Sigh. I've made visiting the NetFlix site daily ritual. I love fiddling with my queue, what can I say? I'm kind of disturbed by what I'm hearing, though. First I hear that you can only have three discs out at a time now instead of four. Then, I start noticing that a good half of the movies I have on my list are not available for what seems like forever. These aren't even new releases I'm talking about. At least three discs have been lost in the past three months. It's all beginning to spell trouble to me. I may cancel. I mean, it takes at least four to five days for me to receive a disc after it's shipped and another three or four to get it back to them. If I can only have three at a time now, then I'm ending up paying a buttload of money to see very few films. I really like the selection of films, but they don't update them when new versions come out. Anyway, I just needed to vent. Anyone else have any thoughts on this situation and where NetFlix might be headed?

Where did you read/hear about 3 at a time limit? I would cancel in a minute if they pulled $hit like that. I'm disapointed in them lately but not ready to cancel just yet as it still beats a trip to blockbuster 9 out of 10 times. I still wait for new released but with 60 movies in my quque (50% old and 50% new releases) I tend to have something arrive a few times a week. Still only @ $2 per rental for me.

Unfortunately, looks like Netflix is playing the old Amazon variable pricing game, i.e., how much can we charge without losing a substantial number of customers.

Personally, I still like Netflix, but only so long as my monthly DVD average is around $2 per. If they fiddle with things enough to raise my average to around $3, I'll have a hard choice to make. Netflix still beats the Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos hands down in terms of new release DVD selection and availability, which is what I rent. If that changes, and if they keep up with the increased fees and decreased DVDs checked out, we'll see. (Of course, this is what Netflix is doing, right? "How much can we tweak this and still keep our customers?")

What is Netflix's policy on lost discs? Will there be a punitive charge on my credit card for them when I cancel my account? Hoping for a definitive answer on this. Thanks in advance.

The switch from 4 out at a time to 3 out at a time has been in effect for a while now, but, only affects NEW customers. So, if you feel you are getting a good deal now, don't cancel because you can't get it again if you want to reactivate your account... Personally, it got to be too much for too little for me a couple of months ago, so I cancelled. It allows me to buy one more dvd per month, but I do miss having the selection and opp to view unknowns before purchase.

I'm about to hit my 1 year anniversary on Netflix and have averaged around a dozen or so rentals a month, even after they changed the check-in process. I don't have a convenient local store that carries unrated and cult stuff (Blockbuster? HA!), and through Netflix I discovered the incredible world of Hong Kong movies like Sex & Zen, Black Cat & Robotrix.
Can't figure out how they make money - postage labels used to show $.45, so it's costing them $10.80 in postage alone for my 12 DVD's per month, and I'm still being charged the old rate of around $16.

How did Netflix change their checkin procedures?

After being a member for a more than a year, I canceled my membership last month. I went 11 months without a problem except for some Movies in the wrong envelopes. Then, all of the sudden it takes at least a week to check the DVD's in after I mail them, and another week to receive them in the mail. They also lost 4 discs in a short two month period. The US Mail has not lost anything of mine ever and all of the sudden 4 discs disappear. They also pulled back a public stock offering in August because their financial picture was not solid enough. Although I was not charged for the lost discs(at least not yet) I do know of one person on here that was charged and had to file a complaint with his credit card company to get his money back. I would be very careful because according to their policy it is a judgement call as to whether they charge you for the lost discs. I raised this same concern at the beginning of last month and I did not get very many responses.

I've been a NetFlix fan for two months now (prompted by a first month free coupon here at DVDTalk), and I've had nothing but good experiences. I was told by one of their service folks that I could get the next DVD quicker by reporting that I had mailed my previous disc in four days ago. And I can get four at a time, not three.

I'd rather keep fiddling with my request list than go to Blockbuster or Hollywood and try to find the last remaining DVD they have.

Scott, that's good to know. Could you please tell me where on their web site, I can do that?

I'm getting really frustrated with Netflix. The reason I decided to try it was I was having trouble finding new releases at the video store. I have had about 75% of the titles in my Queue out of stock every day for the last 2 months since I joined (not just new releases either). I'm on the verge of canceling . For $20 a month, I expect more. It's a good concept, it's just being executed very poorly.



[This message has been edited by stevek (edited December 06, 2000).]

I have also noticed over the last several months that more and more titles are "Out Of Stock" for long periods of time. I think this is due to more people using the service and their new policy of keeping the movie for as long as you want instead of a week. I think there must be a lot of lazy people who get the DVD's in the mail and leave them sitting on top of the TV for weeks at a time instead of viewing them within a few days and sending them back. The longer you keep the video out the better it is for Netflix and the more you end up paying per DVD.

------------------
http://welcome.to/GodzillaMonsterMusic

I've been a customer for two months now and I'm definitely not very satisfied. My experiences:

1. First disc was lost in the mail.
2. Second disc took five days to arrive at Netflix (I put it in the mailbox Monday morning, they didn't receive it until Friday). It took over five days for the next disc to arrive at my house.
3. Same thing for disc 3.

Between dealing with the lost disc and the slow turnaround, the convenience of using Netflix (my main reason for using them) is becoming less of an advantage. My average cost per disc right now (with the slow turnaround) is more than renting from the local vid store. I live in Seattle and can't imagine the postal service being that slow to San Jose.

All of the new releases I've put in my queue have been "out of stock" the two months I've been using Netflix. This is a secondary reason I signed up for Netflix (I get tired of the new releases always being gone at the local store), but if this continues for a few more months they will have lost a new customer.

I'm only allowed three discs at a time.

Cliff

Get this: I sent them an email recently telling them how happy I was with the service (hey - everyone needs positive reinforcement now and then right?). Anyway, the very next week they lost 2 DVDs. The week after that 1 showed up broken in half. The average turn-around time had doubled.
So I sent them another email telling them how pissed off I was. All of a sudden no more problems! Weird!