How Would You Rate Netflix & Blockbuster Customer Support?

Now that Netflix has changed over to phone-based support, how would you rate the service? How long have you waited? Did they answer your question or solve your problem quickly?

Do you use Blockbuster Total Access? How would you rate their customer support?

Netflix is a finalist in the Fool 2007 awards for Best Customer Service, and you can vote online.

Comments

[Old Timer Too]

I use both services and have had no reason to contact NF help desk (since rejoining them). When I left, my one thought was that NF really didn't care about its customers. That seems to have changed over the intervening two years, but then, I'm more educated now (thanks in large part to this web site) about how NF does things than I was two years ago.

Now, as to BB. In many instances, I've come to recognize their "customer care" department as their "customer I don't care" department. Not only do they hire staff that has no clue on what is what, but their copy and paste responses could be just as easily handled by a version of Liza (Eliza, etc.), the wonderful little AI program from about twenty-five years ago. A recent round of frustrating responses suggests that they have more than one group and only when my initial complaint was pushed up the line was I given the answer I needed to make the system work.

I should never have to go up the food chain for any kind of customer service, and yet, it appears that BB has one of the worst out there. I've had dealings with other customer service groups, but never have had as bad service from any of them. And my experience hasn't touched on some that some people have received from BB when they've been told that their problem was their (the customer's) fault.

Unlike NF, which now has the reputation of making things right (at least, that's been my recent impressions from the posts of others), BB's customer care group is not empowered, other than to send another coupon or two for free instore rentals (as if that is useful with Total Access). The real key, is the online rental business and they need to treat it as if the stores do not exist when it comes to compensating for any BB problems or shortfall. Ship additional discs or, at the least, issue credits toward the next month's billing.

But of course, right now, Keyes is still groping around, trying to find that "magic" formula to make a struggling company profitable. Until he and his staff come to understand the needs of the online customer, I think the company will remain in trouble.

BB draws a 1 out of a possible ten - I won't write them completely off, but darned close to it.

[McDahling]

Netflix is pretty good, the CSRs are always nice, but they seem a bit stingy with their additional rentals and free months. But I'm not complaining. It's still much, much better then BB.

[Hunter McDaniel]

I rate Netflix customer support as excellent because I have never had to call them.

[Spiky]

I think that Netflix’s customer service is hit and miss because I have had some really good experiences where the CSR seams to go out of their way to help solve your problem while other reps don’t do anything but keep saying “I’m sorry that this keeps happening to you and I can’t find you a solution. Thank you for calling Netflix.”

On the positive side I have never had to wait on hold for over a minute.

[aliquidparadigm]

"Netflix is pretty good, the CSRs are always nice, but they seem a bit stingy with their additional rentals and free months."

Um, duh. They're a business. Having worked for banking call centers in the past, I can tell you that it's not all about giving you compensation to make you happy, it's about telling you why something happened and how to prevent it or what to realistically expect. People have come to expect that customer service is supposed to give you something for your inconvenience, otherwise they're not helpful: if you need help, you call and see what they'll do for you, you don't call because you feel cheated; if you feel cheated, don't continue to do business with them. Honestly, in my experience, most people ask for too much compensation as it is, so you're probably being unreasonable with your expectations.

Example: I got people all the time who would expect us to reverse charges (from things like Netflix, actually) because they didn't cancel their account with a company and the company continued to bill them. This happened a lot with gym memberships and services like Netflix. Well, news flash, if you don't notice for six months that you're being charged for something that you are under the impression you aren't supposed to be, that's no-one's fault but your own. If anyone ever credits you more than one month in a circumstance like that, you should take it and run, because you're getting more than you deserve. Same goes for any charge that is more than one billing statement back. If you didn't notice it because you're "busy" and didn't check your statement monthly, you should expect to eat it, because that, again, is your fault for not keeping up on YOUR affairs.

You can say that I am stingy or a stiff, or hard, but, realistically, if you're an adult you should know well enough to keep track of these kind of things and shouldn't expect the rest of society to hold your hand.

On that note: Netflix is a reasonably good company with regards to their customer service. I've never needed to contact them, but I have been told that they are very reasonable with what they will and won't do and everyone that I know (either via the internet or "IRL") who has had to contact them has had no complaints.