My New NetFlix Account
The Movie Gallery in my town used to be my little secret. It had $3 rentals, keep them a week, the shelves were always full - even new releases, and they had a great feature where if you didn’t like the movie you rented they would give you a free one. Like all good things, especially in the movie rental business, that recently changed. Last week when we rented two movies, and it cost $12. On top of that they were do back in three days. Around the same time, I had gotten my second personalized promotional offer from NetFlix, and thought what the heck.
I have known about NetFlix since it started, my brother had an account back in those days and as always pleased with their service. The reasons I signed up include: The plan I signed up for was just about as much as my last trip to the movie store, I hate BockBuster (and dislike Movie Gallery’s new business model), I would rather wait and watch movies in the comfort of my own home than in every dissolving quality and raised prices of movie theaters, I am probably getting a up scale T.V. so I will need an excuse to watch things, I don’t subscribe to Showtime or HBO, but now can rent full seasons of television shows on those networks, and lastly I thought it was time.
Since signing up, I have been very pleased. I have found all of the movies that I was interested in when they were being released to theater, and forgot about when they were going to DVD, and were impossible to find on rental shelves. NetFlix offers great community features including reviews, ratings, and personalization to your tastes. The one thing I was disappointed about, was unable to share a Queue with My girlfriend. I was able to give her account access, but I would have to allocate the number of rentals she as allowed. Well I only signed up for the “two at a time” plan, and it would be nice if we could just share a queue together instead of splitting the number of rentals we are allowed. For now, we are just emailing each other our selections, and I run the queue. I understand the importance of multiple queues, ratings, recommendations for different family members; but the ability to share a queue would be good for our situation.
Aside from that, I am very please so far; and should have movies in my mailbox in a day or two. Here is my break down of the service so far.
Pros
No late fees: this sounds cheesy, but I am going to enjoy being able to watch movies on my time Excellent site that is easy to navigate, and full of great features Reasonable prices that compete directly with your local video rental store, in addition different service levels The ability to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at anytime Multiple users per account Prepaid return envelopes Being able to rent television shows, for HBO, Showtime, etc. About one business day delivery Getting further away from the man, Blockbuster The ability to purchase previously viewed DVD’s at cheap prizes, with a 100% guarantee. Local stores usually have writing and crap all over the package, and sometimes DVD’s.
Cons
No ability to share a queue No video games, however there is GameFly but they are pricey. It would be nice if Netflix bought out GameFly, and you could get a plan like two movies and a video game… but now I am just getting needy. No mobile access, unless you have a PDA phone with full browser support. It would be nice if you could easily add a movie to your queue, no matter where you are. So you can be out with a friend and say “You haven’t seen that movie? Hold on let me rent it.” Maybe a text message system of some kind. A lot of the recommendations NetFlix gave me didn’t line up, however I am still playing with this feature No ability to lookup friends that are already on NetFlix (at last not that I can find)
Overall, a great service so far. A lot of my “Cons” were really reaching, mostly just things I would like to see. NetFlix is very much constantly improving their service. They currently have a contest out where you can win $1 million if you improve their rating system (That’s a lot of coffee).
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Comments
I do not wish to divulge the town I live in, however if you email me through the contact form we can start a dialog there.
I looked back at the receipt, and it was $6… don’t know why - maybe I should have questioned it.
I understand retail rental stores are a hard business, especially when everyone is chasing Blockbuster. Just last month a Dave’s video’s went out of business in my town as well.
In addition, the Movie Gallery near me has a very weak video game selection, and those cost $7 to rent?!?
Email me, and maybe we can get to the bottom if this.
I noticed your “con” regarding the inability to rent games…thought you might be interested in the news that Blockbuster is going to start giving online customers 1 free game rental from the store each month.
Blockbuster Online First Month FREE code: 1944ta
Expires: 1/15/2007
This is a holiday promotion that gives customers the first month for blockbuster Online free instead of the usualy 2 weeks plus 1 free game rental each month starting in mid-December.
1) Go to: blockbuster.com homepage
2) Click “Start your free trial”
3) Enter 1944ta into “Gift/Promotion”
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I read with interest your comments about now using Netflix instead of Movie Gallery. I am sorry to hear that you no longer want to use Movie Gallery. I am somewhat concerned about what you said that you do not like our new business model and what you said you paid per rental and what you said the rental period was for the rentals. I am not aware of any of our stores that have a $6 new release movie rental or any stores having a 3 day rental period. If you could tell me what Movie Gallery store you use, I would like to look into this further.