People can feel free to check my post history...I'm not a trouble maker AT ALL, but BUSH has been terrible for me. And I'm using the word terrible, rather than something more colorful, because I'm not a trouble maker.
Xrent seems to be better all around. I'll take delays over terrible customer service and, worse, rude and abusive staff and owner and nearly nothing good or new shipping out of my queue.
I have never had those kinds of extreme problems from Xrent and if there has been a problem, they are very nice and POLITE about dealing with them.
Another person mentioned that he was insulted by Bush and so was I. There is no excuse for that. None. If you feel you have a rude customer, you still run a business and you should be able to articulate that without calling someone a name or insulting people.
I joined Bush and the first 8 dvds all showed up as available now. By the time I got to 18 items in my queue, a mere 5 minutes later, 6 of those first 8 were suddenly listed as short wait. The update to those titles happened in those 5 minutes? I don't buy it. Furthermore, 16 of the 18 items I selected were listed as short wait. Yet, only 50% of them were listed as new releases. And their idea of a new release is far different than mine, Xrent's, or Blockbuster's for that matter.
I called and was immediately insulted by a guy named Jason. I asked to speak to the owner and he was reluctant to let me speak with him or give me his name. Why? I basically had to force the issue and I got a guy named Norman who seemed nicer than Jason, but equally unhelpful or capable of dealing politely with a customer.
He told me that it was indeed unusual that 16 out of 18 would be unavailable. But he suggested I put in 50 titles. I can't think of that many that I'd be interested in. 20-25 is a lot. And then I can only imagine that I'd probably get 1 or 2 of the dvds that I really want, while getting a ton of dvds a month from the bottom of my queue.
That's crap. I go into Blockbuster and I might be interested in 3 movies. And if they don't have them, sure, I can find something that I like. But if I couldn't get Wedding Crashers every week and, instead, had to settle for Porky’s that would be ridiculous.
I brought this analogy up and Norman spit back at me that Blockbuster was going into bankruptcy. So what? I wasn't comparing how much money or profit the 2 companies made, just simply the idea that one might expect if they sign up for 8 dvds at a time and paid the money for that, that the business would be able to get you the dvds you wanted instead of suggesting you fill up your queue with 50-100 dvd titles. I also mentioned Netflix and Norman spat out at me how they had an IPO and had more cash!!! WTF??? Defensive much???
This is the owner of the company. Excuses, he had a lot of. Blame, he could really shift around. Money, he had no problem taking. But having a professional conversation with one of his customers who simply wanted to voice a concern and he wanted none of it. I had to fight past his one employee just to get him on the phone.
I'm just expressing my personal feelings. If you love them, fine. But I can't see how a large percentage of people want to wait months and months to get even 50% of the newer releases when they can get them elsewhere and they sign you up at a "low" price for the first month with a much higher price afterward knowing you won't get a HUGE percentage of what you had really wanted and stay with them longer to finally get them and justify what you originally signed up for.
It's not like I've never seen porn before signing up for Bush. Certainly, I'm looking for more NEW stuff than OLD stuff, but when it's like 5-10% of the stuff I really want and 90% are dvds I need to put in just to get my 8 at a time, I don't consider that a good deal or a good model. And he didn't offer or suggest lowering it to 2 or 4.
If they can't do a better job, like Xrent does, than Norman simply should have said he doesn't have a lot of new releases based on demands and maybe I'd be better off with a la carte or dealing with a company that is more capable of getting me what I'm looking for. There's nothing wrong with just saying, "We may not be right for you, we are for people who typically can think of 50-100 porn movies at any one time," but he didn't. He took my account info, promised to look into it and e-mail me today and just hung up on me. I NEVER got that e-mail either; the insult that really put the icing on the cake.
Sorry, but that's shitty any way you want to slice it.
We are "couples" viewers and unfamiliar with the adult genre. We've had Bush for about 6 weeks now and in that time we previewed about 24 dvd's - many of which we watched briefly and "suddenly lost interest!" The value has been excellent on a $/dvd basis. Their web site is very lean. We've not found the "ratings" to be too helpful and prefer other reveiw sites such as this one (ADT). As we've posted before here, we don't understand Bush's algorithim for filling orders - i.e. who gets what when - perhaps there's a PhD thesis in mathematics there for some bright student. We don't expect Bush to disclose that too us either but we do wonder... hopefully they are fair but there's really no way to know for sure. We do know from experience that they haven't "throttled" our mailings.
We do see a potential problem which perhaps you are bumping into - that is the number of copies of a particular title. We've had the same titles at the top of our queue for 4 weeks - and not too hopeful that they'll ship anytime soon. But we accept that as the compromise that renting involves - if we really want these titles then we'll go out and buy them.
As for contact with Bush, we've sent emails with prompt responses but no phone contact. So, for us, it's been no problem.
Finally, as has been mentioned here before, to loose a customer in the first few months is very costly to these rental companies - especially with a discounted first month. So, we would hope that Bush will add more copies of the popular titles to keep the customers happy. On the other hand, we understand that there is a delicate balance between keeping customers happy and profitability.
So Veronica_Mars, we sympathize with you but don't share the same experience with Bush.... perhaps we're so new to this that we're still excited when that envelope shows up in the mail, regardless of what the title is.
Wow, I was just about to post my experience with Bush when I saw this thread. My initial experience with Bush about 3 months ago was not great. I thought the turn around times were very long. But, within the last month, things have gotten much better. I just received 4 dvds that went out on Saturday. That's 3 days including the Holiday and Sunday. I sent my order back last Monday. That's a great turn around being on the East Coast. I do think they need to get more copies of the newest and most popular series. But today with my order, 2 new releases were included. I check the newest releases everyday. I add them to my queue and I move them to the top of the list. I've done this twice about a day or two after I mail out my dvds and I received the new releases. It's probably the luck of the draw, but it does work sometimes. I've also have had troube with not receiving an order and Bush not receiving my mailing. I clicked on the report link and shot them a short sentence saying something was wrong. Both times, a woman responded within 24hrs and immediately sent out the next avialable in my queue. I didn't speak to her, but I didn't need to. The email was polite and helpful. Overall, my experience has been very good, especially within the last month. I really thought the Holidays would have screwed things up, but it actually got better. If you are not happy with the service, go elsewhere. You are free to do that. By the way, Veronica Mars is hot and has a great ass.
I've been staying out of the Bush talk lately but the rudeness is disappointing. I don't have any great words of advice but just a few thoughts. Everything can be handled via email so there is little reason to call (I imagine they have a small overworked staff anyhow.) Really, as you say, with 8 out at a time, you need to get 30+ in there to start and then work your way up. With just 18 you'll wipe out your queue in a few weeks. You might have 2 or 3 round trips a month (for a total of 16 to 24 DVDs a month.)
I have just over 200 (but it's been much higher) so I have little concern over "short wait" status. There is nothing I must see immediately. (Though Milk Junkies was one from two weeks ago, luckily it came quickly.) My queue, which has releases from 2004 and 2005 has (I just checked) currently 40% on short wait and just a few on long wait.
If you end up sticking with them (sounds like you probably won't) you should get in a habit of checking latest titles added nightly. On the website they say if "...someone else has had the same title on their queue longer and returns their rentals the same day you do..." they get that title first. So, there is a clear advantage to adding a title quickly. And it been successful for me.
Yes, I was the one you spoke with and since you are making this public I’ll give my side of the story.
Answering the phone: “BushDVD, how can I help you?” “Who is this?” “Jason” “How can I help you?” “I want to speak with the manager” “I’m the manager what can I do for you?” You asked how titles in your queue can go from available now to short wait and why they did not get sent to you. I explained that if another customer returned movies the same day you did but had the title you have on your queue longer than you did they have priority. I mentioned that we have over 18,000 titles and you snapped at me. Then I tried to explain how the status changes, but you interrupted and insisted you talk with the owner.
The status of many titles will change every day we ship, which is 6 days a week. Here is how it works. We pick up mail from the post office around 9am. Mailers get opened, numbers get checked and discs get inspected. Before noon all the returns are scanned in. (Status change) Within two hours the shipping agent is run which processes the outbound mail for the day. (another Status change) You were online just before we ran the shipping agent.We add over 400 new release titles each month and have many copies of each title for rent. As certain titles become more popular we add more copies. Besides XRent, where you can’t rent new releases for the first 30 days except by a la carte, what other rental companies carry most of the new releases?No one called you a name and I can’t figure out how I insulted you.Norm was polite and tried to explain the situation but you were unwilling to accept anything that was said.
This is the e-mail that was sent to you yesterday:
Sent: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 16:06:48 -0800 Subject: Re: User Feedback
XXXXX,
Almost all of the titles in your queue are new releases and unless you are only interested in a niche category they tend to get rented out first.
I suggest adding more titles to your queue so we can ship out 8 DVDs today. If you are still unhappy with our service before your next billing date, simply cancel and let us know you were unhappy and we will gladly refund your money.
I am taking a break from renting at the moment but having been a long time BushDVD renter I would like to contribute. My experience with Bush was very positive.
My turnaround times were usually 2 and ocassionaly 3 days (each way from the midwest). Having sent them hundreds of DVD's there were only a couple of times that the turnaround took more than 3 days and in most cases it appeared to be a delayed item in the mail. Based on the occasional delay in a return mailing, this seemed consistant with rare postal late arrivals.
I cannot remember a single time in which Bush did not ship dvd's the day they arrived at their location, including Saturdays. My queue often had a significant number of short wait items in it but based on experience, this is not a real problem. You have to remember that Bush logs items back and sends them back out within hours. Although most of my queue showed a short wait, usually all 8 items shipped came from my top 25 items. Unless you look at the status in the short time between when they log dvds in and ship replacements back out, you don't see the availability to meet each days demand. Because of their fast turnaround you do not see inventory sitting on the shelves on their status.
I had no problems in my rental experience getting every DVD I wanted within a few rental periods. If you want to pick each title for each mailing, you better go with a single rental service. I also had problems with some damaged and stolen dvd's in mailing. Each time BushDVD immediately sent out replacements and never once gave me a hard time. I consider them to be one of the best vendors around.
I (Steve) have to add this: I was online 1 day and checked our queue - "WOW every title is available 'now'" - that was amazing, then within an hour the status changed to "short wait" - so I guess I was looking at the queue before and then after the "shipping agent" ran. Our selections (4) went about 10 deep. Per Bush's advice we try to keep 30 in the queue - with 18K titles, that's not hard to do. As we've posted in other threads, we have experience in USPS delivery times and Bush doesn't appear to throttle mailings - we believe our delays have been due to the USPS. BushDVD (and renting) has been very good for us!
JASON - thanks for posting here - it means alot to us that you will take the time to address concerns. Now can you do anything about my "suddenly lost interest" response to watching your movies? The wife would be most appreciative!
ADT - thanks for this venue to learn, discuss and have fun - I guess we need to click on some of those sponsor ads to help you pay for this fine web site.
The problem veronica_mars, seems to be you have an eight at a time rental plan yet you can only think of about 20 titles at a time that you actually want. Seems to me that the eight at a time deal should be for someone who has a ton of porn they want to watch. Obviously, the newest stuff is going to be the most popular and the hardest to obtain. You mentioned Blockbuster, and I can tell you I walk in there quite a bit and find the new releases wall to be bare. Or if I walk up to the ticket window on a Friday night 15 minutes before showtime at the cineplex to hear the big new release is sold out, well, I guess I better have a backup plan.
I've had no trouble with Bush myself with a one week turnaround from the East Coast, and aside from my last two taking forever to get back to them last week (expected that of course) everything has been prompt. I should probably bump up my plan as I have a ton of stuff in the queue and add a couple every few days so I'll pretty much never be empty.
I been with Bush since Feb 2004. My experince has been nothing but excellent.
Turn around time and missing DVD's were quickly resolved. With the 2 years I only had 2 DVD's missing. I have never experience insult from anybody at Bush.
I will always vouch for Bush, nobody is ever perfect. We can't always get want we want. My rental is 6 at a time if that helps any.
Patrick Riverside's comment makes sense to us. If our 4 DVD plan takes us 10-15 deep on our list then an 8 disk plan would need at least 30-40 in the queue. Anything with a "Long wait" status is usually a lost or damaged title so we don't count on that. Happy Viewing!
Just re-upped with Bush on Saturday. Five mailing days later and my two rentals have yet to arrive.
Man, I didn't miss this little headache during my two or so months away. I am surprised that I am actually getting purchases from ExcaliburFilms and AdultDVDMarketPlace much faster than I am rentals from BushDVD. Never would have expected that. But the rentals will surely get here eventually, if not tomorrow then the day after. If not then, then I e-mail them to let them know something has gone wrong. And they'll probably be incredibly polite about it and quick to answer the e-mail. And I'm still saving quite a bit of money this way, though the 2-DVD plan is all I can afford with their new prices.
The only thing I ask for is some sense of consistency. If if it is going to start taking 5-6 days now for each of my mailers, I'm not thrilled but at least I know what to expect. It's the fluctuations that used to annoy me the most.
I have had BushDVD for about 8 months now. (east coast)and have been very satisfied. Everything comes on a timely manor. Had one damaged dvd and they sent a replacement immediately (even before I sent the damaged one back) Great selection. No problems yet.
Those people with slow delivery times might want to check to make sure they have their zip+4 postal code on file with the rental company. Using a zip+4 generally saves a day in shipping when going long distance. Some vendors may be calculating the +4 on their own. It is worth a check. If it is not being used you might try adding it and seeing if you get better turnaround times.
I posted in the larger online rental thread about recent disappointments with Bush. However, over the past month or so, turnaround time has gotten tremendously faster. On average it is taking 2 days for them to receive titles and 2 days for me to get them once shipped. I was thinking about trying XRent, but now that turnaround time is suddenly much improved I will stick around.
I'd give Bush DVD two thumbs up !! I've been using them for about 6 months. Here in the Midwest, it usually takes two or 3 days to get their package. Same with the stuff I send them.
I had one package get lost in the mail and with no questions asked they sent some new stuff out. Very cool.
I like their queue policy too. If its been in my queue longer than yours than I get it. I think that's more fair than 1st come, first serve.
I've communicated with them through E Mail and they respond very promptly.
Bush DVD is great! I live in mid michigan and turn around time is 3 days there, 3 days back. Can't do any better than that. All the dvds that I have received have been in like new condition. No complaints!!
We've been in the BushDVD since November - so only about 3 months but in that time we've enjoyed the selection and the service. The mail as been taking 2-4 days. We are still challenged by the various genre, likes and dislikes so rental really works well for us.
I have used BushDVD for many months now and have never had a problem. It appears to me that the orginal poster didn't understand the queue system. I can't for the life of me figure out why someone who wanted 8 titles at a time would only have 18 in the queue unless they lack basic math skills.
I have had good customer service, too. I would highly recommend them.
Good customer service from BushDVD for me, too. And now it seems, as someone mentioned in the massive online rental plan comparison thread, that Bush has an east coast distribution center. The return label on the mailer I got today has it bound for Jamaica, NY. This is great news for us east-coasters. Makes the already inoffensive recent price increases seem downright justified. Especially since I hadn't noticed much different about the web site's UI.
Anyway, Norm or Jason, wanna verify the apparent new distribution center and drop hints as to other changes in store?
All mail is shipped Next-Day Air from Jamaica, NY to San Diego, CA to reduce return shipping times.
Express Return includes the following states: Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia.
Other states will soon follow...
Express Return is not a distribution center. Reviews and Performer bios will be added in the near future.
So am I correct in assuming that it doesn't get checked in until it gets back to San Diego? If that's the case I wonder how much time saving we'll really be in for? If it can drop my return time from 3 days to 2 I'd still be very happy.
I'm wondering the same thing. If it has to go to New York, then to CA, how much time is being saved? Right now, it seems like you are receiving my returns in 3 days from the East Coast. Wouldn't this also increase the chances of the package being lost as it's being handled by another set of hands??
Jamaica is a major hub. Mail from all of those states should hit Jamaica in one day. Then with overnight shipping to San Diego, shipping should be reduced by at least one day.
Jason, Have you considered having someone at the Jamaica location do the return processing prior to that overnight shipment? That way, people on the East Coast would be eligible to receive another shipment as soon as the disc arrives at Jamaica.
You would probably need an additional level of inventory to indicate that it has been returned, but not yet available to be shipped to someone else. However, if this is done correctly, the process of scanning the discs in Jamaica would put them into a batch file that could be associated with a barcode on the actual package that gets overnighted to you. Upon receipt in San Diego, you could just scan that barcode which would then cause a program to read the appropriate batch file to tell you everything inside the package is now available.
This way, rather than duplicating effort of identifying the discs, you'd just be transferring that effort to Jamaica.
Sounds like a good idea. Right now, it seems like I'm on a 3 day turn each way. If I mail out on a Saturday, they arrive in CA on Wed. Then I get my dvd's on the following Saturday. I have a 4 out plan, so if I stagger when I send them out, I generally never go more then about 2 days without a movie. It generally takes me 2 or 3 days to watch the 2 dvd's, depending on my work load, etc.
I've been a satisfied Bush costumer for months, but so far this East Coast Express Return has been a bust for me. The first shipment actually took a day longer than normal to get returned and my second shipment hasn't even been in-processed even though I returned the discs a week ago and I now have to go through that 'have returned discs' process. Of course there could be something wrong with the mail, but somehow I doubt it considering the timing.
Anyone else noticed the Express Return working slower than the regular one? If this keeps up I'll have to either quit Bush or else make up my own return labels back to the San Diego and put them over the NY address and bypass the Express Return.
I've only have one cycle with the "express" return and yes it did take longer then the regular return. I dropped them in the mail on Wednesday morning and normaly it would be checked in on Saturday. They didn't get checked in until Tuesday. Not counting the Monday holiday it took 1 day longer then normal. We'll see.
Edited by - Timber on 2/21/2006 10:55:31 PM
[Link]
gapeape Deactivated User
usa 106 Posts 2/06
Posted - Feb 22 2006 : 9:17AM
bush has been great since i've been with them. about 6 months or so. no problems at all. i've even called a few times and the people have been very friendly.
also, worth noting is the fact that bush dvd is the only online rental company other than excalibur to carry titles from one of my favorite porn companies, sineplex. that's a big plus in my book.
and i've gotten most of the titles that i have wanted, new or otherwise.
yes, it's simple math, the more movies you have in your queu, the more movies you will get. only have 10 or 15 movies on your list? then you better opt for the two at a time plan.
Well, I was excited about the Express Return thing, but I sent back my first Jamaica mailer a week ago without getting a "rental received" email. Of course, one envelope is not a very good sample size, and lots of other things could've gone wrong. But the fact that someone else had a similar problem tilts things a little bit.
Still, I'd be curious to hear from BushDVD or other customers how well they think this New York drop ship is working..
I'm also on the east coast and I returned a NY-bound mailer last week Friday. To date, they haven't received it but I sent another mailer back earlier this week, Wednesday, and they received it today. I'm willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt and give them time to work out the kinks since their service has been great for me during the entire time I've been using them.
I was a member of Bush a year ago but I cancelled because of the long turn around time as well. If they could deliver movie by mail as fast as Netflix I would still be with them.
It's still taking my discs longer as well to go through NY than straight to CA, so I've made up some labels to paste over the NY address. I'll let you know how that works out. I just sent my first mailer back yesterday using a home-made label. Nice thought from Bush to try to decrease the amount of time it takes to return discs, but this is not working out. I've got another mailer that's been in the mail over a week now. Not good.
Same here..sent one out on a Sunday (6am Monday pickup). I got an email on Friday they recieved it..I got my next selections on Monday. So it's taking almost 5 days to get there, but only 3 to get to me..somethings wrong.
Right. It usually takes 3-4 days for me to get my discs from CA but it's taking 5-7 for them to get back there through the new express service. Bush should rethink this thing or else raise the number of discs we can have out at one time until they get the problem fixed, or give us some level of credit, or something, but so far not anything from them. Poor service, which is odd, because up until now I've been pleased with them.
Oh now this is funny. Not only did my home-made printed out San Diego return label work, but by a freak coincidence the discs made it back in record time: only two days from VA to CA. That's fast. Express return can kiss my butt. Clearly it's a problem with the express service and not something to do with in-processing at San Diego. I'm going to be putting these labels on all my mailers from now on.
Can I get the address for the return labels you're using? This "express return" is garbage. I'm not sure how they could think it's a good idea to have more sets of hands dealing with these returns? If they aren't being scanned in in NY it seems pointless. Best case scenario this knocks 1 day off of my shipping time. Present scenario adds 2 days to my retrun shipping time.
Just an update on the new "express" return. Sent back 2 envelopes last Friday and they haven't been checked in yet. That's a full week, it doensn't usually take that long. Sent back one envelope last Saturday and that was checked in yesterday so that was still longer then it would have taken under the previous system.
I'm just using the address from their website that they tell us to use if we lose a lable. Here it is from their help faq page:
I lost my return mailer, how do I send back the DVDs? Put both DVDs in the same envelope, addressed to: NoCash Inc. P.O. Box 85950 San Diego, CA 92186-5950 Place a 60-cent stamp on the envelope and drop it in the mail
Has Bush abandoned the "express shipping" service? I noticed my envelopes today had the old California return address. I really hope they scraped the idea because it was a real loser.
We discovered that delivery times to New York from surrounding areas and states to be the same or slower than if the mail was sent directly to San Diego. We also had a couple problems with the post office not delivering the Next-day air package the next morning; it was a day late on three occasions.
We are researching other options to speed up return mail delivery which we plan to implement in the next couple of months.
Ok, new all time record...got the email on Saturday afternoon. Package is postmarked Saturday..received in the mail today. I'm on the East Coast...2 days..that's quick.
