I'm currently on the 3 at-a-time (Unlimited) Plan for $16.99 a month. I used to rent from local video rental stores, but found their prices to be very expensive when compered to Netflix. Just renting 3 DVDs from the local video rental store already costs more than the 3 at-a-time (Unlimited) Plan from Netflix. Their selection is great with a lot of hard-to-find titles. They also have a Blu-ray selection at an additional $1 a month. They don't have game rentals -- that would be the cherry on top of the cake. I wouldn't even mind paying an extra monthly rental charge if they had a game selection.

As long as their service is working, it works well. The problem is that they advertise "Unlimited" rentals, but if you actually try to take them up on the offer, they'll throttle your account and start shipping DVDs days late, or from other states.  
 
Their customer service is essentially useless. It appears they have about the same access to your account as you would have on www.netflix.com. If you so much as attempt to complain, you'll get form letters back, but nothing of value.

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.

Frankly, handling an average of 1.4 million DVD's a day on behalf of 5 million customers [give or take], I don't see how Netflix could possibly have either the time or the means to insidiously pick and choose who does and who doesn't get preferential treatment on any given day, as has been suggested here by some . Chaos Theory - with plenty of help [let's be fair] from the US Postal Service - can surely feel much the same to a frustrated end-user as targeted malice? Sure, I've had the occasional unplayable disk, and the built-in 'throttle' of their 5-day-week can be a tad frustrating when the weekend rolls around and you have nothing to watch, but overall I've always found their service to be remarkably good and consistent over the 2 1/2 years that I've been a member.  
 
Provided, that is, you just stay in your lane on that auto-piloted conveyor-belt of theirs! Try stepping outside the prescribed point-and-click routine by, say, ATTEMPTING TO CONTACT A 'REAL PERSON', and then you're suddenly lost in space - very much the stranger in a strange land, etc...... They only offer online Customer Service on their website [and even that requires you to jump through a couple of hoops], and it can be 2 or 3 days before you get a reply. I say 'reply', but it's often just a form letter, which - despite being perfectly friendly and polite - as often as not has nothing whatsoever to do with what you asked them. In fact the last time I tried to make contact, they not only completely ignored my question but also managed to erase everything except my sign-off "Thanks", so all I got back was a cheery : "You're welcome!". It felt more like "why are you wasting my time, Fool?" than "how can I help you, Valued Customer?". But finally, after 4 of these ghostships-that-pass-in-the-night exchanges they offered me a phone number [see below], and the issue was resolved 'face to face' in 30 seconds.  
 
So, in conclusion, I'd say that despite the inevitable snafus of a high-volume business, they're still - rightfully and by majority-opinion - the only real game in town. HOWEVER, if you do ever find yourselves needing to resolve something that isn't addressed on their web site [and a lot actually is], I recommend that you save yourselves some time and aggravation by picking up the phone rather than trying to e-mail them. I'm sure they're not evil or vindictive, just overwhelmed and understaffed : victims of their own success, perhaps, like so many before them. Maybe they should just shut down enrollment for a while, and regroup? Oh, and one more question : How is it possible that they don't carry Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece 'The Conformist', whilst offering unlimited access to 'Deuce Bigolo : European Gigalo'? Got no reply from them on that one either.  
 
Netflix Customer Service - 800 585 8131 / 800 638 3549 / 888 638 3549.

This review was modified by its author, Kartoffel, on 7/21/06 12:22 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 still the best. I have never had a problem with delivery times. I live in a backwoods town hours from the nearest city and I receive my movies the next day. I've been using Netflix for three months and only once have I received a movie late.  
 
Blockbuster is an evil company owned by fundamentalist religious people that edit the content of movies they don't agree with, or refuse to carry them. Same with Wal-Mart.

This review was modified by its author, eliza, on 11/8/04 6:18 PM.

I just wanted to share my experience with. Netflix.  
I've been a member of Netflix for about 4 weeks.  
This also includes the free 2 week trial period.  
I want to point out that I live about 46 miles from the distribution warehouse.  
I am in the 3 at a time plan, ( 19.95 plus tax) and I also return DVD's the very next business day.  
During the 2 week free trial period, DVD's would arrive the next business day. When I shipped my DVD's back, they would receive them the next day as well. Also, another set of 3 DVD's would ship the same exact day as Netflix recieved my viewed DVD's. So based on this quick turn-around, everything looked great.  
Coincidently, after the 2 week free trial period ended, Processing the DVD's is now taking  
"2 business days" as compared to "same day" back in the trial period.  
Also, shipping is now taking 2 business days instead of 1 business day like it was in the trial period.  
In other words, Processing and shipping have taken consistently longer ever since I've been a paying member.  
After the free trial period ended, processing and shipping DVD's are taking longer.  
Incidently, it still takes 1 business day for my DVD's to reach there warehouse.  
Based on what I have seen, It looks like Netflix may be holding on to the DVD's a little longer so they can limit the amount of DVD's that you can rent.  
Of course, we really don't know for sure, but something is definitely fishy about Netflix.  
 
Summary: The free 2 week trial was great, quick processing and shipping.  
However, After the trial period ended, things changed, Shipping and Processing take noticeably longer now.  
Some other reviewers noticed this same pattern,so I know that it's not just me.  
It's clear that something is definitely wrong.  
I just hope Netflix addresses these issues soon.  
 

This review was modified by its author, OVER-KILL, on 4/15/04 4:56 PM.

When I started using Netflix, I thought it was great. I live close to their shipping center, so DVDs were turned around in one business day, as advertised. That was consistant for the first 2 months. Then things suddenly changed - they must evaluate members' rental histories to adjust and slow things down. Suddenly shipments were delayed. Not occassionally, but 100% of the time. The few times they ship on the day of the return, they wait until after 5PM so the package effective ships a day later. Returns acknowledged early Friday morning are not processed until Monday.  
 
The bottom line is that they have a great concept - IF it were on the level. But it isn't. Once you're in for a while, they take control of number of rentals permitted each month. And that is not as advertised. Personally, I think they should be investigated and forced to adhere to Truth in Advertising.

I have used Netflixs for over a year now, and they provide a great service. You keep 3 DVDs at any one time, and can keep them for as long as you wish. No late fees. The service is only $20 a month, and in that time you could theoretically rent at least 15 movies from them. Compared to Blockbuster, that's a saving of about $55 a month!  
 
Their database is huge, all you have to do is look up the movie you want and add it to your list. You receive whichever movie is #1 on your list, but you can change that quite easily.  
 
Only once or twice have I received a damaged movie. The last instance was only a week ago. I went onto the website and reported it damaged. They shipped a replacement before they'd even received the damaged one that I still had! I sent that one back and everything was cool.  
 
These people that complain about how long it takes, they don't know what they're saying. Netflix has so many more titles to choose from that it's worth waiting three or four days for a movie to arrive, especially if I can keep it for as long as I want until I have time to watch it. I would assume those people who can't wait three days for their movies don't have much else better to do than sit next to the mail box.

There have been quite a few concerns with NetFlix lately, and I’d like to spend a moment describing my situation.  
 
I signed up for their free 2-week trial period in mid-September of 2003. I placed 3 dvd’s in my cart (all new releases) and received confirmation that they had shipped 4 hours later. I received all 3 days the following day. I watched all 3 over the week and popped them back in the mail on Monday. They received them on Tuesday and sent my next 3 out the same day (Tuesday). Again, I received these the following day (Wednesday). I watched them and returned them on Thursday, they received them on Friday and sent my next 3 out. It goes on like this until the end of my trial period.  
 
Almost as soon as my card was charged for the first month of being a paying customer, I started to notice that my DVD’s were taking an unusually long time to arrive at NetFlix’s facility. When I mean unusual, I mean that the shipping address on the pacakage is less than 100 miles away and were taking 3+ days to “arrive” at NetFlix. At first, I didn’t think anything of it thinking it was just backlog from the mail. However, the same thing happened again on the next round of DVD’s. They took 4 days to arrive and 3 days to get back. I e-mailed Netflix customer support and received a copy and pasted message about how the USPS is slow and that DVD’s take time. I knew that was a load of crap, but figured I was still getting more DVD’s per month than I was from Blockbuster or Hasting’s. Then, out of the blue, I didn’t receive 3 DVD’s that I placed in my cart. After waiting 6 WORKING DAYS, I contacted NetFlix customer support about the issue. I received the exact same e-mail that I received previously about the shipping problem. I replied back to them stating my frustrations and that I was thinking about canceling if they could not offer me a viable explanation as to why my DVD’s take forever to show up now. To my surprise, I got a human response after I pressured them. The surprise came in the form of the response I received, however. They told me that I should try another address to ship my DVD’s to. What do they want me to do? Move? Why should I move because of their mistakes? Don’t you think it’s a little convenient that 3 different DVD’s from most likely 3 different facilities are “lost” in the mail because I live someplace I shouldn’t? Whatever. I reported the DVD’s as lost and cancelled right then and there. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will not get charged, but if I do, I will file a fraudulent complaint with my bank. I’m going back to Wal-Mart DVD rentals, none of this ever happened.  

Been a member for more than 3 years. Great concept, and generally good performance. Excellant local distribution network.  
 
The only negative which other people have also noted:  
 
The company prioritizes new customers:  
- Older customers will see less "available" movies  
- Older customers movies take longer to turnaround  
 
For various reasons I have upgraded and downgraded my account to different movies rental levels over the last few years. Every time I upgrade I suddenly see my movies turnaround 2/3 days quicker per movie and I see almost all movies as available. After about a month it suddenly reverts back to slower turnaround and less available movies.  
 
Now this may well be good business to impress the new customers/upgraders but as a long term user it makes me feel like a 2nd class customer.

Been with netflix for 3 months now and I am generally satisfied with their service. I do have a few concerns. During my trial period, my turnaround time was instantaneous and I got 2 new releases the day they were released. NOw, however, my turnaround time is 3-4 days each way significantly limiting the number of movies I rent per month. Additionally, the new releases are always "very long wait" and I end up going to blockbuster to rent them anyway. I wrote them about this and they sent me some generic excuse about waiting list and demand, but I put the movies on my cue when they are released at the box office and wait for them to get a release date and I STILL don't get ANY popular new releases.  
 
So the overall service is OK at best, customer service SUCKS and realize that it gets a little worse over time.