Gizmodo: Blockbuster Online

Blockbuster Online Having Mailing Issues As Well?

Jason Chen — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:03:14 EDT

We just received a tip from reader Michael that Blockbuster online has been having shipping issues with their movies as well. Netflix's recent outage was settled in about three days, but Michael's problem has been ongoing for the last four business days. When he called a customer service rep, they said Blockbuster's shipping center were having an "allocation issue", and many other customers have been complaining.

Our own account looks fine—we were shipped something on Monday and Tuesday of this week—but that's just anecdotal. Our own call to Blockbuster communications to check on the situation went unanswered. How does yours look? Keep in mind that you not getting something shipped in a timely manner could also mean they're throttling your account, which is especially true if you've been shipping stuff in and out really fast lately. [Thanks Michael!]

Blockbuster Online Download Store Screenshot Tour

Jason Chen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:59:59 EDT

Blockbuster's just expanded their movie store beta test to an audience size that includes me, so here's a screenshot walkthrough of what you're going to see on their service. First, it's really quite similar to their rental pages except for the fact that you'll see prices and labels next to everything. Renting costs anywhere between $0 to $3.99ish, and purchases go all the way up to $19.99. There is one lone $29.99 one but we're assuming that it's a typo. You'll have to use the MovieLink player to download and watch films, so no real luck if you were hoping that it was a WMV file you could stream to your Xbox 360. Hit the jump for the tour. [Blockbuster]

Blockbuster Online Members Socked With Christmas Price Hike

Charlie White — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:24:34 EST

Isn't this a fine little Christmas present from our friends at Blockbuster? Maybe the movie rental company figured since it's this close to the holidays, no one would notice a price increase at Blockbuster Online, announced in a letter to subscribers yesterday. The most painful hit will be taken by those with a "three-out unlimited" plan, taking a huge price boost up the butt, from $24.99 to $34.99, an astonishing 40% hike. Those with the two-disc unlimited plan won't be too happy to see their $21.99 rate suddenly increasing to $29.99, a 35.3% increase. It wasn't quite that bad for other members, most of which saw plan prices raised a couple of bucks. Netflix, anyone? [Hacking Netflix]

Blockbuster Online's 'Total Access' Lets You Return DVDs To Stores

Jason Chen — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:45:40 EST

In an effort to stop competitor Netflix from totally crushing it, Blockbuster Online is instituting a "Total Access" plan that lets you return online-rented movies in stores. When you give them your rental, you get one free in-store rental, which works just like regular in-store rentals and carry standard ~~late fees~~ restocking penalties.

In addition, your online queue will show your movie as returned, and BB will send out your next movie as soon as possible or whenever they get around to it (most likely the latter). If you're like us and enjoy Blockbuster Online because your old account gave you two free coupons that let you rent games in stores, you'll probably enjoy this new feature as well. – Jason Chen

Blockbuster tries new online rental incentive [News via ]