QotD: Blockbuster
Posted April 4th, 2004 @ 08:03am by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: Do you rent movies?
My Answer: Sometimes. Given that my friends seem to be cheapasses <grin>, I end up having to rent a lot of the movies I want to see. I should go to the movies by myself more often. It's not the stigma that keeps me away - I just usually say "hmm, stay home and get work done or go spend $9 watching 30 minutes of ads and then a 90 minute movie? I'll choose A."
You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 9:50am #
Netflix changed my movie habits. Now, I see a lot more movies. If you call Netflix renting, then I generally "rent" from 3 to 5 movies a week, depending on my amount of free time (that is, time I can multitask watching something with my Mac's DVD Player and do something that doesn't require my full attention) and how fast the USPS is running.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 1:09pm #
Back in 2002 I would get the Blockbuster 10 rentals (one a week) cards that also got you a new movie for free. I think I got 3 movies that way, Finding Nemo, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and one other I can't recall at the moment. Anyways, I rented a lot back then, and before I had a few friends that worked at Blockbuster so I would go in to say hi and rent a movie. Now I either see it in the theater with friends, for that I'll watch it once type movies, or its good enough to buy it.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 1:43pm #
Something always prevents me from giving NetFlix a try. You've had no problems? They have the movies you want in stock fairly regularly? Can you pre-reserve a movie - for example: saying "when this is on DVD, I'd like to rent it?"
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 2:13pm #
On Neflix:
I never had any problems with Netflix, and would probably still be a customer if we hadn't gone on a massive, need-to-get-more-stuff-done-and-waste-less-time kick. In fact, I think I may join back up at the lowest subscription level, now that I have a laptop--can multitask, as mentioned by Grayson.
As far as having movies in stock, the only time I had to wait was when I tried to rent Monster's Ball the night Halle Berry won the Oscar for it. That seems to be the story: movies that have been released for a while then get a big popularity boost seem to be the only ones that Netflix doesn't have a huge library of.
As far as pre-reserve, I don't remember if you can do that or not, but if not, you can do some sort of notification business (notify me by email when this movie is out on DVD, I mean.)
So, yeah, I loved it.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 2:22pm #
I rent movies, but I haven't rented one since Novemeber when I canceled my Netflix account. I canceled, because I am a college student and I thought that I'd save $20 (actually just $10, because I split the bill with my roommate) for the month of my exams.
I think Netflix is really awesome. I never had a problem with it, never got a bad DVD, you can preorder a movie before it even hits the theaters sometimes and almost always once it hits the theaters. That is cool because I play HSX and think about movies I want to watch way before they come out.
USPS works well with Netflix, the turn-around time on a DVD was about four days -- as long as it wasn't a really old DVD. That makes it five days, probably because Gainesville isn't all that close to their main shipping/distribution centers.
Also, don't put your Netflix in the blue mail boxes outside certain businesses and such. That added a couple of days to my turn-around time when I did it on two occasions.
I reccommended Netflix, but it did get old pretty quickly. I watched so many movies and TV shows on DVD that I realized I spent $10 and 24+ hours a month on the habit.
I think I am going to join again in August when I have a much lighter month, because hey... you can cancel and rejoin any time.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 3:19pm #
On my Netflix queue, there are 3 movies that say "in the next 30 days" out of the top 5, but then, these are "Lost in Translation", "21 Grams", and "The Rundown" (I need some action for all this drama and stuff :P). Of course, I just had three movies mailed to me, and I have a good sized queue (generally ~30 movies at any given time) to satisfy me, so waiting on a movie is hardly an issue for me. I highly recommend getting Netflix Freak from the Little App Factory. It makes everything much more agreeable. I don't know if NetFlix lets you pre-order movies, but I know that I put Lost in Translation on there while it was still in theaters to be delivered when it came out (although I broke down, went to see it, and then I'm getting nagged by friends to put it on my queue so that they can see it).
And a tip for those with slow postal returns, Netflix understands slowness with the postal system and will ship out movies if you think that its been a bit long since you mailed the movies back. I don't know where it is at, but I saw a link explaining everything while surfing the Netflix site a while back.
Posted 05 Apr 2004 at 10:08pm #
I don't rent very much. My primary way to watch movies is actually going over to the megaplex and catch a film. When it comes to DVD's, I prefer buying them. When I do rent a DVD, it's dicey at best because it seems that the people who rent where I do think DVDs are invulnerable.
Posted 06 Apr 2004 at 4:53am #
I used to, but that was VHS times 😛
Now there are some goot services, such as you get the dvds SENT by mail in a day (online order), and you can keep them 2 days, included is a return form sort of. VERY convenient ,-)
but hey, it doesnt help saving money
Posted 07 Apr 2004 at 2:53pm #
I've used Netflix for at least a year. Turnaround time is about 4 days... meaning that if it goes out in Monday's mail, I should have the next movie by Friday (weird... I am also in Gainesville, FL). If you watch the movies when you get them and send them out the next day, you can get quite a rotation going. 15-18 movies a month, I think. Much cheaper than Blockbuster. Haven't had much trouble with movies not being available, and I like that you can put movies on your queue before they are released.
Posted 05 May 2004 at 12:29pm #
GameznFlix.com just merged their Game and Movie sites. They have over 28,000 titles and also an annual plan of $222 a year for 6 dvds or games per month. Heck of a deal. They are adding more distribution centers this year. Delivery time is 2 days for me. Check it out.
Posted 19 Jul 2004 at 9:56pm #
Here it is July and Gameznflix.com still has major problems. They have awful customer service, their online interface is terrible, and the time it takes to get movies or games is ridiculous! I live in San Jose, CA, so it should not take more than two days for an item to ship to me or vice versa, if they use the distribution center their website says they have in Los Angeles. All of the items were taking about a week to arrive after they shipped, and each and every one had a post mark of zip code 37088 (which, by the way, is Lebanon, Tennessee), with the return envelope addressed to an address in Gordonsville, Tennessee. That's nowhere near Los Angeles, last I checked. So if anyone is looking for an online game or movie rental place, do not try Gameznflix unless they really improve 1000%. Netflix is fabulous for movies. Turnaround time is great. Of course, I am in San Jose, which is where one of their shipping centers is located, so I'm spoiled. 🙂 Even with their rate increase in June, it's still worth it to me. I just wish they offered games, too!! For now, I'm trying different online game rental sites until I find one that is worth the money and I want to keep.
Posted 04 Sep 2004 at 10:29pm #
Gameznflix has improved greatly. If I return my dvd on monday, get new one by friday. The annual plan is a great deal, and you can have 6 games or movies out for less than $16 a month. One issue I experienced for the 1st time the other day was when I returned a dvd, it did not clear from my queue. So on the 4th day I called CS and they cleared it immediately, on the phone.