We weren’t the only ones effected, of course. Blockbuster got a new CEO back in the summer and his plan was to raise prices for pretty much everyone. The result was the loss of at least half a million customers. I stuck with it…mostly because it was still cheaper than renting movies one at a time.
Yesterday, however, I received yet another email from Blockbuster. You guessed it. This time, I wasn’t given the option of changing my service (what else could they take away from me?). Nope, this time, it was clear. The price for the service option I have will now be $19.99 per month. If I don’t like it? Tough.
It’s all over the news too. Seems like people aren’t very happy.
It could be worse, though. My wife and I had discussed staying with the option we had had previously - the unlimited movies through mail and unlimited in store exchanges. The price for that option went up back in October to $24.99 (which would have been a $7 increase for us). We decided against it mostly out of principle. I’m glad we did now.
With the newly announced price increases the increase for that “package” will now be raised yet again. This time it’s going from $24.99 to $34.99. That’s a 40% increase if you’re keeping count. How many movies do they think a person can watch? And at what point does the whole thing stop being any kind of value? I mean, it’s really only a value if you’re getting more movies than you would if you went and paid for them separately each time you wanted to see a movie. at an average rental price of say, $4.00, you’d have to watch 9 or more movies in a month in order to make this any kind of a value. To really feel like you’re getting something for your money I’d guess you’d have to probably watch 10 to 12 movies at a minimum. With the mail service being the way it is, and people being as busy as they are, I don’t see this being a valid option for “most” people.
If Blockbuster is just trying to get people to drop out of their program their doing a pretty good job. Netflix, who has been the one trying to keep up recently, saw their stock jump 9% after the news of the price increase hit the airwaves. I expect they’ll see their stock go even higher as news of the inevitable backlash against Blockbuster begins making even more waves.
I haven’t yet decided what I plan to do. Technically, the number of movies I receive for $19.99 per month is still a pretty good deal. I get five in store exchanges and probably get at least another five, sometimes more, through the mail in a month. Ten movies for $20 bucks works out to only $2 each (if you don’t forget to take the in store movies back on time and have to pay the $1.25 “restocking” fee or whatever they call it). But I’m starting to wonder about the principle of the matter. Blockbuster has shown little to no regard for their customers at all.
At what point should we begin saying that we no longer want to be Blockbuster customers?
I haven’t gotten any email yet, but I think we got grandfathered in since we joined right from the start. We pay $17.99 a month, but get 2 free rental coupons and unlimited in-store rentals still.
But how can anyone expect to pay $34 a month and watch enough movies to make it worthwhile?
I’ve been thinking of switching to Netflix because I’ll bet they have a better HD-DVD inventory.
Mike Olbinski’s last blog post..Other shows, Office style
You know Mike, I think my first article on Blockbuster was one of the first articles we started talking to each other…
But I don’t know, Mike. If they aren’t raising your prices it seems like you have a pretty sweet deal. I don’t know if I’d switch. Use them and abuse them until they raise your rates and THEN switch. Make us proud Mike!
I just got my email this week. My service is going up to 16.99 from 14.99, not the end of the world, but it may make me look at Netflix…esp in light of their HD DVD offerings.
Scott Williamson’s last blog post..Quit whining, it’s Christmas, take a day off!
Jason, I think you are right
Yeah, I think I’ll stick with it for now, but it sure makes it tough to watch HD-DVDs when I have to either buy them or wait forever for Blockbustyourwallet to stock it.
Mike Olbinski’s last blog post..Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart back in action January 7th
Scott said it. Blockbuster goes up while Netflix gives you the option of downloading movies that you can burn onto playable DVDs. I think downloaded content is the most people will go in the near future.
Rick’s last blog post..Sony Drops Rear Projection TV
[...] Jason A Clark (23) - Blog Highlight: “Blockbuster continues pissing off customers.“ [...]
When they changed from unlimited in-store swaps to 5 per month, I sent them an email expressing my opinion and got a very short, unsympathetic reply arguing with me about my reasoning. When I got the email informing me of the price increase, I again sent them an email informing them that I have signed up for a free two-week trial of Netflix. I never received a reply and will probably cancel my Blockbuster membership.
It is really a shame too. I am such a good customer, that I never had to pay for the Blockbuster Rewards plan - they always renewed it for me free of charge because I rented so many movies.
[...] Jason Clark wrote a few weeks back about how Blockbuster was annoying their customers once again by raising prices a few bucks and in some cases, many, many [...]