I've got a trial going with them, too. They take FOREVER to get DVDs to me. The first two DVDs were shipped on 8/10, and I didn't receive them until 8/16. The return trip was a little faster. I sent them back on 8/17 and they received them today (8/19).
Today it's Netflix that's having the server issues. Their site was down for some time today, and it's apparently delaying the pending shipment of my next rentals (earlier today, it said they expected to ship them today, now it's saying they expect to ship them Friday). Interesting that the service deteriorated considerably the very day my free trial ended.
That isnt the case usually. I have been using their service for months now and I am completely satisfied.
Knowing others who have used Netflix for some time, today's server issues appear to be an isolated incident. But I am concerned that they're going to slow down my shipments because I rented too frequently.
I was worried about this too, but it hasn't appeared to have happened. I still rent about three to five a week. I live about fifteen miles from Netflix HQ, though. One thing they do is if you are a new member, you have higher priority on new releases versus old members( old members will show short or long wait while new or trial members get available now). This was demonstrated a while back by guy who opened multiple accounts and showed the results on his web page. The next thing I tried was always returning DVDs so they went to Netflix on Tuesday. This is when new releases are first available, and I was able to get new releases in spite of their queue thing, but they appear to have fixed that in the last month.
Having emailed them to ask what the problem was, I got a response saying they were unable to charge the monthly fee to my checking account (I set it up originally to just come out of my checking account rather than using a card). I don't know why they can't get money out of the account since the account has more than enough money to cover the monthly fee, but whatever. But I had already changed it well before I got the email saying that was the reason my shipment was being delayed (and after I updated it, the website still said they'd be shipping the new shipment today), so it's something else and they're coming up with excuses for not getting it done today. I don't know why they offer the checking service if it doesn't work.
I saw that site with the experiment, but it seemed to be saying that the new releases went to customers who didn't rent very often rather than customers who were newer. The cost per rental being a factor. I've got plenty on my list that isn't anywhere near a new release, so I'm not really concerned all that much about new releases. If I really need to see something, I'll spring the extra to get it right away, if there's going to be a delay from Netflix.
Got to the bottom of the issue with the payment being declined. The company that does their check services had never heard of me and my four year-old account before, so they declined it for security reasons. I actually have to have them send me some paperwork that I'll sign and return before they can allow me to use my checking account for Netflix. Needless to say, that's the sort of thing you wish they'd told you when you signed up. Of course, if my bank hadn't been having Check Card issues at the time I signed up, I wouldn't have used the checking option in the first place. So, that's something to be aware of if you're going to use the checking account option to pay for your Netflix account.
Yeah, that was it. I remember reading it when it was first slashdotted. The Netflix site is always down partly from about 12pm to 4am PST daily. (No ranking available for some reason.)
Today it was down for me from 11:30am PST to 12:30pm PST. After that downtime, my rentals moved from shipping today to shipping Friday.
Our family hasn't seen any problems with our shipments, everything seems to be coming in when we thought it would. I love Netflix, it's kinda like concentrated Christmas in the mail box everyday!
I signed up for the Blockbuster Online Rental program today using the promo code "cooper" - it gives you a 4 week free rental and it's only $17.99 a month versus the standard 2 week rental and $19.99 a month... I'll let ya know how it goes. I've had Netflix for a long time now and been happy with the turn around times. Sometimes they show movies received the next day after I mail them. My only complaint is the recent price increase.... blockbuster seems to have longer waits so far.
for now (first month free w/BB) I'm gonna evaluate price (blockbuster) versus speed (netflix) and see what I can live with...
I had the first movie in my queue on Blockbuster listed as "Very Long Wait". It's been listed that way since I first added it and was that way last night. This morning, I get up and check my queue to see if they got the last movies I sent back and if they shipped the next ones. And lo and behold, they say they've shipped the movie that was, as of last night, on "Very Long Wait" status. I thought that was weird, and it makes me wonder about the accuracy of Blockbuster's wait listing. Netflix is definitely slowing me down. I had two open slots that were supposed to go out yesterday but didn't because of the weird billing issue. Those two slots were filled today. At the same time, I returned a movie I had out that they received today. During my free trial, they shipped out a movie the day the received the last movie. Today, they're not shipping out the "replacement" for the movie they received today until Monday. (EDIT: Apparently the movie that's shipping Monday is shipping from an alternate service center, which adds a business day to when it gets shipped out. Not a lot of call for movies starring Cher in Coppell, apparently... Damn them for making me admit I rented a movie starring Cher).
Whichever one of you Netflix subscribers who is destroying the DVDs before they're sent to me, please stop it. I don't know how a person could scratch up a DVD as bad as several of the ones I received have been. By the way, Netflix didn't ship the Cher movie (Suspect) today even though the shipping status has been "shipping today" all day long (and said "Shipping Monday" since Friday). I would honestly rather they skip over something they don't have rather than having it take up a slot for several days without shipping.
I think I'm gonna sign up for netflix and here's why. I'm a huge anime fan, but I don't get to watch all the series before they are licensed. For a 26 episode series like GTO or Evangelion, the dvd sets would cost around 80 bux to buy so I would definitely start using one of the services. It seems that Netflix is more likely to have all the dvds in the series while blockbuster would be missing episodes in the middle. So if your anime fan that want to watch anime after they are licensed, go with netflix.
