Netflix (1 Viewer)

[Peter_Woo]

Hi all,
I have been a Netflix subscriber for over 6 months now, and I felt it has been very difficult to get the movies I want. (On my movie list with netflix, the top six movies have the "long wait" status, and some of those movies have been on my list for over a month now) I just want to know does anybody know why this happens and if there's a fast way to get those movies from netflix.

Thank you
Peter

 

[Dave Gorman]

8 of my top 10 are in some sort of wait status presently. I think it's just poor stocking on the part of Netflix. As far as I know, nothing can be done but wait. I have a queue of 149, so it's not like I'm going to run out of DVDs to watch while I'm waiting for one of my "wait"s to come in stock. If there was something I felt I simply couldn't wait for, I'd rent it locally, or even purchase it if I needed to see it that badly!

 

[Brian W.]

I am not a Netflix fan. I subscribed to them for few months, then cancelled because the turnaround time seemed to be growing longer... and loooonger...

Initially, I would send movies back on Monday and receive my new movies by Friday, or Saturday at the latest, because Netflix is in California and it only takes 1-2 days for First Class mail. After a couple months, that stopped. I wouldn't get the new movies till Monday or sometimes even Tuesday, so would find myself without movies to watch for the weekend. I became convinced Netflix was intentionally increasing the turnaround time on their movies to save themselves money.

 

[John Thomas]

What other businesses provide a similar service? I know that Wal-Mart does it too, but I'd rather try someone else first.

 

[Anthony R]

Well I haven't heard of Wal-Mart doing this, but Blockbuster has the DVD Freedom Pass, which allows you to rent unlimited DVDs for around the same price as Netflix, although only two at a time. The obvious advantage is the ability to instantly exchange the DVDs whenever you want.

Right now I am using Netflix because I live only around 30-40 miles away from Tacoma, WA where their warehouse is. It usually takes only overnight for the movie to travel the distance so turnaround time is almost always 2 days for me.

 

[Dave Gorman]

Blockbuster has the DVD Freedom Pass

The downside is that you're limited to the crappy selection they have in the store. I don't know if I could find enough in their stock for me to last more than a month on this plan.

RentMyDVD.com is a Netflix wannabe. A friend of mine has used both Netflix and Rentmydvd and said Netflix is better for turnaround and for selection. He was frequently having 14+ day combined turnaround times on DVD's with rentmydvd.

In spite of a pretty bad patch for turnaround, and some stocking problems, I've had a good experience with Netflix. Since 1/1/2001 I've turned around 370 DVD's. At one point recently I figured my cost per DVD with Netflix about $2.50 or a bit less -- much less than BB or Hollywood with titles they've never even heard of!

 

[Bryan Toth]

I can't really complain about turnaround time too much.... (I think I'm somewhere between 2 - 3 miles from their Gaithersburg, MD facility) but I have noticed that lately items are staying in a 'Long Wait' state much more than they were before Christmas or so..... In fact, I've had some items at the top of my queue for two months and still haven't received them. What drives me nuts is that they'll move to the "Now" available state while I've got other stuff checked out and by the time I've returned the current discs, they're back to 'Long' or 'Very Long' wait......

Bryan

 

[Jeff Gross]

I've tried both RentMyDVD and NumberSlate and found them inferior to NetFlix in both selection and turnaround.

While I have not used WalMart, I did look at several titles in my NetFlix queue on their site. Almost all of them had longer waits than NetFlix (only 1 was better). I did not look at any new releases though. I believe WalMart gives your first month.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Personally, I would prefer the option of paying for rentals on an individual basis, instead of via a monthly subscription. I rarely rent (I used RentMyDVD.com a few times), so a monthly subscription makes no sense for me.

Of course, since I rarely rent, these companies are not as interested in my business.

 

[Brian W.]

I perused Walmart's rental selection after reading this, and it SUCKS. You'd get a better selection at a tiny mom-and-pop video store in Greybull, Wyoming.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

The "long wait" status seems to be mostly on new releases. I'm sure they don't want to buy a zillion copies of those like Blockbuster, just to get stuck with extra inventory a few months later.

I have 100+ movies in my queue, & am not real picky about what order I get them, so this isn't a big deal to me. But if you have to have the latest releases when they come out, try another source.

I've also noticed the turnaround time is better since they opened a center in Georgia, so I no longer get my discs sent from the Pacific coast.

Those who want to rent one at a time might want to try dvdovernight.com.

 

[Danny R]

Has anybody noticed something strange about Netflix?

I live in the same area as a distribution center, thus I usually get movies within a day or so (often before the "Expected Arrival Date"), and when I mail movies back they usually are received the very next day.

However I've noticed that if I turn a film around immediately, Netflix doesn't seem to like receiving a movie if they get it back on the Expected Arrival Date. This has happened three times now, when I've returned a bunch of movies back to them, all mailed on the same day, but only those with older mail times seem to get received by Netflix immediately.

 

[Jeff Gross]

I've noticed something similar. If they get a movie from me on the Expected Arrival Date, they go ahead and receive it that day, but they will not ship the next movie until the following day. With older mail times, they almost always ship the same day they are received.

 

[LeoTs3181983]

I love NetFlix. My parents have,and they love it too! So I decided to take the 1 Month Free Trail Offer,and I'm definitely keeping it. I had Blockbuster Total Access twice,and I'm never going back to it-although I do use the Blockbuster Any Movie for $3 for 3 Nights deal if I read about a movie that I think I might like,or my psychologist says I might like,or if I don't have anything from NetFlix at home,and I want to watch a movie with a friend. Other than that,I'm sticking with NetFlix for my movie rentals.