ive gone off and on with netflix for about 3 years now. here are my impressions:
(Keep in mind I have the SouthEast shipping center 6 miles from my house)
when they first started, they were awesome...always sending dvds on time, great movie selection, etc. I quit after using them 8 months because of lack of funds. I waited 1 year and then I used them for about 3 months. Their customer service lacked a bit and they took longer on getting me DVDs. I also got a couple of cracked dvds in the mail and noticed I was throttled big time. for instance, I rented out 19 titles month 1, month 2 I got 14, month 3 I only recieved 11 titles.
Fast forward to now, I picked them up again 6 months ago. Here are my complaints:
Gripe 1:
I have had 1 movie at the top of my rental queue since the beginning. Every time I have movies out, its available. When they recieve my items back it immediately goes on "Very Long Wait". Not Cool.
Gripe 2:
Here was my last "shipment" situation from netflix. I rent a very popular movie (Batman Begins) with 2 others (Dirty Dancing, The Thirteenth Floor). On tuesday of week 1, I get confirmation that they are being shipped and should arrive thursday. On thursday, nothing arrives. On friday, I get Dirty Dancing. On week 2, I then wait till the Wednesday to get Batman Begins. I still havent recieved The Thirteenth Floor. I get it on Thursday. Now, since I live so close the distribution center I shouldn't have this kind of delay of shipping. I also am fortunate enough to have mail carriers that deliver fast so I can "supposedly" get it to them in 1 business day....I think Netflix is BS'ing on when they recieve it and when they ship it out to deflect criticism on their throttling services again.
This is also the 4th time this has happened where I ship them movies and they get them to me in about a week and they take a week for them to get into their system after I mail them back.
Gripe 3:
Cracked Dvds. I recieved 15 cracked dvds since I started 6 months ago. thats about 2 a month. this is no exaggeration. I started counting after I got 3 in the first month...
Gripe 4:
Lack of customer service. They've been THE largest DVD distribution service for how many years and they still don't have an efficient way to communicate with a service rep. NOTE: Im not saying it isn't available, I'm saying that they don't do it well.
Praise 1:
Selection. thats all. self-explanatory.
Conclusion:
I agree with the earlier poster, if you live near a Blockbuster B&M, sign up for their service. at least you get about the same service but can return movies immediately instead of paying Netflix to lie to you and say its in the mail when its proly waiting in their warehouse.