I feel like I've been trapped in a love triangle between Blockbuster and Netflix for the past 5 years. They both offer similar services, but with some differences. Neither service is perfect, which has prevented me from fully committing to one or the other. I always had some loyalty to Blockbuster, being a former employee. I used them for years before I even considered switching. Sure, there were some things about them that weren't perfect, but I looked past them. How could I ever get mad at someone who provides me with movies? And then one day, everything changed. I finally had resolved some internet connectivity issues that had prevented me from getting internet access on my TV, opening me to a world of new possibilities. Now all of the sudden, Netflix and their instant streaming service was looking too good to resist. I took the plunge and was prepared to never look back.
At first, Netflix looked like it was too good to be true. They were offering me unlimited streaming of movies. So maybe they weren't all the best titles, but I never had a lack of anything to watch. I didn't need them to have all of the newest movies streaming because that's what their movies in the mail service is for. Everything was covered. Unfortunately, good things can't last forever. My first problem came when I started to notice that they weren't getting all new releases right away. A lot of films weren't being made available until 30 days after their street date. That was truly frustrating for me. Sometimes, I can be rather impatient when it comes to movies I want to see, especially if it something I really wanted to see in the theater and couldn't make it happen. Then Blockbuster added video games to their service. I had tried out Gamefly for a brief period, but I don't play enough to make it worth the monthly fees. Being able to get an occasional game instead of a movie from my queue was pretty enticing. Since Blockbuster was still getting new releases on street date and now offered games, I considered switching back to them. But they still didn't have streaming and that was a deal breaker. I did briefly consider using both services, but it wasn't worth the extra $6 a month it would have cost me.
Of course that brings us to last summer when it happened. Netflix announced their infamous 60% price increase. The prices for Instant and DVDs in the mail were now being separated. I wasn't happy with the price change, but it didn't really anger me as it did many of their customers. As a person that watches a lot of movies, I feel like I get a lot of value out of their services. Did I want to pay more? No, but I was willing to. Many of their customers felt the need to choose between one service and the other. For me, there was no way to choose. There were so many things in my Instant queue that I still wanted to watch and I needed to be able to see new releases. And that's when I realized that with the extra $2 that I was already paying to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Ray, there was no longer a cost difference if I kept Instant and switched back to Blockbuster for my movies-by-mail. So that's what I did. And I made the switch before the whole Qwikster debacle. When that was announced, it made my decision seem all the more right.
After switching back to to Blockbuster, things were great at first. But then I started to remember the things that were lacking with their service. Speed. Normally, I would get my movies as fast as I did with Netflix. They would send them out one day, I'd get them the next. I'd mail it back and the next day my next movie would ship. Then suddenly things would slow down. Sometimes it would take an extra day or two for them to ship something out. It has always felt like if you are renting 'too much' they intentionally slow down your service. I can't say for certain that this is true, but I can say that I never felt like this was happening with Netflix. Accuracy. Most of the time, they will send you the next movie that is available in your queue. But every so often, they will randomly send something that is ranked #20 or higher in your queue. In fact, the last two movies that they sent me were ranked higher than 20 in my queue. But to be fair, the majority of the movies currently in my top 20 are not currently available. But there are about 5 things that say they are available ahead of the last two movies they sent out. This brings me to my last complaint. Availability. It takes forever for new releases to become available. The first 17 movies in my queue currently are new and recent releases. If you can't time your next rental to ship out on the day they are released, you will be in for a long wait. Most of the time, I don't mind if I can't get a new movie right away. There is always something else to rent and if there is something that I really want to see, I can always do an in-store exchange, which is a pretty handy part of the service. But there is a point where things just become ridiculous. Fast Five has been in my queue since it came out in October. It has said that it is available for a few weeks now, but they keep sending me movies ranked lower instead. I am beginning to wonder if sending lower ranked movies is another tactic to slow down your renting. If they send you something that isn't at the top of your list, you may be less inclined to watch it right away.
One thing positive thing that I can say about Blockbuster is that their customer service is pretty good. I recently had done an in-store exchange and I returned the movie on a Thursday morning. They didn't send out my next movie until Monday! I thought part of the point of doing in-store exchanges was that you wouldn't have to wait for your movie to ship back before they send the next one. They were very easy to contact. When I stopped my DVD plan from Netflix, they stopped sending me Blu-Rays for my last couple of rentals. Since they charge you extra for that and I had already paid for it, I was kinda annoyed. I wanted to send them an email, but there is no way to email them. All they have on their website is a phone number and it really wasn't worth my time to call them. But with Blockbuster, they have and email address, phone number and live chat available. I sent them a complaint about the service and they sent me a free store rental coupon.
Despite it's short comings, I had every intentions of sticking with Blockbuster. But in this past week, everything has changed. I found out that my two remaining local Blockbuster stores are closing. Aside from the fact that my free rental coupon is now useless, I will no longer be able to do in-store exchanges. Without in-store exchanges, their rental availability just isn't good enough. What good is it that they have movies on release date if it can take up to 5 months for them to be available? Netflix's 30 day wait doesn't seem so bad anymore. So there really is no question anymore. I will be switching back to Netflix as soon as my current billing period is up.
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