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Netflix Pioneers Industry To Get Left in the Dust?
prostoalex writes "The New York Times profiles Netflix, the company that pioneered subscription-based DVD plans where a disc is sent via postal service and no late fee is charged. It describes the company from May 1998, when it originally launched the Web site as a DVD-by-mail rental service (with late fees). Interesting factoids: Netflix operates 30 centers around the country and 11% of San Francisco residents subscribe to the service. Turns out, the company is not really afraid of Blockbuster, Wal-mart and Amazon moving into their markets, but they do consider on-demand Internet-download services to be a threat to their business model."
Zip.ca is basically a Canadian version of Netflix. I'm really enjoying my subscription.
I work as a mail carrier and I see a lot more netflix dvds than blockbuster or walmart dvd rentals. In fact I didn't even know walmart had dvd rentals until I delivered some to a house.
Something I've noticed about netflix is that they always send dvds in groups of 3, where blockbuster and walmart might send one.
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
Wierd, I have been a long time subscriber and they have never done this to me. As a matter of fact they just opened a new distro center close to me and I can easily get 3 sets of movies in two weeks if I return them the same day direct to the Post Office... I have tried Blockbuster, walmart and Netflix and Netflix had the best selection and turn around time.
is GreenCine. It has an enormous selection and actual customer support. It's not one of the huge corporations like Blockbuster or Amazon, but rather like your friendly local rental shop.
I've found that Netflix "throttles" my rentals after a period when I rent too many movies for them to make a profit. They will delay shipments and change the wait status on your queue to absurd amounts of time. I'm led to believe that this practice will become even more common with the new price drop. This is, of course, against their terms of service, but it's extremely difficult to prove - the USPS bears much of the blame. Couple this with the nonexistant customer service, and the frequent movie renter is definitely at a disadvantage.
Of course, if you only rent two or three movies a month, then Netflix is fine. But for those who really like film, I'd highly recommend supporting GreenCine.
I have to rebut to defend Netflix. I happen to live by the post office that serves the PO Box for the Orlando Netflix warehouse. I consistently get very good turnaround unless I get to a popular movie on my list like when Kill Bill came out, in which case they just send the next movie on my list. If I mail on Monday, they get it on Tuesday, I get the movie back on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on when my individual USPS delivery guy gets it sorted into his route.
Actually, Netflix did rent Adult DVDs in their early years, then quietly dropped it around the time they began to get more press. They never had anything hard core, just stuff along the lines of Girls Gone Wild. I guess you'd call it blue. Some of the Japanese idol stuff was rather interesting, they even had some hentai...or so I heard...;-)
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I suspect "pioneers" is used as a verb in this case. The sentence makes perfect sense to me.
This is my first month as a customer, and they've already done that to me. At least I think they did. I returned my 3 movies at the same time, they were all recieved at the same time, yet only one replacement was sent on Friday. The rest were sent on Monday (not even Saturday! And I know they ship on Saturdays.), even though they were all marked as available now. I always send them back the same day I recieve them, so I guess I was ahead of their hidden quota. It's a shame because I was otherwise very impressed by their service. Now I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it.
I could understand delaying until Saturday if they're swamped... but Monday? That's suspicious.
I'll probably keep it another month, but if it happens again, I'm leaving.
Of course, no /. discussion of Netflix could be complete without revisiting how Netflix discriminates against regular users by retarding delivery of their discs in favour of immediate availability for new members...
Da Blog
Along thoes same lines here's a couple of other links. Here's the delay calculation Netflix denies:
Enter a reasonable 10,10,3-at-a-time
Here's a study done on rentals to prove it.
Take a look at what happens to availability of movies right after you pay for the next month.
Oh, if you cancel 1 day after renewing, you have 7 days to send everything back and you loose the rest of the month.
factoid means a piece of information that is repeated so often by so many that it is believed to be true, not a cute, interesting baby fact.
From dictionary.com: The -oid suffix normally imparts the meaning "resembling, having the appearance of" to the words it attaches to. Thus the anthropoid apes are the apes that are most like humans (from Greek anthropos, "human being"). In some words -oid has a slightly extended meaning"having characteristics of, but not the same as," as in humanoid, a being that has human characteristics but is not really human.
It's pretty ironic that the very definition of factoid has become a factoid itself.
As a netflix customer who gets a lot of DVDs, and whose DVDs have sometimes been slow in coming, this seems extremely reasonable.
Just my $0.02.
Best way to do Netflix(or any of the "x movies at a time" services) is get the movie, immediately rip to a hard drive, and send it back. From there you can burn, play directly, rip to DivX, or whatever suits you. Lets you go through tons of movies a month and always have some "in the queue" to be watched
..I run a mail-order business and the variability of shipments between two static addresses is huge. I'm seeing a lot of complaints about Netflix "holding" movies, and though I've been a mostly happy member for 2 years, I don't think they're doing this.
More importantly, I think they need to increase manageability and sorting features on their website. The fact that you can't more easily manage new releases, sort by release date, etc., frustrates me.
the reason i have netflix besides anybody is they have a very large collection of documentaries. Seriously, that is a very real advantage (atleast for me)....
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
Blockbuster has a gimmick price though ( $15.99 is introductory, it's actually $25/mn )
Is this for the basic 3 movies at a time plan? I looked carefully at their site and can't find the word "introductory" anwhere. No asterisk no fine print. If they really do start charging you $25 after a while I'd consider it blatant false advertising and file a complaint with the FTC.
They only allow you an "extra day or two".
To quote their difficult to link to FAQ: "If you still have a movie or game seven (7) days after the due date shown on your receipt, we will convert your rental to a sale. The movie or game will be sold to you at the selling price in effect at the time of rental, which is either the retail price, or, when available, at the previously-rented selling price, less the initial rental fee you paid."
I'll stick with NetFlix, Thank you.
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." --Old German Proverb