I had Blockbuster for probably a year after they released their online service and had mixed results.  The good was that I could return the movies to any location and pick up 3 more movies, the bad was they changed this policy and decided to give you 4 or 5 per month for in-store return.  After a few other sorted affairs with Blockbuster, I quit and decided to give Netflix a try.  A big part was Blockbuster changing terms of service and renewal date in the MIDDLE of my month and not offering a credit, which I probably could have taken to my state attorney’s office but didn’t want to deal with for $10.

I found Netflix got the movies quicker and sent out new ones immediately.  Recently they had some issues with my DVDs and credited me a few extra movies as the deal (as I assume they did for anyone since it was a form e-mail).  I’ve had a few issues off and on with speed but it’s few and far between compared to Blockbuster.

I found a deal for Blockbuster to try it again for $10 for the first month and it gave me some credit in Mob Wars so I thought what the hell.  I can return 4 movies to a store for exchange in the month but that wasn’t all bad for the $10 I was paying.  So I decided to try sending all 6 movies back at a time (3 from Netflix, 3 from Blockbuster) to see response time and found that Netflix was by far quicker.  Part of it could be that Netflix has a center in Columbus, Ohio and Blockbuster’s is in Mansfield, Ohio which probably means they’re attempting to undercut by having it more centrally located to Cleveland and Columbus.  Netflix on almost every return has the returned movie the next day and another out to me a day later while Blockbuster can take 2-3 days to receive my movies back and 2-3 days to get a new movie out to me and I’ve seen a day or two before they even process the next after receiving.  Even with best case scenarios it’s still an extra two days and that’s sizable over the course of a month.  I’m not saying I watch movies the moment I receive them and have them back immediately but I’m comparing pure speed and Netflix kicks the hell out of Blockbuster.  Again We’re talking two days to return and have a new movie versus 4 days (at best).  You’d think that Blockbuster would have a sorting facility in major cities like Columbus but apparently not.  I would have thought they could have a store (since they’re already buying space) that they could set up shop in for the online service as well but again apparently not.

Outside of speed, I’ve found that (from past experience and current experience) that Netflix simply has movies available quicker without long waits.  I currently have about 10 movies in my Blockbuster queue and half of them are long or very long wait while I have about 15-20 in Netflix with NO long or very long waits.  My test will be to see how long it takes for the same title to ship to me.  I’ve had a few Netflix movies with long waits or shipping from a location outside of Columbus but I also always get a notification that it’s going to take an extra day.

A summary of items would be:

Speed of Delivery:  Netflix
Communication:  Netflix
Customer Satisfaction:  Netflix
In-Store Exchange:  Blockbuster

With the In-store Exchange, remember for the price you’re paying for the 4 movies, you’re getting a much quicker return time from Netflix (2 days better on an exchange).

I can’t say this is the case for all locations but I’d assume that Columbus, Ohio would be large enough to have it’s own sorting facility from Blockbuster but that doesn’t appear to be the case.  Maybe really large cities have their own and the people in Mansfield, Ohio probably get theirs quickly but for larger metropolitan cities but not huge, that’s just not the case.