Netflix gets a surge in subscribers
 

From Video Business:

I guess with all the drops in instore sales/rentals, can see where people are going.

I just joined and got my first 3 movies within 3 days of ordering. Looks like they are doing a good job with keeping up with demand!

I think alot has to do with Best Buy's huge push in it's stores. It doesn't hurt them since Best Buy owns like 45% of Netflix.

I predict by mid-year, Netflix will also get a surge of complaints and disgruntled customers. :)

"I'll never rent there again!"

I'm still staying with netflix.
A big draw for me is their selection.

I have seen so many movies I had never even heard of, and would not have had to opportunity to rent elsewhere.

I especially like the feature where they recommend similar titles to the one you are interested in.

I just got the below email asking me to comeback. Talk about a rip off.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear XXXX,


As a former member of Netflix, we thought you might like to know about our Netflix Economy Program for $13.95 a month. The Netflix Economy program is ideal for customers who watch fewer movies and want the convenience of no due dates, free home delivery and no late fees.

With the Economy Program you get:

- 2 DVDs out at a time

- Rent up to four DVDs per month

- Choose from over 12,000 titles

- No due dates, ever

- Movies delivered to your home, free and fast


Did you know that we now ship movies from our 11 regional distribution centers, so you can get your movies even faster?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up to 4 dvd's a month, what the heck happened to "UNLIMITED" rentals?!?! It looks like their might be some changes over there, starting with the Econo plan. Never again.

The Kid/A Dog's Life got stuck somehow in my account. For three days my account showed that it showed that it was "released for shipping..." and then for another three days the movie dissappeared and the account showed that it was selecting my next available dvd. Needless to say, I was a little unnerved and decided to make a frustrated customer call.

After explaining what I've been seeing for the past week, the CSR appologized for the problem and told me that it looked like The Kid "got stuck." Then he said that he cleared The Kid and the next movie would be selected. He also told me that since this was an inconvience, he would open another space for me, so that another movie would be selected too. Essentally he gave me a free rental because the system goofed.

Considering that I've been a Netflix customer for a year, and considering that this is the first problem I've ever had with Netflix, and further considering that this problem was quickly addressed and they went beyond just fixing it by giving me a free rental, well from my perspective, Netflix rocks!

With service like that, I think I'll be with them for a while more.

Unlimited rentals is a staple of Netflix. I could easily see them adding different account types, to make it convenient for different types of customers (i'm guessing they want prospective customers to do the quick math , "four movies for fourteen bucks is like three fifty a pop...how much is blockbuster?") but I can't imagine them getting rid of all unlimited accounts. To me, that's what makes Netflix, well, Netflix.

IMHO, of course.

NetFlix always gets slammed around here, so as a happy subscriber (since 1998), I thought I'd post some "good news" about them, namely, excerpts from their most recent e-mail message to me, in which they are sending me a fifth rental disc:

"We have sent you a free bonus rental.

Why am I getting a free bonus rental?
When your first choice is not available from your local Netflix shipping center, we try to locate another copy elsewhere. We located a copy and have sent it to you.

(Since we are sending you this bonus rental, your next movie will be sent to you only after you have returned two movies to Netflix.)"

I know the people who complain seem to be the only ones posting anything about NetFlix's service, sort of like the way Newscasts only tell us bad news, but I am very satisfied with their service and have been for almost 4-1/2 years now.

.

dhmac,

Ahhhh. That's so schweet. Seriously though, I agree. NetFlix has a hell of a customer service organization and commitment. Even though I'm not a member, I respect their efforts. Do they offer stock options. I wouldn't mind picking up a few.

I noticed that recently that I was being sent a title that was #6 or #7 on my queue, even though the ones before it were listed as available now. After it happened again I emailed them, just asking what was up. They said that because my top pick wasn't available, they sent me the highest pick available at my local distribution center and then my top pick from another center. I then got a "bonus" rental as well. I don't mind that at all, at least they're trying.

I actually went to Blockbuster the other day to look for some things I couldn't find at Netflix, including some stuff not on DVD, and their selection was just horrid. I'd rather email Netflix title requests and wait then search around local Blockbusters. :)

NFLX
Last Trade Jan 17 · 11.44

Might not be a bad investment. Seems like other companies have tried a similar idea, but Netflix is the only place that consistantly pulls it off.

I second that.

they are slower now with all these new subscribers...it says Selecting next DVD from your queue or Released To Ship for over a DAY more often then I want it to now!!!!!! I used to be able to rent about 7 times in a month but now its like 4!!!

I received a gift sub for the holidays and signed up Tuesday night. My first 3 discs were here on Thursday (San Jose>San Francisco; they estimated a Friday arrival). Not bad! My problem is I buy everything I want, so it's sometimes hard to find interesting rentals. But i managed a decent list from their fairly diverse selection.

Honestly, if they want to keep people, they need to give current (longtime) subscribers more than 1 free rental. The service has been incredibly slow for the past 2 weeks +. I had 1 title get "stuck" for almost a week. And, as duy37 says, the selection process (which used to take about 2 hours) now sometimes lasts for more than a day. Then the "released to ship" process (which used to take about an hour) often takes another day.

It does them little good to get a surge in subscribers after the holidays, but loose all of the people that they had before. My rentals are going to be half of what they usually are in January -- all because their system has slowed down.

They should send out an e-mail to everyone apologizing for the system problems and delays (but mentioning the exciting growth of members and titles), and give everyone a deal... free week, % off monthly bill, something more than 1 title...

So with shipping times how many netflix DVDs can you and do you normally watch in a month?

Doesn't seem advantageous to me to use Netflix. I rent my DVDs from Blockbuster with readily available, rent 1 get 1 free, coupons for a net fee of $1.75 per DVD. BB here also accepts competitors coupons also for free rentals.

I could rent 10 DVDs for the cost of a netflix monthly membership. I usually don't rent more than 10 a month anyway.

If you can rent for those prices, that's a great deal for the mainstream stuff that they carry. However, one reason I really like Netflix is that they stock a lot of offbeat stuff that Blockbuster would never carry.

I also love the service, even after I stopped working there I continue to use the service. I have not had to go to Blockbuster in years.

I just signed up with filmcaddy and as I started to fill my Q in less then 2 minutes the first 4 movies on my list showed up as released to ship, I was alittle surprised at speed. Now if it really ships at a decent speed I will be impressed. I will let you know how this experience goes, and if they are a Netflix alternative.

Don't bother with Number Slate though, I'm on a 2 week trial with them and out of 50 movies in my Q only 1 has shown available and shipped. Its a B-movie and it took 3 days for that to become available.

It's been a full month for me now as a new subscriber to Netflix. Thus far I have rented 10 movies on the "3-Out" plan!

I could have probably made it to 12 if I had only been a little more quick getting the DVDs back in the mail for return.

My local Blockbuster charges about $4 per DVD, so it would have cost me $40 to rent there. With Netflix I only paid $21.

You used to work at Netflix? If you don't mind sharing, what did you do? Can you give any insight as to how the day-to-day operations run? Are discs pulled by hand or robot? It really is amazing to me how the operation runs so smoothly & quickly (for the most part).