Bah! Netflix!

[PsyClerk]

Dammit! I just started up with Netflix, and my trial period ended Friday. Now it seems I've been downgraded. When I signed up, it was on a Friday morning about 9AM. Next day I had DVDs. Dropped those in the mail early Monday morning, and they had them Tuesday and shipped the new ones that day as well, which I got on Wednesday. I thought this was a great service.

Now fast forward to the present...I've been waiting on one movie to ship since Thursday. It said on Thursday "Shipping today". Late Thursday afternoon, I checked again out of boredom.."Shipping Friday". Checked Friday morning "Shipping today". Check again Friday afternoon "Shipping Monday." It's still listed as shipping today, but no update yet. Also, the other two slots said "We expect to ship your next movie today." Checked after lunch today and now "Shipping Tuesday."

It irks me because I live so close to the distro center (about 2-3 hour drive), and I know it's only one day transit time via USPS. Yet they drag their feet on getting movies to me. I know it's really picking nits, but it seems a waste to get 'unlimited rentals' and then actually be limited because Netflix won't ship. I have about 50 movies in my queue, so if something winds up being unavailable, I have plenty in reserve to make up for it. Frustrating.

And yes, I realize that this is hardly bitch-worthy (so far), but as you can tell, I have zero to do at work.

[doraemonkerpal]

lol, it's understandable. especially with 50 movies in queue!

are you paying monthly now? or are you still using the free trial?

[Mr Unoriginal]

I think this is a fairly common problem. My dad was signed up wiht netflix when they were just starting out, and the service was great. There was like a 3 or 4 day turnaround for getting movies. Then after being a member for a while, they really started neglicting him, and movies would take much longer to arrive.

He then signed up for a smaller service and the exact same thing happened.

Since he was getting crap service at both places he tried Netfix again because they had opened a new distro-center nearer to where we live. Again, at first the movies were coming quickly, and as time passed the turnaround has become worse and worse.

It seems that Netflix goes out of its way to appease new customers while actively giving the shaft to thje older ones. Strange way to keep business if you ask me.

[dtcarson]

What's at the top of your queue? I generally adjust my queue so that only 'Available' things are at the top, and the few times I haven't, a disk has been "out of stock' for a day or two, then they send me the next available thing on my queue.
That's weird that they're treating you that poorly. I've been with them since May 2001, and have been satisfied.
Are you sending them back in the same envelope? Are they going back to Greensboro, or somewhere else?
Are you getting new, popular releases?
I have experienced occasional instances of what you're seeing, but not all at once--hopefully it's just a random fluke, and the service will get better for you. I really appreciate Netflix, especially with renting anime and tv-on-dvd.
Some guy did an extensive study on new-versus-old accounts, that looked like it did show a bias toward new accounts, but he admitted that 3 or 4 accounts isn't really statistically representative.
I generally put a disk in my mailbox Monday, they get it Tuesday, ship something out Tues or Wed, and I get it no later than Friday.

[bignick]

It seems that Netflix goes out of its way to appease new customers while actively giving the shaft to thje older ones. Strange way to keep business if you ask me.

Thats how I see all business going now. Especially with cell phones. I pay Sprint $105 a month, and they give me crap every month, charging me for things that are included in my plan, then giving me crap when I call them. Netflix prob loses money on people close to a distro, $2 roudn trip shipping on every dvd, and esp if you get them next day, you could watch a good 20-30 movies a month.

[PsyClerk]

lol, it's understandable. especially with 50 movies in queue!

are you paying monthly now? or are you still using the free trial?

After the anime thread I posted not too long ago on this forum, I had a lot of anime I wanted to sample. That's the main reason I have so much in the queue.

I am now paying monthly. My free trial expired just a few days ago.

[doraemonkerpal]

It seems that Netflix goes out of its way to appease new customers while actively giving the shaft to thje older ones. Strange way to keep business if you ask me.

Thats how I see all business going now. Especially with cell phones. I pay Sprint $105 a month, and they give me crap every month, charging me for things that are included in my plan, then giving me crap when I call them. Netflix prob loses money on people close to a distro, $2 roudn trip shipping on every dvd, and esp if you get them next day, you could watch a good 20-30 movies a month.

damn, you pay $105 a month! do you have a contract? b/c if you don't, then you should get a different plan. try fw or slickdeals :)

[doraemonkerpal]

psyclerk, i heard on fw that if you call them up and say you're gonna cancel the service (due to the poor service), you'll get the next few months cheaper. maybe they'll get their act together if you threaten them with cancellation.

[bignick]

It seems that Netflix goes out of its way to appease new customers while actively giving the shaft to thje older ones. Strange way to keep business if you ask me.

Thats how I see all business going now. Especially with cell phones. I pay Sprint $105 a month, and they give me crap every month, charging me for things that are included in my plan, then giving me crap when I call them. Netflix prob loses money on people close to a distro, $2 roudn trip shipping on every dvd, and esp if you get them next day, you could watch a good 20-30 movies a month.

damn, you pay $105 a month! do you have a contract? b/c if you don't, then you should get a different plan. try fw or slickdeals :)

No contract. 2000 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend starting at 8, unlimited vision, unlimited sprint to sprint calling. Best part, 2 phone lines. Both have he picture pack so I can send all the pics i want. $10 a month credit to download games and stuff. They even gave me a direct 800 number to call with problems!

[PsyClerk]

I've heard that if you go with that cheaper deal, you get limited to only 2 movies out at a time, and can only get 4 movies a month. That plan is ridiculously limited.

For the record, all but one of the 51 movies in my queue show availability as 'now'. .hack//SIGN disc 3 is the only one showing 'short wait' but it's about the middle of the list.

My discs return to Greensboro. I know it takes only one day for transit because a) I live near Greensboro and b)they ALWAYS recieve movies I send back in the day after I drop them in the mailbox.

Also, nearly every movie in my queue is anime. I might have half a dozen 'other' movies, and none would be classified as 'popular' by any stretch of the imagination.

I should also mention that in the nearly 3 weeks I've been with Netflix, I've gotten two discs that were not playable. One would freeze up about 15-20 minutes in, and the other had a 1" crack from the center out. They were in back-to-back batches, so technically, I only got 4 movies out of the first couple of mailings.

[bignick]

I should also mention that in the nearly 3 weeks I've been with Netflix, I've gotten two discs that were not playable. One would freeze up about 15-20 minutes in, and the other had a 1" crack from the center out. They were in back-to-back batches, so technically, I only got 4 movies out of the first couple of mailings.

Thats no so different than renting games or dvds from video stores. People have no respect.

[SneakyPenguin]

ive been with them like a week, and ive already gotten like 7 movies, only one was unplyable. versus had a huge crack and game my ps2 a dre. i sent it back, marking send replacement, but i check my queue and its no o there. now i have to reenter it. that ticks me off. ive stll gotten a ton of movies so far, so im generally satisfied.

[PsyClerk]

Thats no so different than renting games or dvds from video stores. People have no respect.

I used RedOctane to rent games a good while back and out of dozens of games, I only had one that arrived unplayable (it was obviously broken in the mail, it arrived in pieces). You are right about one thing though...people have no respect for stuff they don't own. Never mind that someone else might want to use it.

7 movies in one week?!? Jesus, Sneaky, do they go straight from your mailbox to your DVD burner? :wink:

[bignick]

Thats no so different than renting games or dvds from video stores. People have no respect.

I used RedOctane to rent games a good while back and out of dozens of games, I only had one that arrived unplayable (it was obviously broken in the mail, it arrived in pieces). You are right about one thing though...people have no respect for stuff they don't own. Never mind that someone else might want to use it.

7 movies in one week?!? Jesus, Sneaky, do they go straight from your mailbox to your DVD burner? :wink:

ha ha ha dvd burner!!! I would just rip them to my computer. :twisted: The only time I show no mercy on something that isnt mine is rental cars. I had sooo much fun with a rented blazer 2 winters ago!

[dtcarson]

Like I said, I've been with NF for almost 3 years, and have generally been impressed/satisfied.
I am on the old 2-out plan [two out at a time, as many as you can watch.]
I agree, the new two-out plan sucks. [max of 4/month.] I'm not watching as much as i used to, but I don't want to cancel because I wouldn't be able to get this plan again. Sometimes I don't get more than 4 in a month, but I want to have the opportunity to do so.
I've had I think 1 dvd cracked, 1 shattered all to hell, and one have a scratch that messed up about 5 minutes of playback.
The scratch wasn't really visible, and I'm assuming the crack/shatter happened in the mail. One time they sent me the entirely wrong disk [the disk was in the right envelope, they just send me the entirely wrong disk]. One disk took, I think, 3 weeks to get to me--I reported it as lost and got a replacement sent, and I believe they gave me a 1/2 month credit to make up for it.
Since you've got a lot of anime [as do I], perhaps you're hitting the other end of the spectrum--relatively low demand [compared to, say, any Will Smith movie] and low inventory levels.
I've got 136 in my queue, some old, some new:
5 awaiting release
Everything else says available Now.
One went in the mail today, so I'll see how long it takes to get checked in, and for me to get one back [mine also go to Greensboro.].

[PsyClerk]

Just an update here. The two that should have shipped today are now set to ship tomorrow. The other movie that I've been waiting for since Thursday finally shipped! But it's obviously coming from another distro center because even though it's shipped on a Monday, they list it's arrival time as Friday. If this is true, I'll have the other movies viewed and back to them before the first arrives. Insanity.