Wednesday, March 14, 2007
I have been a Netflix customer for almost two years now. For the most part I am very happy with them but every once in a while I notice it takes them longer than usual to deliver the next movie to me. I am one of those people who turn movies over very fast. Well one of my friends found an article about Netflix explaining how they intentionally hold back the next movie for people like me.
It’s obvious they hold movies back because it shouldn’t take 5 days to get a movie from the city I live in. Also they will intentionally send a movie from a distant city when the movie is in stock locally. I know this because it took me 5 days to receive a movie from Seattle. When it arrived damaged I reported it the same day and received another copy the next day from a St. Louis location. Well why didn’t they just send the movie from St. Louis in the first place?
If you haven’t noticed, I have a personality disorder in which I hunger for efficiency. So I decided to find another movie service to compare with Netflix to find the best one available.
Well I couldn’t resist the temptation to join Blockbuster and compare the two services. The first advantage for Blockbuster is you can take your finished movies to the nearest Blockbuster outlet and exchange them for movies within the store (even new releases) so you are never without a movie. I did this last night and it is a very sweet deal. I got three new releases for the movies I sent back.
Movie selection is important to me but both seem to have movies the other does not have but they all have the newest movie releases, so this area is a tie. Availability is another key issue; do they have enough copies of new releases so there are no long waits? So far Netflix is winning this battle as every movie in my Netflix queue is in stock but several within the Blockbuster queue are in a “very long wait” status. But I will not count a movie as “late” until its time is up and I am waiting. Right now the “very long wait” movies are far down the queue. The final test will be speed. Both queues have 50 movies in them, so the first to delivery all of them will be the winner.
I’ll keep you posted on the results but if you are looking for a good movie service, both are very good. The upper hand right now goes to Blockbuster because I can get movies in the local stores while I am waiting for the next movie to be delivered. Also I doubt many of you want to see that Coney Island documentary, so the selection and the availability of harder to find titles will be something only a few will even consider.
It’s obvious they hold movies back because it shouldn’t take 5 days to get a movie from the city I live in. Also they will intentionally send a movie from a distant city when the movie is in stock locally. I know this because it took me 5 days to receive a movie from Seattle. When it arrived damaged I reported it the same day and received another copy the next day from a St. Louis location. Well why didn’t they just send the movie from St. Louis in the first place?
If you haven’t noticed, I have a personality disorder in which I hunger for efficiency. So I decided to find another movie service to compare with Netflix to find the best one available.
Well I couldn’t resist the temptation to join Blockbuster and compare the two services. The first advantage for Blockbuster is you can take your finished movies to the nearest Blockbuster outlet and exchange them for movies within the store (even new releases) so you are never without a movie. I did this last night and it is a very sweet deal. I got three new releases for the movies I sent back.
Movie selection is important to me but both seem to have movies the other does not have but they all have the newest movie releases, so this area is a tie. Availability is another key issue; do they have enough copies of new releases so there are no long waits? So far Netflix is winning this battle as every movie in my Netflix queue is in stock but several within the Blockbuster queue are in a “very long wait” status. But I will not count a movie as “late” until its time is up and I am waiting. Right now the “very long wait” movies are far down the queue. The final test will be speed. Both queues have 50 movies in them, so the first to delivery all of them will be the winner.
I’ll keep you posted on the results but if you are looking for a good movie service, both are very good. The upper hand right now goes to Blockbuster because I can get movies in the local stores while I am waiting for the next movie to be delivered. Also I doubt many of you want to see that Coney Island documentary, so the selection and the availability of harder to find titles will be something only a few will even consider.
Labels: Movie Review, Rant
posted by DarthImmortal at 7:14 AM
3 Comments:
My husband's office share Netflix. When a movie comes in everyone passes it around and then the last person mails it back. It's a good system...sometimes. If a person forgets, or sits on a movie for a few weeks, it messes it up for everyone else. I'm not an impatient movie watcher. If I didn't rush out to the theater and see the movie when it opened I can wait a few extra days to get it in the mail.
I use Blockbuster but I really shouldn't be paying for it. I almost never get around to watching the movie I want to watch, and by the time I find time to sit down and watch it, I'd rather watch something else :P
That said, this means the take-it-to-the-store-and-switch-it-out option would be kind of the winner for me I guess. So I guess I'm on the right program, assuming I should be on one at all :)
Blockbuster is weird just like Netflix. With my first three movies, I took them all three back at the same time to Blockbuster. A couple of days later in the mail I only got two. What happened to the other movie? If they were all three returned at the same time, how could I only get two?
This happens with Netflix all the time. I’ll actually send all three movies back to Netflix in the same envelop but sometimes one or two of them gets checked in as long as two days later than the first one. How is this possible?
I just have to laugh about it to keep from crying. LOL
Barbarian,
I have never heard of an office share. That's a very interesting way of doing it.
Post a Comment
<< Home