I Change My Loyalties Once Again

Remember a while back, when I switched my online movie renting from GreenCine to Blockbuster Online? No? Well, that's what the link's for.

Anyway...I really liked Blockbuster Online. I liked that you could return your movies-by-mail at their storefront locations for another movie. I liked that they gave you a coupon every month for a free game. I liked that, with some effort, I could watch like 48 movies, 2/3s of which I didn't pay for. It was a good deal, AND it cost about the same as what I was paying before.

Now, I would guess that Blockbuster's ideal customer is one who's on the three-out plan, who maybe will watch all three in a week and then return them in the mail when they're done. Blockbuster has about a $2-3 per unit cost on these people. These are the people they like.

The people they hate are ones like me, who are completely fucking their eyes out on this deal. People who are on the four-out, unlimited returns plan, who can turn movies around fast enough that they actually might get five to six in the mail in a week, and return everything in-store, basically doubling the number of movies they get. Per unit cost on that is, like, 60-70 cents. They hate people like me. And I'm guessing they had a lot of subscribers like me, because, about six months ago, they put an end to those fucking shenanigans.

They got rid of the four-out plan altogether. They made in-store returns a "bonus" (ie, extra cost) feature, the game coupons went bye-bye, and, just for the hell of it, raised the price on all plans across the board. Suddenly, I was actually paying more for fewer movies. In the end, the pleasure of doing my renting with Blockbuster was costing me (get this) $43 a month, with tax. That...really is a lot.

So I switched to Netflix. They have a four-out plan, as well as a five-, six-, all the way up to eight-out (which actually only costs three bucks more than what I was paying with Blockbuster). Their shipping turnaround is a day, as opposed to the 2-3 with Blockbuster. They also have an large and comprehensive collection of video-on-demand that you can watch over the internet. I watched almost all of Season Three of Miami Vice in this way. And this is all costing me $20 less than what I was paying Blockbuster.

Blockbuster was a good ride until they ruined it. I suspect others will leave much as I did.