My mother is homebound and uses Netflix. She's been complaining lately about the moview she's been receiving. Maybe this is what's happening with her account.
Really doesn't make a lot of sense because if people get dissatisfied, they'll just switch to a different service. I noticed Blockbuster has started a similar service.
There's a bunch of people out there renting 8 at a time and ripping them to their computers and then sending them back within like a day or so.
These are the people that are targeted by this.
Solution: use Clean Flicks
Get the movies without the filth.
http://www.cleanflicks.com
Their biggest problem is the US post office that despises the postal loss from shipping heavy videotapes to light-weight DVDs. We have a serious problem with postal abuse of mailed DVDs.
Count me as one of the "complainers". I canceled my Netflix subscription this week and signed on with Blockbuster.
I had been waiting over a week for Redeye, 40 Year old Virgin, and one other.
I now have all three from Blockbuster. They may throttle me too and I will cancel with them if it happens. I had been a member of Netflix for about a year, am retired, and was a HEAVY user I guess. Tough shi*!
I love how these companies come up with ideas and when customers do what they ALWAYS do with deals like these, the companies whine. Duh, what did Netflix expect?
If Netflix has such a problem FULFILLING ITS LEGAL OBLIGATION to the CUSTOMERS who signed up for its program, maybe they should just fold and return to letting customers rent dvds at Vid store outlets instead of having this mailing program.
Sounds like Netflix needs a major THUMP ON THE HEAD. I'll continue renting mine (infrequent renter) when I feel like it, no contracts, no deals.
Wow, I wish I had the time to watch one movie a month. I'd never get anywhere close to even 13. I try to catch one movie a year in the theater and to rent one movie a year to watch at home. And I'm even behind on that.
I use netflix, although I have their cheapest plan. They have series' like Monarch of the Glen, Cadfael, and MI-5 that Blockbuster does not.
From my mailbox to theirs is usually one business day, and ditto on the turn around time. Only once did I receive a disc that wouldn't play, and netflix sent out an immediate replacement. I like their service, and selection enough that I've given gift subscriptions to friends.
"Unlimited Internet!"
Well, unlimited until I reached the maximum hours.
If I was Netflix I would just offer a tiered system - X dollars for X DVD's a month - or X dollars for up to X DVD's, and X dollars per each DVD after that.
Bump for later.
I haven't noticed any change in our service, but then we live in the next town over from one of the distribution centers! ;o) We usually send a movie back, then two days later, get a new one. We haven't been sending them back that frequently lately, though. Just haven't had the chance to watch too many movies. But we love the service, and have been customers since around Oct. of 2000!
I'm glad I didn't join.
Get a good bit torrent client and fast Internet connection, and a video player that plays any format, and you're set.
It's like tivo in reverse.
TV Shows, Movies, Documentary, it's all there.
I currently have more than 250 Gig of video, more than 1200 videos, whole seasons of my favorite shows, all for free.
It's not "video on demand", but neither is netflix.
Netflix delivers in 24 hours for a fee.
Bit torrent delivers in 24 hours and it's free.
Once on your hard drive, with VLC you can take screen shots and stream the content out to others.
I have noticed the same problem. I am allowed two at a time. I returned two DVDs in the same mailing on Monday. The nearest facility is just ten miles away. They acknowledged receipt of one the very next day, the other not until five days later. I got one replacement on Thursday, but the other will not even be shipped until Monday. It has become a pattern: they almost never have one day service. Might as well go down to one at a time.
the problem with netflix is that it attracted all the movie addicts (like myself) but couldn't make money because of our compulsion to view movies at such a high rate.
it would be like a liquor distribution company offering a fixed-price plan. they would have to screen out the alcoholics to make any money.
netflix used throttling to get us to quit.
My Brother in Law got tossed from a Chinese restaurant once, because the place advertized "All You Can Eat", and Dave decided to find out if they really menat it. He lasted three hours and cleaned them out of all of the good stuff before they asked him to leave and never come back...
Newsflash! They are a business.
They have make $x on every DVD shipped. SInce you pay a fixed monthly, their profit from having you as a customer depends how many DVDs they ship you.
People who rent a Lot of DVDs a month are costing them money. They've taken the obvious step to correct the problem.
It seems like a reasonable business practice. I'm a Netflix subscriber.
a friend told me that three people created a group and started ordering the movies and sharing them with each other...two years ago. So teh big tears in this story may be hiding a sharing idea that is popular among the geek world of music and video.
It seems to me that they should just put a limit on monthly rentals.
Howard Johnsons used to do this on all-you-can-eat nights. The food came a little slower each time.