Netflix...the other clubs are duds! P.S. Like the improvements you've made!
Written: Mar 03 '05 (Updated Mar 31 '05)
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Netflix had a niche market and for awhile there wasn’t any competition. Now there are other online DVD rental services such as Blockbuster and Wal-Mart. They are both big names that offer nearly identical service. I am one of the individuals who bailed to try the other services due to price and curiosity. While Netflix raised their prices the competition lowered theirs. People were flocking to Blockbuster because their rates were lower. I flocked about 24 hours before they announced the price decrease at Netflix.
Netflix is a little different than renting DVD’s at the video store because you’re not paying for movies; you’re paying for a service. Your monthly fee will be the same amount regardless if you watch 3 movies or 15 movies. There is no time frame in which movies need to be returned, you can return a movie the next day or hold it a week to watch it over the weekend so there are. There are no late fees because you're buying a service, not renting each movie.
The basic plan for 3 DVD’s is $17.99+tax. This means you usually have one movie at home to watch, one movie back to them, and one movie on the way to you. If you’re not home during the week you can hold them and have 3 movies to watch over the weekend. If you would like to upgrade 4 at a time is 23.99, and an additional $6 for each additional up to 8.
I really like the way the Netflix has arranged their website. There are 5 tabs to choose from: Browse, Recommendations, Friends, Queue, and Search. I do a lot of browsing because it’s the fastest way to find movies that I will be interested in. I find the majority of my movies from the “Feature” searches which are pre-established search criteria’s such as New Releases, Top 100, Critic’s Picks, and Award Winners.
Movies are also divided by Genres such as Action, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, etc. Once you find the genre that you are interested in you can click it to take you to the subgenres. For instance, if I click “Comedy” I am directed to a new web page that lists subgenres such as: Screwball, Stand-up, Teen comedies, etc.
The web pages also give suggestions of movies that you might like based on your responses from the movies that you have already seen. When you return a movie Netflix makes you give it the amount of stars that you think the movie deserves. The more movies that you grade the more accurate our recommendations will be. When I first joined the service I gave stars to all the movies that I could remember seeing so that I would have better recommendations. After a while movies start looking the same so I know if I’ve already seen a movie by if it has yellow stars or not. I don’t know how many times I came home from the video store with a movie that I had already seen.
Another wonderful feature that Netflix offers is the Watch Preview option. This plays the trailer with audio on your screen so that you will be able to determine if you are interested in seeing the movie without leaving the Netflix site to research it.
Another time-saving feature is that Netflix reveals what other Netflix viewers thought of the movie. The ratings are viewed simply as stars so there’s no reading involved. If you would like more advice on the movie you will see tabs for critic’s reviews, member reviews, and a list of movies that other member’s who saw the movie also enjoyed.
Getting movies from Netflix is very easy. Simply add a lot of movies to your queue and Netflix will do the rest. I am on the 3-DVD plan so Netflix mails my first 3 DVD choices. If a choice is unavailable it defaults to the next DVD on the list.
The Saved movie list function is very helpful to me. Whenever I am watching TV and see a trailer of a movie that is coming to theater I log onto Netflix and add it to my queue. The list for movies that have not been released is separate from your Queue list of movies that are available. The saved list will list the availability date if known.
Netflix sends an email to notify me that a DVD has been mailed. Since I am in the same town as the Netflix distribution center I usually receive the movie the next day. The status of movies signed out to you is also listed under Your Account.
The DVD arrives in a solid red envelope that says Netflix on it. The envelope turns into the pre-paid return envelope. Only the DVD will be mailed, no artwork, protective cases, or bonus material DVD’s will not be included.
The sleeve will have the name of the movie and a paragraph description of the movie. Once the movie has been viewed it is re-inserted into the protective sleeve and placed in the return envelope. It can be mailed from any mailbox such as your personal mailbox, the big blue ones on street corners, or directly at the post office.
Occasionally DVD’s may get lost or broken in the mail. I had one movie that never arrived back. There is an option under Your Account to file a missing or broken DVD claim. You are allowed to have a certain unknown amount of missing DVD’s without incident.
Your Account gives a lot of useful information such as your membership status, your billing date, the address that you have on file, rental activity, and rating activity.
There are two new features that Netflix recently added to their site. The first one is Profiles which allows you to create profiles for other members in your house. This would be useful if you had a kid that wanted to rent their own movies. If you blocked "R" (restricted) movies on their profile they would not be able to order anything with a "R" rating. The feature also allows for the accont holder to set up the maximum amount of movies that the secondary individulas could receive.
This would also be a great feature to use if you were renting a place with a friend. The feature would allow each person to have their own ratings and history.
The other new feature is the Friends list where you see each others ratings, get suggestions. These two features are ones that the competition does not have.
There is not a vacation hold option but you have two choices to deal with that. You can hold the movies until you get back, or you can cancel your service. I canceled my service while I went on vacation and did not experience any billing problems. When I re-established my account it picked up right where I left off with all of my history and ratings still in the site which was a relief.
My thoughts
I tried both Blockbuster and Wal-Mart and even if they are cheaper I don’t care. I want my Netflix back!! I was really spoiled with Netflix, I received a new movie within 2 days. I waited a 4-7 days with the others. Results will vary depending on how far you live from the distribution center but trying the 2 week free trial should give you an idea of what to expect. My service is excellent. I watched the USPS take my DVD’s out of our mailbox at 2PM yesterday and I had a 7AM email this morning notifying me that the DVD’s had been received by Netflix.
There were a few problems with Netflix which were merely inconveniences. First of all, the DVD’s were often severely scratched causing us to miss sometimes entire chapters of a movie. After experimenting with other services I have found this to be common even if renting from a DVD store.
Another inconvenience was that they didn’t always carry some of the movies that I wanted to see but with over 35,000 movies to choose from I make do. Sometimes there were movies that I wanted to see that they didn’t carry. Most of the missing movies fell in the kids department. Another complaint with the kids department was the length of time moves were on backorder. I can understand the need to wait a couple days for a new release but it’s ridiculous to wait 3 weeks for a 4-year-old Disney movie.
I had the 3 at a time program so I always had a DVD in my hand to watch. My local distribution center is about an hour away from me so I enjoyed a very quick turn around time of usually only 2 days. I do not know what the hours of the distribution center are, but it seemed like they didn’t work on the weekends.
Any of the small problems listed above are mere inconveniences and can be overlooked since I am receiving around 20 movies a month. Not that I watch all of the movies myself but with 5 people in our family everyone has their own interests. The kids can’t even share movies because they’re in different age brackets so with the amount that we order we are paying just $1.00 a movie. I have also found that there is a huge selection of sitcom TV shows that can be rented which saves me more time than watching them on TV. We have found that $17/mo is cheaper than paying for extended cable that no one watches. I’ve tried other DVD services and tried renting movies from video stores the old fashioned way. Netflix is by far the winner for our family.
Other online DVD Rental Services:
Blockbuster
Wal-Mart
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? DVDs
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