Verdict on Blockbuster vs. Netflix
I am halfway through the 30-day free trial of BlockBuster Total Access, and by now I am quite ready to cancel out of Netflix, even with forthcoming Internet streaming feature. There’s a BlockBuster participating in Total Access plan right across from Facebook worldwide corporate headquarters, and living within a walking distance contributes to the bias towards Blockbuster. Your mileage may vary.
Every movie I get via mail I return to local Blockbuster and get a free in-store rental, which usually allows me to get the newest releases right away. Moreover, the return gets recorded in Blobkbuster database, the next movie is queued for being sent out the next morning, and effectively I am getting double the rentals I was getting with Netflix.
This is especially relevant for the weekend, as USPS doesn’t deliver on Sundays, so frequently sending out Netflix envelopes on Friday or Saturday would not get your replacement DVDs in till Monday-Tuesday. With Blockbuster I just bring Friday/Saturday mailings to the local store.
A coupon for a free rental or game doesn’t hurt either. Granted, it’s once a month thing, but it allows me to test drive a Wii game before committing to buying one.
Previously it seemed that Blockbuster selection was not as wide as Netflix’s one, so if one’s after the long tail of movies, Netflix was a definite choice. Now I browse through the New Releases pages of both sites, and have not noticed any significant differences between two online stores. Basically, there’re just so many suppliers in the wholesale DVD world, and looks like both Netflix and Blockbuster cover the same selection. Neither one, as far as I know, has any exclusive deals, so in the long run both will have to strive to avoid commoditization.
January 31st, 2007 at 10:10 pm #Jason Draper
I’ve been following your readings here and have sad similar results however my movies do not seem to be shipping out from blockbuster as quick as yours do. I return my movies to blockbuster one day and usually two days after it they will ship another movie, not the same day. Other than that the service is amazing, the fact that you get double the dvds is well worth an extra day in between, shipping would take that longa anyway!
September 6th, 2007 at 3:01 pm #Klaus Springfield
Be aware that there is a bug in the Blockbuster shipping algorithm. For whatever reason, the part of the algorithm responsible for shipping new movies when movies are returned to the store monitors the “expected delivery date”. If you return a movie to a store on a date before that on which you are predicted to receive it, the program does not know how to resolve the conflict arising from a movie being returned before it is received. So, the program apparently does nothing until all of the movies it had sent are physically received by a distribution center. At that time, it encounters another impossible situation with Total Access, a totally empty shipped movie queue. It then resets itself and new movies are shipped. This process can add up to 3 days in shipping delay. This wouldn’t be a problem if Blockbuster did not overestimate shipping times. I live 100 miles from the nearest Blockbuster distribution center (Tampa). Every movie that I have thus far received has had a predicted arrival date 2 days from when shipped. USPS shipping from Tampa to here is 1 day, always (except for hurricanes). So if I receive a movie on a Tuesday and return it on a Wed, because my anrticipated delivery date is Thursday, I trigger the bug. Also, since the stores are open every day, if a movie is shipped to me on Friday, I receive it on Saturday, but the program predicts Monday (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday). I have learned to live with this, and it really isn’t a problem now that I know what is happening. So, any delay you might be experiencing might be due to the return of a movie before Blockbustrer predicts you will receive it.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:50 am #malcolm
I figured that the EXPECTED DELIVERY DATE was stopping me from
getting my DVDs sent! It is especially bad for me because I ALWAYS
return the DVDs the same day I get them, and with an EXPECTED
2 day delivery that takes ONE DAY, blockbuster would hold off until
AFTER THEY RECEIVE THEM IN THE WAREHOUSE!!@@
REALLY frustrating because then when I’d complain and try toget them
to send new DVDs, they’d now CLAIM THAT IT SHOWED THAT THEY
JUST NOW GOT THEM IN THE MAIL! The returned to store was replaced
by the RECEIVED AT WAREHOUSE DATE!
Frustrating