I have been a long time reader of consumerist, and hoped I would never have to send in anything to you guys. Leave it to Blockbuster to force me to do this.
I have been using Blockbuster Online for almost a year now. It has been ups and downs. I have been shipped the wrong movie countless times, but just took the pain of not being able to watch my movie and sent it back. I have received enough “wrong” movies to deserve a few months of free service, but I don’t even complain I just figure “Nature of the Business”.
Now to my issue…. I had rented the classic “Apocalypse Now” and watched Disc One (which by the way Blockbuster online doesn’t tell you it is 2 discs on some of the choices so it is hit or miss.). So I went to my queue to put disc 2 on the list so I can enjoy the end of the movie. To my dismay, I log in to my account to find my queue EMPTY. I had 20-30 movies in the queue…. all gone!
So I email Blockbuster asking what happened to my movies? and can they do anything to recover the list! This is when the Mania ensues…. The respondent from Blockbuster was rude at best. Won’t acknowledge I even have a problem. Basically accuses me of erasing all of my movies (why would someone do that?) or that I gave my password to someone else and they did it. The most scathing part is that in her first response she in so many words “scolds” me for having an empty queue! I am also a big fan of the “Always here to help” signature on the end of the emails….
It is a ridiculous response, and considering their situation they should be doing jumping jacks to keep customers. Instead they respond with nonsense. They sent me two “surveys” after each response which I filled out “Extremely Dissatisfied” on every question.
Here is a copy of the Emails for your reading enjoyment. Hopefully people reading this will choose to not use Blockbuster, or even better someone from Blockbuster will read this and go to the customer service office and rattle some cages of their customer service agents.
My first email:
“All the movies I had in my queue are gone? What happened can I get the list back?”Blockbusters Response:
“Hello Martin,Thanks for contacting BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care.
I’ve checked that your queue is empty. Unfortunately, we would not be able to recover the list of movies that you have. You may just try to add movies again. Please remember that we use your queue to provide service and ask that you keep 30-40 “Available” movies listed at all times to ensure there are no interruptions.
Always here to help,
Regina
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online”My Response:
“Regina,
That isn’t a good answer.
1. What happened to everything I had in there? Where did they go?
2. I don’t like the attitude of your response. You basically scolded me for not having 30-40 movies available. I DID have movies in there, the complete list is GONE.
3. If you can’t recover my list, I want SEVERAL months credit to my account. There was months of picking movies in there. I will never be able to remember all the movies my Wife and I put in there.Please provide a better response. Your response was sub-par at best.
Marty”Blockbuster 2nd Response:
“Hello Marty,
Please note that your queue can only be accessed with your own personal password. We don’t have the ability to modify or manage titles to your queue. You are also solely responsible for all activities that occur on your account or through use of your password by yourself or by other persons. Please make sure that your password is secured so no one can add or delete a movie in your queue without your knowledge. Thanks for your understanding.
Always here to help,
Regina
Customer Care Associate
BLOCKBUSTER Online”My 3rd Response:
Regina,
Can you please give this to a manager? You are not even answering my questions!
I did NOT delete anything from my queue, and I am the ONLY person with the password. Why would I delete my movies that a spent months putting the list together.
Please give this to someone who can give me a real answer. Otherwise I will have to cancel and go to Netflix. This is ridiculous that you aren’t taking me seriously. I didn’t delete anything and now after 2 communications from you… I still have not even gotten as little as and APOLOGY.
Regards,
Marty
Marty, why are you complaining to Consumerist when it’s obvious that you deleted the movies in the queue yourself. Oh wait, no. It’s not actually that obvious.
Our advice? Netflix? The local library?
(Photo:Maulleigh)
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Definitely go with Netflix. Their customer service is great and instantaneous, I have never been sent the wrong movie, and they automatically add all the discs of a movie to my queue when there is more than one.
Peerflix.com
Best service in the world. Cheap. Simple. No attitude.
I have used it thorugh about 130 titles so far and love it.
Plus if you want it, keep it, you bought it.
Most email customer service places use a set of template responses. This is supposed to speed up the CSR’s numbers (how many they process per hour). Your stats go up if you cut and paste a related response and don’t provide any actual thought or response of your own to it.
Blockbuster is wrong. They refused to address the issue or have someone check to see why the list might be gone.
The probability of lost data is pretty high so the idea of it being a glitch on BB’s end is reasonable to think.
I am really tired of lame lies from CSRs simply because they don’t give a rip and want to move to the next call or email.
Yeah, mistakes happen, but “Regina” screwed up when she added that snarky last sentence chewing him out for not having the movies in his queue instead of apologizing for BB’s mistake. It sounds like this was the last straw in an escalating series of insults and poor service.
I’ve had blockbuster online for quite sometime and have never had any major problems. The only minor complaint I might have is that sometimes a movie sits in “long wait” status for far too longer, which just means they need more copies of a particular title.
As far as this person’s problem, I really have no sympathy. 1. It’s just a list of movies…they didn’t lose important documents or your grandmother’s dentures. 2. They weren’t being rude, the author was…the blockbuster person was being polite and proffesional. 3. I’m sure if blockbuster could restore your list, they would. They connot, move on.
4. If you’re that concerned about this issue, do like I do and just keep an external list of all the movies you want to see. I do this because I might discover a movie I haven’t seen before from a friend or other resource, and I just add it to a “Want to See” list in my google docs. Once I see them I put a strikeout on the item. That way I don’t forget about movies I wanted to see in the theater when they come out on dvd.
Bottom line: Find something more important to worry about. And given your defensive attitude, I don’t doubt you did somehow accidentally delete them yourself.
@ElizabethD: That, however, does not excuse their not actually looking into the problem or actually answering the questions that were asked.
@bohemian: They are, however, paid to answer customer questions. It’s not our problem if they cut corners to do it and we can and will complain.
In my experience, Netflix customer service is great. So I think Marty should follow up on his threat and ditch Blockbuster.
sh*t happens. stop whining and re-add the movies to your queue or switch your service to netflix. as much as i hate blockbuster, this really isn’t that big of a deal. what a whiney baby…
@howie_in_az: actually, calling the MPAA makes you a crappy citizen, imo.
I use Lovefilm over in the UK and I’ve never received the wrong disc. I’ve only received a couple that were damaged as well, and I usually go through about 12 discs a month.
@csdiego: I agree. Marty was really asking for several months credit because of constant aggravation, not this one instance.
The list being lost may not be a big deal but this was still poor customer service.
Multiple months of free service for this incident is sketchy at best. If this is a culmination request than you don’t embed it in a current-issue letter. Clearly Regina’s response was sub-par, but so was the author’s. I’d recommend keeping a log of all your issues and putting them forward in a new letter, to the right personnel. Try to work on the grammar while you’re there.
P.S. on the process of keeping this log of poor customer experience, keep your movie queue backed up too. I hear Blockbuster is unreliable with those these days.
@milty45654: Thanks for giving the flag button more use. I hope one day Consumerist starts outting useless crap like this.
Beyond that, I find the original complaint and followups rather stupid (‘several months credit’ for a lost list of movies? Uh.), but I don’t think it deserves an obviously canned, useless reply, either.
I think both parties in this incident are morons.
This is a classic situation where the guy who was complaining clearly has had no experience ever dealing with customer service or has any idea what he can reasonably expect. Who knows what Blockbuster’s policy is on this? Even if she could have gotten with the DB guys (which in a huge corporation, who knows), who’s to say they could have pulled the information, or is it something they don’t do because of the intensity of the request?
Screw Blockbuster, but in this instance, Marty is being a whiny little bitch. Shit happens, guy, suck it up.
As a former customer service rep for the buy.com call center several years ago, I can tell you that (at least for that company) the CSRs who handled emails were timed just like those who want you off the phone in 1 minute, 30 seconds. There is a database with canned responses in there that you “tweak” to fit the situation and to which you can add more information to fit the question you got.
That said, many CSRs ONLY used the canned responses for everything so they could make their reponse time better. If the customer email came in with a password question, the CSR might send off the first password related response they found even if it made no sense.
Supervisors spot checked outgoing emails (Think: This call is being recorded for training purposes), but I can almost guarantee that if you keep emailing this person, you will never, ever speak to a supervisor.
switch to Netflix! they have AMAZING customer service. i had a problem with a movie at the top of my queue. it showed as ‘shipped’, but i never received it. i called them, and they just re-shipped it. no questions asked, no penalty.
also, i had a movie at the top of my queue that i had already seen, but i forgot to remove it. i didn’t really care for it + didnt’t want to see it again. i called to see if they could cancel shipment, but it was too late. they said just to ship it back when i received it, and offered a ‘bonus’ rental for my troubles!
every time i’ve called their customer service, i’ve had a really positive experience. very friendly, knowledgable. they’ve even made movie recommendations, and asked me about movies i’d just watched.
I agree with a lot of the people that think Marty was a bit whiny and didn’t use the greatest tone. However, the queue is the cornerstone of both Blockbuster and Netflix! It’s one of the big draws of both services, and I know if I lost my Netflix queue I would be ticked off and it would be, if not a major inconvenience, then something that might lose me money reposting all the movies I can remember. I would probably ask for a free month of service. And Netflix would probly give it to me because they’re awesome. Let go of the Blockbuster teat! It’s not 1997! We have better options!
Dude, she totally answered your question. Twice. YOU’RE the one with the “attitude”. Stop bitching. I mean, come on…”OMG it took me months to compile that list! I demand months of free service! WAAAAA!”
Personally, I think you really need to switch to Netflix. I’ve never had a single issue with those guys.
Our customer here did NOT request free months. He said that he deserved free months for all the mismailed and damaged movies he’s received.
A perfectly good response from Blockbuster would have been, “We cannot reconstruct the error that caused your queue to be erased. I have forwarded your concern to our IT Department to document your error. If this happens again, please reference #________, so that we may properly escalate your concern. Please accept our apologies for your inconvenience.”
I don’t think the guy was entitled to compensation. He was entitled to a real response.
I’ve had so many problems like this with Blockbuster. I get incorrect movies or cracked discs on a regular basis. In addition it takes 2-3 days for me to get the movies after they have “shipped” and it again takes Blockbuster 2-3 days to “receive” movies after I put them back in the mail. With Netflix the turn around time is usually 1-2 days. I am currently on my free trial with Netflix and plan to cancel Blockbuster as soon as I reach the end of my billing cycle, as if I cancel now I get no refund and the service ends right away!
Ugh…I get customers like this sometimes. Sure you might have a valid technical problem, but most likely you did it yourself by accident. PEBCAK is the most likely answer to 98% of tech support problems.
@erratapage: Agreed. More than likely, if it was a system glitch. If so, I bet it affected more than 1 user. She should have been able to notify IT or the development team, and then followup. It should be the CSRs job to help this customer, but also help the greater good of all customers, by alerting her internal group to the issue, and hopefully fixing the situation. Sorry’s go along way…or you can stuff your sorry’s in a sack mister! jugdish.
Wow, What a response for Netflix! I thought I heard that Blockbuster was getting out of this business. Anyway, look at the difference between the two companies as far as customer service is concerned.
It gives you hope that customer service is not quite dead yet, just in the hospital.
I had to chuckle, as I was reminded of a buddy’s comment regarding DVR content. If you have so many movies on there that you cannot possibly recreate the list, chances are you didn’t need to see them in the first place.
“I had rented the classic “Apocalypse Now” and watched Disc One (which by the way Blockbuster online doesn’t tell you it is 2 discs on some of the choices so it is hit or miss.). So I went to my queue to put disc 2 on the list”
IF you couldn’t tell there was a second disc in the first place, how are you going to find the second one to add it?
@erratapage: Yes, he did request several months. Read point 3 of his response.
@boandmichele: So doing the right thing and reporting abuse makes you a crappy citizen?
Are you the type to do 80 in a 60? Do you zip right up to the cones when a lane is closing and shove your way in front of other people who have had the politeness and patience to wait their turn?
And then do you turn around and blame those who obey the laws for your inconvenience?
My queue vanished one day on Netflix. I called customer service, a human being answered after about a minute, he logged in to my account (which of COURSE they have the ability to do) and politely told me that he showed the queue being full. Asked me to log out and log back in, which I did, and the problem was fixed.
In this crazy world, Netflix and DirecTV are about the only home entertainment companies you can trust anymore.
Posts like these are a waste of time. A consumer gets unjustifiably mad over a minor inconvienence, acts like a jackass to a CSA without good cause, and when he doesn’t get his way cries to consumerist.
Stuff like this legitimizes true costomer service horror stories.
Oops, i meant to say “delegitimizes” true customer service horror stories!
@N1ckels: so I should just quit Netflix because I haven’t memorized my queue? This isn’t about NEED, it’s about having a reliable place to store your to-watch list. If Netflix randomly wiped my queue and couldn’t even toss me a “sorry,” or anything resembling a coherent answer to the question, I’d be as peeved as Marty.
Blockbuster is begging you to switch to Netflix. Don’t dissapoint.
I hate Blockbuster so bad it’s not funny. At several different store locations, I received numerous late fees on movies I was quite sure were back in time. One time I took a movie back 15 minutes before it was due back. I actually went in the store and handed it to the clerk to avoid a late fee just in case they already emptied the outside bin. The next time I go in, guess what, late fee.
Vowed never to give another cent to blockbuster. Been on netflix 4 years plus. Maybe 1-2 wrong movies the whole time. That’s not the nature of the business. It’s because blockbuster sucks.
Yeah, I had an issue with BB too and their communications were subpar. Needless to say, I cancelled my account and switched to Netflix. Haven’t had a problem with them.
So, drop BlockBuster and go with Netflix.
You basically scolded me for not having 30-40 movies available.
I don’t see this at all.
Guess what??? All your responses from Blockbuster are form letters that are answered by someone on the other side of the world. How do I know?? I trained the trainer for the “CSR”s on the other side of the world.
Oh and one other thing, I helped write parts of the form letters you received 3 years ago.
This is like calling tech support, and saying “help my computer doesn’t work!!” and then demanding a 110% refund in cash for your trouble. This is a really weak complaint, Consumerist.
This customer is being a bitch. The person responding is not being rude and is obviously sending canned responses. The lady is pissed because he queue got emptied, and she is being over dramatic about being “scolded”.
Working in tech for years, these are the two scenarios of what happened.
1) Customer either hit a clear list button (if one exists, I don’t use the service so I don’t know)
2) a database error occurred and deleted her list (its rare but happens)
she is acting as if Blockbuster maliciously went in and deleted everything in her queue. If I were the tech, my next email would be 1) the confirmation she is canceling and 2) a link to netflix sign up.
I suddenly lost my free in-store movie/game coupon from my account. I informed them about it a few months ago and said that they were having “technical issues” and sent me a free coupon to replace it. A month passed and I still didn’t have a coupon to print out from my account, so I e-mailed them again and got another coupon, and they said they were still working on it. I’m still missing it, and if another month goes by (around the 21st) and it’s still not fixed, I’ll be e-mailing them once again. I’ll continue to do so every month to get my free coupon if I need to, but it’s definitely a little ridiculous.
-Jeff
[alinktothefuture.com]
Blockbuster bot is obviously just sending predesigned responses from a drop-down menu. Also, Blockbuster sucks and Netflix rules.
@wesa: I completely agree. The guy basically bitched her out, saying that she was unhelpful and that she was ‘scolding’ him when he didn’t even provide adequate information in the first place. I mean, come on….
“All the movies I had in my queue are gone? What happened can I get the list back?”
I’ve seen second graders who have better grammar/punctuation than this guy!
I don’t like blockbuster at all, but I don’t see how they were rude here.
agree or disagree with this guy, I think that, as one poster stated, this might be a red flag for a fundamental flaw in BB data management system. They should be storing data snapshots once or twice a day somewhere so the worst that could happen is you recover data that’s 12 hours old max. Not make CSR’s cover for an IT department scrambling to work without the right tools in a crisis situtation. It’s fundamental. Expensive, but if you give a crap about continuity, indispensible. If they aren’t doing that, where else are they cutting corners? Security? Information management? Who knows?
woo HOO TEAM NETFLIX! I love my Netflix!
blockbuster, blockbuster, go back to the woods!
your company stinks and your service is no good!
(ok, I’ll sit down now.)
Netflix rules. Occasionally get the broken/scratched/cracked disc, but replacements are fast. Shipping time for me has gotten extremely fast lately – return a disc in Monday morning’s mail, next in queue in hand by Wednesday night!
Blockbuster.com are dicks. They charged me a “restocking fee” of $7.95 for all three DVD’s I rented when I canceled my account. Correction, first they charged me for all three DVD’s at $25 a pop and then refunded the funds but kept the “restocking fee”. Assholes! I’ve never been so glad to cancel an account.
gee, all of you should get a life….must spend half of it watching movies….anyone still read a book???????talk to people??????
Hey guys, If Netflix is so damn great how come they won’t support movies on Linux machines? Ok… DRM. Why not Macs? So to me it sounds like the same old story replayed 10^21 times… it’s great if you do windoze; if not…. well then f**k you. Call/write netflix and tell them you want LINUX!
I’ve been with Netflix for several years now, and we’ve been very happy. Their customer service is wonderful and their list of movies you can watching immediately on your computer is growing. Go Netflix!