Blockbuster vs Netflix...
I decided to try them both, and overall, Netflix is much, much better.
Pros of Blockbuster:
They give you coupons for their retail stores to rent movies in addition to the by mail ones
They have more movies than Netflix
They apparently are open on Saturday & Sunday. At least I've gotten some shipping notices on a Sunday (I guess they just dump them off at a post office or something and go out early monday morning).
Their DVD packages are easier to open.
Cons of Blockbuster:
Lots of their movies are scratched to hell. In basically a month, I've had 2 really scratched movies (and one broken one, though the latter is probably the PO's fault). I also got the wrong DVD once. (Disc 2 of Baa Baa Black Sheep instead of Disc 1)
Shipping time is slow. While they have an office in St. Louis, apparently many of the movies I want are not in St. Louis. So they can take a while. Even for really popular movies like James Bond ones.
They don't ship your movies in order, even if they are "available". Many times I've had movies way down on my list get shipped to me instead of movies at the top. I guess maybe they want to reduce the shipping time and so try to ship movies nearby first, but I would prefer a bit of a wait to get the movies at the top of the list, if they are available from another city. (I know this sort of contradicts the above, so my above complaint is perhaps they don't have that many obscure movies in the St. Louis one branch)
Their website is slow and really blows. That's really the only way to put it. That's their biggest flaw.
Pros of Netflix
Their website is very slick. Very very slick. It's very speedy (important to me as I am on dial up), it lets you find movies very quickly, it lets you find similar movies very quickly. It's fun to just browse, seeing what movies you might like.
They ship the movies at the top of your list, as long as it's available. Generally, you make your queue in how much you want the given DVD. So if you put something at #1, you should get it first, not #15, even if #15 is in your city, while #1 is on the coast or something.
Cons of Netflix
While not the worst selection in the world, they do lack many movies that Blockbuster has. One of my favorites which I hadn't seen in a while - "Murder by Death". Also "The Car" (though that's been a short wait at Blockbuster for almost a month), the sequel to Eco Eco Azzak (sp? That weird Japanese horror movie)
They apparently don't work on Saturday. So if you send off a movie on friday, which they should get on Sat, don't expect a movie mailed back until monday.
Pros of Blockbuster:
They give you coupons for their retail stores to rent movies in addition to the by mail ones
They have more movies than Netflix
They apparently are open on Saturday & Sunday. At least I've gotten some shipping notices on a Sunday (I guess they just dump them off at a post office or something and go out early monday morning).
Their DVD packages are easier to open.
Cons of Blockbuster:
Lots of their movies are scratched to hell. In basically a month, I've had 2 really scratched movies (and one broken one, though the latter is probably the PO's fault). I also got the wrong DVD once. (Disc 2 of Baa Baa Black Sheep instead of Disc 1)
Shipping time is slow. While they have an office in St. Louis, apparently many of the movies I want are not in St. Louis. So they can take a while. Even for really popular movies like James Bond ones.
They don't ship your movies in order, even if they are "available". Many times I've had movies way down on my list get shipped to me instead of movies at the top. I guess maybe they want to reduce the shipping time and so try to ship movies nearby first, but I would prefer a bit of a wait to get the movies at the top of the list, if they are available from another city. (I know this sort of contradicts the above, so my above complaint is perhaps they don't have that many obscure movies in the St. Louis one branch)
Their website is slow and really blows. That's really the only way to put it. That's their biggest flaw.
Pros of Netflix
Their website is very slick. Very very slick. It's very speedy (important to me as I am on dial up), it lets you find movies very quickly, it lets you find similar movies very quickly. It's fun to just browse, seeing what movies you might like.
They ship the movies at the top of your list, as long as it's available. Generally, you make your queue in how much you want the given DVD. So if you put something at #1, you should get it first, not #15, even if #15 is in your city, while #1 is on the coast or something.
Cons of Netflix
While not the worst selection in the world, they do lack many movies that Blockbuster has. One of my favorites which I hadn't seen in a while - "Murder by Death". Also "The Car" (though that's been a short wait at Blockbuster for almost a month), the sequel to Eco Eco Azzak (sp? That weird Japanese horror movie)
They apparently don't work on Saturday. So if you send off a movie on friday, which they should get on Sat, don't expect a movie mailed back until monday.
