Anyone experiencing Netflix problems? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Karlosi]

Oh, there's no doubt about it, Rick.

 

[Pat Frank]

Just as a side note (not saying this is the cause of your delays), but remember not to leave a "Long Wait" movie in the first slot of your queue. According to the FAQ if you do that they hold for 24 hours to see if your movie comes in.

 

[Rick Deschaine]

I can most definitely say that this is not the case. I did have a 'long wait' movie in my queue at the top a couple of times, but they are waiting a day for every single movie I rent from them even when this isn't the case. Besides, before this recent development, they always shipped a replacement disc the day they got one back from me, except for the 1 or 2 instances in the last 3 years when they didn't have the disc in Denver.

Granted this isn't the worst thing in the world, but it does indicate a slackening of service from what it has been in the past. Netflix is still the best thing going regardless of the 1 day delay. It's just a little frustrating, that's all.

Later, Rick

 

[Pat Frank]

So you're getting the email "received" notification, but the replacement disc doesn't ship out until the next day?

That is most definitely not happening with me. I don't mean to sound like some kind of Netflix apologist (believe me, I have their customer support email page saved in my bookmarks, and I use it often), but I really have not had a problem with that. When I get the email notification, I check the queue and the next movie is already queued up and on its way out the door. I get the "shipped" email the same day as the "received" notice.

If that's not the case with the emails, then I'm not sure how you could know that Netflix is holding you up for a day (as opposed to, say, the Post Office getting slower).

 

[Pat Frank]

BTW, just to give an example....

Yesterday (Monday) I got a passle of "received" notices in the morning. Later in the afternoon I got a notice saying that Incredibles and some other movies had shipped.

I just popped out to my mailbox (Tuesday, just now) and there it was. We'll probably watch it tonight.

 

[Rick Deschaine]

I know this is the case because the notifications from netflix used to say they were shipping a replacement disc the same day (notifications and the queue specify what day of the week they're sending a disc to a user)they received a movie back from me.

Now, the notifications say they are sending the movies a day after they receive one back from me.

So it is not the post office. They are waiting a day to send me a movie. My previous posts said that my belief is that their service is getting a bit shoddier. It's still a great service, just not as great as it used to be.

Later, Rick

 

[Pat Frank]

Ok well that's definitely not happening with me. But they're definitely far from perfect, I agree with that.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Here's an interesting problem. I received a movie and when I opened the package the DVD was broken in half, in two pieces! This is probably something that happened en route to me, and has nothing to do with Netflix - but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[Holadem]

OK, I am begining to get worried myself. I sent 5 discs in the mail on Monday morning at 8AM. It's thursday, and none of them has beem received yet. While I didn't look at the address on these particualr envolopes, the return address for the previous batch is at most 15 mi from the mailbox I used (at work).

The fact that they haven't been received yet points to the USPS... but I hope there isn't more to it, this is the second week in a row of such delay. It's getting annoying to not have anything to watch on weeknights (I watch very little TV).

--
H

 

[Pat Frank]

I would complain about it. You can use this URL. I've used it quite a bit myself.

http://www.netflix.com/ContactCustSe...h+Your+Account

What they'll probably do is blame it on the Post Office, but they may run some tracking on your account, which basically means they send you a special email after a few movies to try and pin down exactly how long it takes for you to get a movie or to return one.

It could be helpful, I don't know. Whenever that's happened to me in the past (and it's happened several times), it was always just a temporary thing.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, here's a new problem. I was all set to see Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN for my first time this afternoon. When I put the disc on, it was in FULLSCREEN ONLY.

I'm pretty sure this was filmed in panavision, and I'd like to see it in its OAR. The DVD says "WB rental copy; not for sale" inscribed right on its labeling. It also says "widescreen" in small print on the disc.
Has anyone else ever had this problem?

 

[danak]

Joe,
According to the Netflix website (and other websites), the disc has both fullscreen and widescreen on it. Does the disc you have show widescreen on one side and full screen on the other in tiny letters (and without the normal label on one side that you usually see, and both sides are shiny)? If so, that's a double sided disc (or DVD-18 or whatever you'd call it) with, obviously, widescreen on one side and fullscreen on the other. If you have that kind of disc, turn it over and try the other side. That seems to have happened to me more than once and either I screwed up or the labels were reversed (and I corrected the problem by turning the disc over).

If that isn't the problem, did you perhaps miss being able to choose widescreen or fullscreen when the disc started (ie, you turned it on, left it for a few minutes and came back)?

Other than those two options, I haven't a clue. I just checked another website and it says the disc is double sided.

Dana

 

[Joe Karlosi]

No, Dana - the disc is only one-sided. It's not a flipper. It has the typical title on one side, with the DVD logo and the WB design. It looks just like it would if you bought it in the store, except it says FOR RENTAL ONLY/NOT FOR RESALE. It also says WIDESCREEN in very tiny letters on the bottom of the "label side", along with the usual serial numbers, copyright and running time.

I actually called Netflix and finally got a woman manager who insisted that there was no fullscreen version of UNFORGIVEN. She gave me all sorts of stories about needing a widescreen television to view it (I have a 36" SONY), and claimed that "even though a film may be shot in widecreen it will appear fullscreen on your TV"! I thought maybe there was something wrong with the controls within my player where it could not unscramble the widescreen signal or something, but that's not it at all. This literally seems to be a bizarre fullscreen transfer with a "widescreen" notation on the label side, some sort of fluke. I don't get it.

The woman said if I had a problem I should call Warner Bros, since Netflix only gives customers what WB supplies to them. I checked the Netflix Site and UNFORGIVEN is listed as WIDESCREEN.

 

[danak]

Joe,
Was there a blurb at the beginning of the movie or before or after the menu started up that the movie had been formatted to fit your screen (meaning that it's a fullscreen version of a widescreen movie)?

What signs are there that make you think the movie is being shown fullscreen? How does your TV react to other widescreen movies (ie, black bars, no black bars, etc)?

Dana

 

[Joe Karlosi]

No, there was no "modified to fit your screen" blurb. The signs that make me think the movie is fullscreen is that it is a square that fills my TV screen and is 1.33:1 instead of the rectangular, black bar presentation at 2.35:1.

My TV is perfectly fine with any and all other "letterboxed", "black bar," or "widescreen" films. I've been collecting since March 1997 and this is a first. It's a screwed-up fluke.

 

[Pat Frank]

Do the characters in the movie appear unusually tall and thin?

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, today I got a replacement disc of UNFORGIVEN from Netflix. This time it's an old fashioned dual sided disc, with the STANDARD version (yeah, right) on one side and the WIDESCREEN version on the other side (that's better!).

I can only conclude that the first DVD I received was an odd promotional disc with only the fullscreen version on it, though it was mis-labeled as WIDE.

 

[danak]

Joe,
Glad to hear your problem was fixed. That's really weird about the first disc. Did you make a notation on the first disc when you sent it back that it was no good?

Dana

 

[Joe Karlosi]

You know, I meant to do precisely that - but I forgot!

 

[Rick Deschaine]

Well Everyone,

Concerning my problem, I've sort of thrown down the gauntlet with Netflix. I have now e-mailed them 3 times requesting them to tell me why they are waiting a day to send me DVDs. I asked them in the e-mail to please not use a canned response. The canned response says that occasionally, movie's are at another facility so it takes an extra day to send the disc.

Well as I've said before ALL my movies in the last 2- 3 months have been sent a day later. That would indicate that they have NO movie's at the Denver facility. I also pointed out that they're website sends a pop up when inquiring about shipment times in your queue which specifically states movies are USUALLY sent out the same day when they receive one back from you. In my case it's NEVER, not USUALLY, so I kindly pointed that out to them.

Well I'll keep my fingers crossed and if that doesn't work I'll give the Customer service phone number a try (not really optimistic about the scenario). As a last resort I may have to try Blockbuster's mail service and see how that goes.

Are you reading this Netflix? I hope you are.

Later, Rick