vaporware

I was new to Netflix, got my first 3 discs on Dec 20th. I also had the backwards envelope. I sent my movies in on Dec 24th. They only received them today. 17 freakin days!!!!!!!! So much for a free trial period that netted me three movies.

I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe it had something to do with the holidays, so if my second batch of movies takes as long I'll be cancelling this service.

BigDan

I've gotten backwards envelopes from time to time. I just wondered if they had alternate envelopes available for left-handed workers.

It's been a long time since I got one, though.

Rizor

waporvare, if it takes longer than 5 days to send a disc back, you should have hit the "Report a DVD Issue" button and they would've sent out another batch.

MBuhmann

Where do you live? Granted I'm in the Chicago area so my turnaround time isn't bad... maybe 3 or 4 days at most. But 17??? I've never heard of a lag like that.

vaporware

I live in Tennessee. I did report them missing on the 4th and they sent new discs out. They only today reported having received them. I've already sent back the second batch of dvd's so maybe this will go better.

Class316

In other news, I just saw a blockbuster ad "no more late fees". Ha

BigDan

No kidding. Even now that they've got many of my discs shipping from Tacoma, Washington (to Dallas, Texas), they still get here in about four days.

Class316

wow 17???? Mine are late at the moment but always less than 5 days!

PerryD

I've recently rejoined after using the service for a couple years when they first started out. My first 3 movies took, 8 days, 4 days, and 2 days to get checked in, even though the distribution center is only 30 miles from my house. I'm guessing that they don't immediately scan the disc in until they need to ship it back out, or they wait until the movie gets shuffled around between distribution centers. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.

taa455

I have been experiencing a significant slowdown in the past few weeks. Transit time had been almost always 4 days, round trip. Now it is taking 5-7 days. I checked my queue yesterday morning (Monday) after I got the "we have received ____" email. The shipping status showed "We expect your next movie to ship on Tuesday." I thought that was odd because why would they not immediately ship when they received the last movie (Monday), but I thought I'd just give them the benefit of the doubt since maybe the mail had already gone out by the time they got around to processing my queue. So I check my queue again today (Tuesday) and see "We expect your next movie to ship on Wednesday." WTF! So they received my last return on Monday and they are not shipping until Wednesday? That's unacceptable. If I see this again, I'm canceling. (In addition, the movie they claim to be shipping on Wednesday is not even the movie at the front of my queue even though the availability shows "Now.")

justwantmymovies

I see I am not the only one to experience this Netflix problem. I must say, I was trying Walmart, who happen to have a distribution center in the same city as Netflix. ;-)

Walmart recieves and ships within the same couple of hours... I can send the disc back in the evening mail and they have it in the morning and have shipped. Netflix I have to send it in the morning mail for them to recieve it in the morning. And still they may ship that day or later.

On Monday Walmart recieved the disc and shipped. Netflix recieved and said, Shipping Tuesday.... Sounds to me like they are holding onto the discs...

Brett

My service has gotten far worse since the start of the year. I used to return a DVD and it would be registered as received the next day and my next DVD would be shipped out.

Now they seem to sit on my discs for 2 or 3 days before shipping out the next ones. As far as I know the distribution center (Worcester, MA) has not changed, but I will have to take a closer look at the return address label when I get my next batch of discs. The discs still seem to arrive within a day (sometimes 2) when they ship them to me, so its a delay on the returns. Also I've noticed an increase in the number of times that they say DVD will ship "next day", instead of the day they received it.

I am wondering if they are just sitting on my returns to spend less on shipping, or to get me to sign up for a "more out" plan.

I tried the Blockbuster free trial a few months back and unfortunately they were even slower, since the discs needed to be shipped from/to New York. Does anyone know if Blockbuster has added a distribution center in Massachusetts yet? Might be time to switch...

Here's hoping that it is just a temporary influx of new subscribers and Netflix gets their act back together

justwantmymovies

I have to say that the Walmart Rental progam has been VERY fast for me... 1 day turnaround in CA. Same dist center city as Netflix, who slowed down as you said.

Might check them out. The site is not that great, but hey, for super fast turnaround ;-)

taa455

I just sent the following message to Netflix from the "Suggestions" section of the Web site.

I doubt that I will get any response.

nemein

Since the new year service has definately taken a down turn for me. Last week I didn't get any of Tues titles (out of 4 returned DVDs that were checked in on Monday). This week I got 2 of the 4 I was hoping to get but everything is taking an extra day now for turn around (DVDs checked in in the morning will usually have a replacement sent out that night, 2 on monday and 2 this morning are both one day later in shipping)

MBuhmann

Unfortunately I consider Walmart the Anti-Christ so I won't support them in any way shape or form. Otherwise I'd give them a shot.

BigDan

I was getting a response to my emails until I brought up the statistics that showed my discs were being delayed on Tuesdays at a very high rate. They stopped responding after that.

Since the only responses I got were B.S. canned responses, it doesn't make much difference whether they respond or not. They aren't interested in fixing the problem. As a matter of fact, I assume they don't see the delays as a problem since it makes for more profitable customers.

Eventually, though, dissatisfied customers can have an impact on the bottom line. They may see it as getting rid of unprofitable, heavy renters, but we will pass on our poor experiences to folks who may have been profitable renters who will, instead, simply forgo the service fearing similar treatment.

It gets more and more expensive to recruit new customers anyway, having a large base of customers and former customers loudly shouting about fancy shipping tricks designed to "cheat" customers out of the advertised service only makes getting those new customers that much more expensive.

Rizor

Darn. I had a pretty good Netflix week last week but this week is going to blow. I was supposed get a disc on a Sat but it still didn't come. Not too bad, but a day over the expected arrival date and annoying nonetheless. I sent back the other two discs on Sat. They receieved them yesterday, but annoyingly aid they'd ship the next two out today. Unfortunately, they still haven't been shipped yet.

BigDan

Hey, my service is getting better. Instead of shipping from Tacoma, they're shipping from Salem, Oregon. That's slightly closer to me (in D/FW, Texas).

Maybe they'll eventually reopen the Coppell, Texas center and ship from there again some day. I can only dream.

BigDan

Blockbuster has supposedly added a distribution center in Worcester, Mass.

Phil L.

My service continues to be just fine.

I mailed three disks yesterday (mon.) one in late afternoon, and this morning (tue.) I have email confirmations that they received all three, and have three new disks already listed as being mailed out. I'll most likely get those tomorrow (wed.)

I can't complain.

ResIpsa

My service has also declined a great deal recently. It is taking an average of 3 days to get discs to me (used to be 1 day) and they either lie about the shipping date or move the shipping date back for no discernible reason. I have not had a problem with them ever shipping me discs from the middle of my queue when a higher positioned disc shows as available, so they are at least getting that right for me.

I am convinced they play shipping games with what they perceive to be "high volume" renters. But the bottomline is that I still get about 12 movies a month for $19+tax and that beats the local Ballbuster and Hollywood stores. I try not to dwell on Netflix's misrepresentations but it is getting harder with the recent slide in service. I will probably cancel if they raise the prices back up or if the service gets much worse.

harvscar

Is anyone having trouble requesting their rental history list? I click the request button and it reloads the queue page, but I never receive the email with my titles. I sent Netflix an email and they responded 3 days later that the service is working fine. I've tried this from Firefox and IE with the same results. Can someone check if their request function is working?
Thanks,
Harv

jason978

I'm in mass too, so my disks got to the Worcester distribution center. My service has been good until recently, say 2-3 weeks. They used to ship out the same day they received one back. Now it will say, disk received we expect to ship tomorrow. this happens often now, way too often. I mailed 2 back on Friday, and they wont be mailing out new ones until Wednesday. they should have been received and mailed out on Monday. Might be some kind of policy to go along with recent price drop.

Sanitarium

My service has come to a crawl the last 3 months. I used to get 3 movies a week now I'm lucky if I get any at all. I know the holidays have slowed things up but this started well before the holidays. I signed up for a free month of Blockbuster to try them out, if they're better I'm canceling Netflix.