PacMan2006

I have had Netflix for about six weeks or so. It has been great. This past week has pissed me off, though, and I think I've read others have encountered this too.

I used to get good service. I'd ship my DVD back to them on, say, Monday. They'd email me on Tuesday saying they got it and I'd get my new DVD on Wednesday. A two day turnaround and I was loving it.

On Tuesday, I sent another DVD back to them. I didn't receive that they even GOT the DVD till Thursday. Two whole days later. Then, on Friday (today), they send me an email saying that my new movie has been shipped and is sheduled to arrive around NEXT Tuesday.

A ONE WEEK TURNAROUND?! Come on, they've just proven to me they can do it in two days. And it isn't even a new release where maybe they are out of stock. I rented Jaws from like 1975, that shouldn't take a week to get here. And even if the Jaws dvd arrives on Saturday, that's a four day turnaround.

Why do they do this and can it be resolved? It's almost like they only want you as a customer for a short period of time, and that just makes no sense.

imp66

I rent consistently from Netflix (15-25 movies per month depending on turnaround), and this happens every now and then. It's no big deal. If it was EVERY time, that might be another story. I'd live with it, and see how the service continues.

Besides, Netflix continuously over estimates shipping time. Usually they tell me it will take 3-4 days on movies and I usually get them in 1-2 days.

PacMan2006

Right, but what I'm saying is that it used to be 1-2 days for me for over a month, and now it's slow. I just don't get why.

DaveCole

If it is a recent phenomenon it could be due to an increase in Netflix customer base requiring more time to process each shipment.

DVDTalker002

Netflix is a money hungry corporation.

They used to ship and check in movies on Saturdays, they did away with this. They are now raising the monthly prices in june. Some major price increases.

I just resigned up 2 days ago and I'm allready pissed with them. First my que said your movies will be shipped off wednesday. I happy with that . Wednesday went by and then it said you movies will be shipped off thursday. They only shipped out 6 of my 8 movies. And now it says your 2 other movies will be shipped on monday. So they have had 3 days to ship my movies but have decided to wait 5 days. Thats bullshit.

Actually theres a trick to getting more dvds from netflix. If a dvd takes longer than 4 days to either get checked in or recieved I go to the lost dvd section. I report it missing to where its been so many days its been alloweed. This speeds up the process since they immediately send you more dvds. I belive your allowed to have 5 or 6 go missing. I usually report 10-12 movies lost to optomise the amount of movies I'm getting. If their going to pay hardball with me I'm going to play it with them.

REL77

I had this same problem, its well documented. Netflix slows down the heavy users or the people who rent alot of new releases. I canceled my account, and a couple weeks later, opened it up again.

Dammit

I'm a very heavy user and they didn't do that to me. The problem I have is newer releases being on "long wait" for ages even though my friends get them right away in the same city. That's what they do when they're intentionally slowing you down. I still haven't gotten Kill Bill yet and it's been number 1 in my queue since it was released. You should still get the older catalog titles at the same speed unless the ones you're getting are coming from a different distribution center (which happens sometimes).

pro-bassoonist

That is why I canceled my account with them. They did have a few films that were hard to locate (mostly foreign films that I watch) but for 10 days I got only 2 dvds....BOTH OF THE TITLES WERE FOREIGN!!!

For some people they might be a great option for me they are NOT!! Before I came back to the Chicago area a week ago I was visitng one of the independent stores in Bloomington, IN and could not have been happier. I am most definitely not an old-school guy but I do think that a traditional video store (independent) is what I would also choose over Netflix. Bottom line, I dont have an account with them and dont plan on resigning again.

Pro-B

Preterite

I used to have very fast turnaround time, too. There was a distribution center in Chicago, and as I work next door to a post office downtown, movies were whizzing back and forth. But for the last month or so, it's taken well over a week for Netflix to acknowledge my returns, and almost as long for new movies to arrive.

I had thought that this was due to Netflix moving the local distribution center to the 'burbs. If it is a deliberate slowdown, however, I'm through with Netflix. Intentionally bad customer service is a sign that the customer's business is no longer welcome.

Thanks,
TomG

jimmymagick

When I first subscribed to Netflix years ago, if a movie was on two discs--say the feature plus a disc of supplemental material--they'd ship two discs. Now each disc is a separate rental--that bugs me.

Other than that, they've opened a shipping outlet here in the Chicago area and, if anything, shipping times are considerably shorter than they were.

Combine that with their selection and I'm fairly satisfied.

Ginsu

They did the slow down trick on me too. I canceled.

DVDTalker002

Has this ever happend to someone? You sent a dvd back you marked it lost because it was taking forever. Magically the movie will show up the following day. Like they had placed it on hold to check in on purpose?

pro-bassoonist

Yes....that's why I canceled....and moved to a traditional video store.

Pro-B

FutureTense

One of the reasons I cancelled was because sometime's I'd return two discs in one envelope. I would get an email that they received one right away and the other email wouldn't show up until the next morning usually. Or they'd receive something in the morning and it wouldn't be shipped til the next day. Of course, when they do email me with a good deal to sign up again, I'll probably do it. I think their prices are going up by $2.50 in June of July though.

On a side note, if you decide to cancel your membership and you go through the steps to cancel online (as opposed to how they sometimes do it where you have to call them to cancel), it will give you the option of staying with them for a much lower price. I think I got a deal of 3 month/3 disc membership at a price of $14.99. They could have changed it, but that's what they were doing at the end of last year.

philo

It was $16.95 for 3 months when I cancelled my 2 week trial a few months back. Some have reported it doesn't work the second time around.

We should make this the official Netflix complaints thread because it's fascinating to hear the similar experiences from people.

I've also seen a slow down, not as bad as the delays mentioned above and some weeks are worse than others, but for the most part the time it now takes for my discs to get back to them has gone from 1 to 2 days. Interestingly almost everything they send out arrives in one day if sent out early enough in the day.

I still think the service is worth it at my current rate of around 15 a month, though if delays increase even at the $21.95 level I might cancel.

One thing for sure, this service has made me more obsessive and prone to conpiracy thinking than an addict on withdrawal. Still, I've seen a lot of decent movies I don't need to own and a few I'm thankful I didn't buy blind. It keeps my collection down to just the essentials I've enjoyed over the years.

Preterite

Any suggestions for alternative services from those who have left NetFlix? I primarilly rent tv sets, movies from Hong Kong, and obscure genre titles.

Thanks,
TomG

Dammit

That seems to be Netflix' specialty actually. I don't have a problem getting TV sets or obscure titles. With me it's just new releases that they delay intentionally. I've canceled and re-subscribed with a different e-mail address before and that fixed it for about four months. Might just do that again.

D-Ball

If you have a region free player, you could check out Nicheflix.com. I've been thinking about joining them.

starfish

I've been with Netflix for over two years and I still get 1-2 day turnaround, so this business about shafting longtime users is nonsense. (And I got Kill Bill right on time.)

If you've only been with the service for six weeks then you need to relax. Sometimes there are delays. It happens. There's no conspiracy.

DVDTalker002

starfish but how many do you rent a month 3 at a time? They dont shaft them. They shaft the people who rent 5 and 8 at a time.

ArchibaldTuttle

no problems here, seems like a bunch of whining if you ask me, I actually just received the last samurai on the tuesday it was released, doesn't get much better then that

Cocopugg

Who really takes out 8 movies at a time anyway? Bootleggers?

FuzzyBallz

I'm w/ starfish on this one. People who think they're getting the mistreatment by netflix is just paranoid. I've been w/ netflix for over a year, and I ALWAYS get 1-2 day turn around, even for new movies. You just need to learn the trick of putting movies on queue. And living next door to the return and distribution center doesn't hurt either. I do the 3 out and get about 24 red envelopes a month. With that said, there are times when it takes more than 2 days to get to me, that's very rare.

Easy

Well, no shit. If I got 24 movies a month on that plan I'd be happy too. I've never seen more than 12 per month (usually less) and that just isn't enough going into the summer tv reality-o-thon.

pro-bassoonist

To call someone paranoid just because your single experience is different is rather uncalled for. I was one of the first to sign with Netflix more than 3 years ago....during the days when you got the 4-out-at-a-time dvds for 14.99$. There has definitely been some negative development and the corporate mentality they have adopted has changed the way they handle (I would go on limb and say) the majority of their customers.

Good that it works for you.....for me as I already stated the traditional video store is the way to go. The month before i canceled I got 9 dvds for the entire month....I would not call this being paranoid.

Pro-B