Netflix vs. Blockbuster Online
The verdict is in!
I was with Netflix for a few years and had grown very fond of the service. Then they started raising their prices and I started to get a little annoyed. At the beginning of the year (2005) I switched to Blockbuster Online. They had some kind of a really good deal (I don’t remember the specifics); it was much cheaper than Netflix, plus they would start me off at a lower price just to try it out.
The first problem with Blockbuster Online was that they sent me the wrong disc. The sleeve had the correct title on it, but the disc was wrong. It was at the start of a series, too, so I had to put the whole series on hold until the replacement arrived later that week.
The second problem with Blockbuster Online was that a great many of their discs were unplayable. They were in such poor condition that they wouldn’t even play in my Sony DVD player. Or worse, they started to play just enough to get you interested in the movie, then they’d stop or skip back to the first chapter. At this point, I was expected to do something else with this time that I had set aside and resume the movie later. Plus, anyone who I had invited over to watch it with me was also expected to go and do something else with the time they had set aside for the movie. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.
The third problem with Blockbuster Online is the turnaround time. Supposedly they have some kind of deal worked out with the post office where Blockbuster Online is notified when I put the disc in the mail, so that they can ship out the next one off the top of my queue even before they receive the one I’m returning. But in practice, I’m getting slightly longer turnaround times than I did with Netflix.
So, as of today, I’ve cancelled my membership with Blockbuster Online and I’m going back to Netflix.
With Netflix, I had a few bad/unplayable discs, but it was something like one every few months. No big deal.
With Netflix, the experience I had with their customer service was much better than with Blockbuster Online. Here’s an example: With Netflix, I can log in once and the site remembers me. I can view and edit my movie queue without having to authenticate again. If, however, I want to get into the ‘My Account’ section, then the website authenticates me again. I agree with this practice. My movie queue is not top secret, and besides, I assume responsibility for my own computer system.
With Blockbuster Online, it was much worse. The website required authentication on a daily basis–even to just view your queue. This gets old real quick. I found a plug-in for Firefox which automatically reloaded a page on a variable timeframe. This helped keep me to keep my logged-in status to the Blockbuster Online website, but still, it expired on a daily basis and I had to log-in again the next day.
I informed Blockbuster Online’s customer service about this issue, and they gave me a very curtious response which basically said, “Thanks for letting us know.” They seem to believe that the member (me) is not able to be responsible for their own computer system, and therefore must impose strict security on the member’s my movie queue. I think requiring authentication daily just to view my movie queue is rediculous. Blockbuster Online seems to believe that it’s necessary.
So, the verdict is in: Netflix rocks!
BTW, it’s interesting to note that while I was cancelling my account with Blockbuster Online, I got an error from the website. So, at this point, I’m not even sure if it really is cancelled.
