A few years ago, I signed up for Blockbuster's unlimited rental service when they first started trying to directly compete with Netflix. The plan had an intro rate of $9.99 and allowed you to rent an unlimited amount of movies, one at a time from the store. Then our rate bumped up to the regular $14.99 rate. Around this time, we started running out of new releases and found ourselves wandering aimlessly through Blockbuster try to find something to watch. Then we got a letter saying they were raising our rate to something like $24.99. We canceled.

Today, I read that Blockbuster's on-line/store hybrid rental service is hiking prices 10-40%. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that a company that charged $4.50 or so for two day DVD rentals for years would be sticking it to their customers yet again.

Let's contrast Blockbuster's repeated screw-the-customer behavior with Netflix. I signed up for Netflix maybe 18 months ago. They offer superior service through their excellent recommendation engine and I've never had a rate increase. In fact, six months ago I got an email saying they were lowering my monthly rate. I trust Netflix not to screw me over.

Blockbuster may think their battle with Netflix can be won with features or even prices, but they don't have a chance if their customers can't trust them.

Posted by JoshC at December 21, 2007 10:52 AM

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.joshchristie.com/weblog/mt/mt-tb.cgi/217

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 'Blockbuster vs. Netflix: Trust' from Josh Christie's Weblog.

Name:


Email Address (not published):


URL:

Remember personal info?
YesNo
Comments: