Buh-Bye Blockbuster, I'm Renting From NetFlix Now!
Written: Jan 06 '02
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When we recently received a DVD player we decided to join NetFlix.com. I had heard about NetFlix on the radio. The DJ's were talking about how wonderful NetFlix was and how they no longer rented DVD's from Blockbuster or the other local rental stores.
I researched NetFlix alot before joining, even reading several epinions on the company to find out if it was all it was cracked up to be.
What Is It
NetFlix is a DVD rental service, as far as I can tell they only rent DVD's. You pay a monthly fee to rent DVD's. NetFlix mails you the DVD's, you watch them at your convenience, and mail them back to NetFlix at your convenience.
How Does It Work?
Using NetFlix is a piece of cake. You simply visit www.netflix.com and sign up. There are different levels of membership (discussed below) that you can sign up for. They are currently offering a free trial that you can sign up for, which I highly recommend.
Once you create an account (you will need a credit card) you can start renting DVD's. You are allowed to select 10 DVD's for your rental que. Your membership level determines how many DVD's you may rent at a time, but the basic membership will allow you to rent as many DVD's as you want, but you are only allowed to have 3 out at any time.
Once you select some DVD's for your rental que (kind of like an online shopping bag), NetFlix will ship out your first 3 DVD's. They will arrive in an envelope, with the DVD in a paper disc protector, with a self addressed, stamped return envelope.
You watch your rented DVD whenever you want, and return it whenever you want. Yup, that's right you return it whenever you want. No late fees, no worrying that you can't watch it tonight because the baby is sick or a better offer came up. Watch it and return it when YOU want.
Once you return a DVD, NetFlix will send you the next DVD in your que. If that title is unavailable they will ship the next one on your list. It really is that simple.
What's It Cost?
Well, as I stated, NetFlix is currently running a free trial promotion, so head over there and get a free trial. If you decide you like it then you will need to select one of the monthly memberships.
•Netflix Service Ultimate: This membership allows you to have 8 DVD's out at a time. $39.95
•NetFlix Service Plus: With this membership you may have 5 DVD's out at a time. $29.95
•NetFlix Service Bonus: Allows you to rent 4 DVD's at a time. $24.95
•NetFlix Service Standard: You may have 3 DVD's out at a time. $19.95
•NetFlix Service Lite: For the occasional renter, this allows you to have 2 DVD's out at a time. $13.95
What's To Love?
Gosh, there are so many things to love. No more dragging the kids into the video store where they beg for the latest Rugrats Movie. Now, you can select movies while the kids are at school or asleep. No more going out in the rain, just sit at home and watch the rain as you select your movies. No more dealing with wandering aimlessly through the store trying to find a movie to rent, just sit and home and enter all the titles in the NetFlix search window.
For only $20/month we can rent all the DVD's we want. We can watch them whenever we want and return them when we want. I cannot tell you how much this is going to save us in late fees alone. We frequently rent a movie from Blockbuster with the intention of watching it, something comes up, we don't watch, we forget to return it when it's due and bam we have a late fee. Not anymore. With NetFlix we can rent a DVD and watch it when WE want and return it when WE want. It's fabulous.
Another great feature is that NetFlix pays the postage to return the DVD's. You only have to get it to an outgoing mailbox. That's it!
The incentive to return your movies is that you really will want to get the most for your money. You are going to want to return it and get the next DVD on your list.
What's Not To Love?
Based on a few epinions I read, there are some people who are not overly happy with NetFlix. Some of their concerns were that the turn around time was not that great, or that they didn't receive their DVD's very quickly.
This may be a concern for you based on your location. NetFlix has distribution centers in many different locations, but their home base is in San Jose, CA. This isn't far from me so I wasn't worried that there would be delays in receiving my DVD's. In fact when I have ordered DVD's they have come in 1-2 days. They have not taken over 2 days from the time they were shipped. When I returned DVD's they were logged back in quickly and my next selections were sent out that same day. I should mention that it seems as if their is a distribution center in my hometown because when I mail my DVD's back they go to a local address.
This is the main reason that I highly recommend you try the free trial. If you were not to get DVD's quickly and have them logged in as returned in a timely fashion this service would not be worth it. My husband and I figure we need to rent about 5 DVD's per month to make it worth it to us.
What Else Should I Know?
When I first began using the NetFlix service I would spend time browsing the site looking for movies to rent. My first choice was "New Releases" and this would bring up some of the latest releases. There would be some titles on there that were new, Princess Diaries, and some that were fairly old to me, The Family Man.
I would look through the "New Releases" page with some disappointment that movies like Planet Of The Apes or Legally Blonde were not listed. 2 movies that I really wanted to see. However, once I entered them into the search engine I found them and added them to my rental que. So, sometimes you may need to just play around and search the site for the movie you want.
Another problem that I had to learn by trial and error is that if you select "Bonus Disc" that is exactly what you get. For example, when I selected Planet of the Apes I wanted to make sure I got a version that had DVD bonus features on it. Therefore, I selected the "Bonus Disc". That is exactly what I got. It was Disc2, the Bonus Disc and it only had the bonus features on it, no movie. So, if you want to rent a movie and it happens to be a 2 disc movie you need to make sure you get both discs if you are interested in the bonus features. Shrek would be another example of this. You would want to be sure to get both discs, not just one.
Bottom Line
If you rent DVD's, give NetFlix a try. You really have nothing to lose since you can try the service out for free.
Recommended:
Yes
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