With the power that Viacom has in theatres and home entertainment with Paramount and the like, I dont see how Blockbuster doesnt have market dominance. They could have easily catered to children by creating a mini "Blockbuster Kids" brand, getting parents to subscribe or up their subscription package to get exclusive Nickelodeon shows on DVD. Paramount could give Blockbuster online exclusive bonus discs, or better deals on bulk purchases than their chief rival, Netflix. Blockbuster is a powerful company that has slain many chains during its path to brick and mortar supremacy. I find it very hard to believe that they are having so much trouble with a company worth only $1 bn, with limited brand recognition, and Blockbuster being a much more recognized name in movies and in general. Get your act together Blockbuster.
I tried Blockbuster twice and went back to Netflix each time. Why? Blockbuster is constantly out of titles. I had certain movies in my queue for literally months, while the same movie was available now at Netflix. I'm not going to pay a monthly fee for a service that can't provide.
While Blockbuster has some huge partners it's hard to beat having one of the largest DVD resellers on your side, that is Best Buy. I'm all of you have walked into a Best Buy store and while cruising through the movie section or at check were attacked by a blue-shirt trying to get you to sign up for Netflix. Best Buy takes selling netflix seriously, I used to work for them and it was a huge deal. As long as they have that kind of aggressive sales force behind it and they don't screw up once they get customers they'll continue to own the industry.
I subscribed to Netflix about two months ago, and so far I've been quite impressed with the service.
Before subscribing I googled Usenet for Netflix vs BB comparisons, and BB consistantly had many more complaints. I think they're still trying to figure out how to optimize their e-business.
...the reason Blockbuster is failing is very simple. They are depending on local locations to return and send out rental dvds. This is no joke.
So think of the comparison.
Netflix: automated wharehouse near you receives your package and ships something back to you within 48 hours. Simple concept.
Blockbuster: underpaid workers receive your dvd rentals at your local blockbuster store. Their incentive to turning around your rental? Well, to compete in an online world, your parent company is considering closing many brick and mortar locations! Woohoo! Maybe you'll lose your job!
I literally stood in line at a local BB recently as the employees joked about the pile of DVDs that had not been returned from the online service. This has they constantly badger every customer who is IN THE STORE to consider switching to online. This is some kind of business model? You try to talk the people IN THE STORE, who are already spending money there, to go online... where the service will suck...and the dvds will get sent back to the location they are standing in?
No brainer why Blockbuster is not winning this one.
I have been with Blockbuster for about 6-9 months, and to be honest, i dont really have any complainints. The movies are all shipped from a distribution center, my local one is in cleveland, but sometimes, (esp. with strange old titles), I will get one from a diffrenet distribution center.
For my money, Blockbuster makes alot more sense. Same price as netflix, same turnaround time, and Blockbuster gives me 2 free in-store rentals a month. Sometimes I use them on a new movie the day its released, but more often, i use my free rental for video games. At $5-6 for a game rental, they almost cover the cost of my subcription.
Shall I list the reason why Blockbuster's Online service is tanking?
1. Poor Customer Service - Numerous compalints, and threats to leave the service only resulted in "we're sorry" emails ... no offers were made to try to compensate for the poor service such as offering a free month, free rental coupons, etc... 2. Its slow - 3 days before a disc showed up as returned, another 1 - 2 days before a disc shipped out... 3 - 5 days to recieve that disc { The variable reasons why this happend are numerous. } 3. They can't keep there discs in the right order/sleeves/what have you... I went through an incident where I was trying to wach a multi-disc series (8 discs) however 3 TIMES IN A ROW, instead of recieving disc #3 I recieved Disc #1 in disc #3 sleeve, then disc #4 and disc #5!!!
I have had occasional issues with netflix, more often than not caused by postal issues, but they ALWAYS correct the issue quickly and efficiently...
I havent made a trip to Blockbuster in over 6 months, mainly because of cable on demand. While VOD is only about 50cents cheaper, I make up in driving time. I only wish VOD had more variety, but that should soon change.
We have subscribed to both netflix and block buster,we are now back with netflix. Seems BB would sacrifice service to try to take a share of the market from netflix. We waited weeks for some movies in our que and could not even find the movies available at store. Hey block Buster!!! take care of your members you have stop to worrying about netflix or you will not have any subscribers. We will never use BB again.
I have been with Netflix since they started over 3 years ago. Over the past few months, I've been noticing that people I have bought Netflix gift certificates for (new customers) are getting the new releases, while I am still waiting for a movie that was release 3 months ago. I've emailed the President of Netflix 5 times and NOTHING!!! No response whatsoever. So, I'm going to have to cancel my membership and suffer through with Blockbuster. I'm not happy with Blockbuster either...they take far too long to send/receive/re-send movies.
Not sure why this is happening with Netflix. Anyone else experience this problem? I'm most upset about no response to my multiple emails.
I've noticed this too. As time goes on, it takes more and more time to recieve the new releases. When I was on the free trial I got the movies the day they came out.
I love the Netflix service because of their great selection and the actual site out classes Blockbuster in every way. There is a few issues that I have been seeing lately with Netflix. One is the issue already mentioned. I was waiting for Star Wars Episode III for a month. I go to my Mom's house and setup her Netflix account. 2 Days later, she has Star Wars. The other issue I have is that 90% of the time when a movie is returned, it does not ship the next movie until the next day. They used to ship the new movie out the same day. One other issue I have seen is that Netflix is constantly shipping movies from CA when I live in NY. It can sometimes take a week to receive a movie from CA. I would not mind waiting for a specific movie so it can be shipped from the closest center. I have plenty of movies in my que and another one could be easily sent to me instead.
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Paramount could give Blockbuster online exclusive bonus discs, or better deals on bulk purchases than their chief rival, Netflix. Blockbuster is a powerful company that has slain many chains during its path to brick and mortar supremacy. I find it very hard to believe that they are having so much trouble with a company worth only $1 bn, with limited brand recognition, and Blockbuster being a much more recognized name in movies and in general. Get your act together Blockbuster.
Blockbuster is constantly out of titles. I had certain movies in my
queue for literally months, while the same movie was available now
at Netflix. I'm not going to pay a monthly fee for a service that
can't provide.
quite impressed with the service.
Before subscribing I googled Usenet for Netflix vs BB comparisons,
and BB consistantly had many more complaints. I think they're still
trying to figure out how to optimize their e-business.
So think of the comparison.
Netflix: automated wharehouse near you receives your package and ships something back to you within 48 hours. Simple concept.
Blockbuster: underpaid workers receive your dvd rentals at your local blockbuster store. Their incentive to turning around your rental? Well, to compete in an online world, your parent company is considering closing many brick and mortar locations! Woohoo! Maybe you'll lose your job!
I literally stood in line at a local BB recently as the employees joked about the pile of DVDs that had not been returned from the online service. This has they constantly badger every customer who is IN THE STORE to consider switching to online. This is some kind of business model? You try to talk the people IN THE STORE, who are already spending money there, to go online... where the service will suck...and the dvds will get sent back to the location they are standing in?
No brainer why Blockbuster is not winning this one.
For my money, Blockbuster makes alot more sense. Same price as netflix, same turnaround time, and Blockbuster gives me 2 free in-store rentals a month. Sometimes I use them on a new movie the day its released, but more often, i use my free rental for video games. At $5-6 for a game rental, they almost cover the cost of my subcription.
1. Poor Customer Service - Numerous compalints, and threats to leave the service only resulted in "we're sorry" emails ... no offers were made to try to compensate for the poor service such as offering a free month, free rental coupons, etc...
2. Its slow - 3 days before a disc showed up as returned, another 1 - 2 days before a disc shipped out... 3 - 5 days to recieve that disc
{ The variable reasons why this happend are numerous. }
3. They can't keep there discs in the right order/sleeves/what have you... I went through an incident where I was trying to wach a multi-disc series (8 discs) however 3 TIMES IN A ROW, instead of recieving disc #3 I recieved Disc #1 in disc #3 sleeve, then disc #4 and disc #5!!!
I have had occasional issues with netflix, more often than not caused by postal issues, but they ALWAYS correct the issue quickly and efficiently...
Not sure why this is happening with Netflix. Anyone else experience this problem? I'm most upset about no response to my multiple emails.