Convince me not to drop Netflix! (1 Viewer)

[Alan Kurland]

I'm frustrated about their return policy and availabilities. I have more DVDs than I can watch in a year, and constantly buying more. Local stores are renting titles. I originally enjoyed watching hard to get or older movies. Now I struggle to find movies to order.

I think I'll drop Netflix and spend the $20 on one new title/month of an older movie or artsy movie I might have rented from them.

Or I can join a different club that I can order only when I want something.

Sounds ok??

 

[Prentice Cotham]

I quit long ago...I haven't regretted it yet. So, I cannot not convince you to keep it.

 

[John Stone]

I quit Netflix in March 2001, and am very glad that I did.

 

[Patrick Wilmes]

I tried using them for the first time a few months ago and all 5 of the movies I selected were not in stock.Forget that.I can't believe this place comes highly regarded.

 

[Bill_S]

Netflix was great when you could order the new movie on Tuesday and have it in your mailbox on Friday. It costs about $15 a month and when you mailed a DVD back you could mark it returned on the website and a new one was immediately released.

All of this has changed and that is why I rent locally and have never been happier. I have plenty of choices and if I must wait, it is not for a month like some of my Netflix choices use to be.

They just got so many customers that losing some became "expected churn" and meant nothing to them. I read a statistic somewhere that they ship over 830,000 disks a day.

Does that explain why customer service is automated?

 

[Michael Reuben]

This probably belongs in Retail and Wholesale Vendors Feedback (where there have been many Netflix threads), but in the meantime you may want to check out the following rental sites, both of which allow you to rent individual discs:
DVD Overnight
RentMyDVD
M.

 

[Brook K]

Please do, there are a lot of movies I want to rent that are out of stock. If you could convince whoever has all the Truffauts and Rohmers to quit I'd appreciate it even more

 

[Alex Spindler]

I've been able to rent several titles (import or foreign films) that I would never be able to see otherwise. My account has been pretty inactive, so I should probably drop them. It was good while I had a set of films I was dying to see.

 

[mike martin]

I started with Netflix a little over a year ago and could say nothing but great things about them. Living in a smaller town I was getting things that I would never see here and the no late fee thing was great. As of right now they have wore me down to the point that the ONLY good thing I can say about them is there huge stock of lesser known films and documentaries; but more and more I find even these titles unavailable. At this point I will hang on for about another month to finish some documentaries I've been getting.

At this point Netflix's buisiness has to be booming. They are advertising everywhere, there is still a lot of rental frustration at local places, and new DVD costomers in general is exploding. But it will all change. Local stores are figuring it out (pan and scan issues aside) and eventually those leaving will equal out and take over the new costomers from adverts and format converts.

Netflix as a company has done everything wrong; yet they are still increasing buisiness. It WILL catch up with them.

 

[Dave Dugan]

I'm still pretty happy with Netflix, overall. I, too, suffer from living in a smallish town and have no acccess to smaller/foreign/weird films locally.

I like Netflix for the selecton, the lack of late fees, and the fact that the movies arrive conveniently in my mailbox. I plan to stick with them until a better option presents itself.

I've had a few minor issues with Netflix, but that seems to be a trend with every business I patronize. If I boycotted every business that screwed me, I'd be living alone in the dark with no possessions. I guess I'm resigned to it now.

-Dave

 

[Tony Aguila]

It seems like most of the dissatisfied customers are back east. Since Netflix is based in San Jose, California, the customers on the west coast get their rentals in much faster. I'm just a few miles from their distribution center and I usually receive "shipped" items the next day, and the ones I mail back usually get there and are posted as received also within a day.

I'm on the 6 DVDs out level, and I average about 20-25 rentals a month. That's about a buck and a half per movie. Nobody else comes close. But lately it looks like they are overwhelmed by new business because more and more of their titles go under the Short Wait or Long Wait status. But as long as you have enough titles on your queue, you should still be able to get a good turnover rate.

The best news, if rumors hold true, is that they plan to open additional distribution centers, I would think, on the east coast, so that should solve a lot of the snail-mail time lag.

I'm fairly satisfied with their service, so I'm staying with them. But if you're not satisfied, drop 'em!

 

[James Stone]

I joined NetFlix in December of 2000 and by the time I left this past November I was thoroughly disgusted. Living on the East coast, it was taking between 5-7 days to receive a disc and the same amount of time to get it checked back into stock. Too long to wait.

I was also concerned that so many of the movies I wanted--mostly obscure foreign and exploitation titles--were never available. I was told by a disgruntled ex-employee that NetFlix no longer plans to stock a lot of this stuff (including much of the output of Image and Anchor Bay), primarily because too many rarities were being stolen or damaged. But if they don't carry titles by Fulci, Marins, Franco, Margheretti, etc., why will many of us bother to remain members?

They also care very little about customer feedback. I've politely complained about various problems, but the only responses I've gotten could have been generated by an automaton. The only complaint that a rep has ever directly referenced was when I asked if they had any plans to open an East coast distribution center, to which the person said "It's not likely to happen".

There are lots of titles I would rather rent than buy, but, under the circumstances, the hassles just aren't worth going back with NetFlix. I think I'll just purchase DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER and SCREAM IN THE STREETS and take my chances.

 

[Andrew_Sch]

My family and I used Netflix over the summer and were very satisfied. I'd say in three months we watched about 10-15 movies. If it's closer to 15, which I think it is, that's less than Ballbuster's prices and you get the advantage of not funding evil widescreen-killing, rental pricing facist Nazis! Unfortunately, we had to drop it because with me in school we just don't have time to watch the three or four movies a week that we did during summer.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I would encourage anyone who is a fan of the more rare and obscure titles carried by Netflix to drop the service so that they will be more readily available for my own consumption.

Regards,

 

[Phu Vo]

I have been with Netflix for close to 3 years. I happen to live in San Jose, and for the most part, I recieve excellent service from them. Fact is, most delays of shipment aren't neccessarily a fault of Netflix. 1st Class mail is slow when going across the country. There is no denying that. Unfortunately, the convenience of DVD rentals being delivered to your door, comes with inevitable Post Office delays. There are other online rental outlets that might be better suited for East Coast customers. If you are dissatisfied with Netflix, then I would suggest looking into one of those other East Cost based companies, dvdovernight.com rentmydvd.com etc.

For me, Netflix is perfect. I have been with them since the beginning, when DVD was just a novelty to Blockbuster. At the time, renting a DVD was an impossible feat at Blockbuster. Once I got with Netflix, I never ever ever went back to Blockbuster. Something, that as a wary consumer, I am very proud of. I can't even remember the last time I was charged a riduculous late fee. Honetstly. Nowadays, I use Netflix to supplement my DVD buying. Most new releases, I will purchase. But those movies that I wouldn't want to purchase, but have a slight interest in seeing, I rent them through Netflix. Sometimes they don't have the movies in stock. So what. This isn't a big deal to me. They are put in my que and will come to me eventually. I remember in the days when I used to rent VHS tapes, I would spend what little free time I have to drive down to Blockbuster, only to find empty shelves. Guaranteed rentals my ass. Believe me, when you live in the Silicon Valley, between all the traffic, hustle, and bustle, you don't want to waste time looking at empty shelves. So if you are not sattisfied with Netflix, I just ask that you remember how it is to be a customer of Blockbuster.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

I have belonged to Netflix since April 2000. I do think that being on the west coast is a real advantage.

This time of year is horrible for DVD availability. All the people who bought DVD players for Xmas joined Netflix to try it out. Out of 29 movies in my Queue, only three are in stock!!

I have a love/hate relationship with these guys! The convenience of renting by mail goes a long way with me!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

On our website, we have a slew of specialty pages devoted to subjects like all the AFI 100 films, all the Best Picture winners, and a number of others. To complete these section, my Netflix membership was invaluable. It also allowed me to complete an upcoming Woody Allen page, and it's helped pad out our music section.

However, I plan to quit Netflix before my next monthly anniversary date just because they offer fewer discs than previously. They used to have a great stock of DTS titles, but no longer. They used to have a nice "Mature" section (call me a perv if you must, but I liked the Playboy discs!), but no longer. Their policy of only sending one DVD in two - or more - disc sets is ridiculous; it makes it a pain to watch movies like Lawrence of Arabia or The Ten Commandments. Their supply of new releases used to be rather complete, but now it seems to be meager. I remember last March when they only had a couple of the then-new Hitchcock titles.

Netflix is a great concept, and it used to be a terrific service. Now, however, it's not so hot...

 

[RobR]

Those of you who live too far away from where Netflix is located may want to check out www.DVDAvenue.com (it has a free trial). It can't hurt to try it out.