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Review Of Netflix DVD Rental Service
Bigbird504 writes "If you haven't already heard of Netflix, they basically rent DVDs online... but for a price of $20/month. While many believe it isn't worth it, many others do feel its a good bargain. Afterall, you can take out 3 DVDs at a time. Best of all, there are no late fees on returns. You keep the DVD as long as you like, and return it when you are done. Its a pretty interesting concept, and may be well worth the money. Check out this review on Netflix."
Is this an ad? A review for NetFlix... on NetFlix?
Anyway, this was once a GREAT service, but as I am sure many posts to follow will indicate, it slipped as the dot-com funds disappeared. It takes way too long for processing of returned DVDs and too long to receive new ones - if you can even get the titles you want.
Here's to ya NetFlix, once a great service, still a great idea!
We've been a netflix survivor for half a year or so, and I really like it. It's especially great for watching things like The Sopranos, where there are four one-hour episodes on each disc, and you don't necessarily want to watch them all in the same night -- you can keep it as long as you want.
Unlike the reviewer, we're all the way in Boston, so turnaround time is much higher -- sometimes more than a week round-trip. This means that unlike the 45 movies he mentions, we can only fit seven or eight in a month, and that only if we watch right when they come, so I'm highly looking forward to the rumored east-coast distribution center. (This article was the first I'd heard of that.)
Still, it works out to a pretty decent deal for us, and the convenience is unbeatable, especially in these sad and dark post-Kozmo days. We've got a queue of about 45 movies stacked up (and like the reviewer, pretty much always get the first thing on our list -- I don't know if they do this, but I can imagine crunching everyone's upcoming queues for optimal dispersal of inventory...). It's basically like TV-on-demand, with really high latency.
Netflix was a great service for me, and I was a customer for a little over a year. But as their popularity grew, it became harder and harder to get new releases, etc. Netflix always delivered what they said they would on-time, and the ones we sent back in got to them quickly almost every time.
The real problem for us then was availability, and as new releases became harder and harder to get (they show up in your selection queue as out of stock or delayed or something) we found ourselves buying the new releases we liked and using netflix for older stuff we weren't sure was any good before we bought. When we had seen all the ones we wanted to via the service, we saw no point to keeping it. I guess you could say we used it up.
Take this comment as you will, because most people don't watch as many as I do. To date, I have roughly 300 DVD's and watch anywhere from 3-9 per week, as I watch very little television.
I joined NetFlix this past year and had a rather bad experience. My primary reason for joining was to gain access to anime rentals, as the only place in Atlanta that rents anime (that I know of) only has vhs.
But I digress, the big problem i ran into is their queue system. It sounds good, queue up the ones you want and they will send the highest one available as it becomes available. The problem is if your high demand ones are at all popular they will almost never get to you.
The flaw in their system is that they WILL send you a lower priority one when it becomes available. if you have you X number checked out they won't send you anything until you check something back in, then they will send out your highest rated available one - again generally not the one you want most as they tend to be in demand from everyone.
After a few months I realized I could buy the DVD's i wanted for the same price as i was spending either A) waiting with nothing extra in my queue for a specific couple movies, or B) watching lots of movies i don't especially want to but am vaguely interested in so stuck in my queue.
So, yeah, is a great deal if you don't especially care about getting a specific movie, but just one or two of a selection, but if you want some specific movies (which with their vast lit of titles is what attacted me) it is not so hot - especially if you want ones that are typically in high demand, but are not carried sufficiantly in Blockbuster (ie, most anime).
-Frums
I subscribed for 5 months. Sometimes it would take three days to ship out the next selection after recieving the return. The queue page keeps up-to-date on the status of all so you know exactly the when and wheres of all your discs.
The one thing I didn't like was double disc sets counted as two rentals and not just one. So for like Citizen Kane, you have to rent the film disc and the bonus disc separately.
I love Netflix for the selection, and I am one of those people that fills my queue to bursting (115 movies at the moment).
The one thing that has had me worried during my two years dealing with netflix is the slow degradation in service levels. In the beginning, you could mail back a DVD, then tell their website you did so and you would get your new one. Not so anymore, though I can understand it for dealing with people who say "yeeeah, I sent it back" but never did. Second was when they bumped the basic service level down to 3 DVDs from 4. Finally, it seems that they are taking much longer to process my movies lately. A couple months ago I could expect that they send the top of my queue out a day after recieving my return. Now it seems there is a 2-3 day lag time between them, without having 'Wait' movies in my queue.
I do love the service though, and bought a year of it for my parents this past Xmas. There's just this nagging feeling that they will do more to cripple it.
I was a Netflix subscriber for a few months but cancelled. It's really annoying to have to wait a week for a movie you want to see. In the end, I still had to go to the local Blockbuster...
Unless you live in California, it will take almost a week for the DVD to reach you. For a mail round-trip, that's two weeks. In my experience, you won't be able to watch more than 8 movies in a month. I was really not satisfied with the service.
I wish they had warehouses and shipping centers across the country. That should cut the mail time down to a couple of days. Plus, they could actually have brick-and-mortar rental stores attached to the warehouses. Then you could pay a monthly fee but also go to the store to pick up your titles. If you don't have time to return, just mail them back.
The bottom line is: Netflix falls short of their "unlimited rentals" promise.
When thinking about netflix, I basically compare it to my other option: Blockbuster.
I've really liked netflix.
w o r l d w i d e w e b e r
I've been using Netflix for about year and a half. I've been genetally satisfied, however I notice that service goes downhill , slowly but steady. The most irritating new "feature" for me is that now, when you rent a movie which comes on 2 dvd's, you have to rent them as a two separate items! Example. What could be worse then receiving the last 1/3 of the movie and wait until the beggining willl come out of the "long wait" blackhole!
When I started using Netflix (early adopter here...been a member for over two and a half years), the plan allowed 4 movies at a time, for twenty bucks a month. They have since changed that policy (six months ago, maybe? I don't remember), and now allow three on hand instead of four; however, I seem to have been "grandfathered" in allowing me to have four movies on hand, and still for twenty bucks, instead of the basic plan's current 3. From my "Membership Terms" page:
I mention this not to gloat to new users, but to point out that, unlike so many companies, who say "these terms subject to change without notice," Netflix seems to be of the opinion that I should continue to get what I signed up for, even when they decide to change their program. I wish more companies would do this--Go Netflix!
Also, about two years ago, they did a survey on possibly expanding their service to include video games (probably PlayStation discs, although they might have also been considering cartridges, I don't know). As far as I can tell, that idea didn't go anywhere (I personally said I wouldn't use it, because I don't have any game consoles), but with their popularity growing (substantially, it seems), it might be possible to resurrect it, if enough people ask for it.
(In case you couldn't tell, yes, I am very happy with them, and no, I don't work for them.)
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
Just canceled my membership about 2 weeks ago. The St. Paul, Minnesota Public Library has a growing DVD collection. They started about 3 months ago. Have checked out the entire first season of the Sopranos, The Godfather Trilogy, From the Earth to the Moon series. All FREE and can have up to 5 titles checked out for seven days with up to one renewal, so really can have a check-out for 14 days.
They are adding discs to the inventory every week. Up to about 350 titles.
If I really need a new release like right now, I'm back to going to Hollywood Video.
Free from the library is a good thing.
While I agree it's an issue, I've been thoroughly stunned how much abuse a DVD can take and still function without any (visible or aubible) problems. For those that aren't Netflix members, the "packaging" of their DVDs is minimal. It's basically just a DVD in a sleeve, packed in an envelope. No padding. No stiffeners. And no "do not fold, spindle, multilate" style warnings on the mailer.
I've been a Netflix member for a while, and I've seen a lot. First of all, because of where I live (Rural NH) I get all my mail via a small PO Box. Well, the PO box is small enough that you can't fit a DVD in it (diagonal of the box is about 1/4" or 1/2" less than a DVD), unless you seriously bend it. About half of my DVD's from Netflix get crammed into the box by a postal worker (the other half of the time they hold them behind the counter and I have to go into town in the middle of the day to fetch 'em). And the rest of my mail is crammed in the box as well. So most of my DVDs arrive in badly mutilated and torn mailers and have been sitting bent at a wicked angle for at least a day...
That, and some of the discs that arrive have obviously had other abuse. Huge scratches. Even gouges. Actual coffee rings. Waterlogged. Partially cracked (usually in the hub ring or around the edge). Sticky residue (don't know what it was, but it was water soluble). No mailer, just the disc sleeve (apparently someone at the PO knows that I'm the one with the Netflix membership, since I got this one without a delay). Etc.
And without a single exception, they've all worked. I'm still shocked.
Netflix has it's issues (poor availability of popular titles, long time delays), but they've been working for me. Certainly way better and cheaper than the local Hollywood (the only place with DVDs for rent. They suck).