Blockbuster Movie Pass performance thread

[fuzzfacefrombboard]

since the start, I've been dropping in the mail on Monday, getting a notice that my next out shipped on tuesday, and then a notice that my return from Monday was received on Wednesday. The past 2 weeks, however, my actual disc delivery has been 1 day sooner than expected (Thursday instead of Friday).

 

[hemway]

I wish the BB service in the Phoenix area was as good as some of the reports I've been reading about. First, let me say that we pretty much only watch the new releases but will request an oldie every once in awhile.

Prior to their bankruptcy, I had the two at a time plan and I would always get the email notice on a Monday that a new release was mailed to me, and I would receive it on Tuesday. If there two releases, I'd get 2 notices on a Monday, and receive both DVD's on Tuesday. We would promptly watch them Tuesday night, and mail them back on Wednesday morning and get a return notice Thursday morning. If there was another available DVD on my list and it was available, it would be mailed to me on Thursday and I'd receive it on Friday and watch it Friday night. We'd mail it back on Saturday and get notice of it's return first thing Monday morning.

Those were the good old days. When they went into bankruptcy, I was lucky if I got 4 or 5 new releases a month. When I did get a disk, we'd take it to a Blockbuster store to exchange it (I think we were allowed one or two free exchanges a month) for another movie in our queue. It usually took the store a couple of days to notify the mail service they had the DVD and another couple of days to notify them we returned the store DVD. By then, everything in my queue was on wait. Service was so bad we finally bit the big one and cancelled BB and went to Netflix.They had their 28 day wait for a lot of their new releases, but even with the wait, I was getting some new releases faster then with BB. They also mailed new releases on a Monday and we had them on a Tuesday. When they announced their big price increase, we decided to look at BB again because Dish bought them and was hearing good things about their service.

We took advantage of the free three months of BB that was offered to us by Dish and it seamed that the service had returned to what it was per-bankruptcy. We were getting notices on Mondays, DVD on Tuesday, return them on Wednesday, get a return notice on Thursday, etc. Everything was great. Then ......

Dish announced 'Blockbuster Movie Pass' and service at the Phoenix distribution center turned to crap. Right now we have the one disk at a time (like we had with the free trial) with unlimited store exchanges (as long as you have a mail DVD to exchange). On weeks where there are multiple new releases, I've had a few occasions where I'd get a notice on a Monday and receive he disk on Tuesday. I'd exchange the DVD in a store on Wednesday, watch it on Wednesday night, and return it on Thursday. If I'm lucky (once I think) they mailed out another disk on Friday and because it seems to always come from another distribution center, won't get the disk till Monday or Tuesday. And this is for a good cycle. Usually on weeks of multiple new releases, if you don't get a DVD shipped to you right away, it goes on 'Short wait'. Not sure what their idea of a short wait is but I've had some stay on the list for 2 1/2 weeks before I finally did a store exchange to get it. Also, it seems that if I don't get a new DVD from the Phoenix distribution center (I live in Gilbert) when it first releases, all DVD that come off of 'Short Wait' get shipped from different locations and the delivery takes longer.

We never use the BBMP streaming function because the interface to it sucks. If it was like the Netfix system where you can go online and select the movie and add it to a steaming queue or send it to the 722's recorder, I might use it. Until then, it's useless to me. As for the the extra HD channels that you get with BBMP, we haven't watched any of them. Bottom line for me is if Dish is going to make a BBMP a selling feature for new and existing customers, they need to get all of there BB distribution centers beefed up to compete with the Netfix mail service, which by the way, checks in and ships DVD's, on Saturday's.

d that they received but when they went into

 

[Ghpr13]

Well, it seems my thinking that all was working out with my BBMP disc by mail account was premature. I mailed back a disc on Monday, haven't received a word about it yet. Maybe it got lost in the mail, stuff happens...I'll check it out and post back.
Ghpr13

OK...I just called BB, not Dish, and the "Team Member" was really very helpful. She taught me something I didn't know. That I can report a disc that I mailed and BBMP hasn't received right on the Dish/BBMP web site. Just click on "Report Problem" on my queue page. 1,2,3, done! Should have my next disc shipped today. I'm pleased.
Ghpr13

 

[hemway]

Does anyone know if the rental system used in stores is linked into the Blockbuster Movie Pass (BBMP) system?

Most of the disks in my queue go to a ‘short wait’ status after they get released, so for the last month, I've been averaging 2 DVD’s a week (if lucky). I usually would get one DVD from BBMP by mail and the 2nd from an in-store exchange. I monitor my BBMP queue on regular bases and noticed that there seems to be a delay with the notification process when you exchange a DVD in a store. Sometimes it takes a 1/2 a day or longer for the status to be updated and show that the BBMP by mail DVD was returned to a store and a store DVD was checked out. Then it takes another 1/2 day or more for the system to update when the store DVD is returned.

This week I finally received (on Tuesday, 11/1) one of the 'short wait' DVD’s that was in my queue. It was mailed to me last week (mailed Friday, 10/28). We watched the DVD that night, and then on my way home from work the next day (Wednesday, 11/2), I stopped by a BB store and exchanged it for one of the new releases that was in my queue. This morning (Thursday, 11/3) on my way to work, I dropped off the DVD at the same store I checked it out from. I just check my BBMP queue and it still shows that I have the DVD that was mailed to me.

Not that it’s really going to matter because even if they update my queue to show that the mailed DVD was recieved and the rented DVD returned, all of the new releases in my queue are all in ‘Short Wait’ status. No surprise there.

UPDATE: Just looked at my rental history, and it looks like at least one of the mailed DVD's I exchanged in a store for a in-store DVD doesn't have a return date posted and it isn't the one I used for an exchange this week. It was one I used for an exchange last week. The DVD I exchanged it for shows the same date for the 'Ship/Rent' and 'Returned' dates.

 

[hemway]

Just an update to my post above.

Late yesterday (Thursday, 4 pm AZ time) I received an email notice that the mail DVD was exchanged for an in-store exchange (exchange really really took place on Wednesday afternoon). About 2 hours latter I received another email saying that my in-store rental was returned (it was dropped off Thursday morning at 7 am AZ time) and the next available DVD in my queue would be sent to me, but unfortunately, all of the released DVD's in my queue are on 'Short Wait'.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Just an update to my post above.

Late yesterday (Thursday, 4 pm AZ time) I received an email notice that the mail DVD was exchanged for an in-store exchange (exchange really really took place on Wednesday afternoon). About 2 hours latter I received another email saying that my in-store rental was returned (it was dropped off Thursday morning at 7 am AZ time) and the next available DVD in my queue would be sent to me, but unfortunately, all of the released DVD's in my queue are on 'Short Wait'.

I have received 'Short Wait' movies immediately that were higher in my queue than 'Now' movies....

 

[Ghpr13]

I have received 'Short Wait' movies immediately that were higher in my queue than 'Now' movies....

Same here. With BBMP there seems to be no way of really knowing what will be mailed out and when.
Ghpr13

 

[woolf]

After 15 days with BBMP I switched back to Netflix

I signed up for BBMP the first week it was offered and was prepared to close my Netflix account but decided to wait since it was paid until the end of the month anyway. Glad I did.

For the most part the discs in the mail program worked fairly well, although Blockbuster disc turnaround time was definitely longer than it took Netflix. I did not see a way for me to rate the discs, which I like doing on Netflix. It helps the system recommend things to me that are actually what I might like to watch. And, it also helps me remember what I have already seen before so I do not accidentally re-add it to the list.

I cannot say ANYTHING positive about my so-called streaming experience using either the Dish receiver or the website. The several shows I tried watching via the website just clicked-through to the Hulu website and I had to watch them with commercials. I don't need to pay Dish Network to watch programs on Hulu.

I tried to "stream" a couple of movies via the Dish receiver and after going through the ridiculous process of filtering down (instead of being able to really search) for what was available I could only find really old, and mostly very bad, movie selections that were did not have an additional fee. The "search" process was one of the worst user experiences I have ever had. It is truly terrible and does not make me want to use it again. Once I found something I wanted to watch it told me the film would be ready to view in about an hour or so. What? That is not streaming. When I came back to look for it later it took me a while to try to find that same item in the list again. At that time I did not realize that if I looked under the "television" option there was a button that would show me all of my recent downloads. Not sure why it was under the "television" filter.

It's November and I still don't have a screen that says "Blockbuster Movie Pass," on my VIP622 receiver so maybe whatever upgrade that makes this change would make the process easier.

I also tried the Blockbuster app for Android on my smartphone. Even though customer support told me there were plenty of "free" titles I could stream to my phone under the BBMP plan, I searched for them but could not find anything that did not have an additional charge.

After about 15 days I dropped the BBMP option and want back to Netflix (now that they decided to NOT split the company into two separate websites). It is only a few dollars more to get discs in the mail AND a real streaming option with TV shows an movies I want to see. The streaming program is very easy to use and I can also get the same functionality on my Android phone.

 

[Ghpr13]

I think we all need to hope that BBMP is still a work in progress, and Dish/BB are working to get things straighten out.

Ghpr13

 

[dsnow3]

I tried BBMP for a supposedly Free Trial but after being charged for the first month I dumped BBMP and went back to using Netflix.
I was willing to give it a try but the clunky interface and cumbersome movie selection process is not worth it.
I may give them another chance once they work the kinks out.

 

[demsd]

I have had no issue with Blockbuster and I have used them for over a year. I have the one-at-a-time plan and I normally get 2 discs per week, unless its a game [games we keep longer].

 

[demsd]

I tried to "stream" a couple of movies via the Dish receiver and after going through the ridiculous process of filtering down (instead of being able to really search) for what was available I could only find really old, and mostly very bad, movie selections that were did not have an additional fee. The "search" process was one of the worst user experiences I have ever had. It is truly terrible and does not make me want to use it again. Once I found something I wanted to watch it told me the film would be ready to view in about an hour or so. What? That is not streaming. When I came back to look for it later it took me a while to try to find that same item in the list again. At that time I did not realize that if I looked under the "television" option there was a button that would show me all of my recent downloads. Not sure why it was under the "television" filter.

It's November and I still don't have a screen that says "Blockbuster Movie Pass," on my VIP622 receiver so maybe whatever upgrade that makes this change would make the process easier.

The 622 has had the BBMP label in the menu for over a week, and the streaming process has actually been updated. I have watched a few movies via the DVR with only a few buffer issues.

 

[demsd]

Does anyone know if the rental system used in stores is linked into the Blockbuster Movie Pass (BBMP) system?

As far as I know, Movie Pass allows for in-store returns.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well, I just dropped em today. I was on BB Online before the whole movie pass start, but what ive seen a lot of lately is movies that say "On Order", as well as Long Wait more than ever, dunno if the increased business is hurting them or what. Also a couple of movies that are out on blu, and on Nflix, are only DVD on BB.

In the time Ive had MP, Ive not watched any of the additional channels, so Ill go back to paying Nflix a little more, for the same wait. At least when they do ship or get returned, it's a one day turn around, as opposed to 2 to 4 for BB. Since the start of MP, Id say my quality of service diminished with the movie mailing.

 

[Skee7ix]

I just dropped it yesterday too.

Even when the title says "available", it came like 3 days after they send it. And they receive what I sent also 3 days after I send it. With Netflix this was different, for example I send it today and got the new one past tomorrow, and alwasy was like that. With BB I have waited more than a week since I send the disc to get another one. And with the stores closing is worse. I just hope they improve the service because it has potential, but now it just isn't good.

 

[rocket69]

distro centers are great but dish should look at its current holdings of disk's . If the shipping center is on order and a local store has 6 sitting around have the local store ship it.