Blockbuster deliberately withholding online rentals, or just a glitch?

Posted by Caitlin on June 9th, 2009

Last week, Consumerist reported on delays in Blockbuster's online rental service. A reader wrote in to explain that after returning DVDs to the store, they remained on his online queue for at least two days, which meant that new DVDs were not being mailed out as quickly as they should be. Shipping delays reduce the value of an online subscription service, since subscribers receive fewer rentals in the same length of time. Consumerist hypothesized that this is either the result of intentional throttling or an error in the system. Consumerist commenters also weighed in beneath the post to relate their own experiences with online DVD rental delays. Based on their anecdotes, it sounds as though heavy users, in particular, are generally better served by Netflix.

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