Netflix, Blockbuster (and others) Online/Kiosk Discussion Thread - Page 4

That tool seems to be more of a joke or gag than any real data. Putting in my actual numbers yields a result that isn't true. I think he meant that to be funny.

http://www.manuelsweb.com/netflixcalculator.htm

I put in how many dvd's received during a 1 month period and how many I expect to rent the following month. I went back 6 months into my accout and it is no where near what his formula puts out as. I have not had my "returned dvd's" shown as being received 2 days later afer i have shipped. 99.99% of the time when I return a dvd, it has been recevied the very next day. Mind you, I live on Maui and they have to be sent to Oahu via air service. Even when I send them back with a NJ address on the envelope they are sent to Oahu and not to NJ. Every once in a while, maybe twice a month, I will not reveive my dvd on the day they estimate the arrival to be. Have always got them the following day.
On a side note, I used his netflixcalculator and selected the 3 at a time month plan (I am on the 5 at a time plan) and selected 10 dvd's a month recevied and expect to rent next month. this is what his netflixcalculator said;
Your turnaround time will be more than 1 week. You have exceeded our secret limit. We are currently denying we have received your rentals by 2 days and delaying shipping your rentals by 1 day. Next billing cycle we will deny receiving your rentals by 4 days and delay shipping by 2 days.

As island residents themselves, maybe the postal workers in Hawaii are a bit more attentive to that "Nearest Netflix Facility" header than they are back on the mainland. Here in Colorado they seem to ignore the header and always send the discs back to whatever city the label says.

As for poor Manuel, he truly suffers from Netflix Derangement Syndrome. In his eyes the Netflix allocation algorithm is a corporate scandal rivaling Enron.

Maybe and maybe not that postal workers are a bit more attentive here in Hawaii. The Postal Service has a Computer Assisted Mail Sorting Systems that integrate voice and barcode address recognition tools. They use this system in Hawaii.
As I stated before. I have sent back dvd's addressed to different locations thru out the US, and they all end up at the Oahu facility. I cannot beleive that on the mainland they still have people that still sort the mail by hand when the envelope has a barcode on it. Nor do I beleive that a postal workers collects all Netflix envelopes that are destined for the mainland and reroutes them all to Oahu. Here on Maui we always get the latest and greatest gizmos last.
Maybe some local Post Offices just need some type of a sorting software upgrade that will route it to the local Netflix and not what is written on the return envelope. I really don't know if that might be the case. Just pure speculation on my part.

However, I do agree with you about
Manuel...

Maybe not "death," but Blockbuster Online may have just put a nail in the coffin of Netflix. They upped the in-store coupons from 2 per month (each coupon good for 1 month) to 1 per week for a total of 4 per month (each coupon good for 1 week).

Lets see, spend $17.99 per month for BB Online, and get 4 coupons worth $17. The 4 in-store is almost a certainty for getting a new release each week... something I had difficulty doing with Netflix (I was throttled).

-T

Ya never know. However, for me, not having to go into a store is a plus; even if BB was on route I travel daily. Are the in-store rentals "keep as long as you like"?

larry

Maybe BB is doing different things in different areas, but all 4 of this month's coupons were good all month for me. I like that it gives me more options when it comes to impulse renting, but Netflix still gets movies to me faster than BB Online. I will switch back to Netflix after our free period is over.

Most likely the effect will be neglible.

Many people don't want to go to a b&m.

Eddie

Sounds more like the death of BB online. When you have to give away product to keep/get customers you're on a slippery slope if it doesn't work.

Or their approach is similar to what the Cable companies did to combat D* and E*: make your product cheaper than the competition's product.

But I did wonder why they upped the free in-store coupon count... could be that BB Online is in trouble.

-T

The one per week doesn't include games!!! They have not been happy with people using there 2 a month on games. They are trying to intice people into their new plan that they hope will save/make them more money.

The BB in store coupons sounds interesting. In my situation, I like to show current releases when I have guests over. Unfortunately new releases are hit or miss with Netflix. At leat I can go pick up a new release at the local BB.

Skip

I was given a choice to either keep my 2 movie/game a month or 4 movies (4 weeks).
I still haven't decided.
The game rentals are nice but my Blockbuster can never keep games in stock for rental so I always end up leaving empty handed. I can always find movies to rent.

That's a heck of a deal from BB. I have been using both Netflix and BB for about 10 months and in my experience the service is identical between the two. I average between 11-12/month from either service. The closest BB store is about a half hour away so I never use the coupons, but for people that have one close by, that would seemingly be a deal breaker. The free coupons would definitely be the best way to get new releases like 704set mentions. I definitely don't see it being the death of Netflix, but it could prompt them to make some changes.

I'm staying on the 2/month plan because I don't want to go to the store. The way it is now, I get those 2 free ones one trip a month. I don't want to have to go 4 times/month to fully take advantage of the new deal.

Also, getting 2 movies at one time works for me. I think with only 1 free movie, when I go in the store, I'd end up paying for an additional one at times. Maybe that's the scheme, give one and hope people browsing will want more than just the one movie?

After years of milking customers out of millions in hard line enforced late fee's, I wouldn't be suprized if more people went with something other than Blockbuster, even if it cost a little more. Just out of spite.
How many times did I go to rent a movie and hear "Sir, were you aware that there is a late charge on your account?"
I brought a playstation game back one day late and they had charged my account the full 5 day rental fee as a late charge. When I pointed out the obvious larceny that was taking place, the dumb robot behind the counter informed me that "it is the only way a game can be entered in the system as late and can't be changed."
And then there was the time I guess they rented someone a movie on my account by mistake and then told me I had never returned it. It was a movie I never did, nor never would have rented.
I fought it until it was going to go on my credit. Nice way to treat a customer. It was the last money I ever gave them.

I love my netflix.

I have been very pleased with Netflix since I joined in June of 2002. My only beef would be the fact that new releases are taking too long to get!!!

Rather then renting 6 a month from Netflix for $35.99, has anyone tried renting 3 a month from both Netflix and BB for a total of $$35.98? Seems you would watch more movies over a month's time plus you get the 1 free in store rental per week from BB.

Skip

You mean 6-out-at-a-time. It's roughly 24 per month.

larry

That's what we've done--and we highly recommend it if you want the ultimate in service, flexibility and selection. With NF anything above the 3-out plan is a diminishing return. We added BB last year when they offered several months of free membership if you quit Netflix--then continuing you on whatever your current rate and plan was with NF (14.99 3-out) plus the 2 in-store rentals--so we did. Often a title on "long wait" in one is "available now" in the other, NF has the lead shipping new releases when they are actually new, plus as has been mentioned elsewhere BB online historically stocked more Criterions, special editions, collector's editions and multiple releases of the same title whereas NF too-often stubbornly sticks with the originally released version, even if it has been surpassed by a newer release. NF has gotten better in this regard--i.e. I was able to get the new 2 disc Wild Bunch from them first, BB shows it still as "coming soon." If you can afford both, it's the best of all worlds, and we probably average about 18 discs per month for each service, though we don't actually keep a count until it's obvious NF has throttled us, and that's not including the 2 to 4 extra with BB.

BB and NF both have distribution centers locally, turnaround time is comparable until NF throttles us.

We live in an area with a ton of BB stores, so the new 4 coupons a month, even at 17.99, make a sweet deal even sweeter--we never cared about games--so if there is a new release one of us doesn't want to wait for we just drop by a store, since we have 6 within minutes of our house. It's also nice to be able to go into a BB B&M store and use a coupon to get a multi-disc set--which would ordinarily take up two rentals with NF. Whenever Netflix throttles us we just quit and rejoin--my wife and I flip-flop--and it is back to new release priority and quick turnaround times.

I agree...
It is way to inconvenient for me to use BB because I can't always get the movie back in time. I hate it when I have to pay $8 to rent one movie. I still owe BB and Video Watch late fee's and won't go back unless I absolutely have to.

I don't know the details of the deal the OP is speaking of, but if it involves late fee's, its not a grat deal.


Craig

Blockbuster was sued (by the New York attorney general, among others) for their "End of Late Fees" false advertising. They are now required to tell the customer exactly what that means. I don't know if the terms have changed since this time last year, but the "End of Late Fees" actually meant this:

* If a movie wasn't returned in 6 days, there's a late charge.
* If a movie wasn't returned in 30 days, you just BOUGHT the movie.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7327309/

As Gecko85 just voiced, there are fees associated with in-store BB rentals (or any other B&M Video store for that matter).

BB B&M Policy: rent any movie for the specified time (2-day, 7-day, etc), and return the movie by the specified time. The movie can be returned up to 6 days late without penalty... but on the 7th day the rental becomes a purchase. If you have the receipt, you can reverse the purchase, but there is a restocking fee.

For me, I have no problem returning movies because I pass a BB on my way to/from work. And the 6 day buffer period is nice to have.


Not exactly, but see my comments to Craig. Oh, I read the article you linked... one guy actually thought he could keep a movie indefinately! He's probably the same sort of guy that thinks he does not have to make a credit card payment if he does not physically receive the bill for a given month.

-T

Ya... that's what I thought... late fees = bad deal for the consumer.

Craig

Yeap, that would be the real Netflix target audience. I will not drive to and from a video store for any reason and haven't for years, especially a Blockbuster as they carry very little that isn't big-budget Hollywood or bad comedy. My wife and I's combined work and school schedules make it very inconvenient to chase store business hours plus they never have what we want on the shelf. Netflix however, we've had for years now and we've never been "throttled" and we get three discs twice a week (rip and return).

Personal tastes and appreciation will always vary, but I guess we're just lucky where we live--my last eight BB in-store rentals using their "free" monthly e-coupons have been for:

'The Royal Tenenbaums' 2-disc Criterion
'Rushmore' on Criterion
'Broken Flowers' (the week it was released)
Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Blue' (hadn't seen it in so long)
'Charade' Criterion 2004 re-release
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (the week it was released)
'Heat' 2-disc SE
Wong Kar-Wai's '2046' (the week it was released)

Granted, this is anecdotal, a snapshot of the last 8 coupons of one person who also generally dislikes most Hollywood dreck, but by going into the store I got three 2-disc sets (which would ordinarily require 6 rentals online), three new releases and two titles in superior versions (Rushmore/Criterion, Charade/Criterion) which NF doesn't even stock--so one with less than Hollywood mainstream tastes can clearly use this new BB offer (17.99 3-out plus 4 in-store e-coupons per month) to their advantage, proximity to a store and schedule permitting, of course.


You've been lucky, those of us who have been throttled, and knew firsthand the games Netflix played years before they were forced to admit it and change their TOS--have a slightly different historical perspective of NF management practices and truth in advertising.

Are you getting this on the 3-at-a-time plan?

I get throttled on netflix but I still manage to get 3 movies a week and have it timed so that I get most new releases on tuesday, so Id have to say Im still pretty satisfied with netflix service even though I went from getting 20 movies a month to 12.

Plus I like netflix's selection alot more, they carry alot more obscure titles which is what I get to fill in the blanks between the big blockbusters released on tuesdays.

I fully expect to get 20 movies per month from NF on the 3 out plan. (give or take a movie or two per month)
I have only been using the service for a little more than two weeks so I can't really get a gauge on it right now. Right now, I am a little bit behind that pace.

Craig

Craig,
Why do you expect to less than $1 per disc when everybody else averages (or is limited to) $1.50?

larry