How I learned to quit worrying and love the Netflix
Written: Mar 12 '02 (Updated Mar 19 '02)
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Like the ancient god Rumor, the mental infestation that is Netflix has spread throughout the world, dropping its hints and allegations, whispers and a crapload of banner ads. Then, like a giant cartoon snowball, the user base of this system grew to gargantuan proportions, sucking up more and more people in its wake and doing its best to end it proverbial crash course into the business of Blockbuster and its ilk.
What is Netflix?
A quick statement for those who are too lazy to click on a banner add in the slight possibility that epinions may actually get some revenue for it
After an introduction like that, I should probably do my best to tell you what I’m actually talking about. No, contrary to popular belief I’m actually not interested here in ancient gods and the like. Rather, I’m here on a consumer friendly mission to tell you about Netflix. First and foremost, I must actually tell you what it is.
Thus, Netflix is a revolution. It is a new way of dealing with the problem of renting movies. Much like many businesses in the past, Netflix has revolutionized the manner in which one goes about renting and returning movies by transferring the transaction out of a physical store which the customer must enter, to a much more abstract and virtual store based upon the internet and with goods transferred through the mail.
To sum up what I babbled about in the previous paragraph. The principle service of Netflix is to offer a rental system which is primarily facilitated through the internet and through the US Postal service (aka, you receive and send your DVDs through the mail). Hence, instead of going to the store in order to rent your movies, you are now able to have them sent for you and waiting at your humble abode for you to come back from a hard day at work to enjoy your movies.
The path to the Dark Side
To further elaborate the ease and beauty of this service, let’s follow the path through a typical rental by average Joe user…. (N.B. – in some form of reverence to political and gender correctness, I have done away with the use of pronouns in this section and referred to everything as “average Joe user”, hence this section will never have to be rewritten to tie into gender correct writing-- joy; also, these dates and times reflect someone living in Minneapolis, MN and not in other places, so if you're closer, or further away, think about that as well)
Day 1, noon: average Joe user decides to give a try to the two-week free trial that average Joe user saw on the website. After signing up, average Joe user starts to browse movies online…
Day 1, 2:00pm: after playing around picking out movies, average Joe user looks at average Joe user’s queue and sees that there are plenty of movies in there. Now comes the waiting…
Day 2, mail time: average Joe user looks in average Joe user’s mailbox, no movies..
Day 3, mail time: average Joe user looks in average Joe user’s mailbox, no movies..
Day 4, mail time: average Joe user is ecstatic because average Joe users’s movies have arrived.. average Joe user puts them on the counter to watch later
Day 5: average Joe user watches the movie.
Day 6: average Joe user puts the DVD back in the return envelope and puts it in the mail.
Day 7: average Joe user waits
Day 8: average Joe user waits
Day 9: average Joe user waits
Day 10: average Joe user waits
Day 11: average Joe user gets an email stating that the movie arrived, and asks average Joe user to rate it
Day 12: average Joe user gets another email saying that average Joe user’s next movie has been taken off the queue and sent to him
Day 13: average Joe user waits
Day 14: average Joe user waits
Day 15: average Joe user waits
Day 16: average Joe user waits
Day 17: average Joe user is ecstatic again, because average Joe user’s next movie has arrived and is ready to be watched!!!
My thoughts on this service…
Be still, child, and I shall tell unto you the tale of netflix and why it is both the greatest thing ever and a sign of evil things in our world.
If you look at the above example, you will pretty much by able to ascertain just about everything you could possibly want about the Netflix service. However, since I’ve already put the thought into all of this, I could probably sit here and elucidate a bit for you, let you know what I’ve been thinking, per se. So, as per my style in many other places, I’m going to list off here a bunch of fun things about the service (fun is not defined for the purposes of this section as either good or bad), and let you know my thoughts on it…
Things that are good. Being that I like good things, these would be things that I like
Ease of use: If it hasn’t become completely obvious yet, this is the perfect service for the lazy (ahem… I’m sorry, for the extremely busy with other things) person. The only thing you really have to do is check your mail (which you most likely do anyway), and occasionally go to the computer and update your queue. For the most part, after a quick initial investment of time, you could probably go for quite some time without having to visit the website at all (I think I queued up about 80 movies the first time, and at the rate I’m going through them, that will take well over a year to get through).
No Late Fees: I was going to try to put this much higher and erudite, but then I realized that no consumer really cares about the other part. Quite simply put, with Netflix, there is no such thing as a late fee. You pay a monthly fee based on the number of DVD’s that you want checked out at one time, and that’s it. You can keep the DVD’s almost perpetually (I haven’t tested to see how long you can keep them out before they start to wonder about them, but I assume that as long as you are paying your fee, they would most likely let you go… though I’m curious to hear about this from others).
Good selection: As if these other facts weren’t enough, this comes into play as well. Being that they are a warehouse based system, they are able to stock up on just about every DVD that is out there, and as a result, you have a good chance of getting that rare DVD that you’ve been looking for. This isn’t to say that they have everything, there are movies out there which they don’t have (though none that I have confirmed to exist on DVD), so its not foolproof, but it is rather good.
The Queue: Its tough to really put this in either section, so I’m going to mention some good parts about it here. There are a lot of movies out there that you have been meaning to see, and the Netflix queue is a great way to actually watch those movies. You see, when you put them in the queue and you don’t pay attention to it, (i.e. selecting other movies instead), those movies you’ve been meaning to see eventually get sent down to you and you watch them.
Things that are bad: While everybody likes bad things every now and again (e.g. bad boys/girls, Bad Company, Bad to the Bone…), for the most part, they tend to make you not like things.
Turnaround speed: This is by far the biggest drawback of the system. The turnaround time for sending a movie to Netflix and having it returned is atrocious to say the least. There are two problems with this: (1) they depend on the US postal system, which is slow by nature, (2) they aren’t exactly snappy at the Netflix warehouse. From the email updates that I get from Netflix, I’ve been able to figure out that it takes about 4 to 5 days from where I am for the DVD to get to them, and likewise for it to be returned. However, there is a 2 day lag period in the Netflix warehouse (I will get an email saying they received my DVD at the start of one day, and I’ll get the email saying that they have shipped, or at least released to ship my DVD at the very end of the next day), which tends to get on my nerves. Overall, it will take about 12 days from when you put the DVD in the mail (you can cut off a day or so by dropping it off directly to a central post office where it will be processed faster, but this is just something that comes from time and addiction).
Damaged DVDs: There is nothing more infuriating than waiting a good long time to get your next DVD, have it get there and then find out that you can’t watch it because it is damaged. When you report it damaged, Netflix will send another one out immediately, but it will take some time to get there.
Selected Movies: (also known as the Dark Side of the queue) Admittedly, this isn’t a problem with Netflix itself, it is a problem with the people who select the movies. But every once in awhile you look at the DVD’s you have from Netflix, and you realize that you don’t want to watch any of them, then you have that dilemma of whether to go out and rent from another place, or to just sit down and watch those other movies because you need to get them out and return them (I have yet to actually send one back without watching it, but it is bound to happen one of these days).
Final thoughts
In the grand scheme of things, Netflix will really not affect the world in any grand way. Though you never known, with the small amount of free time that you gain from not having to drive to the movie store, you could save just enough time to actually think up that new idea that could revolutionize the world; or you could save just enough gasoline so that the ozone layer won't go the way of the dodo; or the post office could get just enough new business that they won't have to raise the postage rates this year; or the simple fact that you're not driving at that particular time could mean that you would avoid a terrible accident, then again, it could also mean that you won't meet the partner that you were fated to meet.... so many thing to take into account... well, here is my final take on the matter
If you haven't been able to tell by now (seriously if you haven't you should probably take some courses in reading comprehension), I absolutely love this service. There are some drawbacks to it, and I will also admit that in the early running, when I was trying it out, I was rather skeptical and ready to cancel at any time. However, as I let them work the kinks out (or at least I worked out my kinks in the understanding of the system), things got better and I began to really get into the laziness of this system.
My personal favorite take on Netflix would be this. No longer do I have to go to the local video store, plod around the new releases section, only to see all sorts of unrented copies of Glitter, Dracula 2000 or some other form of Hollywood schlock that I have absolutely no desire to see, only to be distracted by some not very good movie instead of one of the many movies that I have meant to see for quite some time but for some reason never really remember when I get to the movie rental joint. Now I can bypass the schlock and actually rate movies in the order I would like to see them, have them delivered to my mailbox and have only to pop them into the DVD player and then mail them back whenever I so choose. Ahhh.... la dolce vita
Footnotes
[1] There are actually two different ways for these recommendations to come. The first is through lists compiled by Netflix, and the second is through a rather interesting rating system that they have. They have you rate movies, and keep track of these ratings, then they use this data to produce "Best Bets" for you, which is actually a very good system, it just keeps producing movies that I love and own rather than ones I want to rent :-)
Appendix A
Signs of Netflix addiction (easily viewed as tips for new users who are not yet hopelessly addicted)
1 -- You make it a habit to drive to the local post office (preferably the most central one) to drop off your movies so that you can cut out a day of turnaround time.
2 -- You update your queue with movies you could possibly want to watch many times a week so that your queue is somewhere around 200 movies
3 -- You have a collection of Netflix envelopes because you send two movies together quite often, and you never know if you're going to rip one and need a spare.
4 -- You have learned to put movies with a long wait at the very top of your queue so that, in the off chance that they show up, they will be sent to you as soon as humanly possible.
5 -- You have begun to time your movies so that you have a steady flow of new ones rather than having to wait for the next one in the mail. (from kld718)
Leave any additions to this list in the comment section and I'll see what I can do to keep it updated
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Epinions.com ID:
Tibullus
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Member: Marc Chapman
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Reviews written: 69
Trusted by: 76 members
About Me:
Sometimes I like to look up and smile for the satellite pictures.
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