This Richard Corliss column over at Time, titled “Why Netflix Stinks,” is so wrong-headed and off the mark that I find myself scratching my head, wondering whether there was some AOL/Time Warner mandate to offer up a sniping and skewed account, but it’s not like there is any real competition between the conglomerate and Amazon.com (which could own Netflix in the near future), so I’m basically left thinking Corliss is just stuck in an ancient time he’s unwilling to relinquish.
To begin with, “real well-stocked video stores” are a relic of a forgotten time. Corliss betrays a disconnected sense of reality with an anecdote about a lower Manhattan store with 55,000 titles, failing to realize the chain locations the people between the coasts have to deal with.
Have you been to a Blockbuster Video lately? An overall disdain for the medium seems to permeate, generally owing to an apparent bottom-of-the-barrel standard for hiring, entry-level positions for those finally moving into the private sector. And the catalogs are maddening, consumer theory writ large: 50 or 60 copies of “12 Rounds,” but don’t figure on finding “City Lights” buried somewhere.
For a while, Blockbuster actually had my business with its Rewards program, a Netflix-like approach that went one step further and allowed you to bring your rentals into a store for immediate exchange rather than wait out the mailing system. But when the suits decided the program was losing (more likely not making enough) money, membership prices skyrocketed 50% or so and I went back to Netflix.
But the issue of waiting on the mailers is actually one of Corliss’s endless complaints. He bemoans the “short wait” or “very long wait” trait some popular titles receive when stock is briefly depleted, but how is this different from the usual line of checked-out titles at your local store? His defense is that at least with video stores, late-fee penalties are incurred for holding a title past its due date. Fair enough. But even still, I never wait that long for a title, so maybe Corliss is just too impatient.
He also takes aim at Netflix’s admittedly problematic “Movies You Might Like” feature, which is based on a formula as opposed to human recommendation, but it’s not an exact science. You can’t fault them for trying.
Elsewhere, in a piece titled “Five Ways to Fix Netflix” (that is at least constructive), Corliss mentions the post office system as a culprit. I’ve never waited more than two days for a title to arrive, but the closest Netflix distributor to me is in Santa Clarita, maybe 20 minutes up the 5 freeway. Even still, it’s a silly bone of contention. Netflix has no sway over the postal service and I’m sure the company is opening new hubs as frequently as it can.
It’s also stunning to me, the hypocrisy with which Corliss disavows the Netflix wait in one breath while chastizing the now culture and Americans as “shut-ins” who have the world at their fingertips via the internet in the next.
Corliss does briefly mention Netflix’s streaming capability (via the must-buy Roku player) briefly at the end of the first piece, but it’s clear he’s never really given it a go. If he had, perhaps he’d know that, even with a shortened catalog, it pretty much settles all of his issues. But I say to him this: If you want human interaction so badly, go stroll around and find it. Don’t blame a company that is actually at the fore-front of film delivery for something so silly and an opportunity to offer some armchair speculation on the nation’s societal status.
I do, however, agree with Corliss’s notion that Netflix should do away with mailers all together and make the whole catalog available for streaming:
About half of the company’s costs go to paying the people who fill the envelopes and to the Postal Service. Netflix would love to dispense with those costs and send its product directly to customers by streaming it to their TVs. At the moment about 12,000 of the more than 100,000 titles are available for streaming, but that requires a Blu-ray player or a special Netflix device that sells for about $100. The company doesn’t expect to be fully streaming for another five years. That’s a long time to keep schlepping videos to the post office and hoping new ones arrive on time. Dear Netflix: Could the future arrive a little earlier, please?
Still, the impatience he has. It’s irritating. Anyway, maybe I’m just really cranky this morning, but this piece really rubbed me wrong. There are things in this industry worth complaining about. Netflix just isn’t one of them. Not yet, anyway.
Comments
9 responses to “Why Richard Corliss stinks for thinking Netflix stinks”
I couldn’t be happier with Netflix. Once in a while, they don’t have a title at all (Glengarry Glen Ross is one), but the catalog is unmatched. I hated the days of the video store, with the high prices and limited availability. Sometimes there can be long waits, but as you noted the same happens at a video store. If you have a new release at the top of your queue and return a DVD on a Monday, they almost always send it to you and it arrives the day that the DVD came out in stores. What is the problem again?
The rating system isn’t perfect, and most of the recommendations seem to hover around 3.5 stars, but after rating over 750 films, it has a good idea of what I am interested in.
For about 18 dollars a month, I get three at a time, which means a film a day minus the overlap in the weekend, which I usually spend at a theater anyway. Again, what is the problem with such a system?
This is the dumbest argument I have ever heard? he compares Netflix to a video rental store most of never had? I live in a big city and even my smaller independent vidoe store doesn’t have the collection that netflix or great recommendations. I have never gotten a wrong movie as he said and only three or four times has it been late. As for taking awhile yeah you need to think about that and maybe when it comes you aren’t in the mood but again that doesn’t happen a lot, and if you don’t like it you return it and it cost you know more then the good movie you got last time
If he is talking about being a shut in I doubt going to a rental store is a great social interaction for any person unless you are going with someone to pick out a movie to watch.
Well, I don’t agree with Richard Corliss on many things, especially his reviews, so I guess this just adds to it.
That piece should have been titled “Old Man Yells At Cloud.”
Sadly, we don’t have Netflix in Canada, but we do have Zip.ca (Rogers Video Direct), which pretty much operates in the same way. Thing is, though there’s a warehouse in Vancouver (where I live, and return the rentals to), many of my rentals are shipped out from the other warehouses in Ontario or Alberta. Thus, I’m often waiting 3 or 4 business days for those titles.
I recently de-activated my account (for a brief period), and for the month preceding that, was getting two titles out at a time, and in the past month got 11 titles for the $22 (Canadian) charge. A decent price, and a good way to see many of those ridiculously overpriced Criterion titles (rarely available in video stores) that you’re on the fence about buying. All that said, my last rental (the Watchmen Extended Blu-ray) apparently got lost on its way back to the warehouse, or stolen. First time that’s happened. Hopefully, when I re-activate the account, it doesn’t happen again.
Corliss says cities large and small have had video stores with big selections for years; I live in Phoenix, used to live in a small East Coast town, and no. No, they don’t. Not the ones I’ve seen. Having stopped at Blockbuster today, out of sheer coincidence, I can say Kris is dead-on about the lack of choice and bored employees. I’ve been a Netflix subscriber for 4 years, and never thought of canceling.
Blockbuster’s selection is awful. That’s why you go to the local library. Pretty much any movie you could possibly want (save for the very newest releases) and totally free. Sweet.
Me: “Do you have ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’?”
Blockbuster Employee: “What?”
Me: “Uh, it’s a film… can you check the computer to see if you have it?”
Blockbuster Employee: “Sure. What’s it called again?”
Me: “‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Blockbuster Employee: “Don’t you mean ‘Peter and the Wolf’, or “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf’?”
Me: “Uh, no. It has Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It won 5 Oscars.”
Blockbuster Employee: “Huh. Okay. Doesn’t look like we have it.”
Me: “Fine. Do you have ‘Network’?”
Blockbuster Employee: “What?”
Me: “Goodbye.”
@Speaking English: The Public Library is great!! I guess the secret is out! I usually use the library if I’m too impatient to wait for a film from Netflix.
@ Andrew: LOL! Yes! It got to the point where I don’t even ask for their assistance. Only reason I go into Blockbuster anymore is the purchase those great “Previously Viewed” DVDs.
I LOVE Netflix! When I first signed up I was addicted. I have a center very near my home so it never had taken more than a single day to receive a fresh batch of my “two at a time” titles.
The one suggestion and/or change that needs to be made is more about the website. While quite user friendly, I think it ought to expand its social networking features. It is entirely too difficult to find friends on the site, to converse with fellow members, to have a forum…Netflix online should be more like Facebook in its networking innovations, that’s my one beef with Netflix…other than that, I’ve got to get that Roku!