Blockbuster Vs. Netflix

Which do you prefer and why?

My experiences:

NetFlix for probably around a year and a half.

Blockbuster for about 2 months.

I live in a rural place and there are no Blockbusters in my area.

When I started with NetFlix it was great; quick shipping, no throttling, tons of movies, no throttling and so on. I was very happy. We usually watch whatever we get that day/night so it can get mailed out the next day. Then NetFlix started throttling me.

For those of you who do not understand what "throttling" is, it is where the company receives the movie back and purposely sits on it a couple of days to slow down your movie watching.

It got to a point where it was over 1 week to get new movies. It was angering me. A lot. They where gambling they could cut their level of service to me by a factor of 2 and I wouldn't notice, or care enough to cancel. At less than 12 movies for $18.00 a month I was going to cancel.

So I decided to try Blockbuster, 2 weeks free + 18.00 back in rebates. Blockbuster seemed about the same as NetFlix. Slightly less navigable and interesting website (maybe from lack of experience), similar shipping times and selections. However, seemed to me like Blockbuster didn't quite have it all put together as well: missing synopses on website, confused dealings with series discs, received a few wrong discs in the first 2 weeks... So I figured Blockbuster and NetFlix were about equal, and with Blockbuster I could at least give the free rental coupon out to people in my family who lived near a Blockbuster. Advantage Blockbuster.

Meanwhile back at the house, NetFlix totally cleaned up its act. Since I started checking out Blockbuster, NetFlix went back to the NetFlix of old. They were receiving my movies a couple days earlier and shipping new ones (including new releases!) that day. Over 12 movies a month again. No problems, no errors, good website.

LOL, I think Blockbuster has a mole that is feeding customer lists back to NetFlix. Once NetFlix saw me on the list they up-ed their level of service in fear of losing me.