On Netflix vs. Blockbuster

I was a loyal, OK somewhat loyal (I took a couple breaks), subscriber to Netflix for 4 years. As time passed, it seemed like their turn-around time was getting worse and worse. I remember being in awe when I signed up, because I had three movies the very next day, I kid you not. In the first year or so, it was almost like a game, to see how many movies I could watch in a month. I had calculated that I needed to watch, on average, about 5 movies a month in order to just break even (as compared to typical new release fees from Blockbuster). I was squeezing them for quite a bit more than that.

After that though, I stopped being so anal about the turnaround time, and we just watched them when we had time and didn't think much of it. We got pretty good delivery time, but we just weren't watching a lot of movies. So, we coasted for a couple years. Then we moved to Columbus, which apparently confused and angered Netflix, because they were consistently forgetting to send us any movies. I would literally drop a movie off at the post office, and get its replacement in about 7-8 weekdays, pretty much just shy of 2 weeks. So my turnaround basically quadrupled. Awesome. Was I being throttled?

A couple months ago I decided to try Blockbuster, and I'm glad I did. They don't have the turnaround issues, they pretty much have the same selection, I get a free game rental each month, it's the same price, and you can take them back to the store and get a free movie in return. The only problem I've had with them so far - three discs have been shipped completely cracked in half. I still think it's amazing that neither of these places use plastic cases to ship DVDs. If anything, it's hard keeping track of all the flipping movies. Let's say you take 2 movies back, now you have one online movie, two in-store rentals. Two days later, the next 2 online movies get shipped, now you have 3 online + 2 in-store. Do we have the time to watch 5 movies? Can I always remember when the 2 in-store ones are due back? No, that's why I joined an online service in the first place, so I didn't have to pay late fees...!

Bottom line: both Netflix and Blockbuster shipped from Atlanta, yet somehow my Netflix turnaround time was 3-4 times longer than Blockbuster. Netflix couldn't either; I asked them once. I did appreciate Netflix's Friends feature, and not to mention the 4 years worth of ratings. But I'm just not that patient. When the wife gets hooked on a show and has to wait almost 2 weeks to watch the next episode...well, they have a saying in the South - "if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy".