I have been giving Netflix a try for the last couple of months. I have been much less than thrilled with the experience.
Their web interface is ridiculously clunky.
They limit what movies you are allowed to know about, for instance, by not actually having a page to list ALL new releases. When I called customer service to see if there was a place to see what DVDs had released each week I was told no, that they had decided to only show some of the movies to limit the demand for popular movies and reduce wait times. Huh? Why not just tell me what came out and let me know I will have to wait longer for this movie than for that movie? Pretty counter productive to require me to go to HollywoodVideo.com to find out what movie I might want to see.
When you add a movie to your queue, you have to deal with an obnoxious pop-up listing other recommendations. You know what? If I want other recommendations, I can click on the link to recommendations. When I want to add movies to the queue, that is what I want to do - don't make it slow and clunky. Customer service answer - that is a feature and there is no way to change your preferences to get rid of it. Yeah, great feature...it made me nuts.
The turn around time is SLOW. Perhaps I got spoiled on being able to turn in movies at my local Blockbuster, either getting a free movie in exchange or just having the return logged (thus getting my next movie sent right away)
The prices ain't that great.
When they send a movie from my queue, they seem to pick completely at random. Why have me determine an order I would prefer to receive the DVDs if you are just going to ignore my list?
So I canceled. They sent me through a long survey page to find out why I left, but never gave me a chance to actually answer. The only subject they were really interested in was their "Watch Instantly" feature. How did you like it? How did it measure up to your expectations? Did you find it easy to use? How many movie did you watch instantly?
I didn't join because of their "watch instantly", I didn't use it during the trial period (which they should know), and my cancellation was in no way related to that feature. I had many complaints I would have shared with them had they given me the chance, instead I will share them with you.
And add another one - complete disregard for getting information that might help them improve their product.
BTW: I forgot to mention their extremely unfriendly cancellation policy. I timed my departure so as to hit the day before they billed me for another month. Good thing. They were very sure to tell me, no partial months will be refunded. You are unable to continue using the service. No credits will be issued. If I had already been billed for the next month, too bad - cancellation is immediate and complete. And kinda snotty in the delivery, too.
When I canceled with Blockbuster, they told me when I was paid through and allowed me to avail myself of their service up till that time. Even after my online membership was expired, when I took the DVDs back to the store, they allowed me to exchange them for free rentals. I may have had issues with Blockbuster, but they handled our parting of ways like a professional service oriented company - one that might want me to come back someday.
Posted by Vox at July 14, 2008 02:16 PM | peevesDid you try posting here: Requests and Suggestions?
It may not do any good, but you might feel better. I have not used Netflix in years, so I appreciate your review. I will continue to stay away.
Yes, I got a form letter that seems to have been generated by a robot that is just as interested in my issues as the exit survey.
I also called customer service, and, well..you can see their answers above.
I think Lori still likes 'em, though she hasn't posted anything yea or nay lately.
Posted by: Vox at July 14, 2008 03:04 PM