The Netflix Vs Blockbuster thing

So, I cancelled my Blockbuster account.

Why you ask? Well, hands down Blockbuster won the shipping game. In the short time I used them, I got double the amount of DVDs. But here is where Netflix shines - selection.

The story is rather amusing to my wife. It goes like this: I get all stoned and start looking to add more Trailer Park Boys episodes. One might say I got a little obsessed. My desktop image, searches, everything were Trailer Park Boys for about 24hrs. In my defense, I hadn't slept but a few hours. An affliction I suffer from quite frequently. I couldn't figure out why Amazon had a TPB movie, a christmas special and a whole season (5) that Netflix didn't offer. So I searched Blockbuster and found that not only did they not have season 5, but they didn't even have TPB!!! I abruptly cancelled my subscription.

I have heard, in their defense it was many years ago, that Blockbuster was some sort of weird religious cult thing and that they only carried approved movies or whatever. Well, not carrying TPB is a sin in my book and I smite them with what little power I had over them, my dollars.

And thus ends this episode.

Fucking doctors.

So about two weeks ago I go to the doctors because I had something in my eye for a few days and it really sucked. She does all sorts of tests and finds nothing in my eye and decides "you've got conjunctivitis" aka pink eye. Based I might add on nothing more than me telling her I had been around several 3-5 yr old kids a couple days before (and the fact that she couldn't find anything lodged in my eye)...

She gives me a script for a "strong sulfur based antibiotic", with no instructions other than "two drops every four hours", and sends me on my way.



Its now two weeks and two days later, my eyes are still fucked up so I go see a specialist. He does all sorts of tests and says "well, I'm not surprised you've been having problems... you've been using the medicine she gave you for more than twice as long as you should have. The reason your eyes are bothering you so much, is you are clearly allergic to the medicine she prescribed. This medicine is quote powerful and often does more harm than good. As far as I can tell, you were just suffering from seasonal allergies and she misdiagnosed it as conjunctivitis."

Although not nearly as dangerous, this reminds me of the time I told the doctor I was allergic to percosets, and he prescribed me Oxycontin instead (which is percoset on crack, basically). I didn't sleep for 3 days. I think the mental images my wife has of me sitting, exhausted, scratching myself like a lunatic 24 hours a day for about 4 days, are enough to land us a million dollar lawsuit...

The scary part is both of these medical woopsies are from the same practice.

Do you listen?

Am I doing this for nothing?

Quote from Netflix Hacks

"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service," Netflix's revised policy now reads. The statement specifically warns that heavy renters are more likely to encounter shipping delays and less likely to immediately be sent their top choices.


All I have to say is...........................................................................................


That should seriously be illegal. Its like some sort of weird DVD rental welfare.

Saturday and the battle of big video cont'd

So its Saturday. I'm walking out to the mailbox expecting the netflix video that was shipped on Wednesday to arrive. Guess what? Its not here. So what does that mean for my rentals this week?
I got two videos in an entire week. One video shipped back Friday - two shipped back Saturday. I got one disc on Tuesday (The Departed) and another on Friday (Trailer Park Boys). Thats horrible service.

I sent the first video back to Blockbuster today (Empire Falls Disc 1 - saturday 2/17) - lets see how quickly they get one back to me.

One last note - I put The Departed in Wednesday's mail and it has yet to be received by Netflix. It was going to Worcester - a 45 min drive.

Netflix you just got PWNED

I am happy to announce that Blockbuster, the devil incarnate, has outperformed Netflix this week. 48 hours later and I am holding three titles from Blockbuster.

Today as expected, my single Netflix DVD came. It was shipped on Tuesday 2/13.

Blockbuster got me three videos in that time. Not to mention they had to process my application as a user, wait on me to update my queue etc.

So far, Netflix, Blockbuster is mopping the floor with you. Over the next months we shall see. I plan on holding all three videos from each company, and shipping them all at the same time (on a monday, to be fair) and doing a months long review. I will ship one video per day from each company and see how many videos we end up with after a months time. I wont cheat and use the instore rentals that come with the Blockbuster subscription.

Blockbuster shipping update

They did in fact ship the third video today too. The email came surprisingly late though, around 11pm.

So, I want to believe that in one day I will see 3 movies in the mailbox. However, given my crappy past with Netflix, I'm betting on 2 one day, and one the next (the 11pm email = it didn't make it in today's mail, which would be another way of keeping a leash on rental volume)

We shall see...

Blockbuster Video day 2

Apparently they've processed me now, because my first two videos shipped today. Its been about 24hrs since I signed up. Why'd they ship two and not three though? Thats what I'm wondering...

The Netflix return that was processed and shipped on Tuesday, hasn't arrived as of 2/15.

An amusing? sidenote - I ordered a package from BC, Canada on Saturday, and it arrived today via USPS. It amazes me that a product from Canada only took Mon->Thurs to arrive and yet I sent Netflix a video on Saturday that arrived on Wednesday. It takes the same amount of time to ship a package via parcel post from BC Canada to Massachusetts as it does to ship a letter via first class mail to Worcester Massachusetts - 45 minutes down the road.... Somehow I don't think my video actually arrived on Wednesday. *wink wink*

Taking Blockbuster for a Spin

So yesterday, 2/14, I signed up for Blockbuster Online. I will of course come back here to report on my experiences and compare them to our scamming friends, Netflix.

Imagine that... (Netlfix scam cont'd)

So its now Wednesday and low and behold:



The third video is posted as received on the third day. Netflix is a scam. If you read my last two posts you'll see the whole story.

I don't understand how they are getting away with this. I'd love to know if anyone has any insight on what we as consumers can do to make Netflix pay for this disservice. Feel free to contact me.

More Netflix...

And here we have it, the proof in the pudding.

It goes like this. On Friday, I mailed a disc out. On Saturday I mailed two discs out. As I said in my last post, Netflix purposely does not receive one of two discs if they are shipped together and voila it happened again only with a twist:





Trailer Park Boys were shipped together, the other disc (not shown) on Friday. Notice how it is now Tuesday and they have received two of my three discs. The thing is, shipping on Friday and Saturday means - they all arrived there on Monday. So they shipped one on Monday, now they ship the second on Tuesday and who wants to bet a quarter that the third disc "arrives" on Wednesday and ships then?

Netflix is purposely spacing out their receiving and shipping in a calculated attempt to control how many videos we get access too in one week. This has to be my twentieth experiment with them and so far in the past few months only one time did two ship at once - but never three. (oddly, it was right after I posted the blog post... Murphy's Law)