Netflix -- An Absolute Direct About Face!

Alright... for the past year, I have been complimenting and promoting the virtues of Netflix.

The original mail order DVD rental service has served us well for over a year now. I used to get pretty excited when I would see a blood red envelope peering at me above the other pieces of mail. I knew that it contained a new release, a classic, or another installment of one of my favorite old television shows...

Then... the service began to slack... it happened slowly and then it became prominent.

It was the small stuff and then all the small stuff began happening all the time... so... it is no longer the small stuff.

Here are my two biggest gripes:

1. Users of Netflix create a "queue" of DVDs and they are in a list format so that Netflix draws the next film on the list and mails it out to users. In the list, it supplies the user with the "status" of the film. Movies are available "Now" or there is a "Short Wait", "Long Wait", or "Very Long Wait." If there is any sort of wait, Netflix skips to the next movie on the list and mails it out.

For the most part, Netflix recognizes the arrival of movies in the mail between 9 and 9:30 in the morning and your queue reflects this change. The old movie would be removed and the first movie on the list would move up to the DVDs That Are Out list. Netflix would then have 7.5 to 8 hours to find the next DVD on the list and throw it in the mail. For the majority of the day, our queue would read "Shipping Today" in the status column.

At 5:00, it would change to read "Shipping Tomorrow" Ok... I find that wrong on several levels. First of all, if it wasn't available "NOW" then it shouldn't be listed that way! Second of all, this is just a stall tactic to have to send out less DVDs per month. It was especially frustrating when we would set it up so that a movie I wanted to watch would come on a day when muh wife was traveling.

argh

2. This one boggles my mind as it has been happening a LOT recently. On Monday, they would send out a DVD. We would normally get it on Tuesday as the distribution center is only 2 towns away. On Tuesday, the DVD would NOT come. On Wednesday, Netflix would report it as arrived. We would then have them send it again. Yeup... you guessed it... the example above would happen and it wouldn't be sent out until Thursday... thus arriving Friday. I just don't/didn't get it.

When these seemingly small things happened too many times and our letters were not really addressed appropriately, I finally broke down and said that we had to try Blockbuster, which we are doing now.

I hope it works... so I can sleep better at night...