A tip for those who would like to find hidden corporate office info - try looking under investor relations if the company is publicly traded. Blockbuster may not be customer friendly, but they’re warm and fuzzy to investors.

Blockbuster Inc., 1201 Elm Street, Dallas, TX 75270

Comment by Brandy — June 19, 2007 @ 2:31 pm PST

We live in Florida, in fact we live right in the heart of the lighting belt. On July 21,2007 it was a rainy day with lighting storms around, my husband and I decided to go to block-buster a rent a few movies. We picked our selections and got in the long line. The store had lost their power prior to us coming into the store. When we got to the counter the young man rang us up then took my husbands bank card to charge the 4 movies. It didn’t go through, so the cashier told us the bank debit machine was down due to a power outage,that we had to either pay with check or cash. I the secondary on the block-buster card wrote a check out for $20.96. We left, I returned the movies in the required time. A month later we receive a bill for $20.96 from block-buster. I called the store to find out why I got this bill. The 1st person couldn’t tell me, he said the account showed no late fees and that we had returned all movies but had a balance of $20.96 due. He then put the store manager on the phone and MAN did he have an attitude!! When I told him that I paid but couldn’t remember if it was by check or cash at the time he told me that “I better have a receipt proving it because our account will not be adjusted without it.” I was surprised at his response and told him that I probably didn’t have the receipt any longer. The store manager then told me we had to pay, I asked him for the district managers number , I called and left a message I still have not heard back from him. After I waited 2 days not hearing from the district manager I emailed BLOCK-BUSTER. They emailed me back asking for the same information the original email had the info except the card number, so now there has been 2 more emails and I’ve tried talking to 3 different people at corp. office BUT BECAUSE my husband is the primary account holder and I am the secondary they can not talk to me about the account so I’ve asked them if I could at least fax to their office a copy of the canceled check answer was no. After talking to my husband he remembered that we wrote a check out because we only had $25.00 between us. I got a copy of the check from the bank. It would have cleaned up this whole crap! Due to their privacy act HUMMMMMM! OK now I am on the card as a secondary, I can go in the store and rent movies, pay for them, return them all using this card but I CAN”T take care of this paid bill. I am not interested in going to the store and trying to talk to the store manager again,he was much to rude and loud. COMMON SENSE WHERE IS IT????? WELL BLOCK-BUSTER you’ve lost another customer!!!! Guess I’ll take copies of my emails from them, the bill they sent and the copy of our canceled check to the BBB. There are other places to rent movies and thats where our business will go. HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE did that store collect more money than they should have on that day???????? Maybe channel 2 or channel 6 or 9 maybe all the t.v. stations would like to hear about this. HUMM!
BLOCK-BUSTER STINKS!

Comment by Debi — August 29, 2007 @ 8:14 am PST

There removed the cancel your account feature now … so you can’t cancel your account and i can removed my person information from the account …They just gave me the run around and told me to send a letter to corporate Which i think is BS …since they know Corporate office …most likely not respond to the letter.

Comment by mindkisser1 — September 17, 2007 @ 1:20 pm PST

if your trying to close your account there is away for them to take off your information. they need to go into your account and type in false information such as henry miller/Santa Claus address north pole and so on. as for a credit card a MOD/manager can cancel the one on file all it takes is a few minutes for a manager to delete a account by changing names and addresses and card numbers. approximately 3 min of there time. dint try to do it on sat or Fri they will say theres no time etc.. as for online services thats got to be canceled at the website as the other post told you. And I was given this phone number to make complaints not sure it will work but hey I feel better I was able to complain. Of course its a 3rd party site not even BBV 18664419673

Comment by karen — September 1, 2008 @ 2:33 pm PST

URI

http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20050511/1841/trackback/

May 11, 2005

Blockbuster losing its luster

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