Letters to the Editor
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Why I Prefer NetFlix
Loyalty to a company is a silly and stupid choice, really. The company isn't capable of being loyal in return and is fully capable of dumping me without a moment's notice. Having once been madly in love with a straight Jehovah's Witness, I know all to well the feeling of unrequited love and, worse, its deleterious effects on one's soul.
Nevertheless, I remain committed to NetFlix. I can see how convenient Blockbuster's in-store exchange program would be, though I am not sure the lure of a different movie would get me to my car -- I am truly that much of a couch potato. The real reason I stay is I like being on NetFlix's side. I am a Mac user, too, even through the whole Gil Amelio Epoch, so know well how bad good companies can get. NetFlix has just been superbly wonderful. I have never had a bad experience or moment. Once the wrong disk arrive in the right sleeve and they sent the correct disk by overnight because I had planned the movie for a party at my house. The fellow on the line was not just nice, he understand how important our group getting together to see the last four episodes of Queer as Folk was. NetFlix is that scrappy little company that took on the big guys and is winning. Blockbuster doesn't have any real selection of gay films at their stores and NetFlix practically waves the rainbow flag. Blockbuster has that Starbuck's on-every-block, big corporate thing. I will likely find out NetFlix has a distribution center in Haiti and uses ten-year-old slaves to get me that quick return while using the money to support female circumcision, but they make me feel as if they are the nice, neighborhood rental store with the guy who loves movies (try "A Little Romance! You'll love it!) and knows just what I want to see even when I don't. Their website is beyond good, it is almost magic (what's that gay movie with the guy from Seinfeld? NetFlix quickly gets me Love! Valour! Compassion! Really, Hogwarts couldn't do as well).
I am just not sure I could take the guilt of leaving NetFlix and its going to take a whole lot more than a movie exchange to do it.
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-- saustin
Yep, Shortbus is one Schlockbuster doesn't stock. And it was a pretty highly acclaimed film, as viable for business as many other indie films and more than many.
Since having both, I've found it's fairly common though for BB to lack DVD Netflix has. Beyond the "blockbuster" movies, unsurprisingly, Schlockbuster doesn't have much inventory. Somebody somewhere probably tracks what BB doesn't have.
What I've found to be a far more common problem, is that BB gets movies late, or the waiting list is seemingly endlessly long. Plenty of times I've found Netflix gets cool movies on the day they're released, and BB gets them months or years later, if ever.
All Blockbuster really does well are blockbuster films.
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Couldn't find much difference between the services catalogues?!?
Wow! Your tastes must run pretty vanilla, Farhad. I tried BB this summer for a few weeks and found nearly a dozen that BB did not have in inventory but Netflix did. You could always wait until your movies hit the dollar bin at Walmart...
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Blockbuster? No Thanks
I understand the desire for instant gratification. There are many times that fickle tastes fueled an urge to get something that was not acquired from Netflix in the last mailing. However, when that happens, then I go to one of our locally owned video rental stores. One of them, bless them, is still in business after all the changes in the industry (they once boasted having the largest supply of laser-discs around) and I've been with them for 18 years.
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Another confirmed Netflix'er
The last time I set foot in a Blockbuster store, my experience was so unpleasant I swore that even with credits owed to me, I'd never shop there again. Weeks later I ran into the store manager at the grocery store. He asked why he hadn't seen me for awhile, so I told him that I finally had made the decision to go with Netflix. He said, "I don't blame you, I'm their customer too."
FWIW, back at the top the letters someone said they couldn't get "Stop Making Sense" at Netflix. Not only do they stock it, but it's instantly watchable, too. I'm thinking of watching it again tonight, in fact.
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Letstat,
Fair enough.
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Re:Ratings & Recommendations
Over the years at Netflix, I've built up a queue of 360 movies, and I've rated nearly 700.
Boo, hoo, only 700? I've rated nearly three thousand, but I still would not consider going to Blockbuster. I've never liked the way they censor movies, won't carry certain others because of the NC-17 ratings, and I remember when they displaced an awful lot of local mom-and-pop video rental stores. They were like the Starbucks of video rentals, in my old neighborhood alone, there were at least five I could drive to within a three-mile radius. And they would set up shop within close proximity to other video rental stores in an obvious attempt to hijack their business. Screw them, and the VHS/DVD they rode in on!
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Huh?
I went to this story because you said in the headline that NetFlix won't let you leave. Wow, I thought, he got stuck in some kind of long-term contract or they're incompetent and they can't seem to get his cancellation processed or something.
No, you just want to take your obsessive little list with you.
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The truth is they're pretty much the same unless....
you are a foreign film buff or like some esoteric kind of movies, a specific limited genre like black and white movies made in 1943 or something like that. Then perhaps you should check both sites and compare to see which has a better catalog for that genre. But otherwise if you are like myself and rent mostly popular movies and Disney movies for the kids I don't think it matters which you rent from, so my advice...
would be to try both out and see which has the closest hub and then drop the one which is furthest. For example in my location, netflix's hub is now about 2 days away and Blockbuster about 4 days away so netflix does have my business for now. I do have to admit that I almost switched about a year ago though because for some reason netflix started sending my movies from all over the country instead of the hub 2 days away. I live in FL, and they were sending movies from California, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc. and it would take usually about 2 weeks for the turnaround time! That was when I tried Blockbuster and considered switching. Netflix stopped doing it right around the time when I was about to drop netflix, I was literally about one day from dropping their business!
If it happens again I will just switch over to Blockbuster. I would hate to do it, since blockbuster is not as close but the 2 week turnaround time is just too nerve-wracking! (My dh called and they said they do that b/c that is the nearest DVD available, but it seems like a messed-up system to me and hard to believe that an old Disney movie would not be available all the way from FL to California or Washington???) Also, they are supposed to go to the next in line on the queue, not take 2 weeks to send a DVD from what I understand.