mswell

Some interesting stuff I didn't know before, just found this on IRC.

http://www.wooba.com/archives/2004/0...etflix-rentals

P.E.

Nice article, I'm going to have to subscribe one of these days.

mswell

After you do subscribe, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!

SideShow

That's a really nice article, thanks for posting it! They're right about the cheaper rental services "sucking", when I used the Wal-Mart trial it once (said) it sent the DVD, then the next day thanked me for returning it and sent the next disc. The thing is, I NEVER recieved the disc in the first place!

Netflix has their act together better than any other of the services, I'm totally addicted to them.

Tony Dvdfan

Interesting article...i've always had new releases ship out on mondays, often get them wednesday.

Great service, i'm on BB's trial but Netflix is definately better!

sataniko

Interesting article, although I'm a bit disappointed with Netflix, I just subscribed for a free trial and they shipped my first 3 DVD's on Monday expected to be received on Thursday, which I did. Now I live 2 hrs away from the distribution center, isn't the shipping time a little longer than it should be? Living so close to a distribution I expected to received the DVD's within one day!

matome

Nice article. I may actually join to check out those TV sets that are just too expensive to warrant a blind buy.

Meatpants

I'm going to try Netflix next, I signed up for the Blockbuster trial last week and it absolutely sucks.

Husker

I've had Netflix for over 3 months now and I'll never go back. It's better than I ever thought it would be and I can now get those obsure classics I like to watch.

Their service is phenominal!!!

ThatGuamGuy

I love Netflix as much as the next guy, but, for the record, this exact thing happened to me with Netflix too, only it was more than a day. It "sent" a disc, then, more than a week later, thanked us for returning it.

copiedline

I think a lot of it must depend where you live. I was a greencine member for four months and I'm currently on Blockbusters free trial after also trying Netflix, Nicheflix and Walmart. I'm in Dayton and the time it takes me to recieve discs has been exactly the same with all of them, around three days. I never really understood this since greencine and nichelix are on the west coast and the rest all came from Michigan. I never had a problem with any discs missing on any program. Perhaps, the Dayton Post Office is a little slow. But that's been my experience, very little difference between any of them.

shill66

A lot of the emphasis in the article is on how to get the new releases. I have been a Netflix customer since they started, and my queue has almost always been exclusively full of catalog titles. You just set yourself up for disappointment if you want to use Netflix for new releases, IMHO.

duse

Netflix has recently added a hub in Columbia, SC, so I am very happy. I put Kill Bill2 in the mail yesterday morning, it was received this morning, and I should have my next movie by tomorrow. It's not going to get much better than that. I'm very happy with them.

Movie_Man

Having been a member for about 2 years now, there's nothing there that I didn't already know, but this is good info for the new member. The only part that seems to be missing is that Netflix seems to take an extra day receiving discs if you are a high volume renter.
I don't know if it's changed, but the one time I reported a disc as unplayable about a year ago, they immediately sent out a replacement, so that I did in-fact have 4 discs out. I was very impressed.

Chew

Entirely dependent on the center. I'm in Wisconsin and can still get new releases sent to me on the Thursday after release.

duse

Nevermind, I just checked my queue, and they will ship my movie on Monday. It was actually my second choice, and my first choice was available. They have an answer for everything. They will tell you the reason that they skipped the 1st movie was it might not have been available from the local center, but apparently the second choice was not available either. Not sure if it was because I'm turning movies around quickly or not. Paranoia will destroy 'ya.

jim_cook87

You may be misplacing the blame...

The day Paycheck came out on DVD I received notice from Netflix that they had shipped Paycheck. The next day I got home and had a Netflix mailer in the mailbox, I opened it and was surprised to find Paycheck, it ALWAYS takes 2 days for movies to arrive, but I thought nothing of it. The next day I came home and found another Netflix mailer in my mailbox, "Strange" I thought as I already had 3 movies in the house... I opened it and found Paycheck, "Really weird." Went down to the home theater and looked at the other copy of Paycheck, the name and address was a neighbor up the street...

Had I not ended up with the duplicate and 4 discs at home at once I probably would've just watched my neighbors movie and sent it back for him never realizing it wasn't addressed to somebody else...

I've had another neighbor, that wasn't a Netflix subscriber bring a disc mistakenly delivered to his house over...

I'd bet there's a good chance the post office made a mistake and it wasn't a Netflix error...

clckworang

I love Netflix. I have been using the service for a couple years now and rarely have any problems with availability issues, and I watch a wide variety of films. I just hate that I have a membership to Nicheflix for out of region titles. I realize it's not their thing, but it would be nice if Netflix offered titles from other regions, maybe for just a little bit extra in your membership.

nightmaster

Sounds like I'm not the only one NOT AT ALL impressed with what Blockbusters' rental sevice is showing me. I signed up 10 days ago and have received 3 discs.....one of which wouldnt play and I had to report as a problem. At this rate I MIGHT get 9 discs per month.
Another obvious blight on their site is this......I put 11 DVDs in my queue.......know what? 5 of them had a very long wait or long wait status. Theres no way I'm going to pay $20 a month for garbage like that. Netflix has it all over these guys and THESE guys of all businesses should have been able to come out shining from day one.

Dvdsky

I'm in my 30-day Blockbuster trial also, and the fact that it takes 2-3 days for shipping is a big negative. We can go through far more movies with Netflix (1 day turnaround).

The good points about Blockbuster are that if a new version of a DVD comes out (with better transfer, more extras, etc.) Blockbuster seems to usually get it. Netflix usually sticks with the older, featureless versions. Also, you get 2 free B&M Blockbuster rentals a month, so if you'd rent from there anyway (for new releases, for example) that's a pretty good value.

jough

One problem with Netflix lately is that they seem to offer only "RENTAL ONLY - NOT FOR SALE" versions of Warner Bros. discs (including New Line, etc.) which have either no or fewer special features than the retail versions.

Otherwise, I love the service. One day each way turnaround for me, and I sometimes have to wait for new releases, but usually not more than one turn (i.e. if it's Short Wait then by the next time I return a disc I usually will get that one).

Not too shabby.

Once Walmart adds more distribution centers they may be able to compete, but for now, no one can touch Netflix in terms of fast turnaround.

DodgingCars

Strange. Maybe it depends on where you live? I'm on the Blockbuster thing right now and they are super quick, but then their distribution center is about 30 miles from my house.

Out of the 12 discs I've received, only 1 wouldn't play and they sent me the replacement really quick.

Dvdsky

Yeah, I'm sure my Blockbuster slowness is just because of how far away they are. My closest Blockbuster center is 400 miles from me, and the closest Netflix one is 15 miles.

I forgot to add, another good thing about Blockbuster is that they process mail on Saturdays, which Netflix doesn't.