Review Of Netflix DVD Rental Service

Bigbird504 writes "If you haven't already heard of Netflix, they basically rent DVDs online... but for a price of $20/month. While many believe it isn't worth it, many others do feel its a good bargain. Afterall, you can take out 3 DVDs at a time. Best of all, there are no late fees on returns. You keep the DVD as long as you like, and return it when you are done. Its a pretty interesting concept, and may be well worth the money. Check out this review on Netflix."

Comments

In Canada dvdhype.com

[slippy51]

for those of you in Canada check out a similar service offered here at dvdhype.com. I've been using the service for over a year now and I am very satisified with the service.

Tried it, and cancelled it...

[matthewcraig]

I used it for two months. Here's what I found:

- Their DVD selection was very impressive. Think Amazon.com.
- NetFlix provides a rating system that they use to generate rental suggestions.
- Customer service never responded to emails, but I did see changes possibly due to my suggestions.
- NetFlix took seven business days to deliver to Atlanta. (i.e. Needs an East Coast distribution center.)
- They charge state tax even without local presence.

Conclusion: A great deal if you live near Los Gatos, California!

RentMyDVD.com

[RedX]

When I first purchased my DVD player a year or so ago, I excitedly took advantage of the free Netflix trial that was included with the player. However, turn-around times were slow since they ship from the West Coast, and it was very rare to actually get a new release within the first couple of weeks of its release.

I then came across a similar company that, at that time, was fairly new to the DVD rental market, RentMyDVD.com. New releases seemed to be in stock much more often than with NetFlix, it was rare to have to wait longer than a week to see a new release. Better yet, they have a shipping center in San Francisco and one in New Jersey, meaning I could normally get a fresh batch of movies here in Ohio for each weekend. I stuck with RentMyDVD.com for 6 months or so and was fairly happy, eventually dropping them once I saw most of the movies that I wanted to see but didn't want to own.

The problem that DVD rental services as a whole face are scratched discs, and this is a glaring problem with the Netflix-types of long distance rental companies. It's frustrating enough to settle in for a night of movie watching only to have some bad skipping an hour into the movie. But when you rent locally, you can run down to the local store right away or the next day and have the problem correct. With NetFlix and RentMyDVD, they'll credit you with a free rental, but you're still waiting at least 3-4 days to have the problem rectified. For the most part, these companies do check to ensure that they're sending out unscratched movies, but I've had at least 5 movies ruined by having some pretty bad skipping right in the middle of a movie. For the most part these days, I spend a few bucks more and just buy the bulk of the movies I want to see, and use Half.com or Ebay to get rid of whatever I don't want to keep.

Re:Mail-Renting

[Arthen]

Unfortunately the idea can't fly. In these weak iEconomic times it seems like another dot com idea claiming to make the most simple of things (renting a movie) simpler, would be discounted quickly if not ignored at all.

But the idea is already flying. According to Netflix they've been in business since 1998 and currently have 500,000 subscribers. That's over $10 million a month in subscription revenue, assuming subscriptions average out to the $20/3-movie level. In fact, since there's only one lower level (2 movies a month at $14) but three upgrades available, they most likely average higher than that.

Of course, since Netflix is privately held, we don't know what their bottom line looks like. But they're also not exposed to anti-dot.com feeling in the stock markets.

I'd say that they're well past the point of a new dot.com idea with no proven business plan, and pretty well established. Will they last long-term? Who'd want to predict that? Of course, they're potentially vulnerable to rate hikes by the USPS, but they've got plenty of allies to help them lobby against extreme ones, and I'm sure their number-crunchers have run plenty of scenarios to plan for higher postage costs.

Inquisition this, you science dinks! --The Tick

Cost isn't $20

[blakestah]

Netflix tries real hard to get you in at $20/mo, but they offer an option at $12.50/month. You have to start at 3 movies/$20 though - and then manually downgrade.

For this price you can always rent 2 movies.

We live in SF, and probably watch 2 movies a week using netflix. Much more convenient than Blockbuster (which is only 1 mile away, but has wicked lines). The turnaround for movies is about 3 days from when we drop them in the mailbox. Netflix lists in our account when movies should arrive, and it is reasonably consistent.

So far, no hitches. Been using it 3 mo. I think in principle we could watch 15+ movies a month for this price, although we usually watch 6-8. I suspect we'll hit the wall of available and desireable content soon though.

Re:My personal review

[VAXman]

Unlike the reviewer, we're all the way in Boston, so turnaround time is much higher -- sometimes more than a week round-trip. This means that unlike the 45 movies he mentions, we can only fit seven or eight in a month, and that only if we watch right when they come

Learn to pipeline to get around the high latency of US mail. I live in Texas and also have about a one week round-trip time. But, you have three rental slots so you can make three-stage pipeline. That way, if you time things right, you will get a movie every 2 days, which is 15 per month.

I have noticed that the service has gotten much slower since September/October (presumably because of the anthrax scares?), and hasn't really recovered. Since then, I've had a number of very long waits (2+ weeks) for movies to ship.