Reporter Tests Netflix, Blockbuster & Walmart

A reporter for the Orange County Register signed up for the top 3 dvd-by-mail services (Netflix, Blockbuster & Walmart) for four months and wrote about her experience at "Netflix licks the competition in online DVD rentals - but just barely, a movie fan finds".

I signed up for Netflix, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster and used all three from August until November. I quickly found my mailbox flooded with DVDs. All three services had generally prompt service, the discs worked fine and the mail-back system was easy to use. You just stick the movie back into a pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope and drop it in the mail.

She covers all of the important items for each company: price, availability, shipping, etc. The other services are getting better, but in the end she went with Netflix:

So, when it came time this week for me regretfully to cancel two of my services and keep only one for my personal use, I kept Netflix. If Netflix hadn't lowered its price by four dollars a month, though, I probably would have gone with Blockbuster.

Comments

[John]

I tried all three, too. I stopped Blockbuster because of their website. I would find a movie I hadn't seen in a while, but it wouldn't be for rent on DVD. I have no idea why they put it up there if it wasn't available. I cancelled Walmart because they didn't have the type of movies I wanted, and the ones they did have were "long waits."
I like Netflix and got the three at a time plan. I do watch more movies now because going to the video store is a pain because I have to walk about a mile to get there. I thought of getting a 5 or 8 at a time plan, but realized I only watch about 10 movies a month, which comes to $1.80 each rental, which is still cheaper than Blockbuster, and they come right to me, too!

By the way, nice site!

[Kate]

It seems like she would only go with Blockbuster because of a slightly better selection of family films.

[BADASS]

NETFLIX RULES, EVERYONE KNOW IT.....EVEN IF JUST A LITTLE BIT!

[manuel]

How convenient. Marla Jo Fisher writes for a newspaper in Orange County, Florida which just happens to have a Netflix distribution center. I don't think the folks in Orange County would be too happy if she wrote anything derogatory about Netflix. More like she's supporting her local economy.

Keep up the good work Baddass ;-)

[From Wyoming]

Netflix is great. I'm in Laramie, WY, which is 120 miles (2 days' mail) from the nearest distribution center, Denver.

They always seem to get movies out the door the same day they get them from me. Two days to them. Two days back to me. So, a roundtrip is 4-5 days (depending on where the Sundays fall. I usually watch the movie the night I get it, so I'm getting 5-7 roundtrips per month. I'm getting 15-21 movie rentals for $18 bucks. Can't beat that. It's a little more expensive than buying Starz, HBO, etc. but I'm getting movies I want. I doubt there's ever been a month that anyone could list 18 movies they wanted to watch, and any of the premium cable/satellite movie channels had even half of them on a month.

I chose the movies I want.
I simply have to walk to the mail box.
Easy.

And, it's only costing me $1 per movie, or less!

[manuel]

For "from Wyoming"
What post are you replying to? This one's about an article in Orange County Register. I think you want the "Netflix Fake Testimonials" post. Your post is as irrelevant as the one posted by "Badass."

[like2b4u]

Manuel, the writer is in Orange county, California not Florida although it also has a distribution center there (Santa Ana). This info was given in the start of the article.

[Lauria]

If I want to see a movie, I go to the theater, buy it, or borrow it from a friend. I've not tried any of the 3 services in the article, but Blockbuster would never be an option for me. I know for a fact that they have some dubious business practices. I know for a fact that though they've spent no telling how much money on their "no late fees" advertising campaign, that policy does not apply to all their stores and not to any in my area. BTW, Manuel, do you work for them? Just wondering...

[goober22]

I'm on the 3-out plan at Netflix now and get 3-day shipping (Yep, 3-day). The last 5 disc that Netflix got back, they delayed shipping 3 of them until the next day ("shipping tomorrow"). At that rate, I'm lucky to get 10 a month, yet I pay the same money as folks getting 1-day shipping and getting as much as 20-25 a month.

When this month expires, I'm moving over to Blockbuster. At least if they aren't any faster, I don't lose anything. I'll also save $3 a month and get 2 in-store rentals as well.

I already cancelled Netflix and got a questionaire yesterday about why i cancelled. I cited the long shipping times and slow turn arounds. Today they got a movie back at 9am but, again, delayed my replacement until "tomorrow"!

[nomorenflix]

I too am leaving Netflix this month. I was perfectly happy with their service till they lowered the prices. I would ship a movie, Netflix got it the next day and shipped out my new movies that day. I am very close to the distribution center. This was the case for several years. They lowered the prices and now all of a sudden my service sux. Now it takes two days for them to get the dvds back and then they don't ship till the next day.

[manuel]

Sorry for getting my facts wrong. No, I don't work for Blockbuster. Do you work for Netflix? If you read my journal...
http://www.manuelsweb.com/netflixjournal2.htm
...you'll see I don't pay them too many compliments either. Blockbuster sent me a broken DVD on the first 3 DVDs shipped out. They're both the same to me except Blockbuster hasn't caused me the amount of grief Netflix has. I didn't appreciated being screwed and my anger motivates me to make my opinions known.

[dld]

"If I want to see a movie, I go to the theater, buy it, or borrow it from a friend. I've not tried any of the 3 services in the article, but Blockbuster would never be an option for me. I know for a fact that they have some dubious business practices..."

It is too funny, you describe the kind of behavior (somene renting a movie and loaning it to friends) which casued peopel to keep movies for along time and created the late fees.

You then are calling the sensibvel business reaction "doubious."

If you lend a netflix movie to freinds, netflix benifits as they do with every instance of lenghting the time the movie is kept. If you do this with blockbuster BM you are decreasing their profit unless they charge you for the time you keep the film.

although both deal with films, they are fundimentally different business models with netflix having a high cost in transaction, and blockbuster BM in inventory. The more blockbuster BM turns over a film the more it makes, the more netflix turns over a film the less it makes.

Incidently your borrowing of the fim is illegal in the case of a rental from either blockbuster or netflix or even if your friend bought the fim. perhaps your behaviour is dubious!

[Mada]

Hi, can somebody help? I'm a student from Portugal and I am working on a case-study about Blockbuster and the movie rental industry in the USA. Trying to find out who their main competitors were I came accross Netflix and Walmart. I understand that Netflix provides online rental and postal delivery. I also understand that Walmart, through www.walmart.com also provides online rental and postal delivery. But does Walmart also provides rental in store (like Blockbuster)?

Thanks so much anyone who can hel and Im sorry for not commenting on what I was supposed to! Tks

[REN]

I think Blockbuster is unique in providing in store rentals coupons. Walmart isn't a video rental store. Blockbuster stores were around way before their online service began. They are kinda seperate businesses, but you get in-store coupons when you subscribe to the online service.

[elustran]

dld:

"Incidently your borrowing of the fim is illegal in the case of a rental from either blockbuster or netflix or even if your friend bought the fim. perhaps your behaviour is dubious!"

Borrowing a movie is totally legal. In fact, buying a movie retail or wholesale, then charging a rental fee for people to see it without first consulting the copyright owner is legal. Essentially, you're transfering temporary ownership to whoever has the hardcopy. Most local video stores simply buy movies and then rent them out to customers.

In addition, I'm pretty sure Lauria was simply talking about borrowing movies that a friend owned, not rentals.

[Kelly]

I have used Netflix for over a year. The service is not as good as before the price decrease. But Blockbuster's service has not been good. It takes far too long for the movies to arrive if they arrive at all. At this time never is very satisfactory.

[Gary]

Blockbuster has one big advantage (at least to me) over Netflix - Blockbuster receives and ships on SATURDAYS - Netflix does not! This directly affects the number of rentals I can get per month.

I have been a Netflix subscriber for 5 years (since March, 2000) and I just cancelled my Netflix account this week and moved over to Blockbuster. Like others here, I have seen the turnaround time drop to 2-3 days ever since the price drop, and I live in Orange County, California about 15 miles from the Santa Ana distribution site.

Blockbuster is cheaper and just seems to have better service. Also, Blockbuster has titles you can't get with Netflix, like SuperBit and DTS-only versions of popular movies. Another plus is that you can use the in-store coupons to rent GAMES if you are a gamer.

[Yeah,Yeah,Yeah]

I too will be leaving Netflix very soon.
I used to love Netflix but since they cut the price (nov 2004?) their service is garbage. Garbage!!!
I would ship a movie back, and Netflix got it the next day and they in turn would ship out my new movie that day.
I am very close to a distribution center and even closer to a Postal Distribution Center.
They lowered the prices and now all of a sudden my service sux. Now it takes two days,sometimes three, for them to get the dvds back and then they don't ship till the next day or sometimes three days later.
I'm lucky if I get three dvd's a week!!
At first I thought that they had flagged me personally for getting dvd's back to them so quickly, but now I realize it's their service. I wish they would charge a few dollars more per month for their old premium service. I'd gladly pay it.
It's a shame because I really liked the old Netflix and the great choices. Nobody else comes close to the variety that they have.
I especailly liked the variety of Television series that they have.

[bill]

I subscribe to Netflix (NF) and Blockbuster (BB) online. I've mailed three envelopes back at the same time to each and almost invariably I get the NF replacements quicker. Also, I have 44 movies in my BB queue and 22 are a "short" to "very long wait." I sometimes move the movies I want from BB to Netflix to get them quicker (or at all!!). Netflix are almost always "available now" (AN). Or else I have to keep reordering my queue and put the AN's at the top of the list.