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Netflix vs. Blockbuster online.. (1 Viewer)

AdamMorehead

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Has anyone tried the new Blockbuster copy of the revolutionary Netflix? I see it is a little less money (for know), and they have games, but you seemingly can't rent them.
 

Citizen87645

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I'm giving it a try. So far no complaints, though availability of new titles is probably not as good as Netflix right now. I can't say for certain because I haven't been a Netflix subscriber for a couple years now. One nice thing B. is doing is giving two free rental coupons per month to use in the local stores. This came in handy when one of my mailed rentals had a glitch. Instead of waiting for the replacement, I just had the next one in my queue sent while I went to the store and used the coupon to get the movie that got interrupted. I may eventually switch back to Netflix, but at this point I don't have a compelling reason to.
 

Oswald Pascual

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NETFLIX over will not carry widescreen, slow adapter, kill the Ma & Pa video stores, and try to end the sale of DVD's so cheap in early release so we can milk the consumer cash cow BlockBuster! NEVER!!! Netflix was the saving grace when DVD's came out for me. Blockbuster was the slug turtle with rest on your laruels attitude and not open to market change and consumer demands. They get there sinking stock prices, declining active membership and now, just now they wake up and smell the roses. YOUR TOOOO LATE!



NETFLIX

RULES!



Ozzie

P.S. I hate Blockbuster, and this is the sugar coated version of what I really think. :P
Make no mistake, blockbuster is no friend of the HT enthusiast.
 

Dick

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Netflix is doing a great job, for a great price, and are in danger of going under, so I am going to continue using their service and supporting them as long as I can. And Blockbuster? Up until recently they put pressure on studios to release pan and scan. They carry censored movies and refuse to offer legitimate NC-17 titles, which affects what Hollywood is willing to produce (way too much influence). They have their retail stores to support them which Netflix does not. I despise huge corporationsd that abuse their power. F*%k them!!! Whatever happened to the nearly unanimous hatred of these bullies that used to dominate these threads?
 

Tim_P_76

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I am happy with Blockbuster Online. For 19.99 plus 2 free rental coupons a month and no late fees ..it's pretty damn good. They have 95 percent as much as Netflix. I like the price and thats what brought me into it. It's been smooth sailing for 3 months. This comes from a former store manager and one who never liked walking into Blockbuster and still don't! Believe it or not
biggrin.gif
 

David Illingworth II

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I switched to Blockbuster last month when there was a more significant difference in price with Netflix. Plus, I experienced my first service problems with Netflix. So far I can say that Netflix is probably on the whole a little better because they do have more titles, and importantly, more availability. Right now most of the stuff in my queu at blockbuster is listed as "short wait" or "long wait" and this is old stuff, and not classic, like BASEketball or The Wood. Weird. That said, blockbuster has found a way to ship it when it counts, and I think their layout is better. They'll show you what's coming out on DVD weeks in advance, something that I could never easily find on Netflix.

So, it's kind of a toss up. And the free coupon rentals are nice too.
 

TonyD

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i think this can be a good discussion with out this simply being a bash bbv thread so, before this becomes the bash bbv thread which these always do, i'll offer my 2 cents.



i've been netflixing since the begining of netflix.

i have 4 out at 17.99.(grandfathered in at that price.)

blockbuster is 3 out for 17.49 plus coupons good for 2 rentals of movies or games every month.

the good for netflix for me is simply the very fast turn around time.

sometimes as fast as 3 days.

many times i'll get an email the same day i drop it in the mail telling me they have recieved my dvd.



bbv the fastest turn time was 5 days, but most times is more then 7 days to get the next one in Q from the time you mail one back.



netflix does have many more movies then bbv mostly due to bbv not renting some movies that are unrated such as the "dreamers" and refusal to rent nc-17 titles.

the longest i held a movie was 3 days.

they had to send me alamo twice because they sent me havana nights instead the first time.

so that became 1 less movie that i was able to watch.

plus alamo was listed as coming soon for the first week of it's street date.





Oswald, you post is somewhat incoherent. besides this is not about the actual rental store it is about comparing the merits of either netlix or bbv online renting.
 

Ray H

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I was curious so I did a two week free trial at Blockbuster. My first observation was that they actually carried multiple editions of the same movie while Netflix only carries one version of each film.

In my conditions (where I live, etc), Netflix has excellent service while Blockbuster's is terrible IMHO. I receive discs from Netflix the day after it's sent out. So far, the shortest amount of time it took for Blockbuster to send me a disc was two days. Not bad. But the longest took 6 days! It's also been five days since I sent a disc back and they still haven't received it. :thumbsdown:

So I average about 5-6 discs a week from Netflix and only 2-3 from Blockbuster. With only a $.50 difference in price and twice the value, it's a no brainer for me. I'm a happy Netflix customer. :)
 

EricSchulz

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There have been several threads about the competition between these two (and Walmart, too) and there are rumors of Amazon getting into the business too. I have been with Netflix almost constantly since I got my first DVD player which had a free trial offer included in it. So, I did a little comparison of the three ONLY based on selection, not speed of service:



with little exception, Netflix was tops.



of the top 50 titles in my queue, BB.com also carried them (including, surprisingly, the unrated version of "Dawn of the Dead"). Walmart, however was AWFUL! TWELVE of my next 50 Netflix titles are not even available! The worst genres were Television, Foreign, Gay/Lesbian, Independent. Also, no unrated cuts. And the website had almost half of the titles with no cover art and little/no/incomplete movie info.



I'm sticking with Netflix!
 

John_Bonner

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I just got an e-mail from Blockbuster.
They are lowering their "3 out at a time" deal from $17.49 to $14.99 until at least January 31, 2006.

With the 2 free game rental coupons per month (games are like $6.50 each to rent) this works out to be very reasonable.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Can anyone in the southeast (I'm in south Florida) report on turnaround times for Netflix and Blockbuster in this region?
 

SteveK

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I decided today to try the Blockbuster service. I've put about 20 titles or so in my queue, of which more than half show "short wait". I'm not too concerned about it, as long as I don't have titles which need to be seen in sequence. I live in the Huntsville, AL area, so I'm not sure where most of my discs will come from; I'm assuming either Atlanta or perhaps Nashville. I've already received confirming e-mail messages for two of the three titles. It indicated that I should receive them around 1 Jan, but of course that's a holiday so I'm assuming it will be no earlier than 3 Jan 05 before I receive my first selections.

One of the responses to the FAQ indicated that titles may be shipped from local stores beginning in 2005. No details were provided, but it indicated that more than 4,000 stores would be part of the distribution network. It will be interesting to see how this works.

Overall, for the price of about $15, it seems like a pretty good deal, so I'm anxious to see how well the service works. I'm not going to try to see how many movies I can watch each month, as I'd be satisfied with about 8-10 movies per month, since that would still work out much cheaper than normal rental prices. Several years ago, I subscribed to Netflix, but this will be my first time as a BBV online member. We shall see how everything works out.

Steve K.
 

Grant H

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Interesting how you can't rent the NC-17 cut of "The Dreamers" at Blockbuster online, but you can buy it.

The $14.99/month deal is tempting, but I just don't know if I can give in to 'da man like that.

And, if I'm going to rent a racy movie, I'd rather see it in its raciest form and not be left tempted to buy the unrated or NC-17 version just to see what I missed.

I wish Netflix could lower its rate to $14.99 too. And the two in-store freebies is just Blockbuster twisting the knife. After they kill Netflix, I wonder how high the monthly rate will skyrocket? Probably to the $21.99 or whatever the Club rate is in-store.
 

EricSchulz

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What makes you think that will happen? I don't foresee a price war between the three (if you include Walmart) that will kill off Netflix. I think that the SERVICE will determine who stays and who goes...
 

Grant H

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Let's see: the price-war began with the first round of price-dropping to just about match BBV.

Since Netflix surfaced, Wal-mart, BBV, and now Amazon may possibly be join the fray. All these companies have a lot more to draw from than Netflix which as far as I know just rents DVD's.

If anyone will die, it's Neflix and then the big-wigs will be left to duke it out for better or worse.

The general consumer will look at price first, not try each service for a while and then decide on one. Whatever's cheaper is cheaper, and the time it takes to get your movies or what they have is just the way it is. Money comes first and the monthly bill is what they'll go by.

The 17.49 at BBV online is cheaper than what you get with the same kind of policy in-store, was virtually the same as Netflix, but they gave you free in-store rentals as another incentive. Before, they gave you a free DVD too. Now, they've just lowered the price again in what I feel is a stunt to knock somebody out of the game. I doubt Netflix can afford to provide the same level of service at that price. They're probably damned if they do and damned if they don't. They'll lose customers to BBV if they don't lower their price again and lose money at that new rate unless they slow down turnaround. In which case the service will suffer.

I'm betting in the end only the bigger guys will remain with higher prices once Netflix goes out of business, and the service will probably be mediocre compared to that of the originators of this type of service.
 

Doug Ennis

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Aaron,

I am in Cocoa, FL. My turnaround time with Netflix is usually 3 days. If I send my movies back on Monday, I have a new batch on Thursday.

With Blockbuster, my turnaround time varies from 5-9 days, usually taking about one week.

In my area, Netflix is MUCH quicker.
 

Bryan Ri

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I just recently switched from Netflix to Blockbuster. The in store rentals are a great touch, and my turnaround has been as fast as it was with netflix. Also, the customer service that I've dealt with at Blockbuster as been immaculate.
 

John Carr

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I've been a reluctant Blockbuster customer (after they put all the Mom & Pop stores out of business) until 2 years ago when I 'discovered' Netflixs. It helped that I'd seen (those titles I was interested in) all the back titles in the store and there weren't enough new ones to warrant more than 2 or 3 trips a month.

With Netflixs I've been renting an average of 5 to 6 titles a week and love both their selection and service. Here in So Cal 90% of my titles are back within 3 days! I'd rather pay a few bucks more for the better service and great selection. (A Blockbuster manager, when I asked him about where they were going to get the titles for their then 'new' service, bragged they were getting them from customers who were trading their old titles for $ credit on new purchases... Sigh.)

Last month I read that Netflixs latest drop in price (to match Blockbuster) erased most of their per title profit and I doubt they can drop thier price to $14.99 and survive. I will stick with Netflixs no matter what.

Now, Blockbuster is attempting to gobble up Hollywood Video. As others have pointed out, where do you think we'll be if Netflixs is pushed out of business? That $14.99 will jump to $24.99 -- that's where.

Count on it -- that the Blockbuster way.
 

teapot2001

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I just finished my 2-week free trial with Blockbuster, and I wasn't satisfied with their selection and service. One of the DVDs never showed up as having been returned, so I had to tell them about it. Some of the DVDs took long to get shipped and returned. After I canceled my membership, the 3 DVDs I still had returned to them after only a day.

I tried Walmart before, and their selection seemed about the same as Blockbuster's but the service was slightly better.

Netflix is the best I've used so far, even though it's a little more expensive than the others. Their distribution center is in the same city as Blockbuster's, but the turnaround is better.

~T
 

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