There’s apparently a big huff and puff going on today about Techcrunch’s Mike Arrington “breaking up” with Netflix, apparently frustrated with how “power users” of the service are being treated and that he had issues with his queue - and that he’s gone to the other side, or rather, to Blockbuster’s comparable service.
I’m really surprised that there are so many people that are just hearing about the word that Netflix had apparently “slowed down” heavy users of this service - this has been being discussed for months now, and it’s really not too big of a surprise, even if it is when people are signing up for an “unlimited” plan. Obviously we don’t know what portion of the company’s customer base is really that big of a heavy user, but as someone who has been a Netflix customer for years, I’ve gotta say that I’ve never had that kind of problem, and am easily in the 8+ (some months 10 or so) rentals per month from the service, and rarely do I go more than two days without having a returned DVD to my mailbox. As in, I mail one back on Monday and by Wednesday - maybe Thursday - I have another DVD for my use. I’ve gone through binges and gone through two or three at a time and had six movies in a span of four or five days, and while I tend to have a lot of newer releases, I also went through a big binge of renting the 30 or so films from the Top 100 Movies of All Time that had come out a few years back - never once was I bumped from having one of the films at the top of my list not show up, or see that “regardless of how I managed the list” there was an issue. Typically, I know when something is lesser as far as the number of DVDs they have, and that’s all well and good.
As far as I go, I’ve never had more good things to say than what I did back on November 2, when Netflix gave me a heads up that for me to have the DVD I had next rented - Syriana - in HD DVD that it had to be shipped from the Anchorage, Alaska shipping house, so it might be a little late, which it really wasn’t.
Arrington may enjoy going to Blockbuster to pick up his releases, or taking advantage of the “any mailed rental brought back to a store gets you one free” plan, but honestly, the reason I *don’t* go to the video store is that I don’t have to go to the video store. Additionally, I had a disastrous experience with a local Blockbuster a few residences ago, and I pretty much swore off the company and have only set foot in there once in five years, and I didn’t purchase a thing. I’ve always felt that Blockbuster treated you like the number that your account said you were, while Netflix has never been discourteous to me in any fashion, and always someplace I’ve been able to get answers, check something out at 3am, and so on. What’s comical about Blockbuster’s business is that now it’s touting itself as having all kinds of DVDs in-store for rental and being all customer-friendly, but that’s because it was a disaster, IMHO, for such a long time. And of course they have a slew of rentals in store, because no one is renting in store the way they used to - Netflix, Greencine, and torrents have decimated that once heavy marketplace when the average person was forced, pretty much, to head out from his or her home to rent a tape or DVD.
I’m also never having problems getting the “new stuff that Netflix won’t send” when I request things that are coming out. Sure, there’s demand and all, but maybe it’s that I subscribe to movies that I know are coming out in advance, so I tend to get them when I have the “timing work out” just right with movies I’ve mailed back and that film being at the top of my list.
Sure, you can take your movies back to Blockbuster, and that’s great - for Blockbuster. Mike’s right, it could potentially hurt Netflix, because now all those returns from each store are going to be mailed back to the mother ship - or shipped private label - en masse, rather than by individual pieces of postage. Of course they’d rather do that. It’s the same reason that people go to Men’s Wearhouse for tuxedo rentals (or should). They have a quality product that they have made more efficient, and could theoretically slay the tuxedo shops that most people are using, as long as you don’t need a tux in 24 hours, by shipping them all out of a warehouse in Houston, Texas. The shops don’t have to really “carry” the inventory, just demo models of each tuxedo, and ship en masse in to the stores for pickup by the renter. It’s not the perfectly analogous example, but it’s similar at least.
While I won’t ever say that it’s laziness that stops me from going to the video store (originally, it was the lines, the fact that new releases were never there when I got to the store, and that the fact that the service was a disaster), it’s the lack of convenience, for the most part. While it might not be apparent to anyone, having the accusation that I was “keeping” a $14.99 Gone in 60 Seconds DVD and would really want to pay the $50 in late fees plus a replacement fee just so I could have a packageless DVD when I had dropped it in the night slot was a bit ridiculous. Netflix movies break - they replace them. You lose it - you report it lost. It doesn’t work, you report it as not playing. Sure, you might have to wait to have it replaced, but at least I don’t have to go wait on line in a store to wait for someone to believe that the DVD doesn’t play when I return it three hours later, only to say “well, how do we know you watched it and just want a free rental?” Come on. My Netflix doesn’t talk back to me.
Again, it’s not apples to apples as far as Arrington’s experiences and mine, but I’ve got to say that I just don’t feel that the Blockbuster service is the better choice in the longer term, because you’ll find a lot more “happily served” Netflix customers than you will find people who have that same level of “like” towards Blockbuster, IMHO.
