03.31.06

My thoughts on NetFlix

Posted in Entertainment, Movies at 4:05 pm by Jason Permalink

As an avid movie renter I was dropping some serious coin at the local Blockbuster, so I finally decided to give online rental a go. I first tried Blockbuster.com and was quite happy with the service until they modified their ‘New Release’ list. For some insane reason they kneecapped it, and it began only showing a VERY small subset of movies soon to be released. This frustrated me so I wrote to them And they sent me some stupid reply that made no sense whatsoever. So, against the warnings of many of my friends and family who had bad experiences (the exact ones I was soon to enjoy), I switched to NetFlix.com.

At first it was GREAT! I had the 3 out plan and was tracking a very tidy ROI over my in-store expenditures… I had an average turnaround time of about 2 days (I staggered the movies). It was awesome. Then something odd began to happen. It started to take longer and longer to process my returns and get me the next movie in my queue. I sent them a note and got the same idiotic response that my naysayer friends had gotten “The movies must be coming from a distribution hub that is farther from your house”. Well sure that makes sense, but why on earth was my distribution center changed?? Being the data base guru that I am I started pondering the possibility that they may be discriminating against certain ‘active’ users. Perhaps people that were getting too good of a deal were being throttled to bring their rental patterns more into line with the average customer… No, couldn’t be

Well… I have had on a few separate occasions spoken with consultants who actually worked on this very system!! What the HELL!

Anyway, I switched back to Blockbuster.com before i had direct confirmation anyway. It began costing more per movie from netflix than my local blockbuster, defeating the whole idea of renting online. I overcame the deficiency of blockbusters ‘new release’ listings by using IMDBs instead, which is VERY comprehensive. I have never had a problem with Blockbuster throttling my mailings and they even give you free in-store rentals as well.

So screw NetFlix and take blockbuster.com, that’s what I tell anyone who asks and even some who don’t

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