What do you guys think of Netflix? (1 Viewer)

I just subscribed to Netflix today with a certain level of skepticism because I've never used an online DVD rental. I was wondering if anyone here is a member and if so are you satisfied with their service? What about selection? Do they usually have the title that you're looking for? What complaints/comments do you have? I think they claim to have over 10,000 titles which is why I became a member because so many B&M rental stores have so few titles on DVD.

I have been a Netflix Marquee member for sometime now. They do have a wide selection, but in many cases they show up as short wait and some as long waits. The key is to keep your rental queue and rejuggle the priority numbers on it so that your shipment doesn't get delayed. It takes about a week from the time you mail your return's to the time you receive the next batch. Overall I can say that I am satisfied.

I have been a member since April 2000. Overall, I am satisfied, although they have definitely gone through some serious growing pains!
The number of titles that constantly appear as "Out of Stock" has increased dramatically since last January, after the Christmas season. I must say, I am not looking forward to a repeat of last year!
I am still able to rent about 12 DVD's a month, which is still a great deal. I love not having to worry about late fees or having to drop the DVD off at a rental store, like Blockbuster etc.
Overall still pretty good, but not nearly as good as they use to be!

Are they going to only carry the pan&scan version if it's available on any given title, like they did with the Mummy Returns?

I personally didn't rent enough to make it economically viable...
I quit, and sofar haven't regretted it.
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"This is not a drill. This is the apocolypse!"
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Since Sept 11th their service has slowed down noticeably. I sent The Pledge back on 10/12/01 and they still haven't received it so I can't order a new disc.
The problems with the US Mail can really hurt this kind of operation.
I love the idea of Netflix but we will have to see if the Mail system can be fixed.
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Since I live in the Bay Area and they are located in San Jose I have been experiencing very fast turn around in my que.
Generally they get my returns in one day and ship the next item out. Although with the recent US mail troubles I do for see a slow down in delivery in the future.
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Cancelled my subscription a while ago and haven't regretted it. The price for rentals just about doubled and then the wait for movies became much longer and the out of stock titles increased dramatically. For $20 a month you could buy between 12 and 24 dvds a year.

I have been a member for over a year. I like it alot. Depending on my schedule I either go with 2 out or 4 out at a time. Although they are not perfect, they are 10 times better than Blockbuster or any other chain. Greater selection, even if not always available, I have seen every movie on my list that I have wanted. I have been able to see classics that I could never get locally. Cannot beat dropping movies on a list and just letting them come in and not feel pressured to return because of due dates or late fees. I was done with Blockbuster the last time I was charged a late fee because I returned a movie at 2pm rather than 12pm.

After verbally abusing a Blockbuster manager last weekend (I'll post that story after my Netflix comments) I started searching for a new service. I was almost sold on Netflix but then found if a Widescreen and P&S version of a movie was available they typically only carried the P&S. Same with Rated/Unrated... I only found Rated. I also read complaints about poor customer service...
Then I found someone on here mentioning http://www.rentmydvd.com and I sent them some questions. Within hours I got a reply from a real person. See below (bold is my emphasis):
"Thank you for your interest in rentmydvd.com. In answer to your questions, first,it is generally our policy when more than one version of a title is made available to carry only widescreen for aspect ratios and only unrated versions for ratings. The one notable recent exception to this is the movie Cats and Dogs which is only available on our site in fullscreen: I think this was the result of simple ordering mistakes that were not caught until it was too late.
Second, Not Available is, as you mention, currently a highly ambiguous designation and I apologize for the confusion. First, Not Available denotes titles that are not currently available on DVD. One of our goals is to have a vastly extensive database of movies that will be able to inform our customers whether or not what they are looking for is even on DVD. Second, Not Available denotes titles that are available on DVD, but not currently in our inventories. We are always taking suggestions and feeling around for the types of titles that our customers would like to see. Hopefully in the near future we will be changing title designations to better reflect their real-world status.
I hope this information adequately answers your questions. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Regards,
Matthew Blake"
That impressed me. They understood the importance of an unaltered movie. I then noticed that two movies "Hidden Fortress" and "The Wicker Man" were listed as "N/A". I then asked them about that. Here is the reply:
"Please forgive our Purchasing Department oversight in missing the title you are looking for. I have sent a copy of your e-mail to them for review.
Many times in the present DVD marketplace great titles are overlooked; however, it is more often the case that their availability is limited due to lack of production and duplication. It may be that this title is presently on back-order through one or all of our distribution sources. In any event I will make sure that your request is reviewed.
Your suggestions are greatly appreciated and we will do our best to make sure we stock the titles that our customers would like to see. You can always send your suggestions here - they will all be given over to Purchasing. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Regards,
Matthew Blake"
I have to say, I'm very happy with the service. Plus, you can have a two movie deal for $13.95/month. I typically only watch movies on weekends so that is a great deal for me....
I don't mean to sound like I off topic here or just preaching rentmydvd but I felt Netflix just didn't give the service and desire to have unmolested movies when compared to other vendors....
Neil
(Keep reading if you want my Blockbuster story. Sorry for the fact is is off topic to the rest of the thread).
I was in the mood for a mindless movie so I went decided to snag 'The Mummy Returns'. Went to Blockbuster and they had quite a few in stock. I was about to rent it when I noticed 'Full Screen' on the front. Soon I discovered all the ones for rent were full screen. At first I thought this may be a 'Wonka' situation and only full screen was available. Then I noticed they had copies for sale too. All the ones for sale were Widescreen. Now I was really confused. I took the widescreen up to the counter and asked if they had any for rent. I was told 'No, we only have full screen to rent'. Huh? When I asked why, I was told "We found families would much rather rent a full screen movie on DVD so if we have a choice we will not stock the widescreen for rental". I was very perturbed by this and told the clerk that I didn't know what 'families' they talked to but if 'families' wanted full screen they should stick to video tapes and didn't deserve the DVD players they owned. That is when the clerk got offended and told me he preferred his DVD movies full screen. I started frothing at the mouth and began screaming gibberish about original aspect ratios and reasons for DVD. When my vision returned and head stopped spinning, the clerk, somewhat taken back, asked me if I wanted to buy the widescreen version. I dropped it on the counter and walked out of the store never looking back....

I think Netflix is the Blockbuster of online rentals and that is not a compliment.
I was a member almost from the beginning, and just recently let my account lapse. I would have cancelled it formally but there is no way to do that online, they insist that you call them so they can give you a sales pitch.
I find it odd that you can sign up on line but you can't cancel without going through hoops, so I cancelled my credit card. They sent me half a dozen emails about the invalid credit card and I answered each one, but of course, they don't read these email responses so they kept sending them. Do you start to see a pattern of stupidity and customer contempt here?
Oh yes, why I finally quit: My Rental List was 25 dvd's long and all were noted "Very Long Wait". And the slowness of turnaround was really annoying.
Granted I can be a very demanding customer, but I am also a very loyal customer. I endured their price increases and policy changes without complaint, but finally the number of problems outweighed the benefits.

has anyone noticed that when you go to shipping status you can no longer find a button choice for delayed, that previously would trigger them to ship the next title in your queue. so you could send in your dvd at the same time they send your next dvd.
also now they offer an option to pay for it which....
"Buy a Lost/Damaged DVD
This option allows you to claim responsibility for a lost movie. It would also prevent your account from being placed on hold due to an unsual number of lost DVDs. This feature is not intended for purchase of a DVD.
By clicking the Pay for It button below, your credit card on file will be charged $30 plus tax and the movie will be placed in the DVDs You Have Paid For section on the Shipping Status page.
If you had previously claimed it lost, paying for the DVD will move it from the DVD Lost section to the DVDs You Have Paid For section on the shipping status page.
For more information about our Lost Discs policy, visit the Policies section of our Customer Service Center."

How many is "an unsual number of lost DVDs"?

I noticed Netflix recetly changed around their web site. For example you can now only mark a DVD as delayed 10 days after it shipped. I usually returns a movie next day and living on the east coast it usually taked 10-15 days for a round trip. Before I could mark two movies as delayed.

Ron Birk