Blockbuster DVD rental "stuck"

Stonk

Anyone experienced anything like the following?

I'm on Blockbuster's 3-disc-at-a-time package, and have been for about 18 months. At first the turnaround was lightning fast (especially compared to the provider it replaced). It has slowed down a bit generally over time, and Christmas was quite poor, but on the whole I still get my money's worth.

However, at the moment, 2 of my 3 rental slots are in the status "attempting to allocate stock", and have been this way for 13 days! Therefore I'm getting only one-third of the advertised service. This has happened in the past for the odd day or two, but never anything like this.

My rental list is sizeable (50-plus items) and varied, and I added another 20 items to it in case they really didn't have any of my wants available, but still nothing has been sent.

I've sent several complaints by email, all of which have gone unanswered. I found a phone number - not exactly well publicised on their site - and all they can say is that "service is subject to availability" and all the discs on my list are out of stock. This is not at all believable, given the sudden and dramatic downturn, and the fact that I added 20 new items (what's the chance that all 20 are out of stock?).

mluton

We have been with LOVEFILM for around 18 months on a 3 disc deal. Turnaround is amazing, can see 5 discs some weeks.

My list has around 150 titles on it and swmbo's has about 20 on it. We always get 1 from each list.

Never delt with Blockbuster, but maybe time to take a LOVEFILM free trial.

mluton

just found this on here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1514369

willo65

If its been 13 days and you have new releases on your list also then phone them again and explain that you can't believe they have been out of stock on over 50 items for 13 days. Then when they finally realise there is a problem and sort it ask them for a refund of the service you missed out on.

Stonk

willo65 wrote: »

If its been 13 days and you have new releases on your list also then phone them again and explain that you can't believe they have been out of stock on over 50 items for 13 days. Then when they finally realise there is a problem and sort it ask them for a refund of the service you missed out on.

Yes, I did all that in the one phone call. The robot (as it may as well have been) flatly refused to accept that there was any problem (I must have heard "there are no guarantees about the service" more than10 times), and stated that they do not give refunds under any circumstances. The threat of downgrading or cancellation seemed to hold no weight, and in fact would just shoot myself further in the foot as I'm a third of the way through a month I've already paid for.

I guess I'll just cancel in a couple of weeks. Maybe they're messing me around, or maybe they really don't have in stock any of the stuff I want to see - either way, it's plenty of reason to cancel.

Lovefilm was the one I transferred away from 18 months ago. They were blatantly throttling my usage, and denied it.