Any options besides Netflix or Blockbuster?

I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
"available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
"available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.

Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
actually want business.

In article <1189105634.420381.215000@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups. com>,
TH <thehendersons44@aol.com> wrote:

> I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
> trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
> "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
> movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
> have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
> now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
> "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
> have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
> subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
> terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>
> Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
> Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
> service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
> actually want business.

'available now' in BB parlance just means it is available somewhere in
their system, but not in your shipping point.

I had over 60 movies (HDDVD & BluRay) in my queue at one time, never
more than a 1/3 listed as available, and still had the problem you are
seeing.

So when they jacked up the price and reduced the service, I took that as
the ideal time to let them stew in their own juices and cancelled the
service.

On Sep 6, 1:12 pm, Lloyd Parsons <lloydpars...@mac.com> wrote:
> In article <1189105634.420381.215...@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups. com>,
>
>
>
>
>
> TH <thehenderson...@aol.com> wrote:
> > I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
> > trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
> > "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
> > movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
> > have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
> > now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
> > "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
> > have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
> > subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
> > terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>
> > Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
> > Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
> > service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
> > actually want business.
>
> 'available now' in BB parlance just means it is available somewhere in
> their system, but not in your shipping point.
>
>

It's absolutley ridiculous. They need to then make it "not available"
if the disk is actually not available. i've never seen anything so
amazingly stupid and misleading. And I thought Netflix was bad.

In article <1189113827.432894.258050@o80g2000hse.googlegroups .com>,
TH <thehendersons44@aol.com> wrote:

> On Sep 6, 1:12 pm, Lloyd Parsons <lloydpars...@mac.com> wrote:
> > In article <1189105634.420381.215...@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups. com>,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > TH <thehenderson...@aol.com> wrote:
> > > I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
> > > trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
> > > "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
> > > movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
> > > have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
> > > now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
> > > "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
> > > have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
> > > subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
> > > terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
> >
> > > Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
> > > Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
> > > service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
> > > actually want business.
> >
> > 'available now' in BB parlance just means it is available somewhere in
> > their system, but not in your shipping point.
> >
> >
>
> It's absolutley ridiculous. They need to then make it "not available"
> if the disk is actually not available. i've never seen anything so
> amazingly stupid and misleading. And I thought Netflix was bad.

Yep, screwy isn't it?

I'm with Netflix now as they have been reported to be more consistently
good with HDDVD and BluRay disks. So far, it has been good. I get 3
movies a week generally, maybe that is low enough they won't throttle me.

On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:07:14 -0700, TH <thehendersons44@aol.com>
wrote:

>I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
>trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
>"available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
>movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
>have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
>now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
>"available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
>have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
>subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
>terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>
>Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
>Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
>service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
>actually want business.


Netflix is a little better than BB, plus Netflix has a larger database
of DVDs. There are other DVD companies, but the top two are Netflix
and BB. The requirement to have 30 movies in the queue is ridiculous.
BB throttles too.

"TH" <thehendersons44@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1189105634.420381.215000@w3g2000hsg.googlegro ups.com...
>I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
> trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
> "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
> movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
> have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
> now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
> "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
> have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
> subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
> terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>
> Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
> Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
> service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
> actually want business.

I don't think there's any other good alternatives. I subscribe to 3 out a
time from both Netflix and Blockbuster. Both work OK for me. Neither
throttle me significantly. Occasionally something is shipped from a distant
source but not very often. Blockbuster sends me more movies than Netflix,
but both are acceptable - giving a resulting cost somewhere in the
$0.75-$1.25/movie range. If you're having serious problems, close your
account and open a new one with a different email address etc. Then...never
complain! Send them compliments, only, if you must send them anything.
Better yet, simply ignore them and don't communicate about anything, don't
rate movies, don't respond to their emails, etc. Be a total unknown to them.
Just rent movies and keep your mouth shut. Keep 30+ movies in your queue
as they suggest. They rarely ship from near the bottom of the queue, in my
experience, so that's just a technicality.

On Sep 6, 7:40 pm, "def456" <def...@none.none> wrote:

> account and open a new one with a different email address etc. Then...never
> complain! Send them compliments, only, if you must send them anything.
> Better yet, simply ignore them and don't communicate about anything, don't
> rate movies, don't respond to their emails, etc. Be a total unknown to them.
> Just rent movies and keep your mouth shut. Keep 30+ movies in your queue
> as they suggest. They rarely ship from near the bottom of the queue, in my
> experience, so that's just a technicality.


I don't really understand what communicating with them has to do with
anything. I didn't say a word for the first few months of the
throttling but finally I had to complain because it was getting out of
hand. I don't care what their policy is, if they say "unlimited
rentals" than I should get unlimited rentals, not an amount they deem
is fair to them.

If anyone here wasn't sure they were not throttling, I did have one
disk out supposedly sent when I quit, so I was waiting for it to come
so I could send it back. After a couple days it never came. I looked
on my account and miraculously, it was "returned" the day after it was
"sent" which was the day I canceled, clear proof they hold disks (then
when i quit they realized, "why hold it, just log it as returned").
Netflix is scum.

On Sep 6, 3:07 pm, TH <thehenderson...@aol.com> wrote:
> I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
> trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
> "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
> movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
> have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
> now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
> "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
> have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
> subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
> terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>
> Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
> Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
> service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
> actually want business.

I've never had a problem with Netflix. I love it. I get the movies
within 2-3 business days. I have the 3 out at a time plan and always
have something good to watch. I opted not to go with BB because their
sales point was that you could exchange movies at the store but all
the stores are closed! I don't know what you mean by throttled. Maybe
I'm being throttled and don't care!

"TH" <thehendersons44@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1189183619.142660.221070@d55g2000hsg.googlegr oups.com...
> On Sep 6, 7:40 pm, "def456" <def...@none.none> wrote:
>
>> account and open a new one with a different email address etc.
>> Then...never
>> complain! Send them compliments, only, if you must send them anything.
>> Better yet, simply ignore them and don't communicate about anything,
>> don't
>> rate movies, don't respond to their emails, etc. Be a total unknown to
>> them.
>> Just rent movies and keep your mouth shut. Keep 30+ movies in your
>> queue
>> as they suggest. They rarely ship from near the bottom of the queue, in
>> my
>> experience, so that's just a technicality.
>
> I don't really understand what communicating with them has to do with
> anything. I didn't say a word for the first few months of the
> throttling but finally I had to complain because it was getting out of
> hand. I don't care what their policy is, if they say "unlimited
> rentals" than I should get unlimited rentals, not an amount they deem
> is fair to them.
>
> If anyone here wasn't sure they were not throttling, I did have one
> disk out supposedly sent when I quit, so I was waiting for it to come
> so I could send it back. After a couple days it never came. I looked
> on my account and miraculously, it was "returned" the day after it was
> "sent" which was the day I canceled, clear proof they hold disks (then
> when i quit they realized, "why hold it, just log it as returned").
> Netflix is scum.

OK, but they only do it to you. They don't do it to me. Why?
Think about it...

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:51:51 -0700, Karen <neraque23@verizon.net>
wrote:

>On Sep 6, 3:07 pm, TH <thehenderson...@aol.com> wrote:
>> I quit Netflix because of their ridiculous throttling practice, so I'm
>> trying Blockbuster. I have 20 movies in my queue, 95% of which are
>> "available now." It's been about 36 hours since I joined and nary a
>> movie has been sent. I finally got a response from BB that I have to
>> have 30 movies in my queue. Since almost all of these are "available
>> now," it should matter one bit if I have 3 or 500, if they're
>> "available now" then they should be sent now. I told them if I do not
>> have movies sent out by the end of the day, they can canel my
>> subscription. I'd rather be without a video service than deal with
>> terrible customer service like netflix and BB provide.
>>
>> Are there any other online DVD distribution companies or is this it?
>> Tell me this isn't it? I know there's no such thing as good customer
>> service anymore but you'd think there would be one company that would
>> actually want business.
>
>I've never had a problem with Netflix. I love it. I get the movies
>within 2-3 business days. I have the 3 out at a time plan and always
>have something good to watch. I opted not to go with BB because their
>sales point was that you could exchange movies at the store but all
>the stores are closed! I don't know what you mean by throttled. Maybe
>I'm being throttled and don't care!


When it took 2 weeks to get a moved tagged as "sent" I knew something
was going on, and suspected it was NOT the post office. Another time
I got a damaged DVD and when I reported it as "damaged" they waited
until the DVD came back to them then shipped out another copy which I
got 18 days later. They should have sent out another DVD at the time
I reported the damaged DVD. I didn't complain--I cancelled.