Lamarr is thinking of taking the Blockbuster Online deal and quitting Netflix:
Do you know how Blockbuster's online rental program is doing in Chicago? Do they have a facility in Chicago now? I'm tempted to take advantage of their "2 month free & steal ya from Netflix" promotion. I've realized that I don't really watch more than 12 movies/month now that I've gotten busy, so the 1 day turnaround isn't as important. Having 2 in-store game rentals IS a cool option, and getting 3 movies a week is sufficient.
I'm still getting better turnaround from Netflix, but Blockbuster has come a long way since last fall.
If you're a Blockbuster Online customer, how would you rate the service? How does it compare to Netflix? Do we have any Blockbuster Online customers in the Chicago area?
I have used Blockbusters online service for 3 months now. I have been with Netflix since October 2002.
Blockbuster still has availability issues. Many movies with "Short / Long Wait" The 2 in store rentals are a great extra but with the longer turnaround times Netflix is still a better deal. Even with the "Throttling"
Posted by: John | June 29, 2005 at 07:06 AM
I live in the Atlanta area and switched over from Netflix to Blockbuster last August because despite the fact that they had a warehouse right down the street, Netflix titles were taking upwards of a week to get to me.
At first, the Blockbuster turnaround time was similar, but the two coupons for in store rentals made up for it. If I was itching for a movie, I could nearly walk to the Blockbuster down the road and get one (or two) for free!
As Blockbuster opened more distribution centers and especially one in Atlanta, turnaround time got much, much better. My titles are usually shipped out one or two days after I send the previous ones back to them. It might still take three days to get to me at times, but overall, I'm a very happy Blockbuster Online customer.
Posted by: Lynda | June 29, 2005 at 07:29 AM
I switched 3 weeks ago due to the throttling from net flix. Up to this date, I'm very happy with blockbuster because they have the movies I want to see, turnaround is 2days(same as netflix) and they are cheaper.
Posted by: Frank | June 29, 2005 at 07:53 AM
Evil idea for Blockbuster-- they could utilize Netflix RSS support to build a migration tool.
They just need to have the user copy and paste their Queue RSS into a form at Blockbuster, and Blockbuster could use it to populate their queue.
Posted by: Ross M Karchner | June 29, 2005 at 08:14 AM
I have used both recently and have to give BB the edge. I am one of the lucky (it seems) and already get USPS scanning, so my discs are shipped out the day after I mail them even though it takes 2 days to physically get back. After 4 months, I have never had a disc "held" to ship later, or a return to come in but no disc go out the same day. They don't always send me the discs at the top of the queue, but they always send one.
Some of the bad:
The website is pretty bad. It needs to be more user friendly and have a better search engine.
More movie availability, which they have said they are addressing.
No mulitple queue profiles. Once you use NFs, you miss them.
Posted by: Robert Hartley | June 29, 2005 at 08:54 AM
Any comments from Chicago users? I'm trying to guage Chicago specifically. Thanks! :)
Posted by: Lamarr | June 29, 2005 at 09:04 AM
I dumped my free trial last week. I am fine with the slow turnaround, I don't care so much. But not shipping my movies in order really ticked me off. If they fix that, I will go with whoever is cheaper be it BB or NF.
Posted by: Evan | June 29, 2005 at 09:07 AM
I'm a Blockbuster user in Buffalo Grove (northern Suburb of Chicago). When I return, Blockbuster gets them next morning (i.e., something I gave to the mailman yesterday, they checked it in this morning). When they ship, it takes me 2 days to get it (something shipped today will come on Friday). They ship from a center that as far as I can tell is on the south side somewhere.
(Just for the record, I'm currently doing a Netflix trial too, and I was very surprised and impressed that discs actually came next day. Probably not enough to make me switch, though, because it costs more and I have enough to watch as it is).
Posted by: Adam | June 29, 2005 at 09:14 AM
Now that I read the original post again, I should point out that you should easilly get 3 a week with Blockbuster, at least if I'm any indication. If you're actually IN the city, it's probably even faster than I'm getting.
Oh, and I just rechecked - the Zip of their PO Box is 60680, which appears to be the main post office by the Eisenhower.
Posted by: Adam | June 29, 2005 at 09:17 AM
I just recently switched to BB after being a Netflix customer for about a year. The throttling was getting out of hand. I went from 2 day shipping out of Kansas City to NEVER getting a Kansas City shipping Usually 3-4 day and all movies were taking an extra day to ship even if they got it early morning they would still wait. I went from 5-6 per week to 3-4 MAYBE. With the printable cupon that was the clincher. It lets you get games. Those two coupons have a worth of almost the whole monthly cost of the service. I usually rent at one game a month sometimes two. With the online servie and the coupons its now like getting the movies free and paying for two games a month. Speed wise BB has a center in Kansas City as well (closest to us in South Central Nebraska) of my initial shipment of 3 movies 1 was a day early 1 was on time and 1 was late one day of antisipated 3 day delivery. Even if a hair slower from a money standpoint as long as Netflix keeps up throttling BB is better bang for my buck especially with cuopons.
Posted by: Joe D. | June 29, 2005 at 10:09 AM
I forgot to add the website could use some tweaking (BB) logging back in at seemingly random intervals (anywhere from 10 seconds to 15 min) and the BIGGEST annoying thing is not being able to open movies up in another window. I right click to open a movie in another window and it won't?!?!
Posted by: Joe D. | June 29, 2005 at 10:10 AM
Never used Netflix, so can't compare it to their turnaround times, but I am in Chicagoland and they do seem to get the DVDs I mail the next day, and I'll get the next one anywhere from 1 to 3 days later. I'm pretty satisfied with it.
The extra coupons are an added plus, except that I've come to the realization that video rental stores are pretty much worthless because they carry next to nothing I care about seeing (you know, anything that isn't a new release, a big name blockbuster, or tv shows) I never was a big movie renter until I signed up for the online trial, so I hadn't realized just how few titles are in the stores. They don't actually KEEP everything ever released, like video stores could do in the olden days.
Posted by: Laura | June 29, 2005 at 11:42 AM
I switched a few weeks ago. I'm fine with BB's turn around time, but shipping movies out of order does irritate me, as I carefully try to plan the grouping of movies for the weekend. I was with Netflix for almost three years. I'm on the BB two month free trial and not sure if I'll stay once it's over--maybe just through the summer. I like quirky movies so I may try one of the other places like GreenCine.
Posted by: chris | June 29, 2005 at 12:01 PM
I joined Blockbuster two days ago. I have added 30 movies to my Queue. The problem I have is that fully half of the movies requested are short to very long wait. All of these movies are listed as available now on my Neflix account. Will wait and see.
Posted by: David | June 29, 2005 at 12:09 PM
I think that the website and the difficulty in predicting
which films will be delivered when are the only issues
with BB.
NF's recent (new to me) throttling of when they admit
receiving a disk, on top of the good
"Shipping Tomorrow" gimick have confirmed that BB has
better throughput.
Posted by: PlungeBob | June 29, 2005 at 12:55 PM
hello
what is this promotion:
"2 month free & steal ya from Netflix" promotion."
where can i find this 2 month free promotion?
Posted by: greg | June 29, 2005 at 01:15 PM
Blockbuster.com should meet your needs. We do roughly 10-12 DVDs a month with blockbuster.com. From the day we send a movie back, it usually takes about three days to get the next movie. I've never used Netflix, but I've been happy with Blockbuster.com, especially since they have fixed the availability issues they were having at the beginning of the year.
Posted by: Jason | June 29, 2005 at 01:36 PM
"I have used both recently and have to give BB the edge. I am one of the lucky (it seems) and already get USPS scanning"
, I would love to know what that "usps Scanning" is all about.
Posted by: paulqnyc | June 29, 2005 at 01:49 PM
"I have used both recently and have to give BB the edge. I am one of the lucky (it seems) and already get USPS scanning"
, I would love to know what that "usps Scanning" is all about.
Posted by: paulqnyc | June 29, 2005 at 01:50 PM
Blockbuster can claim to have 'x' number of DVDs, but the number Long Wait and Coming Soon DVDs in my queue begs to differ. I've had fifteen movies on these statuses for months now, and when I cancel in two weeks, I'll do it happily.
Plus, Blockbuster Online is horrendous looking. They desperately need to redesign it.
Posted by: Gregory Conley | June 29, 2005 at 04:05 PM
Adam, thanks for the comments on Chicago. It's good to see that you're getting them in 1-2 days in the Chicagoland area. I am actually in the city (Hyde Park) so that sounds pretty good. I'm also one who likes to play video games occassionally, so the 2 free coupons is a steal. I was just in Blockbuster today to look at some used games, and on their board, a game rental for one week is 6.99. So that's a $14 savings right there. Also, movie rentals are over $4, so this is really a good deal. I may end up waiting until the end of the month because Netflix just charged me for the month a few days ago and if I cancel now, I lose the rest of the month. At the same time though, I don't want to lose this Blockbuster promotion should they choose to cut it off if they raise prices as predicted. So I'll decide on this and do what's best.
Posted by: Lamarr | June 29, 2005 at 04:28 PM
hey Lamarr,
share with us the promotion. site, link, etc...
Posted by: | June 29, 2005 at 04:59 PM
i gave blockbuster a try
it stinks
the website is crazy bad
everything i want is on long wait
i got the wrong movie once
i got an emty envelope
netflix is so much better its almost embarrassing
Posted by: jeff | June 29, 2005 at 05:57 PM
"I forgot to add the website could use some tweaking (BB) logging back in at seemingly random intervals (anywhere from 10 seconds to 15 min) and the BIGGEST annoying thing is not being able to open movies up in another window. I right click to open a movie in another window and it won't?!?!"
Until I read your post I thought I was the only one with the strange "timing-out" on the BB web site.
The inability to right-click is also annoying. I have an extension in my browser that allows right-clicking on web sites that have it locked out. BB is the only site where the extension doesn't work.
Posted by: J | June 29, 2005 at 05:58 PM
", I would love to know what that "usps Scanning" is all about."
Do a search here, there are plenty of posts. Basically, BB uses (pays, has access to, etc.) the USPS database and when they see one of your discs has been scanned (as in; its barcode has been read and routed for delivery back to a BB address), BB sends you out another disc even though they have not physically received it. This is done to speed up delivery time. It works great for me but some other say they don't see it or it only works occasionally. You can tell its working if you are on the 3-out plan but you rountinely show 4, 5 or even 6-out in you queue. It means they are passing in the mail.
Posted by: | June 29, 2005 at 06:01 PM