An end of a romance
Written: Oct 16 '01
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The Bottom Line
It could have been great. The site quickly became overwhelmed and could not meet the demands of their customers. It's a shame.
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| Full Review |
The concept of Netflix is a dream come true for the dvd-player-owning-movie-buff. Movies delivered directly to your door that you can keep as long as you like without the threat of late fees. In our case, the glow quickly faded.
In March of 2000, we took advantage of a free trial period that Netflix offered. In no time at all, we found the four new releases we had selected in our mailbox. Each movie arrives in a resealable postage paid envelope. Simply drop the movie in the mail. After viewing the movies and dropping them into the mail, we checked the movie in online at their website. This worked well and allowed them to send out the next movie while the other traveled back to them.
We were so pleased with the first month that we signed up for the “marquee” program. For $19.99 a month we could keep 4 movies at a time. With the promise of new movies as fast as we could watch them and send them back, we were excited customers. The fee was charged to our credit card every month automatically. The movies were sent to us according to what was next on our cue list.
The cue is a list of movies you compile by looking through Netflix’s selection of movies. They do (or did-more on that later) have an incredible selection of all kinds of movies. New releases, classics, documentaries, varied genres, and even adult movies could all be found. The movie you are looking for is easy to find thanks to a well-organized search feature. You can search by movie title, genre or by actor. Your cue is organized according to the movies you would like to have sent to you first. If your first choice is not available they will go down your list to the next available choice. My favorite feature of the cue system was the opportunity to put yet to be released movies on my cue. I might not be able to remember when that new release is coming out but if I put it on my cue it will become part of my list as soon as it is available.
In all fairness, we had several months of happiness with Netflix. Then we noticed a sudden marked decline in quality. The price jumped to $24.99. You could no longer check-in movies after viewing. It took longer and longer to get movies. As the price is the same no matter how many movies you see, it was disappointing. It became increasingly difficult to get new releases. Even older movies seemed to be perpetually checked out. Our cue, which at any given time had up to 50 movies, suddenly had only 5 or 6 that were available.
My husband sent an e-mail to the customer service department detailing our disappointment. Our biggest complaint was the price was changed without any notice. Suddenly the amount was higher on our credit card with no opportunity to cancel before the higher rate. He received a prompt, polite reply explaining the changes. Very nice but we understood the changes we just didn’t like them.
We began to think about canceling our service. Around that time, my mother had a stroke. My parents, who had always been very active, were suddenly spending a great deal of time at home. I bought them a dvd player and signed them up for Netflix. I knew it wasn’t perfect but the movies would come right to them. Signing them up, I noticed that the system had really changed for the newcomers. Same price of $24.99 but they were only allowed three movies at a time. My parents had an unbelievable amount of damaged, unplayable movies sent to them. Thinking that perhaps it was a symptom of being dvd novices, we tried the movies ourselves. They were right! You could even see the scratches!
We cancelled our service but kept my parents’ account. We were told that if our final batch of movies were not received by Netflix by a certain date we would be charged for them. As we had some movies that were on their way to us, we knew even if we immediately sent them back that we were going to be charged. Our next credit card statement showed our fee for the month and around $90 for each movie! Yikes. We had already sent them back but there they were on the statement. We sent an anxious e-mail and were told that they would refund our card. Thanks. It was done but that huge amount had sat on our account for a month accumulating interest.
In the meantime, we were having a hard time finding any movies for my parents, as their movie interests were not as varied as ours. The new releases that they wanted, that new Michael Douglas or the new Julia Roberts, was simply never available. There were months that went by in which they were charged but never received a single movie. My mother expressed an interest in seeing some movies from her childhood-Betty Grable musicals or Shirley Temple comedies. They are either not on dvd yet or Netflix doesn’t have them. We soon cancelled their account as well. We went through the same hassle of being charged for movies that we had returned.
So that is how our romance with Netflix ended. It’s a rough economy for Internet businesses. Fair enough, but you don’t need to suffer for it.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Member: Darcy Voogd
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 2 members
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