Anyone experiencing Netflix problems? (1 Viewer)

[EricSchulz]

What's false advertising? How many DVDs at-a-time are you signed up for? I don't understand why you are so upset that ONE DVD is taking longer than usual. It happens. Relax...

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I'll relax when I see that the service for March is exactly the same as it had been for February when these guys were so eager to rope me in and please me. So far it's March 5th and I haven't gotten any DVDs yet after mailing back February 28th (!)
I sent back another yesterday morning so let's see how that goes).

No matter what, it can't be denied that in my case something has suddenly changed in the speed process during this second month.


Yeah, well, that was back in February during my key "sign up month". At the rate they're going in March, the opportunity to have that many rentals arrive at my home by month's end isn't very promising. One thing's for sure - they certainly wasted no time billing my account!

 

[Michael Elliott]

Joe, again, when did your last DVD ship and where from? My titles are shipping from Louisville, which is a 40 minute drive so that explains me getting them in one day. If yours are shipping from Chicago or even Louisville then it probably will take 2 days. Whenever it has taken two days it's because they are shipping to me from out of state.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Mike, I finally got the DVD yesterday (March 5) after sending the old rental back on Feb. 28. Five or Six days is just too long for me to take full advantage of this service and get more for my money, IF it keeps up like that (and I'll have to wait and see - maybe it was a fluke, but the last couple of shipments have been mysteriously delayed after a great start). I don't know for sure where it was being sent from, but when I called to complain, the girl told me it was coming from California (which I don't believe) to me in New York.

But that's not even the point -- why all of a sudden is it so difficult to get the new movie in only a couple of days? That was how the pattern went all through February, and I got nearly 20 films without any delay. So, all of a sudden it's just a "coincidence" that they're now shipping from out of state?

 

[Thane]

Joe,
I'm experiencing the same problem that you describe. I live in VT & the distribution center that I used to receive them from was in MA. Now that they've opened a distribution center in VT, after a great start of very rapid turnover, things have slowed down considerably. Unlike before, they now never send out the next dvd on the day that they receive one. The end result is that I'm lucky to receive the same number of dvd's per month that I did back when they were coming from MA! Very disappointing, but where else is there the choice of dvd's that Netflix offers!? I keep going back & forth about whether I'll cancel or not...we'll see!

 

[Pat Frank]

A couple of days? I don't honestly see how you can expect the Post Office to operate that fast, much less Netflix.

I've been with Netflix for six years, and I can tell you from personal experience that if you're expecting to see more than one complete turnover in movie sets per week then you're expecting too much. I don't care where your distribution center is located. If you want to see more movies, you're going to have to bump your allocation number (and pay more).

I've tried Blockbuster, Wallmart and DVD Avenue, and all of them averaged longer turnaround times than Netflix.

If your expectations of online rental are that unrealistic, then you need to forget about it and go back to driving to the corner Blockbuster. (Which is something I haven't done in six years, thanks to online rental and realistic expectations.)

 

[Michael Elliott]

Joe, check the package that the movies are mailed to you in. The address should be on there so you can see where they're being mailed from. I'm back to normal and will be mailing three more tomorrow so I'll post another update here but I'm expecting the same 1-day turnaround.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

But Pat -- how can you explain that Netflix did operate that quickly all through February? You see, this is what I'm saying -- I'm not being unrealistic at all; I'm merely going by the pattern they set for themselves for my first month! I'd mail 3 movies on Monday, they'd receive them on Tuesday; they'd ship the next batch out on that same Tuesday, I'd receive the next batch on Wednesday. I'd mail the next three out by Thursday, they'd receive them on Friday AND MAIL THE NEW ONES OUT THE SAME DAY AGAIN, and I'd have the next 3 by Saturday. What seems to change now is that they wait a couple of days before bothering to send the new ones out instead of getting right on it the same day they get the returns.

This was THEIR pattern that they got me used to expecting from them, and my expectations were based on what they did from February 1 through February 28.
"Unrealistic" expectations? Maybe Netflix should mail more slowly right from the get-go instead of making us expect consistency.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Where do you mean? Their address is listed as the San Jose, CA. location -- all of my returns which I send back in the pre-paid envelope are going to Melville, NY (not far from me).

Hey, all I know is what I know - the service has slowed down a lot after the first amazing month. If it picks up again I'll be praising them to the heavens, just as I did all through February. Everyone I know can tell you I was raving about Netflix for the whole first month.

 

[Pat Frank]

I can understand your frustration, but I just think that expecting Netflix to have a movie in your box two days after you mailed it is unrealistic. Not in the entire time I've been with Netflix have I ever gotten a movie back that fast, and I live about four miles from the distribution center.

Looking at my account page, I see that over the last 90 days I've gone through 79 movies. I have the 8-movie account type, and that's about 13 weeks, so on average each rental slot is turning over a new movie every six days.

You might as well just get used to it, because like I said above, it's been my experience that the other services are worse. But don't take my word for it, try the other services out. They might work better for your area.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Pat, didn't you read what I wrote earlier? Netflix DID have movies in my box two days after I mailed it -- all throughout February! Several transactions! Lightning fast! Almost TOO fast! So, the expectations I'm having aren't made up in my own mind; it's the speed pattern which Netflix themselves already established.

 

[george kaplan]

I'm always curious about these discussions about Netflix.

My question is, in order to rent three movies, watch them, send them back, and get three more two days later, how can you possibly find time to watch anything other than the movies you rent from Netflix? If I were to do that, I'd never have time to watch any of the hundreds of dvds in my collection.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, George - what you say is true. Of course, the more first-time films I try out and like quite a bit, the more I discover these have "re-watchability" value, and then there are even MORE titles I want to own!

So right now I'm exposing myself to more "first time" views as opposed to re-watching my existing collection. All depends on what your current goal is, I guess.

A funny thing is, after all my griping about Netflix, I'm now back to work after being out for most of February and probably can't watch as many films anyway!

 

[Pat Frank]

Well we just bought a projector in late December, so we've been going a little movie-crazy lately. I've actually watched a lot more than those 79 -- we own several hundred DVDs and we've watched quite a few of those on the big screen as well (and bought some more too). (hehe)

Joe, I believe you. But you're jumping up and down about a tiny little set of data in amidst a vast sea of information that goes the other way. (shrug)

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, Pat, I love the image in your signature; both the film as well as the sentiment.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I'm just starting to realize this George and it caught me in the ass the past couple weeks. I've been doing 5 at a time and I always try to watch them within 2-3 days so that I can get my next five. You've seen my "Track Your Films" list and I'm sure noticed how many movies I actually watch. The five at a time wasn't a big idea but it's finally caught up with me because I haven't been watching anything I've taped from TCM (about 70 movies) and this past week I was hammered with stuff to review for the site. It took about a week for me to watch 3 Netflix movies because I've gotten so much work to do here, not counting all the things I've been recording.

After this month I'm going to go back to the 3 at a time because, well, I'm simply running out of time and it's not helping that I'm working 12 hour days again.


Back to Joe, if they are shipping from CA then there's your problem. You should call and see if they can ship all of them from NY. My titles are shipped to and from Louisville so I guess that's why I'm still at a 1 day turnaround.

 

[EricSchulz]

Joe:

If San Jose CA is on the envelope (where you would normally write your return address), that's the corporate headquarters, I believe. The distribution center's address is the address it's being mailed to (Milwaukee in my case).

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Eric,
all of the return address envelopes have been made out to Melville, New York, which is fairly close to where I live.

When I called customer service recently, the woman said some discs were sent from Flushing, NY -- and others were from San Jose, CA. I don't know what she's talking about; at any rate, they all were shipped BACK to Melville, New York.

I have no idea, but for right now as long as I get at least 6 movies a month, I guess I'm getting my money's worth. Anything more is just gravy. As I said somewhere else, I'm more busy this month than I was in February anyway. Six or more discs, and I'm pretty happy, I guess.

 

[Holadem]

Dude, you wrote the above on March 5th, calm down. That was way too early for that kind of talk.

I switched to 5 out in March. I put 5 discs in the mail on Monday morning, and 1 was received and it's replacement shipped yesterday, the others today. Sure, that's 1-2 days more than I am used to, but I'll wait a week or two to see if this goes on before crying wolf.

I have been with Netflix on and off for 5 years, this last subcription started in June of 2003. Turnaround times can be uneven, you will spend the odd week without a movie and other times you will be inundated in deluge of red envelopes

It's always been worth it for me.

--
H

 

[Rick Deschaine]

I'd like to chime in on my netflix experience. I've been with them for about 2 to 3 years now. During that time they have sent a replacement disc the day they got one back from me. Now for about the last 2 to 3 months they are waiting a day to send me a disc back, everytime. I live in Denver, Colorado and the distribution center is in Denver. I have a friend who lives in Castle Rock just south of here, who gets his replacement discs sent the same day he sends one back, while they wait a day for me. And these are the same movies that were both getting from netflix.

I believe they've pegged me as a heavy renter and are holding back. I wrote to them about this before and they said that some movies are at other facilities so it will take an extra day to ship. Based on that logic, there are no movies at they're Denver facility! Interesting eh? Besides my friend get's the same movie sent the day he sends one back and they wait a day for me.


Something is fishy methinks.