2011 Blockbuster is not as good as Netflix
Written: Aug 30, 2011
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
|
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
I just ended my Netflix DVD/Bluray service though I am keeping the online streaming service.
So, I decided to try out Blockbuster's 30 day trial service. So far, I'm really not impressed.
With Netflix the turn around time for disks is typically three days:
Watch then Mail the next morning, Ship notice sent the second day, New disk arrives the third day. This means you can effectively get two disks a week for $7.99/Mo. $9.99/Month including Bluray.
With Blockbuster the turnaround time has been taking FIVE days (Six if there's a Sunday in between):
Watch then Trade, Ship notice sent the THIRD day, New disk arrives the FIFTH day. Now, the Blockbuster plan DOES allow you to trade a mailer envelope for a DVD or Bluray disk in the store, so you still, ostensibly get two disks every Five or Six days for $9.99/month. On that basis, Blockbuster is a slightly better deal.
Where it breaks down for me is that going to the store and trading for disks adds a lot of work on several levels.
First is selection online. Netflix has somewhere over 60,000 titles available (I was working on the Netflix Algorythm competition for a while so I personally have "Rated" over 51000 titles on the website). A careful survey of the Blockbuster website reveals somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand titles. In both cases, most of the catalogs will NOT appeal to any individual, but you definitely have three to four times the possibility of finding a good movie on Netflix.
Also, the Netflix "We think You'd Like this" algorythm is pretty darn good and the Disk website is organized far better than the Blockbuster website in terms of finding interesting disks.
Then there is selection in the stores - which is poor for current titles (around 100 total - not much more than in two Blockbuster kiosks) but selection is laughably bad for anything older than a year (I'd guess about 4000 total in most stores after the bankruptcy and restructuring). I've found I have to keep track of the inventory on at least three stores to find the titles I want to watch around the time I want to watch them. Luckily, the Blockbuster Queue does allow you to do just that, but I am so over planning my days around trips to one-of-three video stores.
That Blockbuster mail five day turn around time is very irritating for me. I can't trade a disk until Blockbuster send me one, and that basically happens once a week. If Blockbuster would send the next disk when you actually turn in the mailer at the store, they could match the Netflix turn around time. Instead, it looks like the store has to then ship the mailer back before it really registers as "returned". This probably saves Blockbuster $0.40 per disk but I'm convinced it's also part of a marketing plan to force the customer back to the store to rent other disks outside of the plan price structure.
With Netflix, I'm getting disks in the mail around the time I actually would have time to watch them - two, sometimes three times a week. With a 2 disk at a time plan, I can basically watch a movie every night, and all I have to do is open my mailbox.
BTW, I'm not going back to disks on Netflix either. Since I've actually rated most of the Netflix catalog, I know for a fact that I've seen virtually everything except upcoming movies that they have available. By the time enough new movies I want to see (that I haven't seen in theaters) build up at Netflix, they will have shifted more fully into streaming mode for all releases. Netflix is working well and will continue to grow. Blockbuster is barely hanging on and will close utterly within two years.
That's the final reason I won't be continuing my 30 day trial at Blockbuster. I like the people that work at my local store and I really don't like the reminder that they will all be out of work soon.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Blockbuster Entertainment Online Store
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
