DVD Rental Services, The Revenge
Submitted by jim on Thu, 03/28/2002 - 13:54
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Since I previously posted that I prefer RentMyDVD over Netflix, I thought I should also post my reversal: I just cancelled my RentMyDVD account. Their service was fine as long as I had 50 movies in my queue, and a few "available" titles interspersed. But now that I'm down to 35 in my queue, they are all "high demand" and turnaround time has slowed considerably. I'm going to go back to my local video store since they undoubtedly picked up a few DVD titles I'd like to see in the past few months. After I've exhausted them, I'll try Netflix again, now that they have an east coast distribution center.
Jim, Netflix has been keeping up the on The East Coast Distribution and turnaround has been great. I usually end up watching the DVD's on the weekend and sending them out on Monday and by Friday I have the new ones available for me. This is is crucial for me in the summer as I own a summer house in Maine and it will be great to have readily available stuff to watch.
Availability is still a little sketchy but I do think they are just ramping up their stock in Worcester.
On a side note, I can not understand the business logic of not having enough stock on hand. The cost of the DVD's is minimal to a company and if enough people are looking for it does not that automatically mean the demand is there. Any goodwill developed from quick turnaround is lost if you can't get what you want.
Good to hear Netflix is still on the ball with the new facility. But I'm with you on the availability issue. I just don't get their implementation. For me, the problem begins with my not being able to put ANYTHING I want into the queue, including long wait, not available, doesn't exist on DVD, currently in theaters, etc. This way I can maintain my entire wishlist online, and whenever I read a favorable review of something I can just stick it in my queue and know that I'll get it eventually. There should definitely be a tie-in with a master list of all movies. By extending the queue in this manner, Netflix should be able to gauge demand well in advance. They could also implement a recycling plan where they buy a ton to meet initial demand, and then sell off their extras as demand tapers off.
If I were Netflix, I'd be worried Amazon was going to eat my lunch, since Amazon already owns IMDb, has distribution centers all over the place, can buy DVDs from themselves, and then sell the extras via their "buy one used" feature. But hey, that's just me. Listology isn't exactly a money-maker, so I shouldn't be preaching business practices. But what the heck, maybe Amazon will steal this idea from me too. :-)
Hey, Jim! For a few weeks now I've been thinking about writing up a business plan for a DVD Rental by Mail service which addresses all of the issues that we seem to have with NetFlix and others. Would you be interested in participating?
Great minds think alike. :-) I've begun (but just barely) pursuing something like that already, but at a different angle from the existing rental services. Feel free to e-mail or IM me off-list to discuss.
Will do. I'll send you what I've been thinking about at my first opportunity. :-)