The Top Seven Update: My Month With Blockbuster Online

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So it was right around a month ago when I announced that I was going to take Blockbuster up on their free trial offer in a bid to see if, after weeks of watching Netflix bungle things and drop the ball, the grass really was greener on the Blockbuster side. And after a month of running Netflix and Blockbuster head to head, I come back with the results. Because as it turns out, there are three good reasons to stick with Netflix, and three good reasons to drop them. So once again, we bring you the second ever TFTS Top Seven Update, to reveal the results of our study, and under what circumstances it’s better to keep Netflix and when it’s better to drop it, followed up by point seven, who I ended up sticking with.

The Case For Netflix

3. Faster turnaround time

Very early on in my time with Blockbuster, I discovered something very important. Both Netflix and Blockbuster had mailing centers in the same area where I was; they were both even in the same town as each other.  So I knew that both would get sent back to the same place, which means the mailing time from my house to either center would be the same. This in turn meant that any difference in shipping and return times were all on the individual companies. What I discovered was that Blockbuster, on average, took twice as long to receive a disc and resend it to me as Netflix. Netflix averaged two days from me sending to me getting the next one. Blockbuster took about four.

2. Better availability

It was a very, very rare situation in which Netflix didn’t have something I wanted. If I saw it on their lists and could put it in my queue, it was available. There was very little “short wait”, and even less “long wait”. “Very long wait”, meanwhile, only showed up just once when I went after a bit of Japanese cinema. Blockbuster, meanwhile, gave me a whole lot of wait times, especially on the video game side of things. The video games were spectacularly disappointing, with availability often limited to year old games or older.

1. Better pricing

While Blockbuster charged $19.99 a month for their three discs at a time plan, Netflix offered the same plan at $13.99. Add this on to the shorter shipping times, and you’re getting a whole lot more discs per month for a whole lot less money. These days, everyone’s sensitive to price, and it wasn’t hard to see where the better deal was. On just a straight DVD option, Netflix wins hands down.

The Case For Blockbuster

3. They do have games

While, admittedly, the availability is slim to say the least, in a contest such as this, the man with one eye will always be king in the valley of the blind. And what that unusually poetic imaging basically boils down to is that something is better than nothing, and having the option to rent games is one Netflix just plain old doesn’t offer. You may not always get the game you want at Blockbuster, and it may take a while to get to you, but one thing’s for sure, you’re not going to play a thing at Netflix.

2. Expanded movie selection

You’ve got a lot of options with Blockbuster. Let’s face it: between the lack of an embargo on the DVD rentals at Blockbuster, and the fact that you’ve got access to local Blockbuster stores as part of your membership, you’ve got more titles available than Netflix does. Of course, sometimes here too you run into troubles with this–short wait, long wait and very long wait come up a lot, as does frequent shots of “unavailable”–but still, there are plenty of options here. Sure, the picture gets a little muddier when the issue of streaming comes in, but considering Blockbuster’s multi-pronged approach, you’ve really got more options there.

1. Dish Network bonuses

Being a Dish Network subscriber, I’ve seen a lot of promotional offers come and go. But an extra ten dollars a month for twenty two extra movie channels, even though there’s a whole lot of extra hoops to jump through (like a new two-year contract if you want an upgraded receiver, if you don’t have one already), is still a pretty good deal. Plus, of course, you get on the one disc at a time plan, which if purchased by itself at Blockbuster would run you $9.99 a month anyway, so going through Dish is like signing up for the plan and getting at least nine free movie channels, up to as many as 22 if you have the full high-definition setup. They’re not the best movie channels, of course, but they’re certainly better than what Netflix has.

My final pick

And so, what did I do, you ask? I ended up leaving Netflix for Blockbuster. It wasn’t an easy choice, but the plain and simple was that Blockbuster had plenty of things I hadn’t seen yet, gave me a whole lot of options, and threw in some pretty nice special deals. Netflix gave me three good years of service, but at the end of the day, Blockbuster just made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

It’s strange, but as it turned out, there were distinct situations in which either service was better. So to say which one you should go with depends largely on your needs at the time. If you want to watch a whole lot of movies, or if you’re price sensitive, and don’t care about games, Netflix is your clear winner. If you’re not too concerned about how long it takes, but you want more titles available, have a Blockbuster location near you, and are a Dish Network subscriber, clearly, Blockbuster is your winner.

But what do you guys think here? Think I made the right call, since I’m more concerned with the total package and seeing things I couldn’t on Netflix? Or have I made the wrong call with this one, and left a great entertainment provider for a lesser one? No matter what you think, we always like hearing from you, so head on down to the comments section below and tell us what you think!

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