Letters to the Editor
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Why Blockbuster is gaining on Netflix
I’ve been using both services for a while now and I must say that the differences I have encountered are substantial.
Availability: Blockbuster is very sketchy on this in my experience. Many, and I do mean many movies a want are “short wait”, “long wait” and sometimes “very long wait”. By comparison, I have 500 movies in my Netflix queue right now, and every one of them is available now. Worse, on Blockbuster’s sight, if the film at the top of your queue is say “short wait” they move on and send the next available movie, which is fine except that one gets the feeling that if my “short wait” movie ever becomes available in the mean time, I won’t get it because of course I have films out. This might be an issue with Netflix as well I suppose, but as I said, 500 movies all marked NOW.
Quality: I’ve gotten scratched and broken discs from Netflix (had one today), but by and large, I have had more problems with Blockbuster in this regard, I have no explanation, but I can say that I regularly have to report problems with blockbuster discs. And this says nothing of the discs from the retail stores, which take quite a beating as well.
Internet interface: Frankly the Blockbuster web site sucks, both in comparison to Netflix and in its own right. It is clumsy, counter intuitive and for the most part useless to me. Also as a legally blind person, I can say that they have serious accessibility issues.
All that said, I like the idea of competition. Netflix just followed Blockbuster in letting me grab and move films up and down in my queue, I think that was a direct reaction on their part. There are films that blockbuster has that netflix doesn’t, I just watched the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense”, that film in Netflix is marked SAVE. So there’s certainly something to be said for that.
Finally, I agree with the other poster who noted that Netflix allowed us to get out of the dreadful video store, I like being able to go get another movie right away, but the atmosphere in Blockbusters is terrible and the selection as well, and what’s the use of convenience when you want to get out of the place so bad that you grab whatever’s at eye level and end up watching whatever “actioner” they have a wall full of, or some older film you’re familiar with but really don’t want to see that much… That’s why I fell in love with Netflix in the first place and now shout its praises.
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You forgot one (really important) thing...
As far as I know, Blockbuster still doesn't carry unrated or NC-17 movies. I'm 43 years old. I don't need Blockbuster keeping me from viewing adult-themed films. I haven't stepped foot in a Blockbuster in 10 years and I have no plans to start now.
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You're not locked in...
... They just aren't expending their resources to help you leave. I don't see anything nefarious in that. You have access to your data, albeit in an annoying form; and you can move it to Blockbuster, albeit in an annoying way. If the demand to move is great enough, someone will write a script or program or Mozilla add-on or whatever, and the process will be automated. It'll be interested to see what Netflix' response to that is.
As long as you don't remove your ranks from their database -- and I'm not sure how you could do that -- I don't see an issue with using them in Blockbuster. But I certainly see no problem with Netflix not bothering to do it for you.
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Netflix v. Blockbuster
I don't care how much like Netflix Blockbuster is now. I've still got tons of resentment left over from dealing with Blockbuster. Blockbuster only changed because Netflix showed up on the scene, otherwise I'm sure they would have been perfectly fine sticking with the old model of rooking the customer who didn't feel like watching a particular movie within a two day period. If Blockbuster decides to refund about a decades worth of late fees to me I guess I'd be willing to give them another shot but until then I'll be sticking with Netflix.
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I don't know about some of these responses
I have a good friend who has Netflix and he likes it but complains that turn around has slowed and slowed the more he uses it.
I went with Blockbuster to try something different from him. I've only had one bad DVD and I called them and they sent out a new one immediately.
Turn around is very fast -- sometimes crazy fast. e.g. mailing it out on Monday and getting a new DVD on Wed.
Blockbuster doesn't edit films -- the R rated movie you get is the same R rate movie others see -- however, they don't carry NC-17 films -- but, you know there are very, very few NC-17 films out there. They do carry non-rated versions.
The return to the store isn't a pain BECAUSE you don't have to do that. It is a service that you can use or not use. I've done it once. But it is kind of nice to have that option. Also, once a month I get a coupon for a free game -- my son likes those.
Now, I generally like to go with the less corporate, but Netflix isn't a charity either.
I will be happy to switch if there's good reason, but so far there just isn't.
Sometime soon -- the combination of pay per view and streaming net movies will probably destroy both of them, so . . .
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Couldn't disagree more...
I had subscribed to Blockbuster for awhile for exactly the reason you named - we rent a lot of movies and wanted to turn them in locally. Seemed like a great idea, but the blockbuster implementation was pretty terrible.
I had planned on dropping NetFlix but ended up dropping Blockbuster. The convenience of dropping off 5 minutes from my house, (at that time it was unlimited drop off), was outweighed by the pain in the ass of dealing with blockbuster's website and stores. I was quickly reminded of why I like NetFlix so MUCH MORE than dealing with local rental stores...
Your mileage may vary - I wouldn't drop NetFlix before I tried Blockbuster if I were you.
Aaron