How Peerflix works
Peerflix isn't a site where illegal materials are traded. Copied movies are not to be traded, and illegal copies of movies are not acceptable materials for trading. The DVDs that are traded must be original, and are expected to be in good condition when traded away to someone else. If you fail to provide usable materials, you could find yourself suspended from the Peerflix system for abusing the service.
Traders that request DVDs are protected by the service's Peersafe trading system and are reimbursed for losses if they receive discs that are not what they expected (illegal copies, broken materials, lost materials, etc.). Traders that ship DVDs away to others are also protected from potential fraud by the system and can get reimbursed for losses as well.
Peerflix offers some advantages over selling used DVDs on eBay, but it isn't necessarily the utopia that many of it's members would hope for.
The Peerflix system is funded by a small charge of $0.99 per 'trade.' A trade being when you are being shipped a DVD you've requested from the system. That small fee helps to keep Peerflix in business, pay for their IT systems, web site, and support services.
In addition to the trading fee, members of the site also have to use the sites designated currency 'Peerbux' to buy DVDs that they wish to receive, and are paid 'Peerbux' credits for DVDs that they trade away to others. Popular releases, or high demand releases, typically are priced at 3 Peerbux per disc, while less popular, or more readily available releases in the system are priced at 2 Peerbux per disc. Finally, for readily available and overly abundant materials, the minimal fee is 1 Peerbux per disc. The same fees are the payouts for those that trade away discs.
Much like the blog traffic exchange sites I was just ranting about
here, the problems arise when the system doesn't have enough of the commodities it is supposed to be selling (or facilitating trades of).
If there aren't enough copies of highly requested DVDs available, then persons that requested them could be left waiting a long time to receive anything in exchange for something that they've traded away. Such is currently the case for myself, where I've traded away approximately 32 Peerbux worth of discs, and in the time I've been a member of the service, I've received approximately 8 Peerbux worth of discs back, all of which I've also fed back into the system once I watched them.
Members aren't required to trade in anything in exchange for any discs they request, and once you receive a disc, you have the option to keep it forever and never trade it away again, or trade it away at a much later time if you so choose. That wouldn't be too bad if Peerflix had a steady stream of people feeding materials into the system, or if they themselves seeded the system with a bunch of new copies of highly requested DVDs on a regular basis, but because there seems to be a very limited pool of people actually feeding things into the system, there's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy of disc rarity going on. People that have been waiting for a long time for discs don't want to give away more discs until they've received more materials themselves, and who could blame them. If they trade away a ton of discs and never get anything for it, and then see Peerflix close up shop and declare bankruptcy, what will they have left to show for it? (Not that I think Peerflix is in bad financial shape, but you get the idea of how some people would be leery of trading away expensive disc sets via the system).
Like the blog traffic exchanges, part of the problem is that Peerflix sells Peerbux to new members, and existing members. You can buy them at a fair exchange rate of approximately $5.00 per Peerbux, with discounts for higher volumes of purchases (5 Peerbux for $20 is one special, and 30 Peerbux for $99 is the best price offer).
Selling the Peerbux offers another profit opportunity for Peerflix, and of course it's also a necessary opening for new members to be able to buy the currency they need so they can buy discs in the exchange even if they don't have any discs of their own to offer out in trade. Again, the problem perhaps arises when the prices of the Peerbux are too inexpensive (such as the 30 for $99 offer) and not enough of the bux are being earned by trading in discs that others might want or are actively requesting.
The Peerflix system needs massive improvement in the area of available discs. Without beefing up their 'stock' of available copies of requested discs, they leave their members waiting very long periods of time to receive value in exchange for materials they may have traded away a long time ago. What I would recommend, and what I think others that have visited the semi-official forums that are used for discussion of Peerflix:
DVDTradeTalk.com, may also have suggested is that the Peerflix service needs to seed the system and keep a fresh inventory of highly requested materials available for their membership.
Growing pains, and poor IT systems
Peerflix seems to be having serious growing pains with their IT system. They've gone through several changes in their system in the past several months, and things don't seemed to really have improved or gotten noticably better. In fact, in many ways the site seems less user friendly, and less helpful and informative now than it did when I first gave the service a try.
Quite frequently you'll see availability status for DVDs that you request that are far less than informative. The Peerflix folks have done a very poor job of documenting for members how their ques work, and why it is that members can find that one day a disc shows 'short wait' and the next it shows 'medium wait' or even 'long wait.' The information is out there if you hunt hard enough for it (over on the DVDTradeTalk.com site for example), but again, it should be more clearly spelled out and available through the Peerflix help and FAQs area.
Some members have complained that the system isn't letting them make requests for other DVDs. Perhaps because of glitches in the behind the scenes database or some other areas, but in either case, it reflects poorly upon Peerflix's IT systems and prowess, and doesn't bode well for improving the long term health of the service.
Poor mailing and tracking system
The other major (current) problem with Peerflix revolves around their mailing systems that are used by members. Peerflix doesn't require it's members ship the DVD keep cases for discs that are shipped to other members. In fact they don't support that action at all. They simply require members to ship the discs that are requested, and leave all other materials out to minimize the mailing costs -- mailing costs that are borne by those that trade away discs.
In using that methodology, members can save a few pennies on the materials they ship away, but because Peerflix uses a print it at home envelop system that many members print on simple InkJet printers (two sheets are printed out that are supposed to be placed back to back, then taped up to form an envelop with the disc(s) in it), many members have been complaining that the discs they are receiving are coming through damaged either by the InkJet printer paper materials, or by the Postal Service's rough handling of the discs in the home made envelopes.
There's also a huge problem in the mailing system in that shipped materials are not trackable because the folks at Peerflix aren't requiring their members to use any sort of delivery confirmation services. That's something that I see as an almost unforgivable sin. While requiring members to ship using USPS Priority Mail service can add approximately $4.25 to the cost of shipping off discs, the fee is neglible considering that the additional fees would cover Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. By doing that, persons that ship (trade away) discs could be required to provide the tracking number to the Peerflix system, and then the Peerflix service would be more assured that persons that are getting Peerbux by trading away discs aren't defrauding the service by claiming to have shipped something that was never shipped. There's also the idea that Priority Mail envelopes are sturdier, even if you stuff them full to take advantage of the 'as much as you can stuff in the small flat envelope is what we'll ship for that flat rate price' pricing of the Postal Service. (Still keeping the costs for shipping just about any thing traded through the system to approximately $5.00 or under per trade).
I'm sure that there are plenty of cheap members of the system that wouldn't want to pay the higher shipping costs, but I'm equally sure that there are good, honest, traders like myself that would very much value the comfort and security of knowing that we could track promised shipments.
Actually, if the Peerflix system were to change their mailing system to what I've suggested here, they would probably solve one of the biggest current complaints (the dreaded 'peer mailer') by just having members print a simple 'mailing label' and movie information insert that could be included in the Priority Mail flat envelope that is shipped off to the intended recipient.
Summarizing
In anycase, Peerflix has several issues that need correcting. I'm not sure one is really more important than the other, as they both revolve around the issues of preventing fraud, and making sure materials are available in the system.
In the case of keeping the system seeded with copies of very popular items, they could and should be raising the costs for such items for those that want to receive them, and raising the payouts for those that could possibly provide them.
They also should be tracking just how many copies of items are requested, and if the item is still highly requested (say more than 10 - 15 members waiting for a copy of that item after a 6 month waiting period for the person at the front of the que), they should work with their apparent partner Amazon.com to purchase a used copy to use to seed the system and help bring down the wait for their members to obtain the materials. If they'd do that, they would certainly raise their costs, but they'd make the system much more responsive to members, and in doing so, get many more positive recommendations as a safe place to trade away discs, or obtain other movies in exchange for ones you've opted to give up copies of.
That's my $.02, if you have thoughts, feel free to add your comments too.
