We’re ready to call Netflix the winner of this battle of the video war, based on Blockbusters remarkably sad third quarter numbers and the flood of pissed off emails we’ve been getting from Blockbuster’s (former) customers.
Blockbuster managed to lose $35 million in the third quarter, and its customers have been writing in to complain about benefits being cut from their “Total Access” packages.
Not good.
From Forbes:
Chairman Jim Keyes announced that Blockbuster will reduce the number of people currently employed by the company in an effort to reduce annualized overhead costs by approximately $45 million.
As if any more proof was need that Blockbuster Total Access program essentially failed to compete effectively against Netflix (nasdaq: NFLX – news – people ), Keyes noted that “the company will no longer be narrowly focused on its online subscriber count but instead will concentrate on the growth of, and report on, its total membership.”
Netflix wins. We wonder if Blockbuster will continue. Anyone have some tokens they could borrow?
Blockbuster Goes Bust [Forbes]
(Photo:Wikipedia)
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I’m not really a rental person this decade. I just tend to leech off my sister for movies to give something a try; I tend to be disappointed.
I stopped business with Blockbuster back in the 90s after tons of moments of them screwing with me. When a smaller chain moved in, I enjoyed their “actual” rent periods. I seriously hated it when Blockbusters changed their due times to half a day earlier, which cut my ability to have more time to enjoy my movies….
I’m glad they are suffering, but I feel bad for some of the employees…
I’ll probably give Netflix a try someday. For now, I will enjoy time with family with a huge ass collection of movies.
Exactly so, for years Blockbuster charged $3+ for an extra day’s late fee and millions of people grudgingly paid it. When it comes time to choose between BB and NF, those same millions remember that exploitation and choose Netflix.
Netflix just seems to have a good aura around it in the way that BB have a vaguely negative feel. I’ve been a NF subscriber for about 4 months and am generally very happy with the service (But they badly need an Advanced search)
I had BlockBuster Online a few years ago when they were giving away one month free. In the one month I had them I got the wrong movie 4 times. 2 of those times it was the same movie (i.e., got the wrong movie, sent it back, and the wrong movie came in place of it…retards). I think in the 3 years I’ve had Netflix I’ve had about 4 wrong movies. The same amount of screwups in about 1/36 the time, pathetic.
Hopefully Netflix will continue there excellent service and low prices. I wouldn’t mind a dollar or two bump over time but hopefully it won’t go to their heads and get out of control.
Combine the old-skool Brick-and-Mortar “maximize profits screw the customer” m.o. of Blockbuster with the hungry upstart Netflix with the completely game-changing (albeit copyright-infringing) bittorrent and I’d say Blockbuster can’t bail water fast enough to keep from going under. I think even Netflix is being hurt by bittorrent. I really try to resist turning to the dark side, but it just works.
I stopped using Blockbuster after they bowed to the religious right and refused to carry ‘The Last Temptaion of Christ”, even though they carried all sorts of hard ‘R’ movies. I believe that was in the late 80′s.
@Saboth: Netflix does the same thing with 2 disc sets. Each disc counts as a separate rental.
I’ve had Netflix for about 5 years now and love it. I never even thought about switching to Blockbuster’s program because it’s not worth it. There’s not a physical store that’s easy to get to from my house so taking movies to the store was more of a hassle. I got Blockbuster giftcards a couple times for Xmas and it was always hard to find something to rent, the older dvds were almost all pan and scan, and if it the movie wasn’t a huge hit they only keep a few copies, maybe 1 widescreen, and almost always checked out.
Personally, I use a combination Netflix and my library. My library has a really good selection but they don’t have everything and somethings make more sense to get from Netflix.
I chose blockbuster over netflix even though it was more expensive because the instore exchanges gave me more rentals. Once they started limiting those, it no longer became useful. Oh, and i actually considered writing into consumerist because Blockbuster kept giving me the runaround with a problem. I couldn’t access my rental queue for OVER A MONTH!!! i kept getting “Internal Error 500″. Over a month of 6 phone calls and 2 problem tickets opened with their support, and each analyst telling me they knew what the problem was and it would be fixed by the next day…well it wasn’t so i finally cancelled. I probably could have complained and had the last month refunded since I couldn’t use the service. Whatever, they can’t even take care of the customers they DO have so no wonder they are getting smacked around by netflix.
GOOD! I’ve hated Blockbuster ever since they closed down my old rental store, from back in the day. The people were so much nicer, they went out of there way to help us, and they had Road Blasters and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker to play when my parents picked out a flick. Plus it was organized. Then came Blockbuster and ruined everything. Thankfully, Netflix is just so damn good. I’m glad to see Blockbuster die.
All BB needs to do is offer pr0n and they’d get healthy quick!
the day I found out about netflix I threw out my blockbuster card and swore them off for good. I have done nothing but tell friends and family about netflix and signed up as many people as possible. after years and years of blockbusters late fee’s it’s refreshing to have a company like netflix come along and take care of it’s customers. being able to change my plans anytime I like is also very nice as my viewing habits change a lot. not sure if you can do that with blockbuster or not, but either way I will never again pay a dime to blockbuster.
I don’t want Blockbuster to die because the competition makes my already good Netflix EVEN BETTER. I hope they hang on by their teeth for a long time, so I get better prices for a better service.
(And I do have a Blockbuster near me and I will never use their service. I’ve compared, it’s not worth it because I don’t rent new releases. When I do want a new movie for one reason or another, I got to Redbox. $1 a day, at your grocery store, no late fees. Perfect!)
What class-action suits against Netflix was Bladefist talking about? And does he work for Blockbuster or something?
I’ve never signed up for either but am seriously considering dumping most of our cable channels and getting Netflix, now that most TV shows are on DVD within a few months, why sit through commercials and Comcasts rotten On Demand service?
i switched back, cut in benefits, lying about retention rates, slower deliveries, raising prices, and low stock of new movies. oh yeah, no hd dvds. bye blockbuster.
The funny things about Blockbuster is that they screwed me so many times as a regular customer that I would not even consider going back. I think their service is more compelling in many ways, but I just don’t trust them and was unwilling to even try the service.
We had 5 stores within 3 miles of our house, NE, NW, SE, SW, S, now the two smallest least accessible locations remain. Of the three large locations one sits empty, one is now a fish restaurant, and the last is being converted into a Ruby Tuesdays. We’ve never been big fans and we signed up for Netflix early later switching to Greencine for our college indie horror days with the inevitable out of college I don’t have time for indie return to Netflix.
Sorry, Netflix is far from perfect. I quit and went to BB because 1. they throttled me 2. they would not respond to my problems with my queue. It wasn’t working and all I got from them was “we can’t respond to each email individually”. Bye bye netflix. I’m not crazy about BB as a company but the ability exchange mailed in DVDs at the store is awesome even with the restrictions. Long live competition.
I tried Blockbuster, found Total Access to be a Total Joke, as our local shops were franchised and seemed to participate in the program only grudgingly. Movies were selected from my queue at random, even though almost all the titles showed as being available, BB customer service would respond to my complaints with apologies and extra rental/game coupons that the franchisee refused to honor.
It was then that I quickly remembered why I started using Netflix in the first place — to get away from the crappy service and scams considered business as usual by BB and its franchise operators.
Netflix hasn’t been perfect, but they haven’t been anywhere close to as aggravating as Blockbuster.
i don’t think i have stepped foot into a BB in at least 3 or 4 years. I had Netflix for a little bit but used Hollywood Video for my games and one off rentals. Now I go to Family Video (a Midwestern thing) or RedBox and have Gamefly for my game rentals. i think BB can finally be put to rest.
I would assume the rent all of those locations, but hopefully they own some of them so they can at least get some $$$ from the property sales.
@meeroom: The class-action against Netflix was brought by heavy-renter customer’s who thought that Netflix artificially lengthened the amount of time it would take to get them movies. Many people think that Netflix lost the lawsuit, but the result was that Netflix just had to be more transparent about what caused the situation that led to people thinking they were “throttled.” More information about throttling is available on the Netflix website here. I’m a heavy user with Netflix and I’ve never experienced throttling. Sometimes it might take a longer time to get a more obscure movie, but with so many movies out at a time, I always have something to watch. And then of course there’s the Watch Instantly feature, which I use on the odd occasion that I don’t actually have any movies at home. I haven’t used Blockbuster in years. Who wants to do business with a Dinosaur? I used to get late fees with Blockbuster and when I tried their unlimited plan when it first came out, they still charged my credit card months after I canceled. No amount of in store rentals can make up for terrible customer service, wasted gas in a time when gas prices are at a premium, and excessive late fees. Welcome to the 21st Century.
@brendanm14: whatcha think about gamefly? i’ve been contemplating a membership, but have heard a LOT of bad things (mostly about selection & wait times for new releases). i’ve never heard anyone give more than a “they’re ok”.
Blockbuster is SO irrelevant. Ever since I found out that they censor movies, and offer only what the mormons who run it will allow on their shelves, I have not given them a cent.
Netflix ROX people! Kill your television!
Back in February I rented my last 2 movies from Blockbuster after they claimed I never returned 2 movies even though I placed them in the employees hand when I returned them. I got a collection notice several weeks later saying I owed them $42 for 2 never returned movies. I immediately called the store and was told by the employee that I never returned them and I asked them to check the shelf and make sure they didn’t just misplace them. I got a call back five minutes later saying that they found the movie on the shelf, but It was returned a month and a half after it was due?!?!?!? I then asked them how the hell they could claim I never returned 2 movies and then say I returned one of them almost two months later. The employee said sir according to the computer you turned on of them in late… He couldn’t grasp that a few minutes ago I never returned them and then claim I returned one of them, but had a late charge!?!?!?! I’m glad they are in financial trouble and can’t wait to see the going out of business sign hanging from their door.
PS
Boycott this store
70 Park Place
Covington,LA ,70433-5183
About two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were in Blockbuster in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. We are members of Blockbuster Online, and we were exchanging our mailers. While in the store, the manager, Shawn, was repremanding a regular employee for putting some movies that were on hold for another customer. Shawn was screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs that he didn’t give a s%!t whether or not the customers got pi$$y because movies were on hold. He didn’t give a s#!t what the F-word customers said, that was his store, and everything will done his way. The employee was trying to get a word in, and explain why the movies were put in a drawer, but the Shawn guy would not have none of it. The “manager” continued a tirade of several minutes, and then took off outside to smoke a cigarette with a third employee, in front of the store, so customers could breathe his second hand poison as they entered the store. He then proceeded to periodically bang on the front window of the store and yell orders and point at various areas within the store to the only employee left in the store, the guy who was yelled at. We complained to the district manager, and to the corporate office. Apparently neither of which care about their customers or professionalism of their employees as Shawn still holds the crowning position of store manager. The district manager never called us back like she was supposed to, and when my boyfriend inquired what had happened, the third employee on duty that night had lied to the district manager and said it never happened. Therefore, the district manager didn’t even view the store tapes. Blockbuster not only disvalues thier customers, they could care even less about their employees. The guy getting yelled at was a nice guy, and apologized He may have been a nobody within the complany, but he was the most professional. If it was not for the convenience due to the fact that I live in a rural area, I would cancel my b-bust account. We have not rented from their store since, tho.