Blockbuster downgrades service
Blockbuster Total Access online subscribers who have looked at their online queue in the past week have probably noticed a new banner notice at the top of their queue page.
Clicking on the banner will take you to this page on Blockbuster.com, which explains a new Blockbuster policy change: “any free in-store movie exchanges will count towards how many online rentals you may have out under your plan. Your next online movie will ship after the in-store movie exchange has been returned to the store you rented it from.”
Previously, Blockbuster would ship you the next movie from your online queue as soon as you exchanged a movie instore. Now they will not ship you another movie from your online queue until you return the instore rental back to the store.
Is Blockbuster actively trying to lose subscribers and push people over to Netflix? It certainly seems like it. This service downgrade causes Blockbuster to lose any advantage that it once had over Netflix. Other Blockbuster subscribers on DVDRentalForums are also upset over the change and are headed to Netflix.
Instead of trying to continually improve their service, Blockbuster continually makes it worse. Bye bye Blockbuster! I’m ditching them and going with Netflix.
That’s too bad. Of course the banner makes it look like it’s good news.
Yeah, they tried to put a positive spin on it, but everyone is seeing past the scam.
Hmm could this be anything to do with their impending bankruptcy in the US? Me thinks they are starting to panic and ensuring that every penny is in the bank before any product goes out to the consumers…
Either way their days are numbered, optical entertainment media is dying very quickly, blu-ray will be a mere flash in the pan..
They claim they are not going to do bankruptcy. Here’s one of the latest stories on Blockbuster: http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blockbuster/analysts-ponder-blockbuster-survival-14967
Blu-ray will be a decade long “flash in the pan.”
You think so? Most industry professionals (myself included) give it a 5 year life span, even if there are to be no new broadcasts standards in North America until 2040
Im interested to learn what you base your decade prediction on.
The decade prediction is based on … what you call “industry professionals.” Even the pessimistic analysts give it a decade. Clearly we’re in year 3 now, so you’d give it another 2 years? At it’s current growth rate something dramatic would have to happen to alter its course.
Here’s a recent statement: http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15497-Report-Blu-ray-to-dominate-within-10-years.html
“Blu-ray will be the driving force behind the video retail market throughout the next decade,” SNL Kagan analyst Wade Holden said in a statement. “The current economic climate, however, will slow the growth of this new format and likely keep it from reaching the heights that it may have in better times. VOD services will continue to improve in both technology and content over the next decade and begin to draw consumers away from Blu-ray and DVD by 2017.”
It’s hard to believe, but the format did debut in 2006. That’s been a while.