This is our second time around with Netflix. The first time we subscribed, all was well for the first 3 months or so. Then, we started getting damaged DVDs. They weren't unplayable; they just kept getting stuck in certain spots and the only way to continue was to skip large sections of the movie. We'd report the problem and they'd send a new one - but that takes time. IMHO, they should have an internal quality control system and not rely on the consumer to do the work for them. So, we cancelled because of the frustration.  
 
But we missed the convenience. So, we started our subscription again just 6 weeks ago. Of the 3 DVDs we've received, they have ALL had problems. We've cleaned the DVDs, cleaned our player just in case it was us (note that other DVDs play fine), but still the problem.  
 
As a comparison, at the same time we renewed with Netflix, we also started a trial membership with Blockbuster. The movies we've received from BB have been fine...but it's still too early to tell if BB will be consistent, too.  
 
At this point, I'm ready to cancel NetFlix again and just stick with BB for a while. If BB tanks, we'll cancel them both and start reading more :-)

Awful customer service. They have no way for customers to email them or submit a support question online. Their support section of their website is totally frustrating and only gives you canned FAQ answers, not real help.  
 
You have to phone them for support and when you do, they are condescending and unhelpful.  
 
I returned a damaged previously viewed DVD under their 'satisfaction guarantee' return policy. It was received back to them (I tracked it) but they never credited my credit card. So, I filed a dispute with my credit card company and now Netflix refuses to send me an more rentals, they've completely frozen my account, yet are still charging me for it.

This review was modified by its author, mediahound, on 4/29/08 7:28 PM.

This is a terrible company,they offer me a 2 week free trial yet charged my AMEX even after I cancelled my membership at the end of the 2nd week.I cancelled my membership because there is always a "short wait"or "long wait"to get new releases.It seems that the only movies you can get right away are : "gone with the wind" or "Mary Poppins"!!!

AVOID! Do not give these people your credit card info. I promise, you will regret it. I cancelled my membership last October, and they still keep charging my credit card. I have emailed them and phoned them; however, they continiue to charge my credit card every month (this is May 2007!). I have went through a bunch of hassle having to dispute the charge every month.

This review was modified by its author, troyEa, on 5/13/07 1:08 PM.

They are good at first and then they start playing their throttle game. I have been a member several times and it always ends the same way. Their claims of unlimited rentals is a lie. They play games like not checking your movies in for several days, then posting processing for several more, then shipping in 4 days, etc. That is the way you will get limited after a couple months. Then to try to contact customer service is impossible, it doesn't exist. Like I said they are good at first but you will quickly be limited.

I had NETFLIX for a few months... I thought that was the best company , probably the only one at the time so I didn't have much choice...  
 
I did not their service, it seems that in the begining I was getting my DVD pretty fast and then it started slowing and the I got the feeling they were just doing it on purpose...  
 
Then I found out on the new the tatics they were using and that's when I decided to cancel and go look for another rental service... That's when i found GAMEZNFLIX that offer DVD's and games... and... FOR LESS than NETFLIX ! ! ! !  
 
I felt really stupid for using NETFLIX for so long, but I never took the time to look for another service until I cancelled netflix... now I'm glad I did... even though gameznflix is not as big as netflix (not yet), it is growing very fast and I can get all the new DVD releases as well as GAMES ! ! ! I got the special miliraty deal $215 per year for 6 dvd's at a time w/ no monthly limit...  
 
So for about the price of one DVD a month (+-$18)I can get more DVD's I can watch and all the XBOX 360 games they offer.... That's a great deal. period. ;-)

Netflix has been horrible to me since day 1.  
 
I signed up for their 2 week trial. Within those 2 weeks, I received 3 dvds total. I decided to hang on for another month after that to see if it would get any better. Heck, the DVDs get sent to Dayton, OH, luckily, that is where I live! You would think the shipments would be very quick. WRONG. The same slooowwww service was given to me by Netflix.  
 
On top on this, I recevied 3 DVDs that did not work. This may not be the fault of Netflix, but it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Funny how this never happened ONCE when I was subscribed to Blockbuster online.  
 
One other gripe. Netflix does not work on Weekends. They don't send DVDs, they don't process returned DVDs, etc. This means that while you PAY for 30 days (WHICH INCLUDES THOSE WEEKENDS), Netflix is only working 5/7 of the days you pay for. When I returned movies on a Thursday of Friday, the would get processed Monday, and another DVD title would be sent Tuesday, meaning I get it Wednesday. This equates to 12 DVDs per month MAX. Did I mention I live in Dayton, OH?  
In most cases, I would say 9 DVDs per month is realistic. Hmm, might this be the throttling everyone talks about? Unlimited rentals my butt.  
 
Netflix got $19.25 from me, and that's ALL they will every get. STAY AWAY.

This review was modified by its author, Triolent, on 5/12/06 8:12 PM.

I subscribed to Netflix back in September of 2005 for the second time after they asked me to come back and offered me a lower monthly rate for 3 months. I had previously cancelled due to time constraints so I thought what the hell now that I have the time to watch movies I will resubscribe.  
 
Everything was great for the first 2 months of service then in early december it all started going downhill. I have had new releases from Late November/Early December sitting in my Queue for nearly 2 months. I contacted them via their contact link about this and after 10 days recieved a reply saying basically we cant control when this movie will be available. Note that it was not 1 movie but several and as of this writing they are still sitting at long wait at the top of my Queue. I expect these movies will make it to HBO before they ever make it out of my Queue.  
 
After this complaint my service really degraded. They have started to take 2-3 sometimes even four days to release my next films to me. Even though they are getting my returns back the day after I send them every time. This is actually occuring as I type this. I have returned 2 movies which they recieved on Tuesday yet they are not shipping replacements until Thursday.  
 
Once again I contacted them regarded these obvious purposeful delays in shipping and was told that I had recieved more than the monthly average for the month and so my shipments were being given lower priority ( ridiculous! ) They billed my account today before I had a chance to cancel it but this will be the end of my relationship with Netflix

Over a period of three years I had a netflix subscription for most of that time.  
When they hiked their prices a while back I left.  
early last year with the lowering of the prices I returned, at first to the entry level then gradually I went back to the 8-out at a time plan.  
 
When I left this time they didn't even provide a place to tell them how upset I was with their poor service. So I have to tell it here and hope it will help others.  
 
Most of last year they would usually get the dvds back within a couple days of me mailing it. Tulsa to OKlahoma City. Almost everytime they would delay an entire day before shipping out any new dvds. Basically 2 days there, 5 or six days for me to get the new disc.  
In the last few months they started putting farther locations on my "nearest processing center" return disc locations to advance the time it took for me to return movies.  
I was sending discs to Atlanta, New York, Texas, Arizona, California, and this last week during the christmas holidays they wanted me to send a disc from Tulsa Oklahoma to Honalulu Hawaii.  
The last three weeks I was with them I got a cracked disc every week. No wonder if they are adding to the american taxpayer burdern on a large scale adding useless postage miles to deliveries, and increasing chances discs will be damaged. But that's okay I'm sure postage stamps arent going up because of one company's greed.  
Anyway, I had other bad experiences along the way, but I finally got tired of giving them +$50 a month for bad service.  
I have a MVP plan at Hollywood Video that costs me about $17 a month and I get a lot more movies than netflix sent.  
I love watching movies on my time off, I hate all those reality shows on TV. Too bad netflix isn't part of that anylonger.  

This review was modified by its author, phoss, on 1/7/06 12:45 PM.

Obvious 'throttling', slowing down of service. Business practice contradicts advertising of unlimited rentals.

Netflix is a terrible business to rent DVDs from, based on my personal experience of ~1 year. My DVDs were not sent in a timely matter and wen I questioned why this was occurring, the computer generated response from Netflix thanked me for bing a good customer - and nothing more. Google Netflix and you discover my experience is similar to the majority of Netflix customers. STAY AWAY FROM JOINING NETFLIX!!! There are many other online rental sites, including Blockbuster!

The horror stories seem to be true. I did not read up on them before I started and it was really awesome for a month or two, I was getting 8-9 movies a week with 1 day turnarounds. We had just had a baby so we just laid back and watched movies until the honeymoon came to a screeching halt. Around Xmas the turnaround time went way downhill, I mean like 3-4 movies a week...maybe.  
I called them and was told that blockbuster offered a similar product and that I was free to leave when I returned the movies I had.  
The practice that I am experiencing is called 'throttling' and it is because in the world of 'unlimited' movies it is seen that someone getting as many movies as I do is not profitable. They should just come out and say that or give up.  
No customer support responses and long wait times for new releases to the tune of 3 weeks+.

After reading through all the other negative comments about NETFLIX, I see that I am not alone. The preferential treatment during the trial period and the purposeful degraded service thereafter. Since the trial, shipping takes 2-3 days instead of 1, check-in takes 2-3 days instead of 1. Unexplained shipping delays for items listed as available now. Even though you can recommend movies they don't offer, it appears to be an exercise in futility. Apparently they think providing an area to make recommendations is good enough, although they never act on it, nor respond. They don't offer any way to contact customer service; the have a suggestion area. I tried this, to complain about their service. No response. As far as selection, I don't think its as good as BlockBuster (a really excruciatingly slow mind-numbing service, it actually hurts), I found they don't offer Superbit DVDs nor a lot the directors cut, unrated versions I was looking for. I thought it was great during the trial, but it sucks big time now! I'll be cancelling after this month is done.

I signed up with Netflix in January of 2004. For the first 8 months, I experienced great turn around times and had minimal problems with discs that weren't playable. I never received a wrong DVD. There were very few times when I would send a movie back in the Monday run of the post and then not get something back until Friday. However, as of a few months ago this has changed.  
 
Turn around times: I drop three DVDs off Monday morning at the post box. (I found morning makes a difference). Thursday I am e-mailed the confirmation that they received my e-mail. Friday I am e-mailed the confirmation that my movie shipped. Saturday I get one or two movies. Never all three. By Monday, I have all three movies; Tuesday I return at least one to keep a steady rotation. There is a serious lag there. I am 12 miles from the Santa Ana distribution center.  
 
I didn't gripe about price. I was still renting DVDs for far less than Blockbuster and Hollywood Video and I never had to deal with fighting over a new release. When the price went up I was cool, when it went down I was ok as well. Even though they charged me regular price for November when the new price should have taken affect.  
 
Customer service: I have written 19 letters to Netflix. I submit them via the suggestion box. There is no other way to get a hold of them. Their customer service is the worst I have ever seen. Netflix neither cares for their customers or loyalty.  
 
Netflix is a company that will soon find themselves in serious trouble. Wal-Mart is a joke IMHO (mostly because they don't accept master card because they don't want to pay the extra 15 cents per transaction -- yet it's ok that we pay their taxes!). I have been a member of Blockbuster for just under 2 weeks. So far so good.  
 
I think that Netflix has more variety, but I cannot stand a company that flies by the seat of their pants with total disregard for their customers.  
 
Luckily, in my business I can track down executives of Netflix and contact them directly. Perhaps I would be invading their space, but their customer service practices are shoddy to say the least.  
 
Earlier this week I received an e-mail regarding a new member subscription. Within 12 hours, I was sent another e-mail by Netflix apologizing for the mistake. Apparently, they're quick to dig themselves out of a whole, but as long as they have thousands of members, who cares about one or two.  
 
Unfortunately, for them, I live by the motto "treat your customers right they'll tell 4 or 5 people, Treat them wrong, they'll tell the world."  
 
I truly hope that Netflix is blown out of the water by other competition. Blockbuster may not have the variety, but they were so quick to help me when I needed it. Just in case they were quick to help since I am a free trial user, I decided to use a friend's account who has been a member for 2 months, I asked three lame questions on a Sunday night, and I had a response by Monday mid-morning. I was even called by them because they needed clarification on one of my questions.  
 
If I sound upset it is because poor customer service is worse than sending cracked DVDs (which I have had 8 cracked DVDs and 6 unplayable from Netflix in 6 months). Given their turn around time, I haven't got the patience for their poor quality control.  
 
The good:  
Netflix is great about missing DVDs. I had one that never made it to them and without question they knocked it off my list as a returned DVD. I commend them for that. Their site is also very easy to use. It has to be though because they have incompetent morons working for them.  
 

I like to get what I pay for and Netflix has a good idea. What I don't like is companies that sell you one thing and deliver another (bait and switch) and Netflix is just that type of company. During the first month I received 95% of the movies I queued promptly, after the first month service suffered severely. It was apparent that once your trial period is over this company earmarks the high volume users and degrades their services. This was proven when I would continually get "long wait" on new releases and friends that had submitted for a new account with Netflix could get these releases all day long. This wasn't a system glitch as I could remove and re-add the release but still received the "long wait" status. In addition to a delayed delivery of new releases, their turn around of received movies slowed down to a crawl once the first month trial was over. Netflix gives preferential treatment to members based off of high volume rentals and does not practice fair service practices. Nothing in their contract dictates penalties for this nor is it ethical in my opinion. I have since canceled service with Netflix and convinced a handful of interested participants to take their business elsewhere. Netflix does not deserve my business nor will I ever endorse them as a reputable online service.