Letters to the Editor
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Not missing the point, Anonymous,
Crunchy Frog complained about fees and said he/she wanted to stay with one membership/one fee. Well, Blockbuster charges neither a monthly fee, nor a sign up fee, nor a late charge fee. So that reason for not shopping at Blockbuster doesn't make sense. Netflix obviously charges a fee per month, something no movie rental store does.
I still don't get why, even if one signs with Netflix, one wouldn't browse through any number of rental stores, just to see what they are like, just to encounter human beings, on the off-chance of finding something different in the selection. It doesn't cost anything. I understand why people would appreciate Netflix. I just don't get the exclusivity.
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One more reason the article description is bullshit
From the article: "Blockbuster also does not offer a way to export your queue and ratings to other services."
So Blockbuster "won't let you leave" either.
Salon, please fire the idiot responsible for the story description.
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Dear Christopher
The exclusivity is becuase you are charged a monthly fee to be a Netflix customer. So if you are already paying 17 bucks a month for a minumum of 3 movies a month, why would we want to pay more on top of that to rent from another store. It's one of the reason's I haven't used Amazon & Tivo's unbox service yet, along with them not really having anything I need to watch right this minute and their 24 hours to watch it policy. I have a Mac, so that's the only thing that bothers me abotu the streaming movie thing, I can't stream but I don't like sitting at my computer to watch movies or shows anyway.
Netflix wouldn't be worth it if they charged me a rental fee for every movie I rented and I don't know if it would be profitable to them if people hang onto the same movie for a month, which I sheepishly admit I have done because I misplaced it and couldn't find it for a while.
True, it costs nothing to be a member of Blockbuster stores only or any other video rental store, but I really hate the return deals. By noon, by 7 pm. What if something comes up and I can't watch it that night and then I've got to pay the late fee just to watch the movie once.
Basically, the advantage of Netflix for me is that it takes absolutely no planning in advance to watch movies. I don't have to make a stop at the video store and decide what I want to see, I don't have to know if I'll have enough time to watch it that night or the next and I don't have to make a plan to bring the movie with me to work to be able to return it on my way home or get home and go damn, I've got to go back out to return the stinkin movie or I'll pay a late fee!
If the Netflix movie comes and I don't feel like watching it in a week, I'll return it put it on the bottom of my queue and get sent something I want to watch more.
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Movie available on Netflix, but not at Blockbuster
Farhad says he "couldn't find a single DVD that was not in both catalogs." Try searching for "Short Bus," which my BB contact says is too hot for them to handle. It is available at Netflix, however!
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Movie available on Netflix, but not at Blockbuster
Farhad says he "couldn't find a single DVD that was not in both catalogs." Try searching for "Short Bus," which my BB contact says is too hot for them to handle. It is available at Netflix, however!
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Tried them both -- Netflix is still the best
Maybe it's because Netflix has a shipping facility in my town, but I get a very fast turn around on my dvd's with Netflix. Normally they get my returns in 1 day and I get a new movie 2 days after that. With Lackluster they don't get my returns for at least 3 days if I mail direct or 4-5 if I use the local store to return. Then another 3-4 to get one back. This really brings down the number of movies you can rent in a month. There is no comparison. Also since I use the service mainly for HD-DVD's, Netflix seems to have more in stock at any given time, which means less of the dreaded "short wait" in the Q's.
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-- wetnap
Have to agree with "wetnap" about why Schlockbuster sucks. Everything about BB is "Orange Julius" mall crap, to the core.
I only tried them at a point when I was PO'ed about Netflix's slowed return policy. I have the minimum plan with BB only reluctantly, only for the in-store Schlock they rent which is about 1/3 of my DVD watching.
Also, BB is from what I've heard a crappy place to work much like WALMART. I knew an assistant mng at a store in the early 90's and he told me horror stories of low pay and BS policies designed to squeeze employees. All video store work is low pay, but most are at least owned by decent people. BB is low pay + all the corporate BS you can imagine.
Like those lame uniforms for example, that are never clean or well fitting anyways. They're always unwashed and covered in dandruff and don't fit the pimply teenager underneath. But some corporate douche bag won't let the teenagers they employ wear their own clothes with some guidelines, which would probably at least be clean and fit. Nor do they pay anyone enough to give a shit, including managers.
Then there is the copious amount of crap and bad lighting in all the stores. Who buys Redvines and all the crap they sell anymore? It's probably due to some khaki clad fossil executive's romantic notion of a "family video store." Ugh.
Blockbuster certainly is the WALMART of video rental in many ways. It's just a fundamentally bad, tacky, Machiavellian, company.
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Netflix, Blockbuster, Faulty DVDs
I joined Blockbuster and three out of five disks were faulty--I'd get interested in a flick and couldn't watch the rest of it. When I complained, they said it must be my player.
I dropped Blockbuster and picked up Netflix and haven't had a faulty disk yet.