Netflix vs Blockbuster

smoothmoniker · 03-28-2005, 12:39 PM

We've been using Netflix for about a year, and loving it. The site is well designed, the movies ship quickly, and their system of making recommendations has been surprisingly accurate - we've found a few movies we would have never thought to rent that have become favorites.

Thought I would try out Blockbuster's online service, which is trying to compete in the same market segment as netflix. They have a 2 week free trial, so I thought, what the hell.

What a disappointment. All the issues I have from the in-store blockbuster experience have carried over to their online store. First of all, the site has been down several times in the past few days. (hint: don't spend millions on a national ad campaign to point customers to a website that's down for repairs). Next, I just finished putting about 20 discs on my queue, covering the gambit from popular new releases, classics, cult films, foreign films, even TV series discs. Out of all of them, only 2 are available to ship! TWO!!!! The films that they DON'T have in stock are things like Garden State, Collateral, Kill Bill 1&2, Sopranos, Chariots of Fire, Ghandi, we're not talking obscure films that they only have one copy of. Also, the website design is just clunky. On netflix, you have one-click links back to your queue, your account, your recommendations, and the last big category you were looking at. At the blockbuster site, there were several times when I had to go all the way back to the start page before i could go to any of my personalized pages, or had to use my browsers "back" button to get back to the broad categories I was searching through.

I'd be willing to believe that maybe they're just fumbling the roll-out, and that they'll sort out the supply-demand as the service gains more traction, if it weren't so much like their in-store experience. I wonder how many people are going to be like me, and willing to give it a try, have an bad experience, and jump back over to Netflix?

Anyway, the lesson of the day - you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Also, I'm gonna go up the amount of netflix stock I own.

-ml

BigV · 03-28-2005, 12:58 PM

Rats--

A poll I'm interested in and my candidate didn't make the slate. Where would I write in "buy movies"? We still rent about a quarter of our new video stream, but buying, especially used, for less than $10, means that we get infinite replay value, and our cost per viewing approaches zero.

Otherwise, we spread our rental business about 5:1 to the local Safeway store and The Maltese Falcon, the 5000 Best Movies Ever Made, a local video rental store we love. So I guess you can count my vote for local video store.

Our purchase business is spread out considerably more widely. A few music/movie recycler businesses in the area, the local video store's "out to pasture" shelf, pawn shops, Fred Meyer (local chain store), etc.

But this strategy has revealed another problem...where to store the hundreds of movies we own. I seriously think that eventually they'll all be ripped and stored on our own private media server, much like the music is now. But that's another discussion entirely.

wolf · 03-28-2005, 01:05 PM

I don't rent. I buy. Either in-store (I have one of those damnable discount cards from Suncoast and they keep sending me special offers, free bonus points, and $5 off coupons everytime I hit the spending-bingo-point) or from Columbia House DVD Club, which also gives me credit for purchases. Usually I buy what I want. Only occasionally do I end up with movies because I forgot to respond to the bounceback card. Being able to respond online has really cleared up a lot of that mess.

LabRat · 03-28-2005, 01:12 PM

Several of the grad students here have been Netflix users pretty much since it's conception. They have had nothing but great things to say about it, and one of them is into really obscure (bad) sci-fi stuff. I never tried because we really just don't watch that many movies, maybe 2-3 a month in the winter, 1-2 in the summer. When we do, we just hit the local family video or mr movies, the two closest to us.

wolf · 03-28-2005, 01:23 PM

Wow, they have this!!

Not enough to make me try it, but I might consider it.

mrnoodle · 03-28-2005, 02:22 PM

I borrow movies from people who buy them.

Watched Fat Albert this weekend. It was actually pretty good, in its non-threatening, Fat-Albertesque way.

Beestie · 03-28-2005, 02:38 PM

I've gotten to hate Blockbuster.

Their new "no late fees" policy is utterly incomprehensible as is the number of copies of movies that they have (two shelves of an oscar winner and 12 shelves of a box-office bust, for example). I tried their monthly thing ($24/mo for any two movies at a time) but it was too expensive since we're lucky if we can watch 2 movies a month. I terminated that deal and just went back to renting as we go but have been thinking about net-flix. I'm just not that crazy about yet another vendor taking yet another automatic slice off my credit card every month.

I don't buy movies - I see a movie once and I'm done with it. On rare occasions, twice. We do buy movies for the kids, though - much better than renting them.

SteveDallas · 03-28-2005, 02:52 PM

I would avoid Blockbuster just on principle.

I tried Greencine for a while and I really liked them but the delivery time is just too slow to Philadelphia. (About a 1 week-plus turnaround time to get a new movie; they're on the west coast. Netflix has 2-3 day turnaround with their local distribution center.)

lookout123 · 03-28-2005, 03:10 PM

i love netflix. we haven't had time for many movies for the past 4-6 weeks, but before that we were watching quite a few. i pay my $17.95 (or whatever each month) they send me whatever i want and i keep it until i have time to watch it. i've never had a problem with anything being out of stock. the turn-around time is awesome and like SM said, they are surprisingly good at recommending movies i might like. blockbuster and hollywood video can just piss off for all i care.

staceyv · 03-28-2005, 03:31 PM

We use Blockbuster online and I think it's awesome. In addition to the three movies at a time, we also get 2 coupons for free movie rentals at the store every month. It's only $15 a month. The movies are shipped really fast and they get back to them just as fast. Yeah, a lot of the movies have a little wait, but there are so many movies that they have, we have about 90 movies in our queue, so we're guaranteed an available movie every time we send one back. I have no complaints. The price is great, I love the 2 free coupons every month, it's fast, and they have a good selection.
I'm a happy customer.

The instore "no late fees" policy is actually really simple. Basically, you can keep the movie for a week after it's due. If you keep it longer, you either have to buy it or pay $1.50 restocking fee. To put it simply, they have extended the amount of time you can keep your movies, and if you keep them too long, you only pay a one-time small fee that won't get bigger as your movie gets later. I like it.

No, I have no stock in the company, and neither I nor my friends/family work there, I just like it and I'm satisfied with their service.

Happy Monkey · 03-28-2005, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lookout123

i pay my $17.95 (or whatever each month) they send me whatever i want and i keep it until i have time to watch it. i've never had a problem with anything being out of stock.

Do they have a "force the order" option yet, so if you order a full season of a TV show, you don't get disk 3,4, and 5 before 1 and 2?

I buy my DVDs. I probably ought to move to NetFlix...

lookout123 · 03-28-2005, 03:49 PM

you rank what order to ship them in, but i think that if you have them listed 1,2,3,4 and number 2 is out of stock they will ship #3 because it is next in line. i've never run into a situation where they were out of stock, so i'm not sure though.

i reshuffle the order i want them in quite often, and it works really well.

i buy quite a lot of movies as well, but i like netflix because i can see them first to make sure i want to spend the the $10-30, and if it is something i'll only watch once or twice a year, then it is perfect netflix material.

smoothmoniker · 03-28-2005, 05:27 PM

HM

We do a ton of TV show DVDs, and I've never had a problem with them coming out of order, mainly because there's never a wait to get them, to they ship in the order you line them up.

When you're looking at a single DVD from a season, they ask you if you want the whole season, and if you click yes, I wonder if they do force them in order like you suggested. If not, seems like a good idea.

Stacey- sounds like we had really different experiences with them. You probably have a better overall view of their service, I'm just basing this off of my initial start up impression.

glatt · 03-29-2005, 07:53 AM

We have a mom and pop video store two blocks away. $1 per dvd/vhs per night. $1 per day late fees. It's pretty damn reasonable, and even though the stor is small, the selection is good enough that you can always find something to watch.

We only watch 2-3 movies a month, so there's no reason to join netflix or Blockbuster online.

lookout123 · 03-29-2005, 10:07 AM

if we had a mom and pop joint i would support them regardless of price. unfortunately, we have Blockbuster, Hollywood video, and the grocery stores.

View Poll Results: I get my watch on via:
netflix	12	48.00%
sone other online mailorder service	3	12.00%
the local video store	6	24.00%
digital cable on-demand movies	1	4.00%
bit torrent p2p	3	12.00%
none. there's is no external narrative, so I self-construct	4	16.00%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 25. You may not vote on this poll

03-28-2005, 12:39 PM	#1
smoothmoniker to live and die in LA Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 2,090	Netflix vs Blockbuster We've been using Netflix for about a year, and loving it. The site is well designed, the movies ship quickly, and their system of making recommendations has been surprisingly accurate - we've found a few movies we would have never thought to rent that have become favorites. Thought I would try out Blockbuster's online service, which is trying to compete in the same market segment as netflix. They have a 2 week free trial, so I thought, what the hell. What a disappointment. All the issues I have from the in-store blockbuster experience have carried over to their online store. First of all, the site has been down several times in the past few days. (hint: don't spend millions on a national ad campaign to point customers to a website that's down for repairs). Next, I just finished putting about 20 discs on my queue, covering the gambit from popular new releases, classics, cult films, foreign films, even TV series discs. Out of all of them, only 2 are available to ship! TWO!!!! The films that they DON'T have in stock are things like Garden State, Collateral, Kill Bill 1&2, Sopranos, Chariots of Fire, Ghandi, we're not talking obscure films that they only have one copy of. Also, the website design is just clunky. On netflix, you have one-click links back to your queue, your account, your recommendations, and the last big category you were looking at. At the blockbuster site, there were several times when I had to go all the way back to the start page before i could go to any of my personalized pages, or had to use my browsers "back" button to get back to the broad categories I was searching through. I'd be willing to believe that maybe they're just fumbling the roll-out, and that they'll sort out the supply-demand as the service gains more traction, if it weren't so much like their in-store experience. I wonder how many people are going to be like me, and willing to give it a try, have an bad experience, and jump back over to Netflix? Anyway, the lesson of the day - you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Also, I'm gonna go up the amount of netflix stock I own. -ml __________________ to live and die in LA

03-28-2005, 12:58 PM	#2
BigV Goon Squad Leader Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 27,063	Rats-- A poll I'm interested in and my candidate didn't make the slate. Where would I write in "buy movies"? We still rent about a quarter of our new video stream, but buying, especially used, for less than $10, means that we get infinite replay value, and our cost per viewing approaches zero. Otherwise, we spread our rental business about 5:1 to the local Safeway store and The Maltese Falcon, the 5000 Best Movies Ever Made, a local video rental store we love. So I guess you can count my vote for local video store. Our purchase business is spread out considerably more widely. A few music/movie recycler businesses in the area, the local video store's "out to pasture" shelf, pawn shops, Fred Meyer (local chain store), etc. But this strategy has revealed another problem...where to store the hundreds of movies we own. I seriously think that eventually they'll all be ripped and stored on our own private media server, much like the music is now. But that's another discussion entirely. __________________ Be Just and Fear Not. Last edited by BigV; 03-28-2005 at 05:32 PM.

03-28-2005, 01:12 PM	#4
LabRat twatfaced two legged bumhole Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 3,143	Several of the grad students here have been Netflix users pretty much since it's conception. They have had nothing but great things to say about it, and one of them is into really obscure (bad) sci-fi stuff. I never tried because we really just don't watch that many movies, maybe 2-3 a month in the winter, 1-2 in the summer. When we do, we just hit the local family video or mr movies, the two closest to us. __________________ Strength does not come from how much weight you can lift, or how many miles you can run. It comes from knowing that you set a goal, and rose to the challenge. Strength comes from within. Last edited by LabRat; 03-28-2005 at 01:15 PM.

03-28-2005, 01:23 PM	#5
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	Wow, they have this!! Not enough to make me try it, but I might consider it. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

03-28-2005, 01:05 PM	#3
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	I don't rent. I buy. Either in-store (I have one of those damnable discount cards from Suncoast and they keep sending me special offers, free bonus points, and $5 off coupons everytime I hit the spending-bingo-point) or from Columbia House DVD Club, which also gives me credit for purchases. Usually I buy what I want. Only occasionally do I end up with movies because I forgot to respond to the bounceback card. Being able to respond online has really cleared up a lot of that mess. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

03-28-2005, 02:22 PM	#6
mrnoodle bent Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: under the weather Posts: 2,656	I borrow movies from people who buy them. Watched Fat Albert this weekend. It was actually pretty good, in its non-threatening, Fat-Albertesque way. __________________ Sìn a nall na cuaranan sin. -- Cha mhór is fheairrde thu iad, tha iad coltach ri cat air a dhathadh

03-28-2005, 02:38 PM	#7
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	I've gotten to hate Blockbuster. Their new "no late fees" policy is utterly incomprehensible as is the number of copies of movies that they have (two shelves of an oscar winner and 12 shelves of a box-office bust, for example). I tried their monthly thing ($24/mo for any two movies at a time) but it was too expensive since we're lucky if we can watch 2 movies a month. I terminated that deal and just went back to renting as we go but have been thinking about net-flix. I'm just not that crazy about yet another vendor taking yet another automatic slice off my credit card every month. I don't buy movies - I see a movie once and I'm done with it. On rare occasions, twice. We do buy movies for the kids, though - much better than renting them. __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

03-28-2005, 02:52 PM	#8
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	I would avoid Blockbuster just on principle. I tried Greencine for a while and I really liked them but the delivery time is just too slow to Philadelphia. (About a 1 week-plus turnaround time to get a new movie; they're on the west coast. Netflix has 2-3 day turnaround with their local distribution center.)

03-28-2005, 03:10 PM	#9
lookout123 changed his status to single Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Right behind you. No, the other side. Posts: 10,308	i love netflix. we haven't had time for many movies for the past 4-6 weeks, but before that we were watching quite a few. i pay my $17.95 (or whatever each month) they send me whatever i want and i keep it until i have time to watch it. i've never had a problem with anything being out of stock. the turn-around time is awesome and like SM said, they are surprisingly good at recommending movies i might like. blockbuster and hollywood video can just piss off for all i care. __________________ Getting knocked down is no sin, it's not getting back up that's the sin

03-28-2005, 03:31 PM	#10
staceyv Lecturer Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Ohio Posts: 927	We use Blockbuster online and I think it's awesome. In addition to the three movies at a time, we also get 2 coupons for free movie rentals at the store every month. It's only $15 a month. The movies are shipped really fast and they get back to them just as fast. Yeah, a lot of the movies have a little wait, but there are so many movies that they have, we have about 90 movies in our queue, so we're guaranteed an available movie every time we send one back. I have no complaints. The price is great, I love the 2 free coupons every month, it's fast, and they have a good selection. I'm a happy customer. The instore "no late fees" policy is actually really simple. Basically, you can keep the movie for a week after it's due. If you keep it longer, you either have to buy it or pay $1.50 restocking fee. To put it simply, they have extended the amount of time you can keep your movies, and if you keep them too long, you only pay a one-time small fee that won't get bigger as your movie gets later. I like it. No, I have no stock in the company, and neither I nor my friends/family work there, I just like it and I'm satisfied with their service.

03-28-2005, 03:49 PM	#12
lookout123 changed his status to single Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Right behind you. No, the other side. Posts: 10,308	you rank what order to ship them in, but i think that if you have them listed 1,2,3,4 and number 2 is out of stock they will ship #3 because it is next in line. i've never run into a situation where they were out of stock, so i'm not sure though. i reshuffle the order i want them in quite often, and it works really well. i buy quite a lot of movies as well, but i like netflix because i can see them first to make sure i want to spend the the $10-30, and if it is something i'll only watch once or twice a year, then it is perfect netflix material. __________________ Getting knocked down is no sin, it's not getting back up that's the sin

03-28-2005, 05:27 PM	#13
smoothmoniker to live and die in LA Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 2,090	HM We do a ton of TV show DVDs, and I've never had a problem with them coming out of order, mainly because there's never a wait to get them, to they ship in the order you line them up. When you're looking at a single DVD from a season, they ask you if you want the whole season, and if you click yes, I wonder if they do force them in order like you suggested. If not, seems like a good idea. Stacey- sounds like we had really different experiences with them. You probably have a better overall view of their service, I'm just basing this off of my initial start up impression. __________________ to live and die in LA

03-29-2005, 07:53 AM	#14
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	We have a mom and pop video store two blocks away. $1 per dvd/vhs per night. $1 per day late fees. It's pretty damn reasonable, and even though the stor is small, the selection is good enough that you can always find something to watch. We only watch 2-3 movies a month, so there's no reason to join netflix or Blockbuster online.

03-29-2005, 10:07 AM	#15
lookout123 changed his status to single Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Right behind you. No, the other side. Posts: 10,308	if we had a mom and pop joint i would support them regardless of price. unfortunately, we have Blockbuster, Hollywood video, and the grocery stores. __________________ Getting knocked down is no sin, it's not getting back up that's the sin

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