# Broken discs from Blockbuster mailing -- 0 for 2



## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

I just tried out the Blockbuster DVD mailing service which, I guess, is included in the Platinum replacement package. So far my first two ever discs have both arrived cracked in the mail. Is this normal?

How often does Blockbuster/Dish typically send out damaged discs? I don't use Netflix, so I don't know what to expect here. And maybe it's just bad luck that I get two duds in a row. But since Blockbuster will send out one at a time, that's two full weeks that I haven't gotten to watch anything.

This post (from four years ago) says they threaten to suspend your account if you complain too much.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080206182353AAlmAWn

I called Dish Network on the phone and the guy gave me instructions for starting my browser and going to www.dishnetwork.com. But he didn't have a clue about quality of service.


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## olguy (Jan 9, 2006)

I seriously doubt if Blockbuster (Dish is not involved in the operation) ever sends out a damaged disc. I strongly suspect the USPS mishandled the discs. Another poster on another forum received an empty envelope courtesy of the USPS. He tried to get Dish to help. No luck. The DVD did not show up in his At Home list so there was no Report a Problem link on his queue page. He called the Blockbuster number below and they explained the problem and promptly sent him another copy.

I got it from the Blockbuster site. It worked for the other poster.


Sunday - Thursday 8:00AM - 8:00PM Central
Friday - Saturday 8:00AM - Midnight Central
For questions about *Blockbuster By Mail, Blockbuster On Demand, or Online Purchases*, please call us at *1-866-692-2789*


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

I've had 18 movies delivered so far and all of them have been good. Some of the movies haven't been so good, but the discs have been fine


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## olds403 (Nov 20, 2007)

I have had probably 8 or so movies delivered by mail and got my first broken one last week. I reported it on the website and they sent out a replacement. I also would suspect the postal service is responsible for the broken discs.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

I've had Netflix for years (since I bought my first DVD player) and BB by mail for a few months and have never received a broken disc from either. I've probably had 3 from Netflix that wouldn't play because they were severely scratched but that's a very low failure rate considering how many discs I've received from them. Sounds like you're off to a jinxed start with them!


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## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

Its possible they sent out a damaged disc, I've seen some discs that look fine, don't play, until you examine it very closely and see a crack, that in some cases can be overlooked. I don't think BB or Netflix want to send out damaged discs if they can avoid it, costs them something to send you a replacement.


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## hiloyo63 (Dec 27, 2011)

i had bb a couple years ago and found broken and cracked discs were a common problem.
maybe because i like older movies that have been viewed many many times i guess.


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## Christopher Gould (Jan 14, 2007)

netflix customer here and i have received 75+ blurays and have received one broken one. Now i have received envelopes the have been ate by the post office machines.


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

My third try at the service arrived today --- cracked again. That's three discs in a row, all which have a straight crack from the center to the outer edge.


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## CeeWoo (Dec 1, 2008)

I'm guessing we've had a dz or so disks from Blockbuster (since dish started the bbmp)...never a problem

(however now I'm afraid to open the envelop with one that came today  )


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

six discs in the last two weeks, and not a crack anywhere. 
You must have the worst luck in Blockbuster history!


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

BqWUDUDj said:


> My third try at the service arrived today --- cracked again. That's three discs in a row, all which have a straight crack from the center to the outer edge.


Are you ordering the same movie each time?


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

oldschoolecw said:


> Are you ordering the same movie each time?


Yes. I think I'm getting different discs, but I haven't made note of where the crack is. I also think the discs pass each other in the mail as I return a disk and they send me another one. This is based on the e-mail notifications I get.

I reported the third disc as bad and now I'm in jail for some period of time. The web page said I had to wait before getting another one, but it didn't say how long. The rep I called at Dish Network also didn't have a clue.


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## [email protected] Network (Jan 6, 2011)

BqWUDUDj said:


> Yes. I think I'm getting different discs, but I haven't made note of where the crack is. I also think the discs pass each other in the mail as I return a disk and they send me another one. This is based on the e-mail notifications I get.
> 
> I reported the third disc as bad and now I'm in jail for some period of time. The web page said I had to wait before getting another one, but it didn't say how long. The rep I called at Dish Network also didn't have a clue.


For problems with Blockbuster's by-mail service, you would need to contact Blockbuster directly. Unfortunately, dish employees wouldn't be able to help with problems with the discs, but we can help with things like billing issues, and questions about the service


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## olguy (Jan 9, 2006)

BqWUDUDj said:


> I reported the third disc as bad and now I'm in jail for some period of time. The web page said I had to wait before getting another one, but it didn't say how long. The rep I called at Dish Network also didn't have a clue.


I posted the Blockbuster number in post 2 in reply to your original post. I also stated it had worked for another poster.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

[email protected] Network said:


> For problems with Blockbuster's by-mail service, you would need to contact Blockbuster directly. Unfortunately, dish employees wouldn't be able to help with problems with the discs, but we can help with things like billing issues, and questions about the service


 This is a problem.

I still have Dish Platinum on my account as the 30th Anniversary 12 month freebie. It should expire February1. Here's a screenshot:








I, of course, want to continue Platinum. But my understanding is Dish Network has chosen to no longer sell it.

Dish Network sells Blockbuster Movie Pass with the channels I want from the old Platinum. It's $10.00 a month. I will pay it to Dish Network, of which Blockbuster is a division.

At a minimum, if I pay Dish Network for channels it provides and discs its Blockbuster division provides, I would expect to be able to call Dish Network about a problem.

Perhaps the Dish Network employee I talk to will have to say: "Gee, I'm really sorry that happened to you. Let me transfer you to one of our Blockbuster service problem resolution representatives." And then the Dish Network employee...

(a) transfers my call to someone who probably works for Blockbuster but whose name or other ID is known to the Dish Network employee and
(b) makes a notation on my account about the contact so that should my problem not be resolved there will be a record.
You see, if in two weeks I pay Dish for its Blockbuster Movie Pass package and something is wrong with the service I pay Dish for, I will expect Dish to be able to handle it just as I have for many, many, many years.

Matt, I understand that establishing the policy of how things are handled right now was, or should have been, established by the top corporate officers who made the determination to buy Blockbuster and combine it with Dish Network. After all, they were cautiously planning the future of two of their divisions.

I hope you can pass my suggestion for a policy change up the chain of command to corporate.


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

phrelin said:


> You see, if in two weeks I pay Dish for its Blockbuster Movie Pass package and something is wrong with the service I pay Dish for, I will expect Dish to be able to handle it just as I have for many, many, many years.
> 
> Matt, I understand that establishing the policy of how things are handled right now was, or should have been, established by the top corporate officers who made the determination to buy Blockbuster and combine it with Dish Network. After all, they were cautiously planning the future of two of their divisions.
> 
> I hope you can pass my suggestion for a policy change up the chain of command to corporate.


I agree. At a minimum, the Dish reps should be trained to refer us to Blockbuster when we call. The Dish phone number is on the disc mailing envelope and if you want to receive cracked discs three times as often, you are supposed to call Dish for an upgrade. I'd expect Blockbuster to get all confused because I've never registered for an account with them and they'd probably refer me to Dish Network's number.

Also, the Customer Care -> Call Us link under Help for the movie pass web site says:


> Blockbuster Movie Pass Customer Care phone support is available 24 hours a day.
> 
> If you have a question or concern about your Blockbuster Movie Pass account or service, please call us at 1-800-333-DISH.


I'll give Blockbuster a call anyway. Maybe there were a few posts to this thread when I checked and I missed the second one with the phone number in it before. Although, it's not obvious why Dish Network MoviePass customers should call a Blockbuster By Mail, Blockbuster On Demand, or Online Purchases phone #.


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## gc916 (Jun 14, 2007)

I recently signed up for Blockbuster service. Of the three discs I have received in the past week, two arrived broken.

I reported the issue in the "My Queue" section of Blockbuster's website, and replacement discs were shipped the following day. The first arrived in good condition; the other should arrive today.


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

BqWUDUDj said:


> Yes. I think I'm getting different discs, but I haven't made note of where the crack is. I also think the discs pass each other in the mail as I return a disk and they send me another one. This is based on the e-mail notifications I get.
> 
> I reported the third disc as bad and now I'm in jail for some period of time. The web page said I had to wait before getting another one, but it didn't say how long. The rep I called at Dish Network also didn't have a clue.


The reason I asked was I kept ordering the same movie each time the movie came broken, and NetFlix kept sending it back to me, even though I told them it was broke. This was over 3 years ago. So how I figured it out that they kept sending the same broken disc was I put a mark with a sharpie on the DVD and sure enough it came back to me 2 times. After that, I moved on to a different movie


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## Zero327 (Oct 10, 2006)

phrelin said:


> This is a problem.
> 
> I still have Dish Platinum on my account as the 30th Anniversary 12 month freebie. It should expire February1. Here's a screenshot:
> 
> ...


DISH isn't that integrated with BB yet, it's still being worked on. For the same reasons, DIRT can't pass any feedback to those who need to receive it (they can send it on to their DISH managers, who will send another e-mail into the void); the contacts to handle those items haven't been decided yet. A number of items are on the table as to what will be done with BB.

Eventually, I'm sure you'll be able to call and have BB issues addressed in some fashion; but for now, one more customer on the phone isn't going to get anything done, so it's not available.

New acquisitions take time to iron out. DISH has only owned BB a few months, and a lot of people are already asking for a large number of changes to how both companies do business. Give it some time (in corporate time that means at least 2 years).


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

Zero327 said:


> DISH isn't that integrated with BB yet, it's still being worked on. ... New acquisitions take time to iron out. DISH has only owned BB a few months, and a lot of people are already asking for a large number of changes to how both companies do business. Give it some time (in corporate time that means at least 2 years).


That's a lousy excuse, in my opinion. Dish shouldn't have rolled out something half-baked. All these random things that they are throwing into Dish (multiple online system websites, conflicting ways to order movies online, this rental thing) show a lack of organization, confuses Dish customers and damages Dish Networks reputation.


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## archer75 (Oct 13, 2006)

No problem here. Never received a broken disc. Had one scratched that would have issues playing but i've had plenty of those with netflix. They replaced it quickly.


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

oldschoolecw said:


> The reason I asked was I kept ordering the same movie each time the movie came broken, and NetFlix kept sending it back to me, even though I told them it was broke. This was over 3 years ago. So how I figured it out that they kept sending the same broken disc was I put a mark with a sharpie on the DVD and sure enough it came back to me 2 times. After that, I moved on to a different movie


I think you were right. I called Blockbuster and kept hitting 0 past all the prompts and things. When I got to a person I explained that I didn't have any BB account but she knew about this Dish thing and was able to access my queue. She told me to hold onto the broken DVD and she had another one sent to me.

*I'm happy to announce that a disc has arrived intact from BB!*

Probably, Blockbuster was indeed sending the broken disc back to me time after time.

Sorry to be so down about this. But I've had bad experiences with Dish recently because I'm trying to use their offering. The Blockbuster search page is terrible, you think they would have learned a thing or two from www.imdb.com. So it's a chore to find movies to add to the queue. I guess the lesson is that if you end up seeing some value from Blockbuster, you might want to upgrade... to Netflix.


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

BqWUDUDj said:


> ...I guess the lesson is that if you end up seeing some value from Blockbuster, you might want to upgrade... to Netflix.


I see plenty of value from Blockbuster. 
Had the platinum deal already so when they started the blockbuster 1 disc deal it didn't cost me anything. I signed up two people for Dish thru ClubDish and began receiving $5 off my monthly bill per person so I upgraded to the three disc deal. 
Three discs at a time from Blockbuster and my bill is exactly the same as before when I was receiving zero discs...that says plenty of value from Blockbuster to me!


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

BqWUDUDj said:


> My third try at the service arrived today --- cracked again. That's three discs in a row, all which have a straight crack from the center to the outer edge.


Does your carrier rubber band your mail? If so, ask them to knock it off.

It sounds from the description like they're trying to fold the discs like they sometimes do with larger mail pieces.

I recall when I was in college getting a 45rpm single in the mail (Dead Kennedy's _Nazi Punks_) and it didn't seem to matter to the carrier that the box wasn't big enough to hold the record without bending it. The mailer was marked "DO NOT BEND" on both sides.


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## Rduce (May 16, 2008)

Since the program has began I have gotten, perhaps, a dozen disks thru the mail and have not had a problem with any of them. Also seem to take only 2 days to arrive and return...


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## cutrock (Mar 20, 2007)

I have been dealing with BB regarding broken discs. I would really like to see BB succeed, so I have persisted in allowing them to resend a new copy of the title I ordered. So far, I have received the disk broken FIVE times in a row. BB is having me write on the sleeve of the disk that I received it damaged, and have me hold onto the disk while they send me another. After I had reported the 5th broken disc (same title) in a row today, they suggested that it is the post office's fault and to contact them. I countered that I've been a Netflix customer for 5 years, and have NEVER received a cracked disc from the post office. Also noted that Netflix's envelope is larger than BB's, so maybe that causes a different routing that prevents the disc from being broken? Does anyone have any new feedback on this issue?


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I have streamed over one hundred movies from Netflix. None of them have been cracked.


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## Wolfpanther (Apr 29, 2008)

I received pictures that had cardboard in the envelope once that were marked do not roll. The mail carrier bent the envelope to put into the mail box. When I went into the post office and complained, the branch manager brought out the postal code and showed me a passage that said, the package must say Do not roll, bend or fold. If it doesn't they were within their rights to bend the envelope. 

I've also gotten broken discs from both Blockbuster and Netflix. Unless you call Blockbuster and they have you hold the disc, it's usually the same one they keep sending.


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

I've had the BB disc deal since September (so about 25-30 discs give or take) and not had a single problem with broken discs. Had a couple of packages pretty ripped up (that is all on the postal service) bit the discs were there and worked fine.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I've received about 15 discs and one had what looked like a booger on it but when I carefully removed it, the disc was fine.

I had one that came with the envelope open on the end but the disc was still there.

I'd be suspicious of two possible sources:

1. Your mail carrier

2. The BB distribution center


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## ehb224 (Apr 4, 2008)

Actually, I am not very happy. Every Bluray I have received had deep circular scratches and did not play. (I only had one bad DVD so far) but the big problem is that I have 22 disks in my queue and out of 12 blueray only 2 are available, 7 are short wait (some have been short wait for over a month now!) and 5 are long wait).
4 dvds are available now, the other 6 are listed as unavailable, which makes me wonder why I can even queue them. I leave them in just to see what happens.

It's a nice idea but it sucks in practice. If I want to watch a bluray I guess I still need to buy it since the once I buy new locally play just fine!

I find it very interesting that the last damaged disc I reported seems to flag my account saying that I had too many damaged discs. I am not the one putting deep circular scratches on them right out of the envelope
If it was not basically a free add on for the old HD platinum tier (which has programming I want) I would be very upset. It's really a no value add on that Dish can use for advetising hype but don't expect anything from it unless Blockbuster changes it's tactics, which if you check online, have been happening since they started their mail service and the complaints are well documented.


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## ehb224 (Apr 4, 2008)

Got my next bluray disc and it was bad again. "Rise of the planet of the apes" played halfway through and died at chapter 13. This time I took it to my local Blockbuster store and it would not even load on their bluray. Then it would not eject. They gave me a replacement copy which played PERFECTLY.


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## Grampa67 (Mar 14, 2005)

Perhaps BB will interface with Dish as they are moving BlockBuster headquarters from Texas to Denver I believe it was scheduled in June.
As per the Denver Post



phrelin said:


> This is a problem.
> 
> I still have Dish Platinum on my account as the 30th Anniversary 12 month freebie. It should expire February1. Here's a screenshot:
> 
> ...


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## Disgusted with Dish (May 3, 2012)

I've had bad discs (none broken) from Netflix, but Blockbuster through Dish Network takes the cake. Their quality control leaves something to be desired, I think. It seems as though one disc in four has some sort of playback problem, usually half way through the movie. I purchased a new Blueray player thinking this would solve the problem, but it didn't. "Wipe the discs with a soft, clean rag, they say." Yea, right. Whatever.


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## archer75 (Oct 13, 2006)

How do you know the damage isn't happening in transit? I've had 0 issues with blockbuster while having many with netflix. But either way they send another disk out right away so I have no hard feelings toward either.


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## JW7677 (Aug 15, 2011)

I had Netfix for a few years and never had a cracked disc. Since Dish offered Blockbuster I've had two cracked discs. They are quick to replace them, and the service is free, but still...


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## BqWUDUDj (Feb 26, 2007)

Here's another improvement request:

* Show availability in the search page results.

I had a good run of search results and recently added a bunch of movies to my queue. I was excited to finally have some disc be delivered, after such a long wait. But I guess somebody walked the shelves and only 1/4 of the discs in my queue are "available". Most of the discs that I added are "Not currently available on disc" with an availability of 'unknown'.

Dish/BB continues to disappoint. Didn't it show availability a month or two ago? Right now, search results say "Available:" and give you a "Get It" button. And you don't find out until you go back to your queue that the disc isn't available at all.


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## Marvin (Sep 14, 2003)

Ive had blockbuster Online since it launched back in 2004 and out of about 700 movies Ive had delivered since I can only remember getting 1 cracked disc and 2 excessively scratched discs that wouldnt play (1 of which was a blu ray). Ive gotten a couple of wrong discs as well, but overall I don't have much bad to say about the service other than I no longer have any local stores to do instore returns and games to because they closed them all, but my subscription price had been grandfathered in @ $19.99 since 2007 when they raised rates.

My biggest gripe as of late is that they seem to have changed the envelopes recently and the adhesive on the seal seems to be not as good, Ive had to use tape numerous times to tape the mailer shut to send movies back.


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