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If Blockbuster's Best Response To Netflix's Downloads Is Buying A Dreadful Movie Download Service, It's Going To Have Problems
from the couldn't-get-a-date dept
After spending about a year on the block, there's word that movie download site Movielink may soon be acquired by Blockbuster. Movielink, of course, suffers the same fate as every other movie download site, it sucks, it's difficult to use, burdened by DRM and generally doesn't provide much value. So, it's not entirely clear why Blockbuster would be interested in buying the site. The company obviously feels it needs to make a move to counter Netflix, which is lurching towards its own online video service. But if it actually wants to compete, why would it buy a proven loser? Considering all of the problems with other sites in the space, it would seem like there remains a major opportunity to create something original and cool. Then again, Blockbuster doesn't seem to have much interest in rocking the boat, as evidenced by its latest advertising campaign, which proudly states that they're identical to Netflix except that they also have physical stores.
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Blockbuster... and their 'no late' fees is just a buncha BS. I return a movie like 3 days 'late'. So instead of a 'late fee' I get a 'restocking' fee.
Now, in all seriousness - for the ease of just running up the street and getting the movie when I want, I was ok with Blockbuster's setup.
I really don't mind so much paying a late fee - but, like I complained to the guy at Blockbuster - they should call it a late fee. I asked him, "well why am I getting charged a 're-stocking' fee"
His comment was, "Well when a movie's not returned on time, we automatically charge your account for the price of the movie, if it's returned in under 30 days, we refund all but a restocking fee.'
My reply was, "ok, but from my viewpoint, it's an extra fee I'm getting charged, because the movie was returned late - call it whatever you want, it's a late fee from my viewpoint".
That was really enough for me. I felt more annoyed at that 'play on words' (it's one of my pet peeves) than I did paying a simple late fee.
So if I do rent anymore, it will be somewhere who can at least tell me up front they are going to charge late fees, if it's late.
But I dunno, since that - and trying Netflix, I've became rather fond of it actually.
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Total Access
As for the download service, I couldn't care less. All "legal" movie download services suck, and suck equally, because they're all on the DRM bandwagon. The only problem with Blockbuster going this route is the amount of wasted effort and money it will involve.
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Re:
I don't see why so many people are confused about this policy. It's straightforward.
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uhh, because of corporate parent?
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video stores
But if you are honest with yourself, you having the disc means that someone else can't rent it right?
Or does it? Think about that for a moment and you will see how absurd the whole concept of "renting data" really is.
In my ideal video shop I would have a huge pile of blank DVDs out the back. Every time a customer came in and selected a flick to watch I would burn the chosen movie to a new disc and give them that.
The disc has a deposit on it, so if you bring the disc back in good condition you get a refund of 1.50 on your account. If you don't bring it back then you get to keep it. The unit charge includes the cost of the blank disc and the time to write it in the shop, say another couple of bucks.
There are no discs "out of stock" because each new customer gets their own. Hell, they can even bring in their own re-writable DVD discs and have the media fee taken off.
The actual charge for the *movie* can then be something very small, like 1.00, which goes to the producer.
If the MAFIAA were not so crippled in their thinking I think this would actually be a very good business model. It balances the absolute abundance of data with the scarcity of real physical tangible discs, it provides an incentive not to hoarde and return discs into the pool and it provides a revenue to the shop owner and the producer. All titles are available to all customers simultaneously and
choosing to not return a disc simply means that you bought it for 1.50, a little above the cost of the meda.
But what do I know about "business", I'm just a bloke who programs computers. :)
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LOL, not a lie at all!
Why would I bother lying? It was returned much sooner - it was like a 2 day rental.
So whatever - 7 days, 2 days - it's STILL A LATE FEE!
Doesn't really matter to me anyway. I just like the terms to be out front first. Not doublespeak.
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Re:
It's not double-speak either. It's marketing. Quit whining and complaining about stupid shit. You sound like a 5 year old.
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Blockbuster is WAY better
I've used both services and not only is blockbuster's customer service better but I don't have to wait to rent my movies. For the same price with Netflix I can have a movie mailed to me, return it to the store for another the next day, and then a day later get another in the mail before I've returned the store rental.
Netflix's customer service was the worst experience I've EVER had and their account throttling was so bad that it could take well over a week to get my movies delivered. When complained about what did they say? "Hrm.. perhaps it's your mailbox." – strange, I don't have a problem with anybody but your service when I rent a lot of movies. Want double-speak? Don't advertise UNLIMITED if you're going to limit.
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Re:
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Re: Late Fees
I was only gettting about 15 with Netflix.
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Re:
Why would I bother lying? It was returned much sooner - it was like a 2 day rental.
So whatever - 7 days, 2 days - it's STILL A LATE FEE!
Doesn't really matter to me anyway. I just like the terms to be out front first. Not doublespeak."
The guy explained to me the whole policy and gave me a brochure about it. It's really simple. You have a week extra past the due date to not be charged anything. So you can keep a movie late, without any fees. But, what people fail to realize is you're STILL RENTING THE MOVIE FROM THEM, IT'S NOT YOURS FOR YOU TO KEEP! He told me that after the 7 days that they just assume that the customer is not bringing it back, and they charge you like you're going to keep it. I think that's fair, if I were a business I'd want to get my money too. Not to mention you get an additonal month following being charged with the product to return it only paying 1.25 (I guess it's 1.50 in other places from what the other guy said). If you think shelling out less than 2 dollars is such a hassle, you should remember what the policy was before. IIRC, it was charging you the rental price once your rental was late, and every time you would exceed another rental period.
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Re:
Most people are too stupid to differentiate between the two types of late fees, so they use a different terminology to avoid a misinterpretation of their policy.
Your annoyance is being caused by someone compensating for the stupid people of the world. Get used to it.
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Singing Praises
3 movies at a time, in the mail. When you turn in the movies at your local blockbuster, they mark them as received immediately, plus they give you three more rentals, free. Plus you get a free monthly videogame rental. It's absolutely insane. If this is due to them trying to compete with Nnetflix, viva la capitalism.
Plus I'm turning in movies days late all the time, 'cause I'm incompetent that way, and I've never been hit with a restocking fee.
And just last week, our dog ate the the case a video game rental came in, and the clerk just shrugged and said 'no problem.' I was expecting to pay a fee, but didn't have to.
How nice is it to actually say good things about a company? It's an odd feeling...
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As the war wages on...
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Satisfied Customer
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What About Movielink??
All that said, Netflix is great. BUT, you can expect that their digital offering will also have DRM, no doubt.
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What About Movielink??
All that said, Netflix is great. BUT, you can expect that their digital offering will also have DRM, no doubt.
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Customers
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DivX!
Talk about something that was ahead of it's time.... A DRM module built into a DVD player, plus, everyone hated it as much as DRM.
Someday, DRM will go the way of DivX.
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Re: Re:
Blockbuster's "No More Late Fees" was a nice gesture but it was still downright false advertising. "No More Late Fees * " is more like it.
"Virtually No More Late Fees!", also would have been less misleading.
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Blocksuckster
Block buster is run by CPG people, the people trained only in how to shill consumer goods. That model is based on fuzzy concepts of marketing such as "feeling good" ergo they creat demand for products that rarely have a demand. Example: other than smelliness, was there really a demand for Axe body sprays? There are plenty of other smelly things someone can use, but clever advertising drected at insecurities can do wonders for a product (Escalades.) But Netflix is a service rather than a product. It provides everything people want; convenience, choice, price within a cost model that works. I'm certain Netflix overhead and fixed costs are so low, they could drop their prices substantially and still make a profit. Blockbuster, has tremendous fixed costs in real estate and such.
So, in this situation you have the wrong orientation toward marketing , coupled with the wrong delivery channel. Add some office politics and voila, you have a craptastic business.
But don't get all high and mighty because many of the tech firms suffer from the opposite. They are engineering driven without any concept of true marketing strategy. That's another post.
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As the war wages on...
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And on...
The biggest thing stoping the download revolution is the industry itself. Piracy law makes copying your discs illegal. They have these hugely-strict DRM protocols.
When will the big players realize that they would make more money by allowing cheap downloads, thus mass-market re-penetration? By hitting more consumers for repeat business, and no disc production costs for the added revenue, they could even withstand an increase in piracy and still make a more than sufficient return on investment...
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and on...
Focus on PC users who have the equipment to download and watch 1080i with 7.1, but are willing to shell out $3, maybe even 5 a movie, because they own it.
Licence a two-copy burn limit if ya have to, but it's theirs once they purchase it.
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blockbuster won't even sign me up
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HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!
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