I agree. First of all, when I signed up in Feb '00, it was at 16.95 which they increased the next month to 19.95. Then sometime down the line they started charging tax. As far as service goes, my average per month has dwindled from 13 in Mar '00 to 5 in Jan '01.
I also ended up watching a lot of movies that I generally wouldn't have, as the ones I want to watch (especially new releases) are always out of stock
I promptly cancelled end of Jan, which turned out good as they increased prices to 24.95 the next day. I joined up the 30 rentals in 30 days at Blockbuster for 19.95. Have already rented a movie each day this month and even though this deal may not last long, it's better for now at least and (I don't believe I'm saying this but) dealing with the pimply faced teen behind the counter actually seems less frustrating than the 'Out of stock' - 'Released to Ship' status on my queue entries and seeing no disc in my mailbox, a week after they were suppossedly shipped.
At the rate netflix seems to be losing customers, they will be out of business soon.
Very typical of a bad .com business model. Initially offer a lot more to customers than you can afford. Then on losing money, scale back attractive pricing and service levels so far that majority of clientele gets pissed off and turn their backs.

RE WHY I HAVEN'T QUIT YET
 

The reason I complain and don't quit is that Netflix is the only company doing what they do. I've been a member since 1999 and for most of that time I've loved Netflix - I must have turned 25 people onto Netflix. Dvdovernight has nothing but the most obvious dvds and the Blockbuster 30 for $19.95 sucks because they have vanilla films, you have to go there, and you have to go back.
You don't have to be Oliver Stone to think something stinks at Netflix - they don't have sufficient inventory and they are using the incredibly vague and meaningless status "released to ship" to shave days off the month. I've had films in "released to ship" for a week - thats a week I don't get 4 rentals I get 3. When you have 2 or 3 films in the "released to ship" hellhole a couple times a month you are really being restricted. There doesn't have to be a star chamber somewhere to orchestrate this.
You seem to suggest that damaged disc/lost etc. are the only problems there - while they are understandable problems I don't think they have anything to do with the recent problems.

All 60 Movies in My Queue are OUT OF STOCK

Reply from Customer Service

"Thanks for your message. Please be reassured that we are continuing to process and ship titles from our warehouse in a timely manner. In fact, because of the out of stock issues we are experiencing, every copy is valuable. As such, they are checked in immediately upon their delivery
from the postal service and assigned to the next customer. However,since we ship by the USPS, we must go by their schedule (no Sundays,Holidays, and evenings), and there can be postal delays.

In the past the general shipping time was within 4 working days (one way), however, we have noticed an increase in the shipping times with the USPS recently and it is affecting all of our customers, even those in California (where our warehouse is located). In fact, it can be normal for titles to not arrive within the expected date. We will be
updating the expected arrival date on our web site to reflect the changes in the postal service.

In addition, the San Jose postal center (where our mail must be sorted before arriving at our warehouse) is currently backed up and not operating at its most efficient level. Both of these reasons are causing delays in our returns. We hope these postal delays improve soon. In the
meantime, you are more than welcome to utilize the "I already mailed it back" link (located underneath each title on the shipping status page)to notify us of your returns. Once we receive this notification we will release your next shipment. Since you are on the 3 out plan you will only be able to mark 1 title "delayed" at a time.

Since we recognize the potential for losses in using the postal delivery service, we do allow for a reasonable amount of titles to become lost in transit. However, once the amount becomes excessive, we will need to take the necessary actions to solve the problem. In light of the recent postal delays, you may want to wait longer before marking a title "lost".

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us."

Reply from Customer Service
 

This is what I got from customer service. Note.. There were two items in the lost queue.

"Hi Chris,

Thanks for your message. We do apologize for shipping delays that you
have experienced. However, this is not an error in our system.
Occasionally, movies do not ship in a timely manner due to non-receipt
or damaged DVDs from previous customers. If you do not want us to wait
for additional copies to be available, you may instruct us to cancel the
order and attempt to ship the next available title in your queue.

Also, we are sorry to hear that you are in disagreement of our recent
notice to increase your monthly service fee. I will forward your message
onto Marc Randolph, but please understand that he receives a great
amount of emails daily. He does read all of the emails that he receives,
however, he does apologize if he does not have time to answer each and
everyone.

Please note that in reviewing your account, we have noticed that you
have placed an excessive amount of movies as "lost/stolen" in the mail
and to later find them being returned. This is highly unusual, which
leads us to believe that you may be abusing our "lost/stolen" feature in
an attempt to receive more movies. We ask that you please use this
feature in the correct manner that it was intended. If this pattern
continues a hold on your account may be placed.

We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding.

Thanks,
Andrew
NetFlix.com
Customer Service"

This is what I have stated by a customer service rep called a "Technical Glitch"

"Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. I apologize for any confusion. "Recently we have experienced a small technical glitch" that may cause your DVDs to be delayed in shipment. Please be assured that our technical team is currently working to resolve this issue, and we expect your movies to
ship out soon. Again, please accept our apologies for the delay. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
Abdullah
NetFlix.com Customer Service"

So I asked them if I should pay for their technical glitch and they invited me to cancel my membership.

How about that.. I guess RentMyDVD is going to get my business from now on. This is just a waste of time renting from this place who doesn't care about their customers, just making money. First what you have to do is clear out your queue or they will ship you the next movie and send you an email stating that you have 5 days to return your movies or they will charge you MSRP for them. This is a joke.

Conspiracy theory
 

To add some more fuel to this flame, has anyone else noticed that discs that are sent back without being marked "delayed" are checked in more promptly than discs that are labelled as delayed?

This is the second time that I've sent three discs back, two marked as delayed so I could get more discs sent to me right away. However, the first disc that is checked in is the only that's not marked as delayed..

More conspiracy theory
 

I sent 3 discs back on 2/12. The first was checked in 2/16, a fairly reasonable turn-around. The second was checked in 2/17 (saturday) which seems a little strange since I would assume all three would have shown up at the same time.

Now.. today 2/19 when there is no mail delivery I receive notification that my third disc has been checked in. Obviously it must have shown up either Friday or Saturday.

Now could all this have been an innocent we're-backlogged-we-can't-check-all-these-discs-in-the-same-day error? Sure, but two weeks in a row? I'm tempted to hold on to the trickle of discs I'm receiving so I can try it with another batch of 3 discs.

Thats all it is.. just a conspiracy...

I tried them more than a year ago, when we were paying by the dvd. The service was good and cost-effective at that time, but when they went to "all the dvds you can eat in a month" I just did not see myself watching enough DVDs in a month to make this cost effective, and I cancelled. Then I tried them again about a year ago on a free trial, and realized that my initial impression was right.

I just tried them again this month -- clearly for the last time. I signed up on Feb. 3. I watched each movie the day it got here and put it back in the mail the same day. With that lightning pace, I've been able to watch 4 DVDs so far this month. I currently have 1 DVD here. One of the first DVDs allegedly sent to me never arrived. It then took them nearly 2 weeks to replace it. One that I sent back last Monday was finally checked in Saturday, and a new DVD went into "Released to Ship" Hell on Sunday. The other one I sent in last Monday awaits their acknowledgement of receipt.

Even worse, on my list of 16 DVDs I wanted to see, 13 of them are listed as "Out of Stock."

At this pace, it looks like you can rent about 8 DVDs in a month from them for the $24.95 or so they charge. Blockbuster, here I come.

Whatever you do don't go to Blockbuster. Have you tried RMD @ http://www.rentmydvd.com

I have heard some good things about them and I plan to sign up for their service in the next week.. I won't rent at blockbuster.. it is 7.84 for two movies per shot. I will let you know how it is. Like I said I will sign up here in the next week. My friend has however signed up and he says he likes it, movies are actually "in" and not "Out of Stock" So I can't wait to try them. I will keep you posted.

I gave up on Netflix a while ago...before it even got as bad as what's happening to most of you guys!

A lot of people have mentioned renting from Blockbuster. I don't know if they mean Blockbuster specifically, or they're just using that as a catch-all term for video rental places, but I just wanted to put my two cents in that if you're going to rent from a B&M, try to find a LOCAL (ie. non-chain) store.

Every town I've ever lived in has had a local video store that had *better* prices than Blockbuster, and usuallly much better deals too (like rent 5 videos for 5 days for 5 bucks, back before I had a DVD player). The only thing I can see that Blockbuster does better is have more copies of recent movies... so what? I can live without seeing the latest thing on the first weekend it comes out! Heck, my local store even has a better *selection* than my local Blockbuster! Particularly with Blockbuster trying sleazy stuff like pushing for rental pricing, I'd definitely say give your money to the local independent places.