wow...i was just going to sign up for the service.. NOT anymore. thanks giz

Even though they reduced the in-store rentals to 5, it's still better than netflix. Netflix does the same online throttling. Blockbuster had to do this because obviously people were taking advantage of it and never paying for in-store movie rentals, something Blockbuster has to pay it's franchisers for.

Wow that is BS....what if you already have the plan. I know they took away the 2 coupons for GAMES or movies, but my GF still gets those cause she has had the service for 3 years.

I'm still thinking about doing it because $18 for that many movies is better than having to buy them.

Now that they have Netflix by the danglies its time to turn on their customers. Welcome to corporate America.

It has already started...

i still think it's better than Netflix.
I've had both and have the ability to get to a Blockbuster store in less than 10 minutes... 5 free exchanges is still really good.
In fact I would pay $18 JUST to get 5 rentals, i used to pay like $4.50 per movie.

It's all good, the previous plan was too good to be true anyways.

@IceZ: Not sure what will happen in a couple weeks, but mine still says unlimited exchanges.

I believe NetFlix just lowered their pricing to $16.99 per month for 3 movies. Also, it is worth noting that NetFlix allows you to stream movies (one hour per buck per month or something, so potentially 8 movies per month) as well as having the three movies checked out at any one time. (However, the streaming movie selection is not incredible - there are enough titles there to find stuff you have not seen before.)

Of course, the primary reason I am with NetFlix is laziness. Being able to stream a movie to watch when all my flicks are in-transit works better for me than driving to the neighborhood Blockbuster. Plus, it fits better with my 'Eco-Nazi persona' (that is what my wife calls me, so I guess I can't argue it).

If you click on the link that says "See All Plans" you'll see that they still offer a plan with unlimited exchanges. It's just more expensive at $24.99

Looks to me like a bad way to publicize a price hike.

Bah! I had a solid 6 movies a week cycle going (3 by mail, 3 in-store)... 24 movies a month for 17.99 was pretty awesome, but it was definitely the maximum amount possible. With this change I'll still be able to get 17 movies a month for 17.99. A buck per rental is still damn good.

Got an email on this from Blockbuster this morning. It does not affect existing customers, UNLESS you change your plan. So sounds like existing customers are grandfathered in. Quote:

We want to let you know about some changes to our BLOCKBUSTER Total Access™ subscription plans. This information is provided for your reference only - your subscription plan will not be affected by these changes.

Beginning July 26, 2007, there will be a price increase on your current unlimited plan. We will also begin to offer plans which limit the number of in-store exchanges available each month.

As a preferred customer, your plan will not change at this time. Please continue to enjoy your exclusive subscription plan, including no monthly limit on free* movie rentals or discounted game rentals when you exchange in-store, at today's price - far below the published rate available to new subscribers.

At any point, you can log in and review your current subscription plan or see all available plans. Keep in mind that if you want to change your subscription plan at any point after July 26, 2007, your new plan will be subject to prices and terms available at that time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Your Friends at BLOCKBUSTER®

I do the unlimited 1 movie at a time with a monthly coupon deal (9.99 per month). I got an email from Blockbuster stating they were changing the plans, but since I was already a customer, I would not be affected by the changes. Not sure how long that will last, but it's something.

Didn't Netflix settle a class action suit for throttling about a year ago. I think the punishment was 1 month free for all their subscribers. I've had BB for two years now and I knew it was too good to be true. I've never experienced the throttling that Nexflix did back in the day.

I didn't even get an email about it. My plan in my account information still states 3 out a month with unlimited in store exchanges.

It is typical they are doing this to increase their profit margin. I am the same as BOBMAN1235. I don't watch T.V.; I would rather watch a 2hr movie every night. So I've been doing 6 movies every 7 days.

They do throttle the movies. FYI here is a little bit of info on that.

As soon as you turn them into the store it hits the system usually on that same day or early morning if it was already late. It auto emails you *telling* you to report it as not sent if you do not get it 3 days after the email was generated. It is humorous as their throttling that they do not tell you about pushes this limit constantly. One time I reported it after 4 days as missing. The next day I got both copies of the same movie and then exchanged all of them for 4 in store movies instead of just 3. This has happened 2 or 3 times now and generally after it happens they send me the next 3 ASAP with no throttling. I guess when they see it is costing them more when I get a crazy amount of in store exchanges then they reset the throttling in the mail.

I guarantee this has something to do with this change as well. This way they can throttle your movies or if they send you the wrong ones multiple times a month. You won't be able to get a free exchange in the store to compensate for them screwing up, as you most likely use them up pretty quickly.

I checked my account and it says that my little 5.99 one movie at a time plan still gets unlimited exchanges, so this might only effect new members. I know that Blockbuster used to give Total Access members two coupons a week that could be used on games or movies and those people were grandfathered in to the new system (where new members only get one a month). I know some people still get those coupons, perhaps it will be the same with the unlimited exchanges for current Total Access Members.

Just checked, they still have unlimited swapping, just for more money.
I don't see the 1 free in-store coupon listed anymore though. I was going to sign up for that next Tuesday. I freaking hate BB and all thing movie now. This is the last straw, I'm not watching any more movies. Try it too, I think you'll be fine.

Yes, it's less attractive than the first offering, but we've taken advantage of the free in-store exchange 3 times total in the past 6 months. I can live with a 5-exchange limit and even the $1.99 charge over 5 exchanges. The fact that when you return a movie in-store they immediately credit you and ship the next movie in your queue is something to keep in mind. Comparing apples to apples for new customers, Blockbuster Total Access is *still* a better value than NetFlix. And for current customers, we get the same deal we've had all along (unless we elect to change plans).

Uhh, how is that a value..

I am on the $16.99 plan already. Now I have to pay $1, and only get to exchange 5 dvd's a month.

Previously I could exchange unlimited. I don't find this to be a value of $38, I find this to be a RIP OFFFF..

could this have been done in order to prevent people from abusing the system and re-signing up for "free" accounts every month?

blockbuster is such or horrid company. i think it says something about a person when they choose blockbuster over netflix or hollywood video. netflix has such a better website and bigger selection. also whoever thinks that netflix is going out of business because of blockbuster had best look again. netflix is still pulling in a huge revenue. they may not be expanding as fast as they wish but are in not financial troubles. f block buster!

@Karl:

Netflix has the 1 hour = $1 service download thing.

If you are on the 3 movie plan ($16.99) you get 17 hours of movie download.

Most videos are under two hours, so Netflix streaming total hours puts them ahead, unless you like to rip and burn or don't have high speed at home.

You're right about them both throttling, but I just canceled my BB account because of the 64 vids in my waiting list only four didn't have a wait period (And it was just stargate episodes and stuff like that).

I abuse this system to no end. I always try to get at least 6 rentals a week (3 online and 3 at the store). The best part is that thanks to their extra 1 week grace period you can end up stacking up 7-8 movies.

Or, if you're like me and can watch a movie or two every night, you can sometimes end up getting more like 12 movies in a week. It's great.

Of course if they change the system, I may end up having to cancel it. I don't think the 3 movies a week for $18 a month is worth it. Especially not with how poorly their queuing system works. I'd maybe consider switching back to their in store rental plan where you can just have 2 out from the store at all times for $20 a month.

I think I'll be switching to Netflix then.

color_guru - I'm glad it "says something" about me. I use BB b/c I live close to one and exchanging movies there is faster than waiting on new ones in the mail.I was pissed for a minute when I though this changed my current plan, but it doesn't so I'll keep on enjoying the convenience it provides me.

with netflix change to first class mail, I am getting my movies on 1 day turn around pretty consistanly.

@logruszed: "You're right about them both throttling, but I just canceled my BB account because of the 64 vids in my waiting list only four didn't have a wait period"

Yah, thats not even the throttling that most people talk about. They will even skip ones that are in a wait period and send the next one on the list that isn't.

The throttling that people talk about is mail delivery times. They deliver them usually 2 days after the order is sent through but when they start throttling them you will get 1 in 2 days the second one in 3 days and third 3-6 days later. As I stated above the confirmation emails even tell you to report it as not sent after 3 days of not getting it.

7 movies a week?
I'm suprised you don't melt when you step more than 10 feet away from your television.
Go hike something

@Cassifras: I can do 7 a week. I normally watch them on my computer, though.

2 hours a day? 6 out of 7 days a week?

[www.treehugger.com]

I'd say I'm well below average. ( +1-2 hours a *week* of actual T.V. )

People who like edited movies from blockbuster must be bummed.

Sticky, i was going to say the same thing. i don't care what kind of deal they are goign to try to entice me with, NetFlix doesn't rent out edited movies. That's one of the biggest reasons I'm with them. Plus the online streaming isn't even just towards the whole movie. Say you missed the last 2o minutes of something, you can catch it and use just that amount up. Brilliant. No thanks BB, i prefer the movies they way they were meant to be seen.

I had netflix's for a long while ( over a year) but as soon as BB came out with thier plan of swaping out with store, I dumped Netflix.

I have the 9.99 1 out at time unlimited store swaps with 1 coupon, for almost over a year now.

On average I will have 4-6 movies a week. In some cases I ened up with 2 out ( one from the mail one from the store). The turn around from droping off at store to getting new one in the mail has been very good.

Only thing I have a problem with is that they have often sent me something further down in my que, when the ones at the top say they are available.

@Monty: I have the least expensive Netflix plan (one disk at a time) and they just cut my payment by a buck. Plus I could, if I wanted to, stream nine hours of movies every month for no additional cost. I've never tried that, since I don't like sitting here in front of my computer watching movies, but it might well appeal to a lot of people. Nine hours of movie streaming would mean four or five extra movies in a month depending on the run time.

What drove me to Netflix from BB in the first place was that BB's brick and mortar stores **NEVER*** had anything in stock. I recall driving to three different BB stores (calling ahead doesn't work, you can't trust what they tell you) one night looking for Sideways.

So the Total Access plan, in whatever form, doesn't change anything --- they still won't have the titles I want in the store. Oh, and did I mention, they have closed more and more stores in the area where I live (Chicago), which makes more people go the remaining stores, which makes their inventory strained even more.

NetFlix isn't perfect. Far from it. I have about a 10% rate of DVDs with skipping/freezing problems. But they are the lesser of two evils for sure.

@mwwilk: I was about to have a go at you for watching Sideways, but then realised that you weren't to know that it was shite until after you saw it, so you can be forgiven.

@Collins1990:
Indeed, "Sidways" was a disappointment, despite the butt shot of Sandra Oh (probably a body double). I fell victim to the hype.

I switched over to Netflix after my local BB store would not accept the coupon for a game rental. EVER. Then the other issue I had was that sometimes even when the movie was returned at the store - the next movie would not leave the shipping facility until it was scanned in there. I'm not sure if it was throttling, it was very inconsistent.

Another plus, my Netflix facility is one mailing day away. Ship Monday, they process and ship a new one Tuesday - get it on Wednesday. Time it right and I can guarantee that we get the new release on Tuesday. So for the timing issue - Netflix is faster than the in the store BB trade - well, in a way - we overlapped subscriptions for a few weeks and ended up with an average of 2 more disks a week on Netflix.

Well I figured I would add to the original post. Since they are talking about only getting 5 exchanges a month. When you go to sign up and if you select the see all the plans, they are still offering the unlimited in-store exchanges along with the unlimited through the mail. It is in the premium total access, 3-out at a time $24.99, 2-out $21.99, 1-out 16.99... So yeah, not quite as good of a deal but at they are still offering the unlimited in store exchanges

I work for blockbuster, and I agree that the change sucks. However, they don't throttle if you get too many online, unlike netflix. I have many customers who regularly get 6 or more movies mailed to them per week. Also, they only give you one coupon for a free game or movie rental every billing period under the old plans. The people who currently have a plan will always be able to keep the one they have at the price its at with all the free exchanges in the store they want. Its only the new members ( or people who change their plan ) the new plans apply to. There is also new "premium" plans that give you unlimited in-store exchanges, they just cost more.

@WhatThe...:
If you return a movie in the store, you get the next one faster because they ship you out your next movie the very next day, its only one way shipping, instead of having to mail your movie to netflix, have them process it, and then have them mail you one back.

I do the Blockbuster online thing and it's great. I just do the $5 a month plan and I get 5 movies a month (2 through the mail, 2 in-store-trade-ins, 1 online coupon). A dollar a rental for anything you want? Yes, Blockbuster, yes.

I replaced a huge cable bill and overflowing CD collection with Blockbuster Online and eMusic. I've been incredibly satisfied with both and recommend them to anyone.

Plan changes and cutbacks happen everywhere, just like when folks have a $20/mo cell phone plan with 1000 minutes from 1998. The changes suck, but I've been wondering how long the gravy train would last. It's usually best to jump aboard early when they're hungry for customers.