Donald -- I had just the OPPOSITE experience. I tried both Blockbuster Online (BO) AND Netflix (NF) at the same time.
With BO, I would return a video on Monday afternoon, would receive an email acknowledgment of its return on Wednesday, would receive an email notice of shipment of the next video on Thursday, and receive the next video the following Tuesday. That's an EIGHT-DAY turn-around time.
With NF, I would return a video on Monday afternoon, receive the return acknowledgment on Tuesday morning, receive the ship notice on Tuesday afternoon, and receive the next video on Wednesday. That's a TWO-day turn-around!
This was true of both newer releases AND older, hard-to-find movies. In BOTH cases, the distribution center was within 2-hours drive of my home. (In fact, they were about 10-15 miles apart.)
Also, contrary to their stated policy, BO did NOT ship in the order listed in my queue, whereas NF DID do so. (BO would skip over 15 or 20 "Available Now" videos to go to the lower half of my list!)
Finally, I had 48 movies in my queue at BO, 40 of which were listed as "Available Now", but didn't receive ANY video for over 10 days. When I emailed to complain, all I got was a standard "make sure you have at least X movies in your queue listed as 'Available Now'." When I replied to that email saying, "Take a look at my queue!", I received an apology email and ONE video was shipped that day. Another was shipped the following day, and another the next. (I was on the 3-per-month plan.) Looked to me like BO was throttling me.
I, too, heard about the supposed throttling of Netflix accounts, but I don't think they're doing it to me. I've been with NF for about a year now.
I hope BO works better for you than it did for me.
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NetFlix was great at first. Better selection of the kind of off-beat movies I prefer. When it choked down to two a week, I felt cheated because of the initial quick returns. Am now with Blockbuster for the second time and it is just fabuous--much better than NetFlix even at first. Plus freebie retail rentals. I've been back with BO for several months now and there's no sign of a choke-down.
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I have been with netflix for 5 months now, i'm in upstate New York and my dvd's were going to and from Syracuse but now comming from and sending back to San Jose, Ca. 95161-9959. It takes about 2 weeks to get a Dvd turnaround. I'm going to quit and try Blockbuster.
I'm at an odd position of sorts... I was a Netflix customer for about a year but was a Blockbuster Employee for that same amount of time. Then I tried Blockbuster Online when they started their new Total Access Program. (You can now either mail the movies back as with Netflix or take them to a local Blockbuster and trade it in for a free in-store rental)On top of that, you still get one coupon a month for a free movie or video game rental in-store. I've had both, but I honestly like Blockbuster better now: the prices are exactly the same, the customer service is better (I actually talked to a person and my problem was taken care of in under a half hour), and with the in-store rentals, you're never without a movie. (Plus, as soon as we scan the online rentals in our store, it releases your next online rental for delivery.) If anyone here is interested in trying it, the code for 2 free weeks of Blockbuster Online with Total Access is 90567B . (When you go to blockbuster.com/total, you'll see a place to enter a promo code.) You'll need a credit card, debit card, or checking account for the trial, but they won't charge you anything until the billing date in the "My Account" section. If you don't like it, just go to "My Account" once you're logged in and choose "Cancel" (it's towards the bottom of the page). I've noticed that they charge credit and/or bank accounts roughly around midnight, so cancel the night before your billing date if you're not a fan. Hope this helps guys!
All you people need a life. Quit watching that hollywood crap and enjoy the outside or even exercisce...
I didn't read all of the comments here, but I needed to vent. I just canceled my Netflix account because of what it looks like most of you have described.
First, it rocked. In fact, it rocked for almost a year. I was ordering exactly 2 movies every week for Sunday night.
Then the "Very Long Wait" crap started for newly released movies. About 2 months after my queue slowly started expanding with VLW availability messages, they started "losing" my returns (I would mail them to a city easily only a day away but they wouldn't report it received until 4 days later).
I started to complain at this point, and religiously reporting the movies lost after only a day in the mail, and did not receive any response or attempt at determining what the "problem" might be.
Check this out - what do you know but the very next shipment after my second "these practices are becoming deplorable" e-mail, the movies are being shipped from all the way across the country. The very first time in 2 years as a customer that has ever happened.
NETFLIX SUX!! If BlockBuster tries to pull the same crap, I'm contacting the BBB - anybody with me?
Net Flix has NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT! It is just a computer generated form letter they send out for complaints! I too was a regular 8 at a time customer and I even warned them I would quit if I got another beat up DVD which they send out a lot of. I had three of the same flic beat so bad it would not play. So I finally broke the bond they had on me and I quit. I quit all TV connections also. I am going back to reading.
I am amazed at how many complaints are out there about Netflix. I have
been a member for a year now and can really see a decline in my
service. There are only three movies in my queue and all three state
'long wait'. One of these titles has been listed as such since early
October! I refuse to add movies to my queue just so I can have
something to watch; I am paying them to view what I want when I want.
Thank God I am on a month-to-month basis. I am now realizing that the
same movies I am waiting on are available through my satellite service
for $3 each. Since I own a DVD burner I can watch these titles, burn
and own them for the same cost as Netflix is making me pay to wait! I
am starting to see more of the titles listed as 'long wait' and it
won't be long until I take my business elsewhere.
There have been instances in the past when they sent a message stating
my distribution center did not have the movie I was requesting and
they were going to get CA to send one but that took an extra week to
arrive!! I made my threat to them yesterday that if I did not have a
rental from my queue sent this weekend I would take my business
elsewhere and low and behold one of my movies has 'now' beside it
instead of 'long wait'. They still have not sent confirmation that I
will be receiving it, but once again it is an instance of doing just
enough to keep customers;...not happy, just keep them. I think I am
done with the BS and wil be looking into renting three movies a month
from my satellite and burning them to keep. I never trusted Netflix
enough to get anymore than 1 at a time unlimited and that turned out
to be a good decision. I'm sure I have given them a couple hundred $
over the past year which would have gotten me countless movies
elsewhere. Looking back at my lists of rentals, they were all on PPV
at one point or another. Kicking myself now for not buying and
recording them to watch again later.
LATER NETFUX!!
I'm so done with Netflix! They are delaying distribution and the end result is we get less than we paid for or were promised. I think the most interesting aspect (not in a good way) is that they don't want to even hear the complaints. They provide no way to email them and capture our concerns to address them. They would rather have you go to the trouble of calling them to hear them say that there's nothing they can do to help. The best thing we can do is stop using them - perhaps they'll get the message but it seems they don't care either way. I suppose they aren't being hit by the economy like the rest of us and don't see the need to step up. When times get better they'll wish we hadn't kicked them to the curb!
Commenting by HaloScan
