Got an email from Blockbuster yesterday, saying they’re raising my subscription cost,
As a charter member of BLOCKBUSTER Online®, your promotional rate of $14.99* per month was guaranteed through January 31, 2006, and as a courtesy, we’ve extended your special introductory rate an additional two months. Effective April 18th, 2006, your special introductory rate of $14.99* will no longer be available and the price of our three-movies-out plan will increase from $14.99* to $17.99*.
Outrageous! Also a bunch of liars. The fact of the matter is that Blockbuster is hemorrhaging money trying to compete with Netflix and Cable/Satellite. The only reason I signed up with Blockbuster Online in the first place was because it was one of those immunity challenges for FreeMacMini.com. And the only reason I stayed with Blockbuster was because it was $3 less than Netflix. The service was amazing the first couple of months. I’d send a movie back, and get one the next day, the day after at the latest. Now I send a movie back on Monday and I get one on Friday, maybe Saturday in some cases. Yet I continued to stick with Blockbuster because hey, $3 is $3. And now that their rates have gone up to match Netflix, I might give Netflix a spin. I’ve always heard that Netflix has a much better website and a larger selection of titles.
So Blockbuster, seems I’ll have to let you go.
2 Comments
BBI is going down the tubes. I wouldn’t touch that company with a 30-foot pole. It’s going to be a huge loss for the Dallas economy when they go under.
I read about them doing that somewhere before. That’s an awful way to trick consumers!
Blockbuster needs to reinvent its movie rental system. They have a nice relationship with the movie companies and should exploit it by creating deals to distribute movies through broadband/satellite/harddrive etc.