Netflix, Blockbuster (and others) Online/Kiosk Discussion Thread - Page 5

You really should curb your expectaions or you're heading for a disapointment.
If you time everything right, 15 is probably the best you can hope for (5 groups of 3 over 4 weeks)...

Here is the response I just got back from them, in reply to my complaints about the delays in shipment. I was surprised to note that they are now honest about slowing you down on purpose. Past emails from them have denied that. I guess this may be the result of them losing the class action suit.

Dear Chris,

Thanks for your message.

In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority
to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service. As a result,
those members who receive the most movies may experience that (i) the shipment
of their next available DVDs occurs at least one business day following return
of their previously viewed movie, (ii) delivery takes longer, as the shipments
may not be processed from their local distribution center and (iii) they receive
movies lower in their Queue more often than our other members. By prioritizing
in this way, we help assure a balanced experience for all our members. Those
that rent a lot of movies get a great value and those with lighter viewing
habits are able to count on our service to meet their limited needs.

When we ship you another DVD we automatically and promptly send you an email
letting you know that it's on the way and telling you the estimated arrival
date.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
robert,
Netflix Customer Service .

bottom line -- no OAR and crappy selection that doesn't give me a choice of what to watch = no sale.

and just fyi, directv is the worst HD provider available..Their channels are horribly compressed

15 per month

I think this is really a reasonable expectation as the norm, with an occasional 18 - 20 dvd month one in a while.
We shall see. I have been told by some that I should not expect to see more than 12 per month on the 3 out plan. That is just a pathetic expectation if you ask me.

Right now, Netflix is new us. So, I am sure after three of four months and my viewing has curbed because the newness has worn off a bit, I will be more than happy with 15-18 movies per month.

Craig

There are two BB stores that are convenient to me. The selection they offer is TERRIBLE! And the other, superior stores (some actually had knowledgeable sales people!), are going away. If you want more than the latest Hollywood releases, you unfortunately are stuck with Netflix.

- Michael Bate

11-12/month is what you should expect. They'll be good to you the first month or so, but it will drop off.

That's really odd, they must allow individual franchisees to control inventory. Locally the Blockbuster stores have aisle after aisle of multiple copies of at best the top 100 mainstream movies. Nothing at all for releases more than say two years old unless it was something as sanitary as Sleepless in Seattle.

The selection locally is also super sanitized/censored and they don't even stock unrated movies. A recent example, The Aristocrats.

I'll stick with Netflix, I have no real issue with their throttling policy, it hasn't effected me and for the 3/out program I feel I get my money's worth. It's lots cheaper than the rates the last decent local place was charging before it went under. Their library is pretty amazing too, I haven't had any trouble finding what I want unless it was some grey market title.

Blockbuster here is $5/rental as well, they are way off the mark. As far as TOS games go, they expire you if you are inactive for 90 days just to get you to sign the latest revision of their TOS...which is nearly long enough to require a retained attorney.

You are not the first person that has told me that.
It will be interesting to see how things shape up over the next few months.

If NF can not even turn over each movie I receive more than once per week. Especially if I get them back in the mail the next morning, then there is definitely something wrong.

Craig

In my first few weeks my DVDs were turned around immediately. I was on the 3-out plan and then after a couple weeks they started to delay a day or so. I upped to the 4-out plan and now it looks like they want to keep me at 4 per week. If they get more than 1 early in the week they hold them for a day or so to make sure I can't turned them around in the same week. I'm not complaining given the price, selection and convenience.

larry

if anything, this is the death of Ballbuster -- they are getting really desperate.

I received another coupon in the mail saying that I can rent as many movies as i want for 2.99, which is $1 off their regular $3.99 price. They are losing customers and losing them pretty quickly.

No you're not--BB online in many respects has had a deeper, more diverse, collection than NF, especially with respect to non-mainstream selections, which is what I mostly rent: Criterions, Asian titles, double disk special editions and collector's editions. I think NF has closed the gap in the past year and the disparity is not as great as it once was, but it never tilted in favor of NF. Now the two are merely comparable.


Me, too--I'll stick with Netflix, even if you are throttled, NF is still a fine deal--very nice selection at $1-1.50 a disc. However, BB online for the same monthly NF fee is the better deal for me when you factor in the 4 free e-coupon rentals each month.


Kingsqueak--no doubt the value of the in-store e-coupons depends on where you live--our area is considered affluent, more educated, liberal-leaning, dense with colleges, the arts, etc. There's a lot of competition here. I grew up in central Jersey and visit often--so I know full well what you are probably up against, unless you live near Princeton, which I bet probably has better BB in-store diversity than even we do.


Craig, you're a NF newbie, so you will be forgiven your naivete. Post back as your year progresses. Enjoy the perks of being a newbie and look out for the warning signs, like when you mail your discs back Wednesday, you live near the distribution center so you know they're reliably received on Thursday--but for some reason they are not logged in until Monday and your next discs don't ship until Tuesday. Then you'll know you've been throttled.

I'm actually a "newbie" in NF terms right now as well, even though I've used them for years, since we recently did the quit/rejoin song and dance, again, after being throttled unusually hard, again. Now, three movies previously tied up on "very long wait" in my former queue--Cafe Lumiere, Junebug and the Bruce Springsteen Hammersmith Odeon concert--are on their way to me. It's nice to be a newbie.

Also, no one should be wishing for the impending demise of BB stores or their online service--get over the fact you paid late fees to them rather than signing on with NF years ago like the rest of us did--today, fewer options means less competition, higher prices and less incentive for NF to try any harder then they currently do.


Actually, what they're doing seems to make good business sense to me: the e-coupons get you into their stores, which you wouldn't otherwise go into--you're limited to stock on hand and possibly tempted to make other purchases or rentals--which in turn help the bottom line of the store. That's savvy, not desperate: leveraging one of the advantages they have over NF--the B&M stores--while at the same time providing everything NF does online for the same price. Even if you just used your BB e-coupons for the Hollywood titles and new releases--and ordered the more eclectic and obscure stuff online, it's win-win.

All the in store coupons in the world can't make up for not having the same selection as Netflix. Netflix carries many more indie or foreign type films that BB doesn't. That is what seals the deal for me every time.

I've rented "indie or foreign type films" for years as well JATWolf--give a few examples of what you think NF has that BB doesn't? Take a category you know well and list a few titles which would support your sense that NF carries "more." Even if they did, which I doubt--based on my being a customer of both services--more is not necessarily better. Off the top of my head, because I've rented them in the past couple of months, BB has the much better Leon the Professional Deluxe ed with director's cut, the Reservoir Dogs Anniversary edition, the Pulp Fiction Collector's edition, Sling Blade CE with director's cut & Billy Bob Thornton commentary track, the Clerks 10th Anniv discs--NF doesn't, and when they do have a single disc from these sets, it's usually just the bonus disc and not the main disc--which often has been improved, remastered, has had DTS or commentaries added, in the newer edition. NF all too often sticks with the original release disc long after it has been surpassed. See for yourself. Otherwise, both services have all the same Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Shinoda, Park Chan-wook, Kieslowski, Bresson, Zhang Yimou, Takeshi Kitano, whomever, to get deeper in any of these categories--you have to go to Nicheflix.

As I've written previously on this thread--NF has done a better job lately--they realized BB stocked all the Criterions so now they do as well.

You guys are lucky. With one week turn around (without throttling), I don't even get 10 discs a month with 3-out at a time. I don't like the fact that I'm paying twice as much as those who are getting 20.

First of all, the reason I went to Netflix is that I never was able to get new releases at Blockbuster.
Left Blockbuster over 3 years ago and haven't missed them since. They could give me 10 coupons a month and I wouldn't set foot inside. Netflix rules!

Hear, hear!

As fast as BallBuster is losing customers as a result of their horrible customer service, poor product selection and GOUGING with late fees, this is a customer that will never, ever, never go back to BB.

I probably wouldn't except there is one within a hundred yards of my home, another on the way to work and a third on the way to my bank. Just too darn convenient for me not to go there. These are just the Blockbuster stores, there are two more Hollywood rental B&M's on the same routes all five within one mile of my home.

Well, after seeing all the ads during the Super Bowl yesterday, I have yet to be contacted on upping my coupons from 2 to 4 a month.

I am currently doing the plan where I get three out at a time, 2 coupons for Blockbuster a month and 2 tickets to the theater for any show. This is perfect for us, and have always had my new releases on release date.

As for the coupons, I scoop up 2 a month that is either stuck in my queue or ones I find browsing the store. Works great! And for the late fees, damn you people are lazy! How hard is it to drop in the drop box on the way to or from work? If you don't have time to watch it, why go rent in the first place? The people complaining about late fees and not getting enough movies, aka being "throttled" must be in separate camps.

Now if I could only find out how to get those extra 2 a month!

One significant reason why I hate blockbuster and choose netflix (rather than strictly service in my experiences) is that blockbuster won't carry NC-17 titles. You can't get Bad Lieutenant, Cronenberg's Crash, or the uncut NC-17 versions of films like The Dreamers, or Bad Education, among others. It's not even so much the fact of carrying these titles and having a better selection, but rather the hypocrisy in not carrying NC-17 rated films and, at the same time, carrying much more ridiculous and degrading R films. Many people immediately make judgments on NC-17 titles, as if they're some sort of perverse pornography, when in reality most creators of these titles are much more concerned with the subject and attempt to create a realistic environment and introduce meaningful commentary on the nature of sex, violence and what have you. You know, the type of thing like "Oh my god, you can see Harvey Keitels penis! Oh no! And a nun is being raped! I won't stand for this, even if this scene is crucial in setting up the theme of redemption, as it questions different aspects of morality and the nature of spirituality. But wait, here's American Pie - Jason Biggs masturbating in an apple pie, yes! Soooo funny!".

And your reason is exactly why I left NF: I stopped getting new releases. I received new releases at first with NF, but that stopped. And then I was throttled. So I left.

The 4 Coupon deal is not for everyone since some folks prefer not to shop at a B&M store, or don't live near a BB. But with 4 coupons per month, coupled with the fact that BB B&M has lots of new releases on the shelves, I am virtually assured a new release each week.

But getting back to the original point: while not for everyone, offering 52 free movies per year (as seen in their commercial) will generate a lot of interest with the mainstram, specifically, those folks that do not currently rent online. They'll see 52 * $4.25 = $221 savings. But I could be wrong!

-T

Just go to blockbuster.com, log in and click on "my account" at the top of the page. From there, you should be able to change your monthly plan to be one that includes the weekly in-store coupon. The new plan will not go into effect until the start of your next billing cycle. Although my new plan does not start until 2/12, I already received the e-mail with the link to my first in-store coupon.

https://blockbuster.com/acctmgmt/dis...Details.action

Heh, I own Bad Lieutenant, was one of the earlier DVD's that I bought. My brother comes over to raid the collection sometimes and snagged it thinking it was just another cop movie. The look on his face when he gave it back was priceless. "Why in the world did you buy that?"

Then again I still root for Michael Douglas each time Falling Down comes on and I've never listened to so much Huey Lewis as after watching American Psycho.

***spreading the style section around the floor of my manager's office***

BB Online will be the death of Netflix in the same way that Barnes & Noble online was the death of Amazon. No matter what deals BB throws out or how many millions BB drop on Superbowl advertising, Netflix has name recognition in the rent by mail market, much more than BB does, and should survive quite nicely.

For some reason, I think a lot of people have a really negative opinion of BB, for no apparent reason. I know I do.

Assuming that's true, Netflix has been blessed by having competitors (BB and previously Wal-Mart) that a lot of people don't like even without trying them, making them more likely to try Netflix.

Here is an article on yahoo today about netflix & throttling:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/...lix_throttling

The article claims 78 cents postage (to and from together) per DVD. Doesn't seem like they're getting a pre-sorted discount for warehouse->customer.

larry

I looked at the new postal rates and decided they qualified for a volume presorted discount of 9.5 cents on outgoing mail and a 2.5 cent volume business reply meeting specifications on incoming mail.

65 cents per disc is still almost half of what people pay for a rental on average. I'm sure they want you to think it costs 78 cents. (or the writer of the report did the math) .

larry

I've been with Netflix for years, although I, have stopped and started a few times to be considered as a "NEW" customer, but I am moving over to BB. It's bad enough that I can't get new releases but now they have slowed or throttled all my selections. I used to get one day turnarounds but now it takes a week. I send my movies in and they dont receive them for 4-5 days. They admitt that they don't profit from high users like me, so if they don't want my business I feel I should accomadate them.

ear-doc2,
What was your subscription plan and to what amount of discs per week were you throttled?

larry