Blockbuster Wants Your Netflix Envelopes

From December 5th through the 21st, Netflix subscribers can bring the address flap (the part you usually throw away) from a Netflix envelope to a participating Blockbuster store and trade it for a free, in-store rental. You don't have to sign up for Blockbuster Online, but you do need a free store membership.

You can read the press release and get all of the details.

Thanks to John A. and RJ for sending this in.

Comments

[Hunter McDaniel]

12 miles round-trip to pick it up, 12 miles round-trip to take it back - with a conservative estimate of 35 cents per mile, that's almost 9 bucks for my "free" rental.

I'm glad BBO is still around to provide some competition to Netflix, but their TA program has no appeal to me.

[Edward R Murrow]

Short walk across the parking lot from my grocery store, right next to Starbucks where I get my daily coffee. I didn't think my DVD rental life could get any better, but it just went off the friggin' hook!

Can't wait to see what Neil Hunt over at Netflix has to say about this.

[eazyguy52]

Wouldn't you know, I just shredded bunch of those last night!

[machinegunn]

@Hunter:
That's $8.40. Assuming you can bring in 3 envelopes, you're getting them at a rate of $2.80 per. I average around $1.50/NF rental.

Still, that may not be worth it for you if you never go in that direction anyway. However, I have one BB a quarter mile from me and 8 others within 5 miles. I think a lot of NF customers are similarly situated, in that they have a BB location convenient.

You are right on that this sort of competition is great for the consumer. It's a good move on BB's part too, since this will get me to visit a brick and mortar store and probably sign up for an account.

[cmmsml]

Not even the offer of completely free video rentals is enough to get me back into Blockbuster.

[munkey]

I'm a self-avowed netflix fan, but I have to admit, this is a clever marketing gimmick, and I hope BB keeps up the pressure for competition sake. It'll only make Netflix that much better ;)

[zenubio]

Is is New Releases or the old crap? Only worth it for new releases.

[eazyguy52]

"Not even the offer of completely free video rentals is enough to get me back into Blockbuster."

Me neither. My plan has been to cancel at the end of December and still is. I managed to retrieve a few of those netflix flaps out of my trash can so I did take advantage of them and grabbed Miamia Vice and Oh in Ohio. But it still comes down to the fact that blockbuster advertises over 60,000 movies, but if a movie you want is not in their "2 day shipping window" they won't send it, never will, and with that policy there's no way you'll ever get it unless they place a copy in you distribution area.

One way for Netflix to do the same would be to have you send a blockbuster flap back with your rentals for free Netflix rentals. But I don't look for that to happen.

[hawk5391]

I got one movie today with this promotion. This is what happened:
First, the sales clerk started humping my leg about signing up for BBs Total Access Program. Seriously, it was like being at a timeshare presentation. I explained I didn't want to switch. He pointed out how many more movies I would get and how much money I would save, a logical fallacy considering that the programs are priced the same. When I continued to resist, he had to go get the manager to bring the "special barcode" that needed to be scanned for me to get the offer.
The manager appeared to be in total disbelief that I didn't want to switch, telling me about all the fabulous upgrades BB has made. I told her I had seen the upgrades, they weren't that fabulous, and she might be biased. That really set her off, and she told me "we're just trying to save you money!" I told her if she really wanted to debate the differences between BB and NF I would be happy to oblige but it seems that she suddenly remembered a doctor's appointment. Oh well, I guess it is flu season.
P. S. Where can you live without having a Blockbuster within 12 miles? Out here in California you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one.

[junkfood]

Wow, I love it. I currently have both Netflix and BBO plans. Once I get past the holiday vacation time, I was planning to cut BBO down to one of the lowest levels and stick with Netflix.

Still probably will, but I appreciate the freebies from BB. I have to admit I really like the ability to drop in once a week to pick up some new releases that are harder to get quickly. That's basically what I use the BBO plan for.

I guess BB figures others will like it too and perhaps make the switch from Netflix to BBO.

[junkfood]

R Hawkins, that's interesting. I'll be curious what the guy says when I tell him that I already have a BBO account too.

[Hunter McDaniel]

R Hawkins - I'm in a suburban part of Boulder, CO and it is six miles into the main business area to reach Blockbuster; 12 miles is round-trip.

[Edward R Murrow]

"One way for Netflix to do the same would be to have you send a blockbuster flap back with your rentals for free Netflix rentals. But I don't look for that to happen."

It's not bad enough that Netflix throttles it's own customers, now you want Blockbuster customers to get a taste of what it's like to get throttled by Netflix?
;-)

[type-cast]

"12 miles round-trip to pick it up, 12 miles round-trip to take it back - with a conservative estimate of 35 cents per mile, that's almost 9 bucks for my "free" rental."

Your numbers don't add up. You seem to have factored in fixed costs like insurance and maintenance. How does it cost 35 cents each mile, unless your car just gets 6-7 miles a gallon? Those are fake numbers based on IRS allowed deductions for business travel...

[hawk5391]

No offense Hunter, I'm sure you checked the mileage correctly. Sometimes it's just hard to believe that BB isn't ominpresent. They just seem to pop up like mushrooms (and we don't actually get a lot of mushrooms out here, so our preferred cliche is to say that something "pops up like Starbucks").

[type-cast]

"blockbuster advertises over 60,000 movies, but if a movie you want is not in their "2 day shipping window" they won't send it, never will,

They often send me stuff outside of a 2-day window. They should let you specify in your options if you'd rather get faster delivery or first choice. Netflix should do the same thing. It's a weakness with both companies. People have different priorities. Some want discs in order. Some don't care, as long as they get fast deliveries.

"and with that policy there's no way you'll ever get it unless they place a copy in you distribution area."

That doesn't follow, because movies go back to the local center. They don't stay in one place. They move around the country. Even if you were right about the 2-day window, they would still probably get to you gradually as they move around randomly in a 2-day radius. Netflix has the oppotiste problem, that they ignore shipping times and try to send things in order. Both companies should give you the choice of what's more important to you.

[type-cast]

"I didn't think my DVD rental life could get any better, but it just went off the friggin' hook!"

It's a 17-day deal, not a permanent thing. I don't see why you get excited. I'm not doing this, cuz I use my address flap for shipping data and other things. I think the real goal here is to get demographic information. It's dumb to give them that information for a few extra rentals. You might come to regret it.

[hueristix]

What happens when you don't get your "free" rental back to the store in time?

The non-late-re-stocking fee? Uh-huh.

[type-cast]

"He pointed out how many more movies I would get and how much money I would save, a logical fallacy considering that the programs are priced the same."

Not a fallacy at all. If you get more discs, you save money per disc. You get more movies overall with Total Access. At least twice as many, if you want. Plus, you can get the new releases much easier than you can with NFLX. Your argument reeks of desperation. What, is your stock dipping as people see how full of hot air Reed Hastings is? Condolences.

[Mr. Nethead]

There's no Blockbuster around here anywhere. Blockbuster's site doesn't even tell me where the closest one is, but I know it's some other city. We only have Movie Gallery and Family Video here, but I do live in small town. (Population 15,000)

I have both Netflix and BBO, but BBO isn't really that great of a deal for me. I get none of their "extras." I only use them because they're better at new releases than Netflix.

[junkfood]

Hueristix, I keep the free rentals from BB longer than my Netflix or BBO DVDs and have never been charged. Don't remember what the deal is, but it's something like a week's grace period past the due date before they start charging you the restocking fee. Not a big deal.

Again, I still think Netflix is much better for a variety of reasons, but I like BBO's in-store returns. I never buy any candy, I never get charged late fees, or any of the other add-on stuff that BB is hoping for. I simply walk in about once or twice a week, pick something off the shelf and take it to the counter with my return. Simple and free. Like I said earlier, that's the service that they want Netflix customers to see since the odds are the "normal" customer will buy other stuff in the store from time to time.

[CalawayCZC]

This is another lame attempt from Blackbuster to try and steal customers from Netflix. Man, I can't wait until Blockbuster finally goes out of business.

[machinegunn]

I just got three DVDs from BB using this. On first entering the store and asking how to get free movies with my NF envelopes, the young clerk (thinking I was pretty dumb) tried to explain that they were BB and not NF. As I was trying to explain what was going on, two older women came up to help. The first told me that I had to sign up for BB's Total Access to get the promotion. I told her that I wasn't going to do that and that online it said I only needed to sign up for a store membership. She gave me the "that's just what I was told" so I told her I was going to try a different location. She explained that she was actually the manager of the next closest store, and that her store would require signing up for TA. Now the other woman chimed in that she was the manager of the store I was in and that she wouldn't require me to sign up for TA.

I browsed the store to find what 3 DVDs I wanted. I must admit that since starting with NF, I had got a bit nostalgic for wandering the aisles of the rental store. However, I enjoyed that when I was back home in a locally owned place where the employees all knew me- browsing Blockbuster was not so fun. The new releases are so heavily stocked that you can see the inefficiency causing brick and mortar rental to be on its deathbed. (Though it was nice to get "OH in Ohio" and "Ant Bully" right away.)

The rest of the selection is about equal parts: 1)DVDs for sale, mainly the new releases of a month ago, which they now need to get rid of; 2) a really superficial collection of only the major genres- no documentaries, for example; 3) video games, which, if included in the TA program would easily win me over as a customer, but its sadly not an option.

Filling out the membership application was no real hassle at all, and it's only a one time thing anyway. The bitchy manager of the other store was gone, so the manager of this store was very friendly and checked me out. She said I was the first NF customer she'd had all day. The new releases are due back in two days, but I can keep Band of Brothers disc 1 for a week.

Worth noting: the store does not check any sort of date on your Netflix envelopes. I'm only on the 3at a time plan, but if it weren't for cleaning up my apartment yesterday I could have come in with 6 envelopes and got 6 DVDs from Blockbuster. So check your trashcans before trying this, I suppose.

Overall it wasn't a bad experience, but I feel like the instore selection is so limited that it would lose its value very quickly.

[hawk5391]

"Not a fallacy at all. If you get more discs, you save money per disc."
Sorry type-cast, but $17.99 is $17.99, no matter how many movies I get. There's no desperation in that argument, it's just a fact, plain and simple. You don't save money on either plan, you spend exactly the same. Check your credit card statement at the end of the month if you don't believe me. This isn't cost per unit analysis; don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. (Remember this when the wife comes home and tells you how much money she saved you at the post-holiday sales.)
Now, it might be true to say that perhaps BB gives me more value for my money by giving me more movies (assuming I take advantage of all the free rentals), but it does not save money. And I say perhaps, because value is all in the perception of the customer, and value means different things to different people, hence the need for both Wal-Mart and Nordstrom in the retail clothing industry.
By the way, I enjoy using both BB and Netflix for what they have to offer. I can care less what happens to Netflix stock, since all my money is in large cap index funds (14% per annum over the last 3 years, thank you very much).

[hawk5391]

This is the most discussion I have seen on a "non-throttling" topic in a loooonng time.

[type-cast]

"What happens when you don't get your "free" rental back to the store in time?"

You mean IF you don't get your "free" rental back within the 6-day grace period. Not all people find 8-16 days an unreasonable amount of time to watch a movie in. If you find it too little time or $1.25 re-stocking fee too steep, just enjoy all the perks you get for being a Netflix member. Oh, wait, they don't have any perks. Unless you count throttling.

[type-cast]

You get 8-14 days with the grace period. You would pay $1.25 re-stocking on a 2-day title kept 9-30 days. You would also pay $1.24 for 8-day titles kept 15-30 days. After 30 days, you own the DVD. Also, they don't apply your rental fee to purchase if you keep it beyond the grace period. Anyway, the potential cost is limited, since most DVDs sell for $12-29. Judging by my last few rental receipts.

[type-cast]

"perhaps BB gives me more value for my money by giving me more movies (assuming I take advantage of all the free rentals), but it does not save money."

Getting more saves money if you want more. A free rental saves you from having to upgrade to a higher plan. It's an "opportunity cost" savings, if you want to be technical. If you quit Netflix and just use Total Access, that would also save you money. That's the point.

[hawk5391]

type-cast, is there any truth to the rumor that you're changing your name to "blockbustershill"?

[hawk5391]

"Getting more saves money if you want more."
*SIGH*
type-cast, getting more DOES NOT SAVE MONEY! It just gets you more.
Sometimes more is good, like jalapeno poppers at happy hour.
Sometimes more is not good, like trips to the dentist.
More is more, but it does not save money.
Also, there is no such thing as an "opportunity cost savings."
Please explain how $17.99 spent at BB is less than $17.99 spent at Netflix.

[cyber.diva]

Just used the BB store locator to see where I could take my netflix envelope flaps and found none. There are 4 BB in my area and not even one is participating in Total Access.

[type-cast]

You're arguing semantics and it's pointless. You save money if you get more and drop to a lower NFLX plan or quit. The clerk obviously meant average or indirect savings - not that the BlockBuster plan costs less, as you have inferred. "save" means "to prevent waste or loss; to conserve." If you get better value, then you save. Even if you pay the same over all. The overall price is unimportant. What matters is how much you pay per-rental. You pay more with Netflix. That costs you money, now or later. You pay less with BlockBuster.

R Hawkins, Is there any truth to the rumor that you are changing your name to Aron or Weasel Buddha? I haven't heard from them a lot lately, but you seem to have taken over their place as the village idiot who thinks everyone is someone else. You're pathetic.

[eazyguy52]

"Edward R Murrow: It's not bad enough that Netflix throttles it's own customers, now you want Blockbuster customers to get a taste of what it's like to get throttled by Netflix?"

I've yet to have any trouble with throttling by Netflix and am completely satisfied with the service. On the other hand, I know that any movie I put in my Blockbuster queue that is not in what they consider their "2 day shipping window" will stay in my queue till hell freezes over unless they suddenly add a copy to one of my distribution centers, because with their policy, there's no way it could make it there. So one can only wonder how many of those 60,000 plus titles are really available to most renters. Oh and that two day shipping window is a joke anyway since it generally has taken me anywhere from 3 to 7 days to get a dvd from Blockbuster. And that's the rule rather than the exception. So my suggestion is, if you want to shill for BB, stand outside one of their stores and ring a bell.

[Toffer Peak]

"How does it cost 35 cents each mile, unless your car just gets 6-7 miles a gallon? Those are fake numbers based on IRS allowed deductions for business travel..."

35 cents per mile is not some "fake" number made up by the IRS. It is an estimate of the true overall cost of operating an average vehicle in the US. It not only considers gas costs but also other variable and quasi-fixed costs such as insurance, maintenance, depreciation, etc. These costs DO add up in the long run depending on your use even if you don't have to pay them immediately. This doesn't even consider the increased chance of dying because you are driving more.

[type-cast]

>>Also, there is no such thing as an "opportunity cost savings."

Saying it doesn't make it true or didn't you learn that in school, R Hawkins? There is an opportunity cost savings if you "prevent the loss" of money and/or time by changing to a plan with better value. If you would like to see 30 movies a month but only pay $18, are you more likely to do that with Netflix, or Blockbuster? If you want 15 a month for $18, but mostly new releases, is that more likely with Netflix or Blockbuster? Hopefully, you see that those are rhetorical questions.

"Please explain how $17.99 spent at BB is less than $17.99 spent at Netflix."

If you get things in the store that you like and would not have known about with Netflix, you can drop to a lower plan or quit. That'd save money, if you subscribe to both. It can also save time. You can go through movies at a faster speed for less money. That "saves" you from upgrading to a higher plan or using twice as much time to see a given number of movies. If you're a light user or don't like the store selection or don't have any stores nearby, then you obviously not get all that advantage. Value and savings are reletive.

[corey3rd]

like nobody has ever died walking to and from their mailbox.

[type-cast]

"35 cents per mile is not some "fake" number made up by the IRS.

It is an estimate by the IRS, and it's high enough to satisfy business people who cheat on their taxes. That's how much they'll let deduct for "business" travel. Somebody gave that figure a while ago on this site.

"It is an estimate of the true overall cost of operating an average vehicle in the US."

Very few people drive an average vehicle. I am sure it would cost less than 35 cents to drive a Prius and more for a Humvee. It's a meaningless statistic based on all sorts of assumptions about gas prices, fuel economy, insurance, driving record, and maintenance. Let's see the standard deviation and range, not just meaningless averages.

"This doesn't even consider the increased chance of dying because you are driving more."

I tend to go to video stores after 10:00 PM Sunday to Thursday when traffic's light. At 25-35 mph, chances of being killed are tiny. I could easily walk to several video stores, but I'd rather not do that late at night.

[hawk5391]

type-cast, you need to back up off the coffee. Maybe it's not that I am the same as Aron or Weasel, maybe you just have an abrasive personality.
Like my Mother-in-Law, you don't let facts get in the way of a good argument. Let me explain it to you as easily as I can: $17.99 = $17.99. No money is saved. Perhaps value is added if you consider "more videos" to be more valuable, but already on this page alone we have heard several arguments against the services BB provides. Therefore it is obvious that many reasonable people could and do disagree with you.
I have a four-year degree from a top 20 accounting school, so allow me to explain that Opportunity Cost is not a cost or a savings. It is simply a term used to indicate that selecting one option often prevents other options from being selected (in other words, selecting option #1 prevents one from selecting option #2, and so forth). It does not apply to this discussion, unless you believe that everyone ONLY has $17.99 to spend on video rentals, and can only choose one option, and that the primary criteria for the decision is the potentially greatest number of videos that may be rented.
It sounds like you may suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. Please get help immediately.

[Inactive account]

I just got my free rental without much of a problem. The clerk didn't know what I was talking about, but her coworker came over and explained the promotion to her. She told the clerk "It's so stupid" and that the point was to convert Netflix users to Blockbuster (right while I was standing there, of course!)

[Edward R Murrow]

In the memorable words of Rodney King, "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"

It's just friggin' DVDs after all.