Monday, March 20th, 2006
I bitch alot about corporate dishonesty. From Sony with their evil root-kit fiasco to Cingular with their rebates - I really would like these companies to straighten up. So rather than bitching, I thought I’d start with what I can control, myself. I will not purchase any Sony products because they’ve been evil bastards lately. I will not buy any CDs produced or promoted by a major RIAA member label. I will not buy a product with a mail-in rebate because the company wants to make me spend more in effort to get the rebate than it costs them to pay it.
Posted in Rant, Service | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
…to be true, they say it probably is. Sometimes though, it actually is that good.
So I recently signed up with Blockbuster online as an alternative to Netflix because I had been throttled. I normally get my movies back in the mail the next day, and while I had pulled in around 16 movies a month from Netflix for a long time, they changed their practices around the beginning of the year and that number dramatically dropped.
Ok, pay attention. I found a bit of a loophole that’ll get me some serious bang for my buck from our friends at Blockbuster. How many movies can I get from Blockbuster for the same $$$? Well, this is the fun part. I started my one-month trial on January 26th. As of today I have received 15 movies, two are on their way, plus my two in-store rentals for this month. Blockbuster recently gave users the option to convert their two-per-month in-store rentals to a one-per-week in-store plan. Since they got the timing off a bit, that allowed me to get two more weekly coupons for in-store rentals. For those keeping score, that brings me to 21.
But wait, I’m getting to the good part. When I went to the store tonight I saw some big banner they had in the window about joining Blockbuster Rewards and getting free movies for a year. I picked up a flyer and asked the clerk about the plan. To boil it down, you give Blockbuster $10 for a 1-year membership to Rewards. For your Alexander Hamilton you get a free movie (movie must be over one-year old) for every in-store rental you buy. Buy however is a very loose term, and the movies I pick up with my online coupons will count for Blockbuster Rewards. The catch is that you can only do this on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
So here’s what I do. Each week I print out my coupon on Monday, go into the store and grab two movies - one of which is more than a year old. I take it up to the clerk and hand him my coupon and walk out. This brings me up to 8 in-store rentals each month for a year. Throw that onto the 15 movies I hope to get during a normal month and that puts me at 23. That would be 276 movies in one year, or around 82 cents per movie. Compare that to Netflix at about $1.50/movie based on $17.95 3-plan and 12 movies per month. If you’re buffering the movies like me, that starts to look like a pretty attractive alternative to cable.
Posted in Service, Stingy | No Comments »
Thursday, February 2nd, 2006
Continuing on the theme of incomplete reviews, I just wanted to share the fact that I dumped Netflix. Netflix is one of those brands, like TiVo that just ooozes good karma. I espouse the wonders of Netflix to friends and family; but they pissed me off recently. I turn movies around very quickly, and Netflix with their new “short wait” “very long wait” thing was just getting to me. Rather suddenly I was getting less movies each month for the same twenty clams. I’ve tested the waters with Netflix before and I’ve always been lured back by a lower price. This time Netflix gave me no such offer and I continued with my cancellation.
Anyway, so Blockbuster seems to be kicking ass. I got the 40 Year-Old Virgin, March of the Penguins, and Cinderella Man right away - those all had a very long wait from Netflix. The web page isn’t quite as slick, but when you get right down to it the differences are subtle (no RSS feed from Blockbuster). I think the two in-store movie rentals a month and the couple-a-dollar savings is making me feel less like a Netflix traitor.
Posted in Movies, Service | 1 Comment »
