During the summer of 2004, I worked at the local Blockbuster store in South Riding, VA. I loved that job. The pay was only marginally above minimum wage, but I got 5 free movies per week and discounts on all purchases, including new and used DVDs. My DVD collection nearly tripled while I was there. When I left, they were just kicking off there online service. I was eligible for an employee discount to the service, so I promptly signed up. I had pretty much rented everything I could from the store and wanted to get more obscure movies through their more extensive online catalog.
Fast-forward to January 2008, when Blockbuster Total Rewards sent me yet another email notifying me of yet another price increase. This after waiting about 6 months to finally receive Umbrellas of Cherbourg, while they sent me whatever movie they felt like from my queue, regardless of my ranking. It was time to reconsider my online rental options.
Reasons for Staying with Blockbuster:
Ability to swap mail-ins with in-store rentals.
Reasons for Leaving Blockbuster:
My choice was clear and I decided to cancel. When asked for additional explanation, I replied,
I have been a blockbuster online customer from the very beginning of the service. The price has gone up for the same service at least 5 times since then. Why? Rarely do I ever get the movies I put at the top of my list and the other movies randomly change from available to not available. What is the purpose of ranking movies in a queue if you’re not going to follow it. I’m sick of it. I used to tell all my friends to switch from Netflix to Blockbuster, but after you jacked up the price yet again for what has become horrible service, I am switching from Blockbuster to Netflix. It’s a shame you wasted all my money getting Alec Baldwin to do your voice-overs instead of maintaining the service I came to expect years ago when you first started. How about a little loyalty to your long-time customers?
This explanation, however, was rejected because apparently I was supposed to keep my explanation limited to a meager 255 characters. I happily obliged.
Apparently your web programmers didn’t think to limit this text box to only allow me 255 characters as I type. This is a sort of microcosm of the ineptitude that I have become so accustomed to from Blockbuster Online.
Goodbye Blockbuster, you will not be missed.
Netflix, I’ll see you soon.