BB vs NF pt2
This is the 1 week review... it's been over a week but I needed to wait to see how long it would take Blockbuster to receive the only movie we've watched from them so far, so I could consider that in my review.
It's no surprise given my intial impression, but I'm 95% sure that we will be going with Netflix. Aside from the nicer interface; in the crucial transit time category, NF kicks BB's butt. The First time we ordered a BB movie, it took 3 days to get to us. The first NF film took 2 days to arrive. The second NF film took 1 day to arrive. The first NF film returned was sent over a weekend and therefore took 2 days to be received. However, the latest return, through the week, was received the very next day. Today we had returned movies received at both NF and BB, and today both companies sent the next movie in our queue. NF is due to arrive tomorrow, just in time for weekend viewing. The BB movie wont arrive until Monday. We will have watched 3 NF films before BB can even get movie #2 delivered to us.
For an update on an issue I previously whined about; I found out what was wrong was BB's "remember me" function. It only works if you type in "www.blockbuster.com". I usually omit "www" to save time, and although everything seems to work if you go to "blockbuster.com", it will not remember you, and you will get an SSL cert warning when you login, due to mismatching domain name. Honestly, Blockbuster.... if your website requires that you be at "www.blockbuster.com" why don't you setup a fricking redirect??
One BB bonus we did use was the free in-store rentals. As an online member, BB offers you two coupons a month on their site that you can print and take to a local store for a free rental. We used one of these and gave my parents the other. Considering that two in-store rentals would normally cost you $8.50 after tax, this is a pretty good deal. Despite that fact, it still is less appealing than an online service that can simply get the movies to and from you quickly. Having coupons for the local store would mean still driving back and forth between the store. Part of the appeal of the online service is not having to do that. Plus, the local store rentals are not time-unlimited like the online movies, so you have to be careful about getting them back on-time. And of course the online movies have to be mailed back, and the local movies have to go back to the local store-- they cannot be switched or returned together. It just sounds like a pain to keep track of the different movies.
Finally I have to compliment NF on a cool feature which we will be able to use once we upgrade to the 3-out at a time plan (to which we will probably change after a few months). You can actually have seperate users on your account, each with their own reviews and recommendations and with their own queue! Therefore if you have a plan which allows multiple discs out a once, you can allocate each user a # of discs that will be pulled from their queue. It's an excellent feature that I can't wait to use in the future, and BB doesn't seem to have anything like it.
Next week I will confirm which service I've chosen and give a final rundown of the plusses and minuses of each one.
