To fuel my obsession with movies, I’ve got pretty much every movie channel available from Dish Network. As such, I pay more for my television service than anyone else I know. Even though I’m doing pretty well for myself and my family, the budget can get a bit tight. When Netflix came out, a few of my friends signed up and ever since they have been raving about how awesome it is.
I finally took the dive last week and signed up for my own Netflix account. Netflix was having a 2 week free trial, so I thought to myself “Hey – if it sucks, it’s not like I’m losing anything anyways.” And if the service was everything my friends keep telling me it is, I could axe all the premium movie channels I’m currently subscribing to and give my monthly budget some breathing room.
When I signed up, I chose the “2 DVDs at once” plan, for about $14 a month. This plan also gets you Netflix’s new downloading service – I get $14 hours worth of movies to watch right on my computer. Even though I already have some tv and movies on my computer, I figured I could always use more.
If you’ve never heard of Netflix before, let me break it down for you: Once you join Netflix, you make a list of movies and tv shows that you want to see, and within one business day you get your the first one or two movies from your list delivered straight to your door. Once you have them, you can keep the movies as long as you want. And when you’re done, you just pop them back into the prepaid envelope they came with and mail them back. Then, a few days later, the next movie on your list arrives. Over the last few years, this simple website has boomed in popularity, and basically put Blockbuster and every other video rental store out of business.
Because Netflix offers you the convenience of the video store from your home computer, it clearly has the advantage over Blockbuster and all the rest. It’s just so easy and convenient to use, and if you’re like me – once you join Netflix, you’ll never set foot in a video store again. Netflix is far less expensive than stores that charge you both a membership fee and a fee for renting a video – and it’s the best alternative out there for HBO, Showtime, or other premium Satellite and Cable channels.
And it doesn’t take long at all to get your movies – I’ve already gotten the first few and it only took one day to get here! The amount of time it would take Netflix to send me a movie was the number one thing that kept me from joining; but I’ve been flabbergasted by how every time I check my mail, there’s a new movie just waiting for me. The Netflix website is so easy to use, and it can even recommend movies according to the movies that you’ve already watched and the ones that are on your waiting list. There are so many great movies out there that I never knew existed, and probably never would have heard of if it weren’t for Netflix.
Even though I had my doubts, Netflix’s incredible service has made them all disappear. I’m going to go ahead and cancel some of the premium movie channels I currently have through Dish Network, and will definitely be looking forward to continued service from Netflix. Sign up for Netflix, and I promise you won’t regret it. Of all the services I’ve tried over the years, Netflix is definitely the best, and now I understand what all my friends were trying to tell me.
