I was smitten in the beginning, and I was never fond of the video store. I remember Blockbuster sending me a notice. "For your convenience your credit card has been charged for your most recent rental and late fees." Gee, thanks Blockbuster. Convenience? There was nothing convenient about anything to do with that store. Movies were constantly checked out. Even finding DVDs in 2002/2003 was difficult. Like they thought VHS would never go away. Long live the tape. Netflix? Oh, that's just a fad.
Netflix treated its customers right from day one. No late fees. Pick the number of discs you want out at a time and pay a certain amount each month. They used to let you tell them when you sent back your movie and they would credit your account and send the next one. I always thought that was incredibly cool. You could make up for the mail delay and have a steady stream of movies being sent to you. But people must have abused that policy. Now Netflix has to physically receive a movie in order to release the next one in your queue. I don't blame them, but it took away part of the charm to get rid of that feature.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for about 10 years, although I took a year or two break somewhere in there. For the most part I've been very happy with the service. They almost always have what I'm looking for, and they're really good at getting a replacement disc out in the rare case a disc is unplayable, and they'll trust you if there's a disc lost in the mail, which has happened to me a couple of times. Although they usually end up showing up eventually.
The biggest problem I've had with Netflix has always been with the wait. It doesn't take that long, two or three days at most, but in that time my mood can change quite a bit. The documentary that sounded so good on a Sunday afternoon might end up seeming overly academic and about as attractive as Sunday's leftovers by Tuesday night. In the last couple of years Netflix solved this by introducing their Instant Viewing service. The problem was it only worked if you had a pc, and I'm a mac guy. In all the years of enjoying Netflix it was the only time that I actively looked for their customer service info to complain. Lots of people did. Eventually they introduced the Roku player, which for $99 you could hook up directly to your TV. Then a few months ago they finally introduced the streaming service to macs. Problem is you have to have a newer Intel mac. The service is not backwards compatible. Soon after they partnered with a couple different manufacturers to provide Blu Ray players that worked with the Instant Viewing service. Eventually I caved and bought one.
The best thing about Instant Viewing is that it solves the wait problem. Currently I have 200+ titles in my queue that I can browse through on my TV. Click on a title and you see a brief description and a rating (up to 5 stars). Sometimes there are really recent films on there, but often it's the stuff that's been out for a few years. But still, the selection is amazing and it far surpasses any kind of cable on demand movie service.
Sure, I still wish I could get Netflix on my laptop, but the times when I'd actually use it are very few and far between. Lying in bed, maybe. More often it would be on a trip. But that's what books are for.
Netflix has the model for the future, and it won't be long before we're able to stream everything. Movies. TV. Even music. (Well, if they ever pull their heads out of their collective asses, but that's another story...)
Whenever I talk to someone who rents movies but doesn't have Netflix I'm surprised and ask always ask why. It seems like such a no-brainer. Super affordable. Convenient. Good selection. And now you can stream it anywhere you have an Internet connection. Well, as long as you don't have an older mac.
Just today I got an email from Netflix. Subject line was Arriving Later. That perked my interest. Then I opened it up to read that my next selection had to be sent from a different distribution center and would take longer than normal. 3-5 days instead of 2-3. They went on to say that they sent my next selection for me, so that I could enjoy another movie while I waited. I liked that. It's made me happy. And happy is an emotion I seldom feel when dealing with cable companies or video stores.
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