I have been a member of Blockbuster Online for around 3 years now. I
enjoyed the 3 at a time plan where they would send me 3 DVD/BluRay or HD
movies by mail.
The plus side of this subscription was that I could watch these DVD's
by mail, and bring them in to Blockbuster for instant free trade ins of
rentals. I loved this option because it truly made me, as the customer
feel like VIP. While everyone in line before me dug through their purses
looking for money, I simply walked up, handed them the DVD by mail
sleeves, and walked out with my free rentals.
Once they got the mail ins, they then would automatically send me the next movie on my online que list.
The other thing I enjoyed about this was that they also sent me a game rental coupon VIA email once a week.
Eventually the program I was paying for began to take on subtle changes.
The first change was an enormous increase in money the 3 at a time
subscription. Me being the lucky Grandfathered in customer, my monthly
bill stood the same. They did however take away my weekly coupon, and
now only gave me one coupon a month.
I was a little p-oed at this, but seeing that I still had the option
to walk in and exchange my mailers for rentals, I stood with the
subscription.
That subscription after tax came to nearly $30.00, which is a bit high.
I continued to enjoy my subscription till recently when they totally
did away with the instant trade ins. You see I was still able to drive
my mails ins to the store for a trade in, but they would not send me the
next movie on my list anymore. Now the movie I rented in the store
would be added to my que list!
The thing that really bothered me though was the fact that they did
all this without even bothering to tell me. I sort of just figured it
out on my own when I went to check my online que.
I thought this was absurd. I was paying quite a pretty penny for this
online subscription. For them to combine the rentals with my online
rentals was the final nail in the coffin. I kicked Blockbuster to the
curb.
I sent the company an email stating that when they get their
subscription back to the way it was, when I first signed up, perhaps I
would consider coming back to them. After using Netflix though, that's
pretty unlikely!
I signed up for Netflix about 2 weeks ago and wanted to kick myself for not signing up sooner.
Before signing up for the 3 at a time plan, I wanted to give the
subscription a taste first, and signed up for the 2 at a time program.
Besides being sent 2 DVD's at a time, I could also view a library of
movies instantly through my computer, XBOX360, Samsung BluRay Player, or
through a convenient little box called Roku!
The price was also cut in half compared to what I would pay for Blockbusters 2 at a time DVD's.
I was so impressed with Netflix that I actually bought myself a Roku
box just to watch these instant movies on my TV. I could have used any
of the above equipment, but I don't have XBOX Live, or a Samsung Player.
For $99.99, the Roku seemed like the most convenient option. Instant
movies on my HDTV whenever I wanted, instantly!!!
The movies that come by mail seem to have a 2 day turn around, which
is spectacular. With Blockbuster there were times where I found myself
waiting up to 5 days.
Besides Netflix being faster with turn around, they also have a much better site to place movies into the que.
With Blockbuster my PC would freeze up, lag, run slowly and just annoy
me to the point where I didn't even bother adding movies all that
often.
With Netflix everything is set up in a nice, clean, user friendly, manner.
So Which DVD By Mail Subscription Would I Recommend?
Without a doubt, Netflix. Not only are they taking over thanks to
their instant movies, but in the near future they have plans to add an
instant movie subscription, where every movie you could ever want will
be included in their library. As of now the library they have does not
include recently released videos. In the future though this is exactly
what they will be delivering to customers.
No comments:
Post a Comment