Hello and welcome to my blog!! I would first like to thank you for visiting my new blog and I will try my best to provide quality reviews for various products and services.

So I’m probably guessing you have heard of Blockbuster, but didn’t know of their online DVD rental service. Their service is amazingly cheap! Here is what they have to offer:

Trial Membership

The trial membership offered for this shop included 3 DVD’s out at a time for $9.99 per month for the first month with unlimited total number of DVD’s per month. You could return the DVD by mail in the prepaid envelope provided or return it to a local Blockbuster store where you could immediately exchange it for a new DVD (Total Access). If you mailed the DVD back, a new DVD would be shipped out as soon as it is received at Blockbuster’s Online Center.

The regular trial membership on the site offers two weeks of free service. They prompt you to choose a plan which your trial membership will convert to at the end of two weeks if you do not notify them to cancel your membership prior to the end of the trial.

Plans

1) For $9.99 a month you can have 1 DVD out at a time, unlimited rentals per month, choice of returning to store or via mail and one free in-store game rental. Total Access, a new service is also included where you can exchange your movie at the store for a new one at no additional charge.

2) For $14.99 a month you get 2 DVD’s out at a time, unlimited rentals per month, choice of returning to store or via mail and one free in-store game rental. Total Access, a new service is also included where you can exchange your movie at the store for a new one at no additional charge.

3) For $17.99 a month you can have 3 DVD’s out at a time, unlimited rentals per month, choice of returning to store or via mail and one free in-store game rental. Total Access, a new service is also included where you can exchange your movie at the store for a new one at no additional charge.

The Website

I found the website easy to navigate and get used to. It is a bit different from the way Netflix is set up and I found it easier to find newly released DVD’s on the Blockbuster site.

When you sign up for a new membership, you need to start selecting DVD’s and making a list which goes into “queue” for shipping out DVD’s to you. About 24 hours after you first sign up, the first DVD’s on your list that are available are shipped out to you.

The Service

I didn’t have any problems signing up or selecting DVD’s. However, there was a glitch in the shipping of my first 3 selections. Blockbuster said my first 3 selections were shipped but I only received the first two. I filled out the online form to notify customer service that I did not get the third DVD and they immediately shipped out the next selection on my list. Several days later, the original third selection showed up and I then had 4 DVD’s out at one time. I figured that Blockbuster would catch this but they did not and we remained with 4 DVD’s for the price of 3 for the rest of the month.

I found shipping to be quick. Blockbuster has a Service Center in Baton Rouge, LA and they received movies back in 1 day and shipped out another the following day. No complaints with service!

We were also happy with the quality of the DVD’s received. If I remember correctly, only one movie had a scratch and was defective.

In comparing the service with Netflix, I found they were actually about the same. I would recommend going with the service that has the closest service center to your home for the fastest delivery of movies. Sometimes you don’t know where the service centers are located until you join and see where the movies were shipped out from, so this can be a trial and error sort of thing.

The one thing I did not like was that most of the sleeves for the movies from Blockbuster were dirty. I understand that they go through a lot of hands but this was a little distracting and disappointing for me, especially since Netflix’s arrive clean and crisp.

Recommendation

I really like getting DVD’s in the mail vs. going to the video store. If you rent several DVD’s a month, the online service of choosing your DVD’s and having them shipped directly to your home is cheaper and a nice convenience. Plus you always have a movie to watch when you want to! I highly recommend Blockbuster Total Access for all movie lovers! I give Blockbuster Total Access 5 Stars.