# question about Netflix **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440 "2009-01-08T23:29:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anna\_Nimity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Anna\_Nimity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anna_Nimity)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/21 "2009-01-09T08:00:49Z")
I love Netflix and although there have been problems, the service has been well worth it. Ive been with them since April 2003 and in all that time I’ve had maybe 5 or 6 discs that were actually damaged physically, a few more that just wouldn’t play. The Instant View is great, and getting better all the time, they keep adding to the list. Just this week I had 4 movies from my regular queue go to the Instant View queue. I don’t get how the Very Long Wait thing works, I can understand it with New Releases, but I’ve had “The Cold Summer of 1953”, a Russian film from 1988 on Very Long wait for 8 or 9 months now. In fact, I think I may give them a call about that. The customer service is good, Ive had them give me a free month in the past when I had shipping problems. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/22 "2009-01-09T09:41:28Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I also had something interesting just happen; Netflix told me that my next selection was not available at my local shipping center, so they sent me the next available disc on my list. Then they told me that they would be sending the first disc in 3-5 days, without waiting for me to return any other discs. So I’ll have three discs in my possession instead of the two that my plan calls for. I’ll have to return two of them before I get another disc, though. They did that for me recently as well, which I thought was a bit odd. I regularly end up getting discs shipped out from other centers, but that was a new one. I half-thought it might be some sort of Christmas/holiday thing to preempt people phoning in to bitch about not getting a suitable movie to watch with grandma or some such thing, but I guess not. And weirdly enough, when I returned one of the discs, they went ahead and shipped out another DVD anyway, even though I still had the extra one out. I mailed the extra disc back yesterday, so I’m curious to see how that’ll work out. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/23 "2009-01-09T12:52:39Z")
My experience has been that movies that are older or more obscure are the ones that are more likely to come from another center. That would make sense just in terms of the number of copies they would keep on hand. When I’ve reported a disc damaged they ask if I want a the same title again. In some cases it played long enough for me to know that I didn’t want to see the whole thing. They don’t send a replacement immediately, presumably to keep people from gaming the system. If I want the same title, they mail a new disc before mine gets returned. Considering the discs go thru the postal service protected by only a few layers of paper, I’m surprised that I don’t get more damaged discs. One tip is to looking that physical disc immediately upon receipt. It can be annoying when a disc sits on the counter for a week, then you go to watch it and it is obviously unplayable. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/24 "2009-01-09T12:58:08Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > While we’re on the subject of Netflix, I’d like to ask, has anyone here ever had problems with discs from Netflix being damaged, defective, or otherwise unplayable? (I haven’t used Netflix myself and am thinking about signing up.) I think I have about a 1% rate where significant parts of the disc can’t be played on any player, and then a 5% rate where discs on certain players won’t load at all. I like Netflix, but now when I receive a disk the first thing I do is run it thru the DVD player if it looks scratched. That way I can send it back for a replacement immediately. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/25 "2009-01-09T13:22:57Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I also had something interesting just happen; Netflix told me that my next selection was not available at my local shipping center, so they sent me the next available disc on my list. Then they told me that they would be sending the first disc in 3-5 days, without waiting for me to return any other discs. So I’ll have three discs in my possession instead of the two that my plan calls for. I’ll have to return two of them before I get another disc, though. > [@JessEnigma](#): > > They did that for me recently as well, which I thought was a bit odd. I regularly end up getting discs shipped out from other centers, but that was a new one. I half-thought it might be some sort of Christmas/holiday thing to preempt people phoning in to bitch about not getting a suitable movie to watch with grandma or some such thing, but I guess not. And weirdly enough, when I returned one of the discs, they went ahead and shipped out another DVD anyway, even though I still had the extra one out. I mailed the extra disc back yesterday, so I’m curious to see how that’ll work out. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten discs shipped to me from other centers before (I remember trying to be sure I used the same envelope to return it) but they never sent me another disc while I was waiting. I haven’t had time to watch either of the discs I currently have (maybe later today I will) and haven’t gotten the third disc yet. I’ll have to see what happens when I send a disc back. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440/26 "2009-01-09T16:09:40Z")
> [@JessEnigma](#): > > They did that for me recently as well, which I thought was a bit odd. I regularly end up getting discs shipped out from other centers, but that was a new one. I half-thought it might be some sort of Christmas/holiday thing to preempt people phoning in to bitch about not getting a suitable movie to watch with grandma or some such thing, but I guess not. And weirdly enough, when I returned one of the discs, they went ahead and shipped out another DVD anyway, even though I still had the extra one out. I mailed the extra disc back yesterday, so I’m curious to see how that’ll work out. This happened to me too. Single disc plan (a gift). But when I send them back, they send out another disc each time. So now I am effectively on a two disc plan. Which is sort of a pain. Their selection is _not as hyped_. (They had none of the first 5 movies I searched for.) So for the last couple of months my queue has been a small group of old cheesy movies. I can’t think of anything else to add that they have. But it’ll end soon and then it’ll be gone from my life. (I actually have to order stuff because the gifter keeps asking me what I’ve been viewing.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-netflix/480440.md?page=1)