The limit is 6 lost discs, total, no matter what your rental plan is or how long you’ve had your account. Your account isn’t cancelled, it’s placed “on hold” until you call them and sort it all out. However, they are generally helpful about getting it getting turned back on again…at least they were for me.
The “heavy user” slowdown I think is to prevent anyone from having more than one turnaround per week, saving them the extra mailing costs. If you’re the type who keeps the DVDs lying around for several days instead of mailing it back the next day or even the same day, you’ll probably never see any deliberate slowdown.
See, I thought the whole point of Netflix was to avoid going to the store…why would Blockbuster think anyone who joins their online service wants store rentals (even if they are free)?
I use, and love, Netflix, but it doesn’t provide instant gratification. If you suddenly get in the mood to see a particular movie tonight, then Netflix isn’t helpful. The Blockbuster in-store rental is meant to satisfy that need, I suppose.
My only real problem has been that the delivery has slowed down considerably. I put two in the mail on Friday and they are just now shown as returned to Netflix. I don’t expect to get my next two for a few days.
I go through phases where I don’t even watch every movie that comes to me, or it takes me forever to watch them. The only reason I really stick with Netflix is the availability of movies the video store would never have.
My Netflix service slowed down a bit over the holidays, and it hasn’t picked up yet.
It doesn’t bother me much, though, as sometimes I have movies sitting here for a month before I get to them. I’m on the 6-at-a-time plan. (I like having lots of choices.)
Because you can pick up that new release that someone in your household wants to see. Or, you didn’t get anything in the mail that you want to see. I’m fortunate that Blockbuster is very close to where I live.
Well, using the two envelopes may have helped, although improvement with one set isn’t enough to prove it. One was received yesterday (I accidentally left the disk out of the white sleeve on the other one, so it doesn’t have the barcodes and such. I did find a place to e-mail them, but since I haven’t gotten a response, I think I’m going to have to wait until it’s been long enough to report a problem).
But with the single envelopes, the one definitely got there and they shipped the new one out the same day. I’ll keep trying this for a couple of weeks and see if I continue to see better speeds.
Well, I just figured out where my Grinch DVD ended up that I returned. I found the white return envelope a few days ago and realized that the reason it got “lost” is because there’s no barcode on the movies themselves, just the sleeves. I returned The Grinch and Scrooged in the same white envelope by accident. So I had to report The Grinch as lost. I wonder if I have any recourse at all or can get it straightened around?
I’ve used Netflix for over 4 years (I honestly thought it was closer to two. How time flies). I’ve been at two different addresses in that time, one in Atlanta, GA, and one in rural Minnesota, about 2.5 hours from the Twin Cities. In that entire time, I have lost a total of 4 movies (sending them back to Netflix). All four losses happened when I was sending two disks in one envelope, so I don’t do that anymore. I also have received one or two cracked disks, and new disks were sent immediately (that day, or next business day).
As far as turnaround time: In Atlanta, The processing center was in a town roughly 20 minutes away. Turnaround between mailing and receiving the new disk ranged from 3 days to a week (usually closer to three days). Now that I am in Minnesota, the closest center is Minneapolis, about 2.5 hours away. Turnaround time, consistently, is 2 days: Mail picked up, next day the new disk is shipped, and the day after the disk is in my hands. It is all due to the post office, in my opinion. The zip code range in this area is (or at least used to be) one of the top in country for quick and efficient mail handling (my stepfather was a rural mail carrier, so we got all the newsletters and stuff from the USPS).
Well, we cancelled last month due to all of the turnaround problems. Thing is, service slowed down to half as fast as it was (and that was still 4 day turnaround) once they opened a distribution center closer to me!
Our local movie place (small franchise with 4 stores) now does $1.49/ night rentals, and since our pattern was always to watch and return the day after receiving, it works just as well.
For obsure titles, Netflix was awesome. But after a year and a half, I went through all of the older and foreign films I needed to. Since I’m all caught up, the local place (along with the Univesity library) do the trick.
