Netflix Service Complaints

Some of the complaints I've received about Netflix recently:

Jack writes:

My problem is that 98% of the DVD's I receive on a Friday or Saturday go back to a location VERY far from my local center. The movies I receive during the rest of the week go back to my local center nearly 100% of the time. The only times I have received a DVD, at the beginning of the week, that does not go back to my local center is when a movie that I was supposed to have received that previous Friday or Saturday is delayed. I was hoping you would post that to see if other people would look to see if the same thing is happening to them.

I always rent the older classic movies so that should not be a factor. There should be no difference if they send a classic movie to me on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday compared to a Thursday or Friday.

Barbara says:

I always mail 3 DVD's back on Monday, and have to wait till Thursday, and this week I got only two, and the third DVD next week. I am not very happy with their service...

Carl writes:

I live in a city very near Indianapolis and it only takes one day for mail delivery (Netflix has a distribution center in Indy). But for the last two or three weeks all my returns are not being received by Netflix until the second day after I mail them. In the past that never happened and I wondered if Netflix is slowing down their turnaround time intentionally? Also, they never send anything out on Mondays.

William reports:

The service [Netflix] has been incredibly slow to "receive" my movies. I receive movies from them in one business day. I live barely over an hour from their shipping facility. Itakes one business day for all my other mail to be received in the same city. Yet with Netflix, it is now taking three or four business days for them to "receive" my returns.

"M" writes:

We have been Netflix customers for 3 years now, and for the past few months we have noticed that it's taking Netflix longer and longer to turn around DVDs. Althought it says "Shipping Today" when I check on the status, we hardly ever get the DVD's the next day (we used to frequently before), or even within two days.

Will says:

I've been a Neflix user for 4 years. I'm located in Boston and previously, when I'd send a movie back, I'd get the next movie in my queue 2-3 days later. Almost never 4. Over the last month it's been 4-5 days later and sometimes not until the following week if I put an outgoing movie in my mailbox on Monday morning. Maybe it's temporary, but it's been like this for 4 weeks straight.

How happy are you with Netflix?

Comments

[Chris Taber]

I have received a few DVD's from far away distribution centers as well. I live in Madison, WI and we have 1 day turnaround here. But I have gotten an envelope with a Charlottesburg, NC address on it. Since I always have at least one movie sitting at home at all times, I would just not use that envelope. But then I had the bright idea of printing out my own labels with the Madison PO Box on them that I would stick over the non-Madison address. That seemed to work just fine.

[Ben Jeremy]

I live in Michigan, and I just got a movie from Honolulu, HI!!

Well, it took about 5 days to get here, and it's not going back there, as I've been sticking two movies in a single return envelope for a while, saving my local center (Lansing, MI) envelopes.

I have noticed a bit of a slowdown, though. Perhaps it's the season, combined with a big growth in their business?

[Adam]

well i just canceled my netflix account after my free trial just now.. the trial ended on suday and i had problems i wanted to speack to a csr but couldnt get one over the weekend of course ne ways.. the woman was very rude but i was an ass hole right back and they were trying to make me pay a month because i didnt cancel sunday which is fine and all that was my fault i let that slip but at first i didnt want to cancel iw anted to speak to them cause in my first to weeks... i recived my movies fine but shipping back was my problems both times i shipped back it took them so many days that i could file them both missing... same day i would do so.. they would acknowledge that they did indeed recieve them.. over my 2 week time frame i was on the 2 at a time free trial and recieved 4 dvd's in 2 weeks on shipment a week. i live 30 min from the nearest distro center.... and mailed directly from the post office.. i live so close if i send something non priority... it usually gets there the next day or day after they were trying to tel me it was the post offices fault and they didnt recieve in once instance when i mailed out on a thursday... till wendnesday of the next week....

I believe that netflix is starting to change a bit.. and slow things down on all ends.. for new customers and old alike... my 2 cents... fuck netflix.. they are rude dogs.. and just really piss me off... i did however in my rage get them to credit me for the month ahead which i havnt even been shipped my next dvd's in... in any case i am glad it is done to all of you that put this time on this... id say end it.. end your service and go back to renting at your local store.. its big bussinesses like netflix that put a hurt on our society today.. they think they can get away with whatever they wish and do whatever they like along the way.. shitting on the little guy.. well ill have no part in it...

deviceing proesses to get your movies faster or bitching about it is only a joke... and this site for one is also.. no disrespect because it was here for me to vent these past few days.. but in any case.. its nothing to worry about... shitty service... and thats it..

im just glad that i got out for the bastards took one sent of my money... my only downside to this is that it does however trouble me in the sense that i will now have to look for a different source for the more not so on the shelf movies which id like to recieve for my own "pleasure" but... oh well

block buster isnt the answer either.. so debating which one is the best or what not or what they would have to do to get on top is silly also.. both companys are evil in the eyes of this "union hearted" man and i say fuck them and you all have a nice day :) and good luck with these bastard nazi's

[T. J.P.]

I have been with Netflix now for about 4 months and have rarely had a good experience, it really aggravates to see their claim of " number one custumer service" that they have/ had posted on their site.It seems to have gone from bad to worse, lately if they receieve my movie back at my local facility( about 1.5 hours away) at 8:30 am it will stay in " shipping today" mode until about 6pm and then it says shipping out the following day, why is that?Customer service says when they reach their quota for the day at the facilities they ship the folowing day, have they reached their quota first thing in the morning?One other thing that irks me is that customer service told me that the reason i have to wait is to give someone else who does rent as much the opportunity to get a title i have in queue before me, that is limiting my membership! Currently im on a supposed "unlimited" membership, things like this and not giving the customer the choice of knowing if a movie is gonna ship from a center 5 days away to and from are all reasons why at the end of this month i will terminate service until i read on this board that the company has a competitor or found a reason to care for their customers.

[rob emmerich]

This has happened to me too. I've only been signed back up for 5 weeks, (quit about 6 months ago for the summer) but previously everything was 3 day turn-around, 1 day there, 1 day back, and now it's closer to 2 or 3 there, 4 or 5 back, and yes from all-over the continental US (I live in NY). I attributed this to: only renting foreign sub-titled films; the new screwed-up envelopes; holiday postal traffic; overwhelmed employees; but maybe something is up. Even still, at $2 or less per rental it seems like the cheapest (and most conveinent) way to go.

[T. J.P.]

I have been with Netflix now for about 4 months and have rarely had a good experience, it really aggravates to see their claim of " number one custumer service" that they have/ had posted on their site.It seems to have gone from bad to worse, lately if they receive my movie back at my local facility( about 1.5 hours away) at 8:30 am it will stay in " shipping today" mode until about 6pm and then it says shipping out the following day, why is that?Customer service says when they reach their quota for the day at the facilities they ship the following day, have they reached their quota first thing in the morning?One other thing that irks me is that customer service told me that the reason i have to wait is to give someone else who doesn't rent as much as i do the opportunity to get a title i have in quueue before me, that is limiting my membership! Currently im on a supposed "unlimited" membership, things like this and not giving the customer the choice of knowing if a movie is gonna ship from a center 5 days away to and from are all reasons why at the end of this month i will terminate service until i read on this board that the company has a competitor or found a reason to care for their customers.

[T. J.P.]

I have been with Netflix now for about 4 months and have rarely had a good experience, it really aggravates to see their claim of " number one custumer service" that they have/ had posted on their site.It seems to have gone from bad to worse, lately if they receieve my movie back at my local facility( about 1.5 hours away) at 8:30 am it will stay in " shipping today" mode until about 6pm and then it says shipping out the following day, why is that?Customer service says when they reach their quota for the day at the facilities they ship the folowing day, have they reached their quota first thing in the morning?One other thing that irks me is that customer service told me that the reason i have to wait is to give someone else who does rent as much the opportunity to get a title i have in queue before me, that is limiting my membership! Currently im on a supposed "unlimited" membership, things like this and not giving the customer the choice of knowing if a movie is gonna ship from a center 5 days away to and from are all reasons why at the end of this month i will terminate service until i read on this board that the company has a competitor or found a reason to care for their customers.

[James Shaw]

Yes, they seemed to change something a month ago. Previously I'd return a DVD and get a replacement in 2 days. 1 day there, and 1 day back. Now it's getting longer. 5 days recently.

[Charles]

My wife and I are extremely happy with Netflix. We use the 3-at-a-time plan, and have been a member for about a year. We live in the same city as a distribution center. We have received 17 discs in the last 30 days, and 53 in the last 90 days. In that time we have not had any unplayable discs, and one disc that was shipped but never got to us that I report lost. Netflix immediately shipped a replacement. The original eventually turned up, and I returned it with no problems.

For us, the value is well worth it. We intend to continue be Netflix customers.

Save local envelopes and double or triple-up on returns. That's the best way to get around their long-distance throttle tactics. As for the Monday-delay, that's unavoidable. They do not ship on Mondays for heavy users. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. I can't get new releases, because they never send any discs on Monday, and they're usually on long wait by Tuesday. I think the best way to deal with NFLX is to return everything on the same day you get it, by the last mail pick-up.

"I had the bright idea of printing out my own labels with the Madison PO Box on them that I would stick over the non-Madison address. That seemed to work just fine."

It might not always work unless you print up new bar codes too. It depends on whether the Post Office sorts your returns by hand or by machine. Better to just save up local return envelopes and send 2 or 3 discs at a time. I have been doing that for years.

"We have received 17 discs in the last 30 days, and 53 in the last 90 days."

Stretch credibility much? The average is 12 a month on 3-out plan. 14 if you're very lucky. They used to send 15-17 occasionally, but now their throttling has been kicked up a notch. It's hard to believe anyone is still getting 17 a month, when sites that catalogue user's exerience show that 12 is usually the limit.

[Disappointed]

It's interesting that this isssue comes up now. I live close to Richmond, VA where Netflix has a distribution center. I almost always get next day delivery and receipt. However in the last 3 or 4 weeks most of my returns have taken 2 days and I've had two 3-day returns, one 4-day, and one 5-day! Similarly, shipments have been slow, with most taking 2 days now.
Does this have something to do with the holiday season? If it keeps up I will cut back or quit Netflix. Formerly reliable service has gotten annoyingly unpredictable.

"One other thing that irks me is that customer service told me that the reason i have to wait is to give someone else who does rent as much the opportunity to get a title i have in queue before me, that is limiting my membership!"

It's hard to believe that someone else wants the same movies as me, since I don't even TRY to get new releases any more. I learned quickly that ThrottleFlix would not send me new releases, or any related movies, because I'm a heavy user. I can go down to Hollywood and use my MVP to get the first 3 discs of Desperate Housewives or Alias 4 before NFLX would send them to me. So, I supplement my membership with a couple other online rental services, library, and B&M stores. They all have some movies that the others don't.

[Plantronics CS55]

I use both Blockbuster and Netflix. You think Netflix has problems... try Blockbusters.. some of the same experience you experience at Netflix are even worst at Blockbusters!

[Alex]

I've had issues once in a while with them not receiving a movie or me not receiving it but this one took the cake for me. . .
Two weeks ago I sent back 2 movies in the same envelope and they only received one of them. Now how does that happen? Last week I sent 2 movies back in seperate envelopes and they received one the next day but as of today they still haven't received the other one.
About 2 months ago I started seeing my envelopes all trashed and I began not receiving as many of my movies. I emailed them thinking someone is going through the envelopes and stealing some of them. They wrote back saying I need to talk to the post office about it because it's not their problem. But now seeing that earlier thread here about envelope problems I see I'm not the only one.
I've been coming here for a while seeing what problems are happening but never commenting because for the most part it's been good service for me. But lately it's been upsetting me so I guess it was time to write about it.

[PlungeBob]

These are valid, and well expressed, thoughts.

I certainly hope that the NF-fans will be respectful of the
positions helds by others.

(trying to vent frustration has been difficult around here lately)

For me, NF has been delaying return shipments for some time now.

More recently they have begun to delay admitting the receipt
of disks returned to them.

This seems to be the trend in the market these days. It seems
that initially these companies were highly motivated to get a customer
base, and that now that they have one they are far less motivated
to provide the sort of service we became accustomed to.

For example, IntelliFlix seems practically dead to me. I have
about 50 movies in my Queue, and I have had "0 disks out" for going
on TWO WEEKS!

The only bright spot is that this bad behavior leaves other
services more attractive. ie. Greencine. Their service is
becoming competitive throughput-wise, and they are a great
service otherwise.

The jury is out on BB. I am watching them closely since raising my
membership level (oddly, I did this because they were doing so well at
the lower level!).

[PlungeBob]

Carl,

"they never send anything out on Mondays"

This is true. ...it is part of their forcing users into a
one-disk-per-week-per-rental program.

[Jeff]

As for the Monday-delay, that's unavoidable. They do not ship on Mondays for heavy users. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

Says anon. Meanwhile, my 5-out-with-20-per-month average has the second disc of season 3 of Buffy shipping today, after getting Murderball shipped on Monday last week.

I'm very happy with my service, overall. My complaints are more with an inability to save some more obscure movies on the site and the 500 queue cap more than anything else.

[amphigorist]

I'm on the five out plan, and I used to get on average just over 19 discs per month. The last two months I've only got about 13 or 14. And this last week I first recieved what was supposed to be Law and Order S2 D2 and D3, but in the D3 white envelope was just another D2. And then on Friday, I was supposed to receive Sports Night D1 and instead they sent me Once and Again D1 (not even on my queue).

I reported both of course, but they're making me wait till they recieve them to get another disc. I haven't had a ton of problems, one or two mislabeled discs, one or two lost in the mail, and four or five cracked discs over the course of about two years of membership, and some of the TV DVDs I'm watching lately I return a little slower, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. It's still a pretty good value for me, considering.

But BBO has some stuff I want that Netflix doesn't carry, so I am considering switching for a little while, maybe.

"Stretch credibility much? The average is 12 a month on 3-out plan. 14 if you're very lucky. They used to send 15-17 occasionally, but now their throttling has been kicked up a notch. It's hard to believe anyone is still getting 17 a month, when sites that catalogue user's exerience show that 12 is usually the limit."

I'm on the 4 out plan and I'm getting only 16 a month. Its not 16 a month by choice. Netflix does everything in its power to prevent me from renting anymore than 16 a month.

When I first joined Netflix approximately a year ago, I was on the 3 out at a time plan, and I was getting about 22-24 DVDS a month, easilly.

When I upped my plan to 4 at a time, I THOUGHT that would mean 4-8 DVDs more a month for me to watch. Which meant that my 22-24 DVDS a month would be increased to 26-32 a month. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Now its a damn frustrating struggle just to get that 16 a month from Netflix on the 4 out plan.

I wound up paying more money to get fewer DVDs!!!!!

[Brian]

Hey, it's the holidays. Remember when you are a customer of netflix you are also a customer of the post office, and this is their busy time. These days Netflix is the only thing that I get via snail mail that isn't an ad. All of my other important messages get sent to me via e-mail. So sometimes 2-4 days for a movie to turn around seems like a lifetime. Besides, if it takes an extra day I can't complain too much my cost per rental is less than $2. I'm on the $9.99 plan and can watch 1-3 movies a week. That and what I have recording on my DVR fill up all of my available entertainment time.

[manuel]

"Save local envelopes and double or triple-up on returns. That's the best way to get around their long-distance throttle tactics."

This does help but realize it doesn't change the fact your rental was shipped from a remote area which added extra shipping days.

"It might not always work unless you print up new bar codes too. It depends on whether the Post Office sorts your returns by hand or by machine."

Adding your own labels still gets your rental back to Netflix faster (even without the barcode). A local return address that may take a few hours longer to sort by hand versus a remote return address thousands of miles away--guaranteed to take several days.

"Two weeks ago I sent back 2 movies in the same envelope and they only received one of them. Now how does that happen?"

Alex, it makes you realize no matter what precautions you take to avoid being throttled, Netflix still blatantly throttles. The Netflix business model may make money but it's dishonest as hell. I think that's the reason more than 30% of Netflix's long term customers quit every year (according to Motley Fool) and the reason Netflix recently settled a class action lawsuit over delivery times and false advertising not to mention the ABC news expose by channel 7 KGO-TV uncovering Netflix's throttling practice. Find out if you're being throttled by analyzing your rental history at TallRock.net.

PlungeBob, the it's-okay-because-everybody's-doing-it excuse doesn't fly with subscribers.

"I use both Blockbuster and Netflix. You think Netflix has problems... try Blockbusters.. some of the same experience you experience at Netflix are even worst at Blockbusters!"

Amen to that. I too am a member of both. I became a member of both services at the same timeb because I knew that there would be movies that NF had but BB didnt and vicea versa. From the very beginning, Newtflix service kicked ass. BB's sucked. And even when NF started throttling me, it still provided better service than BB.

Blockbuster, every 6th DVD went missing when I returned them, it took 4-5 days delivery to me, a big chunk of the DVDs in my queue (about a third) was on some sort of wait. The reason why I stayed was because BBO was still in its infancy, and I figured that they were going through some growing pains, and so I wanted to give them a chance to imrpove.

It was MONTHS before BBs service improved somewhat. DVDs stopped going missing, Shipping improved to 2-3 days, the number of titles in my queue were mostly on an available status, etc. However, in recent weeks, service dropped again. Especially in the shipping department. It takes 3-4 days for them to acknowledge my returns, and 3-4 days (mostly the latter) for them to ship DVDs to me. I live in Long Island, NY. They used to have me send my returns to Flushing, NY. Now they force me to send my returns out of state to Worcester, Massachusettes.

Unlike Netflix users that send two or threee DVDs in a single envelope to a local distribution center, BB has not provided me an enevelope to a local distribution center in many, many months. Their return envelopes are ALWAYS addressed to Worcester, MA

[Zack]

What about netflix service praises?

Lets take last week for example.

Monday Netflix received:

Bob Dylan No Direction Home Disc 2

Monday Netflix sent: Home Alone

Monday I sent back:

A Christmas Carol
Home Alone 2

While I sent back No Direction Home Disc 1 on the previous friday.

Tuesday Netflix receives all three while I receive Home Alone

Wednesday they ship:

Last House On The Left
The Invisible Man
Miracle On 34th St

I ship back Home Alone.

Thursday they receive:

Home Alone

I receive the previous three

Friday they ship:

The Flesh Eaters

I ship back the 3 I received thursday.

Here we are monday. I ship out Flesh Eaters and they have yet to recieve the three from friday.

That doesnt seem unreasonable to me. Does it to anyone else? All the emails are dated, so I know these dates are accurate