f13.net

A couple months ago I started using the Netfiix service.  It was great... I got the films I ordered within a day or so after sending back one.  That was during the free trial and for a few weeks afterwards.  Now the turn around time is getting worse and worse.  For example:  the last three films I received I sent back before the 10th of January and they have only received one (yesterday), and it wasn't even the first one I returned.  I have a feeling that they might feel they're losing money on us because we've been watching quite a few films lately and have decided to show us who's boss.  I was going to call and complain but, it seems, they list no number and not even an email contact.  Well, I did find the phone number but they do their best to keep it out of the public's eyesight.  I haven't called yet, but I was wondering if this is normal for others.  Incidentally, the closest distribution centre is about 15 or 20 minutes from here.

The question is whether or not the distribution center has the kind of wacky shit I would guess you and Righ watch. But I watch a lot of whacky shit and went through at least 300 movies in 6 months. They're not out to get you. Don't be paranoid.

I use Blockbuster Online cuz I get free store passes when I just have to get that last disc.

I haven't been watching wacky shit.  Here is my queue:

Hey, Hat!  I don't understand what this means.  Sorry.   :?

   

The only stuff I typically have bad turnaround on is the new new releases (like 40-Year Old Virgin, which is apparently on 40-year wait status) or during big mail holidays like Christmas or Mother's Day.

Maybe that's it, Haemish.  I only got this service because of you, you know...  :-D  I became tired of everyone chatting about films I've never seen because we NEVER go to the theater, so I thought I would give the new stuff a go before they became classics. After hearing you reccommend Netflix so much, I thought it was worth a try.  I even bought my sister a 6 month sub so she could suffer with me.  Maybe with the recent holidays and all that, they're just a bit slow right now.  I'll give it another month or so and if the service doesn't improve, I'll go back to waiting until everything finds its way to the tv.  I wasn't really unhappy living like that.

I hear quite a few people take advantage of On-Demand.

I've used on-demand from time to time.  If the Netflix doesn't work out, I'll go back to that.  Cable in this area is not very good, however.  During a film, the sound goes off, the picture stutters, etc.  I don't think we've ever gone a full month with out several service interruptions... especially with internet, but tv suffers, too.  I'm definitely getting out of New Jersey come July when the lease is up here. 

Netflix has slowed down here latetly as well. From 1-2 day turn around to 2-3 day turn around. The distribution center is local. Some of it was the slow holiday post office and govt. holidays don't help either.

Wow, and I thought that Netflix was still awesome 5 years ago when the turn-around time was a week (3-4 days to California).  I still thought that I got my money's worth back then.  I almost always got the movies that were in my queue, although I never rented new releases.

I figured that, even at 3 movies a week = 12 movies for $20/month, it was still better then most other options.  I'm very tempted to sign up again.

If it was 3-4 days, I probably wouldn't even bother to complain.  If you read my first post, you'll see it's much longer than that.  I returned all 3 films by 10 January and have only received one in my queue so far.  The rest alledgedly haven't shown up at their office yet.

Do try and pay attention.

So 7 mail days. I've had it happen. By three days I mean mail it back on Friday and I get a new one on Wednesday. I don't think Netflix works on Saturday.

I switched to Greencine myself after getting tired of some of the long waits from Netflix.   The sad thing is, I live about 20 minutes from their main hub in California.
So far I have no complaints.

From your list it looks like they are doing you a favor.  :lol:

Greencine. Never heard of it, but I'm looking at their website. Can you talk a little more about it? I've been thinking of going with nicheflix for a while though but it's nice to check out all the options.

Actually, I should clarify that it was in response to Krakrok's post, and I also thought that he was saying that the total time to the next DVD was 2 to 3 days.

They seem to have everything that netflix has if not more of it.  When I cancelled netflix a year ago, they did not have Battle Royale 2, The Killer or The Hard Boiled or the entire Lone Wolf and Cub series.  Greencine had these and it was pretty quick about getting them out to you.  Good luck  getting a new release though, though I think that applies anywhere.  I'm not sure if Netflix implented a way for users to share movie reccomendations with each other but GC has that and sometimes it leads to good stuff, other times not so much.  Plus, you can rent pr0n.

Oh, ok... I forgive you.   :-P


Yeah, you're probably right.  I just picked a bunch of popular new releases just to see what's happening out there in Hollywood.  The first film I've seen in a theater in a number of years was the last Harry Potter one, only because my dad wanted to see it.  Even Righ didn't come with us.  I hate movie theaters... they're crowded, smelly, uncomfortable and people are generally not especially quiet.  Sometimes a stranger will sit next to me and I'll end up spending nearly the entire time thinking about killing him.   :-(  Also, sometimes I doze off and would rather do that on my own sofa.

Stuff on throttling here. (http://www.hackingnetflix.com/netflix/2005/02/netflix_custome.html)

It wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't been that during the trial we got ~2 working day turnaround and since the trial expired it has entirely collapsed, to the point where regular Blockbuster store rentals would be almost as cheap. I smell a come-on, and that's pretty unscrupulous. Also, most of the comments elsewhere suggest that the faster you return stuff the more you get penalized. This basically makes the $18/mo service poorer value than the cheaper service, since the rate limiting is more extreme.

Irrespective of their prices, I don't like their style. I think I'd rather give money to another company to help foster more competition in the market. Its pretty telling that they continue to advertise "unlimited rentals" despite having recently settled a law suit for fraudulent advertising.

This thread is ranked #8 in a Google search on "Netflix Sux".

Neat, I wonder how that stuff like that works but not enough to actually find out, instead I'll just try something and see if it effects the rank in a few days.

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That won't work. They need to be on other pages.

At the urging of my husband, I went ahead and cancelled my Netflix account.  Now I KNOW they're fucking with me.  On the 9th of January, I returned "Creep".  The day before yesterday I received "Wedding Crashers" in exchange.  The other two films I returned, one on the 8th and another also on the 9th, are still listed as not being received by them.  After cancelling, the only one film they say I have and want back is "Wedding Crashers".  This company is dishonest.

Edit:  I just checked and they still have those two films listed as not being returned although they are not asking for them back.  Hah!  Another thing... they give you seven days to return a movie if you still have one when you cancel and they count Saturdays and Sundays in that.  BOO HISS!

As of the 22nd at 7:00 EST it seems to have completely bumped the search off of Google.  They probably have have some software that scans for odd stuff and then completely removes the link if it finds something.  Or maybe there is a much more complicated answer given that they have hundreds of PHDs working for them.

Neg, still there.

I am looking for more Netflix "friends" to get ideas, although you probably won't get many ideas from my list since it is pretty standard stuff.

Fuck the cable, then. Go with DirectTV. I ditched cable 2 years ago for the satellite and I have been most happy with the service. It's especially good with Tivo. Plus, DirectTV just added XM Satellite Radio as their music channels, and they have a kickass metal/hard rock channel. They have on-demand movies too.

Greencine rents pr0n? Hmmmmmm....

I'd like to find a replacement for Netflix.  The service is good value but I truly believe their advertising is fraudulent.  If they actively interfere with your service, and they do, they have no right to use the word "unlimited".  They definitely limit you.  Anyway, Intelliflix (http://www.intelliflix.com/) looks like it might be decent.  (and, yes, Haemish... they will rent you "mature" films... but you'll pay for 'em)

I wouldn't mind trying another DVD-rental-subscription service, but I've not had any problems with Netflix. Intelliflix looks ok, but does it support multiple queues? With Netflix I can have a queue for each: my fiancee's movies, my movies, and anime/tv shows. This way when she returns a movie she gets another movie off her queue and we're not waiting for me to finish watching whatever anime series I'm getting.

I would like to submit that the USPS is not, as some may believe, staffed by competent primates.  I have plenty of problems with mail in general, but not with netflix.

Gee, what a nice thing to say about my father, the retired USPS employee.   

The fact remains that they have only asked for the return of the film I still have, not the two that they haven't counted as having been returned yet, although I returned one the same day and the other the day before.  This tells me they already have them and were trying to keep me from renting what they consider to be over their limit.  That's fine except then the rentals are NOT unlimited.  They DO limit you.  That's fraudulent advertising, in my opinion.  The fact that they make it difficult to find their TOS where it actually states they do this sort of thing, and do not provide a phone number or an email address for support purposes makes me feel justified in my claim.

They have since, today as a matter of fact, sent me an email stating they've received another of my returns.  It's all just bollocks.

Between my friends and I, we can personally vouch that they are unlimited. We each had netflix for a good part of 6 months or so and managed to go through hundreds and hundreds of movies. There is now ay human beings could have possibly watched as many movies as we did. And they kept sending them, without a hitch. One time a movie did get lost in the mail, I reported it as such and within 36 hours I got a replacement. I ended up receiving the "lost one" about 3 weeks later (it had been routed through Idaho or someshit and finally sent back to me) and mailed it to netflix. They credited my account as finding the lost DVD.

I don't know why your experience with them is so bad, but  my friends, family and myself had nothing but good luck with them. My biggest complaint is that their movie selection bites ass. But I'm an anomaly.

I, too, have no complaints. I usually drop movies in my office mail on Monday and have the new one Wednesday or Thursday (50/50 chance.) Then again, I live 25 minutes from the White Plains, NY distribution center.

I'd venture a guess that they don't behave the same as they once did. Success has probably allowed them to alter their practises. In essence, their terms of service allude that they'll severely rate limit if you try and rent more than a dozen movies in a month.

From http://www.netflix.com/TermsOfUse:


which leads to


Not that they'll send that email when they receive the movie, just that they'll eventually send one, once you've dropped down the renter list for your area far enough that its your turn for a movie. Their behaviour resulted in a class action lawsuit which was settled by the attorneys purely to their advantage. That is now subject of another filing.

http://www.tlpj.org/pr/netflix_class_action_010506.htm

I have a distribution center in town now. Since 12/5/05, I have gotten around 12 rentals plus the two I still have at home that I haven't watched yet. It sounds to me like the problem isn't the service per se, but the distribution center you're near.

That's 14 movie in a month and a half. You're still inside their window of acceptability. We got through more than a dozen in the three week trial, and then they shut us down for two weeks. There's really no point in having different pricing plans if you can rent as many movies with the cheap plan.

I could never watch that many movies.

I find it easier to burn through TV series. This is strange since a DVD of TV eps is usually longer in total than a single movie. We just tend to get caught up in the flow more. Watching four eps of 24 back to back is not uncommon. That's 160 minutes of content.

I use zip.ca up here and have had decent service from them. A bit slow on the turnaround times, but I've never had any major fuck ups from them.

I use it mainly for TV series I have missed, or don't get up here. Farscape ftw.

I think I put 100 hours into Radiata Stories.

Did you buy that on my recommendation?

I should really finish games, I put 15 hours into it (a heavy 15 hours I might add) and then put it down. Forgot about it until you said that.

Watch?  I don't know about that, but I know I can burn that many movies.

I've been using Netflix for about 3 years now, and haven't had any delays in shipping.  The only thing I have noticed is that I won't necessarily get the movie at the top my queue next, but that's no big deal.   Just keep your queue ungodly long and they'll send you stuff in the list at random.

Kingdom of Heaven is the worst piece of shit movie ever. The only reason you should watch it, is if you just arnt quite convinced that Orlando Bloom cant carry a movie by himself. Other than that, the acting is horrible, the cinamatography is criminal, and the story is utter crap. Not to mention the editing makes a horrible story even harder to care about. Im usually pretty soft on bad movies if they entertain, but this one was simply horrible.

If you really want some thing funny, make Haemcow do a review on this.

I actually liked Kingdom of Heaven, despite its flaws.

Of course.  Your recommendations are a large part of why I hang out here.  I leech your free time for game-research points.

100 hours is a guess.  The game clock is more than that, but there is some idle time in there.

Did you know the game clock of Paper Mario: TTYD stops at 99:59?

A little piece of me just died.

Well, kill another piece of yourself because I had the same reaction as Haem. I pick your left nipple.

Go download Bloodrayne if you want to take the rest out.

Netflix "Throttling" hits mainstream media (AP):

'Throttling' Angers Netflix Heavy Renters (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/ap_en_mo/netflix_throttling)

Good article.  It's very interesting to see how market research can have such a direct effect on service delivery. 


I'd be interested in knowing how many is a "Few" to these guys.

Well, I had search high and low for an email address to complain about my "throttling" because they don't list that sort of info on their site... no telephone number either.  I suppose a lot of people give up in frustration.  They make it very difficult for people to contact them.  I still felt I was getting a good deal and that's not why I cancelled.  It was a "principle" thing.  They don't have the right to call it an unlimited service if they do something to actively limit it.  It's lying and it's fraudulent advertising and they've already been brought to court at least once for it (though they settled).  Sometimes I care when companies lie to me, and sometimes I don't.  That day I was in a caring mood.  My moods are as fickle as my gaming.   :-)

What was funny about this thread was that it primarily consisted of people telling Signe and I that it wasn't happening, it was the mail, our particular distribution center, etc. But that's F13 fannishness for you.

I don't understand why Netflix doesn't just own up to this and charge the heavy users more. If the heavy users quit, then so what? They are money-losing customers anyway. I have a strong feeling that these movie addicts that watch/copy 6 movies a week will suck it up and pay more since even at $25/month they are getting a bargain.

"A September 2004 lawsuit cast a spotlight on the throttling issue. The complaint, filed by Frank Chavez on behalf of all Netflix subscribers before Jan. 15, 2005

Netflix denied the allegations, but eventually revised its terms of use to acknowledge its different treatment of frequent renters.

Without acknowledging wrongdoing, the company agreed to provide a one-month rental upgrade and pay Chavez's attorneys $2.5 million."

I guess this is why things are so screwed up, good to be a attorney though, it must be like winning the lotto for them.

The throttling story has been making national news.  I guess, contrary to what they claim, people have been complaining.  I've just been reading a bunch of them on various sites that are more recent than when I first started this thread.  There are more than I care to browse through.  On the plus side, they now have a link to their TOS on their site and list a phone number for customer service.  The fact that they omitted that information before seemed to be included in nearly every complaint I read.

Netflix contact info
1-888-638-3549

1-800-290-4518
M-F 6AM-7PM, Sa-Su 6AM-2:30PM

Yes, I have all that and their email now but thanks.  I had to dig for it when I wanted to bitch at them, though.  They didn't make it easy!

I just signed up for Blockbuster Online for $18 a month. Right now they are offering 1 free in-store rental a week, which translates to a savings of ~$16 a month so Blockbuster Online is costing me $2 a month. They are certainly leveraging their stores to make this Online thing a success. I'm sure it'll all end in bankruptcy and pissing on graves and what-not but until then I'll gladly pay $2 a month.

Was trolling this thread, since a buddy swears by it...But I have to ask...How can you people watch so many movies when 90 percent of it is CRAP? 

Becasuse even crap can be entertianing for a bit if you get the chance to filing it in someone else's face when you are done with it :P

The 90% crap is 100% better than the 99% crap on the TV channels, and its a waste of a frigging huge TV to have it turned off all the time. Three movies every couple of days is not a lot of TV by American standards. Schild watches more teen girlie shows than that in a week.

You'd be amazed how fast children burn through Oswald, Dora and Transformers DVDs.

No more Doodlebops.  :evil:


Actually, speaking of them....since I'm home and up in the early hours of the day now, I happened across the Doodlebops.

I was officially creeped out; I feel your pain, Shockeye. :cry:

Wrong. I download all of my tv and watch it in a chunk. Today was the first day I've "surfed" live TV in the last 5 or so years, and you know what we stopped on? House of the Living Dead 3. It's gotten to the point where the only things I watch or go out of my way to watch when it's downloaded is House, Supernatural and Love Monkey.

Guess you got a point.

I can only assume that the creators of Return of the Living Dead 3 and House of the Dead 2 had some sort of awful love child.

Whoops. Return of the Living Dead 3. It was actually the first time I actually watched content as it was broadcast on the Sci-Fi channel. I might never do that again.

Return of the Living Dead 3 was awful. There are 5 now. The first one is really good though.

"Hit it in the brain! Hit it in the brain!"
"I DID HIT IT IN THE FUCKING BRAIN!"

He was teasing you.  Teasing you is one of our family pasttimes, you know. You need some of my chill pills. 

That's disgusting. There ought to be a law.

I'm hoping that 2.5 million is for the class-action lawsuit, not just that one guy.  It should work out to under a dollar for each subscriber after legal fees.

Except for the lawyers, I don't think people generally make money off of class action suits, do they?  It's all about the principle, no?  (and the lawyers)

Right. If the lawyers got the same per capita as the plaintiffs, there would be no class action lawsuits. Total lawyer payouts should be capped at some multiple of the average per capita restitution, say 10x.

Suddenly, I'm starting to get throttled out the ass. In the last week, I've seen my queue go from mostly "Now" to Short or Long Waits, with the new shit going to VERY LONG WAIT.

I'm really starting to lean towards Intelliflix. Is the service as fast?

I checked my queue just now, to see what it said. Everything for me is Now with Long Wait for 40-year old virgin. Maybe yours is just jacked up?

Netflix Sux.

I too have recently experienced a decrease in "now." 40-yr old virgin has been long wait for almost 2 months.

All you guys waiting for 40 Year Old Virgin are not missing much.

That's what they kept telling the virgin, but you know virgins.

You're wrong again. Not only is the movie fantastic, the ending is just about the most spectacular thing ever captured on film. Noob.

Exaggerate much?

He wasn't really exaggerating. You ARE a N00b.  :evil:

My blockbuster queue is getting low, I need some movies to rent.

Help me out!

I think you should rent 40 Year Old Virgin.

But I've seen it.

And my name is Andy and I work at Best Buy and I wear a tie.

So you are saying you have also lived it?

Netflix is suing Blockbuster to shut down their online service. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060404/bs_nm/media_netflix_blockbuster_dc_2)  They are claiming they have patents for online movie rentals.  These absurd tech patents have to be stopped.


How the hell can you patent that?  I'm going to go out and patent the idea of "exchanging an abstract monetary construct in return for goods and services", then everyone who dares to use money is going to get a tersely worded cease and desist until I get paid.

Netflix is now sueing Blockbuster for having an online DVD rental. Netflix claims to have a patent on it or some shit. Evil.

I hear that somebody is suing somebody over something.

Anyone else hear that? If so, post below!

I hope they only go after Blockbuster. I've hated blockbuster for a long time. But if the go after the little companies they had best be ready for backlash from every hippie in San Francisco. If only they can work up the energy to get off the couch.

So now it's possible to patent business models?  Best thing that could happen from this is all these ridiculous patents are voided.

That would be nice.  Patenting a process without having developed a tangible product or anything of your own, just seems wrong to me.  It's like sending that bloke to jal because he didn't believe in the holocaust or bits of it or something.  I forget.  All I know is that is sounds weird for someone to be punished for believing in something or someone to patent how to do something. 

Business patents are wrong even if they are used against a company I don't like.  Like 95% of software patents, they are trivial inventions.

Netflix just tread into Raging Douchebag territory. Fucktards.

In related news, we just got notified by Blockbuster that our fees are being bumped $3 (from 14.99 to 17.99 iirc) but that we will maintain the same level of service which is key for us.  New Blockbuster subscribers can choose 2 movies at a time for the old fee price or 3 at a time for the new and they get an e-coupon which they can print out and take in to a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster for free movie rentals (2 per month I believe).  But our 'grandfather' clause means that our 2 e-coupons are good for movies OR games and getting two free game rentals a month along with our movies will keep us happy Blockbuster campers for as long as that gravy train runs and fuck the extra $3.

I recently started Netflix for the wife and I, but I'm not sure that we fall into the same viewing habits as most of you.  Our interests lean towards foreign and indy films and we're not looking for more than about 1 movie a week.  The only reason we joined at all was to bypass the local Blockbusters and its collection of inane movies.  Difficult to find titles of actual artistic merit in the hick villages surrounding Baltimore.