Comments on: The Blockbuster Online Customer Experience

By: unlocks

unlocks — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:07:18 +0000

This article is SO favorited

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:09:20 +0000

Thank you all for sharing your various stories. Clearly the experience in inconsistent at best. This illustrates why, as Nancy said, it is so important to listen to customer feedback and then act on it – in some way! There are some frustrated customers here. Blockbuster, are you listening? Feel free to contact me to get some help on creating a rockin’ customer experience.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:31:21 +0000

I have been a subscriber of Blockbuster Online since the service was less than one month old. I like movies, and I have used my account to near full capacity since then. I always exchanged my movies in store to get as many titles as I could. I always argued with people who said that Netflix had the better service, and recommended Blockbuster to all of my family members and friends. At least once a month, I would pick out the titles I liked the best and buy the previously viewed copies from Blockbuster’s brick and mortar stores. In short, I believed that I was the model of a good customer.

Now Blockbuster has decided that I am too expensive as a customer and has discontinued my account type. They are offering me a plan with less service for the same price with no apology. I complained to their Online Customer Care, and this is the response I get…

Hello Jason,

Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.

It is my pleasure to be of service to you. Thank you for your time in notifying us. Like all retail businesses, we must periodically review our pricing structure. In introducing a wider range of subscription plans, we considered a number of factors including the number of in-store exchanges on a given account. We’re giving our most frequent renters like yourself the option of either continuing with unlimited in-store exchanges at a higher price point or moving to a plan where the number of in-store exchanges is fixed if you’d like to continue with the same rate.

We feel we are still delivering a great consumer value and encourage you to continue your membership by selecting one of the new plans we offer. You can find the details of what is available via “My Account” in the “Subscription Plan” area. Please remember that if you do not select one of the new plans we have to offer before your next regular billing date, we will not be automatically renewing your membership. Thank you very much for your inquiry.

Merlyn
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online

——-
so, my reply…

You are not being of service to me. You are telling me that I should shut up and enjoy being raped, and I won’t stand for it. You are telling me that I should accept less service for the same price and be happy about it. Are you fracking kidding me?

Like all customers who are unhappy with the treatment they receive from a retail business, I am forced to take the only action I have available to demonstrate my dissatisfaction: I will never spend another penny with Blockbuster or any of it’s affiliates. I will never rent from your brick and mortar stores again (Hollywood Video, here I come). I will stop buying previously viewed titles from you as well. I will strongly encourage everyone that I know who currently uses your online service (many of whom do so on my recommendation) to do likewise. That blog that I’ve been thinking about starting, I just found a good topic to start with.

I sincerely hope that all of your existing customers will make the same choice, so that you will realize that this is not the way to treat the people who provide you with revenue. Biting the hand that feeds is never a good strategy.

It is only recently that Blockbuster has seen the kind of subscriber growth necessary to finally compete with Netflix. I hope you understand that your pricing changes put that growth in serious jeopardy. Feel free to contact me when you have come to your senses, but until then, this is “goodbye” and “go f*ck yourself.”

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:48:15 +0000

Blockbuster is Ok, at best. They give you great service during the trial period, even sending out movies on saturday. During the trial you turn a movie in the store, get your free movie and a few hours later the next movie is mailed out from the store and you would get it in 2 days.
But once it over saturdays are gone and the turn around time for mail moves increases. Within one month movie that use to take 2 days to get from the time you turned it in the store now takes about 8 days. For me the warehouse is in Richmond, VA and I live near Virginia beach. It about a 2/3 hour drive away. I use to get about 8 moves a week now i sometimes get 0 because of the long processing time. Most of the time they have had the movie back in their warehouse a day or two before they finish processing the movie and mail it.

By: Phillip

Phillip — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:06:08 +0000

I use blockbuster total access when I’m at school, and it has been great. The local blockbuster is across the street, so once I’m done with the movie, I turn it in for a free rental in the store. It was frustrating when I was immediately added as a paying customer once my trial ended, but my trial was in the early days and lasted for a whole month.

By: Nancy Heifferon

Nancy Heifferon — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:50:19 +0000

Becky,
You provide some valuable customer insight that Blockbuster would do well to heed! I especially like the last point about recognizing the customer across all touchpoints. (That, of course, has been the intention of CRM.) I have one further suggestion to follow on. While companies need to think from the customer perspective, they need to take the guesswork out of this by talking regularly with customers. Touching base with customers at defined points during the customer life cycle gives companies dials they can turn to influence customer retention, repurchase, and referability. Then, if you ask customers for input, you need to close the loop with them, first of all letting them know you heard them and secondly, if possible, informing them of what actions your company is taking in response.

By: Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:52:20 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experience, Katie. No one has a perfect experience (that is why we were trying out Blockbuster in the first place!). However, I get a little irked when I have to repeat information that someone already has. Hopefully, Blockbuster will take notice!

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:16:01 +0000

I originally tried the Blockbuster service, but it was so frustrating that I gave up. Sounds like they still don’t have their act together.