Reader Somedaysomehow is annoyed with Netflix. She’s been a loyal customer on the one DVD at a time plan, but lately most of those DVDs have been unplayable. What’s the point of continuing to pay for movies in the mail? All complaining to Netflix gets her are bonus DVDs from her queue….which are unplayable, too.
I’ve been a Netflix customer several years now. I even stuck with them through all the recent drama, and when my membership cost more than doubled. I decided to keep the DVD option, because there are so many movies I still want to see that they just don’t have available on streaming. I keep streaming, despite its poor selection, because I have a one-dvd-at-a-time plan, so there’s some downtime between discs.My problem is this: Ever since the DVD/streaming split, the disc quality is AWFUL. The last movie I got from them was damaged past the point of being able to finish the disc not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR TIMES. The fifth disc finally played well enough to get through the movie with only minimal skipping and sound problems. Every time I called with a damaged disc, they would send me out an extra one from my queue to try to make up for the inconvenience. Guess what? 3 of those were damaged, too! I just tried to watch the third one, and the last hour of the movie is completely unwatchable.
I don’t know what to do at this point. I appreciate them offering me an extra DVD every time this happens, but I can’t spend my time trying over and over again to get a working DVD I can actually watch. What am I paying them for?
The very important service of mailing non-functional DVDs to your home? Someone has to keep the U.S. Postal Service alive.
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I think the article Title should be “Is it the bad DVD player or possible bad DVDs from Netflix?”
In the many years that I have been using Netflix, I have only had One bad DVD that did not play. I love Netflix for the convenience, and the online streaming keeps me well entertained.
I think the article writer should have expressed doubts about the validity of this complaint.
I used to have Netflix but gave up after it started taking forever for Blu-ray’s to arrive at my home or for them to get my return. So I switched to blockbuster which is free with my Dish Network service, same problem, takes forever to get Blu-ray’s and for the return. The envelopes arrive destroyed or the disc broken. I don’t believe this has anything to do with Blockbuster or Netflix, I believe its USPS not giving a damn.
The postal delivery girl that fills the mailboxes shows up in jeans, smoking a cigarette and in summer has booty shorts on and tits falling out, granted I don’t mind looking but every time she delivers the mail my enveloped are opened and any free mail order samples I may have ordered disappear. I have complained to USPS and they always say there is nothing they can do. I went to the local branch and they don’t care, the local branch doesn’t even answer the phone when you call.
We’ve never had any issues with Netflix DVDs not playing.
It sounds either like the distribution center where she’s at is having problems with their discs, or the USPS is screwing them up in transit.
We’ve had a number of heavily scratched discs and at least one broken one over the years, but fortunately Netflix has always been quick to replace them. If it were happening with greater frequency, though, I’m not sure even quick replacing would make the service worthwhile.
I’ve been a Netflix customer for seven years now, and I think I’ve received about 12 unplayable DVDs out of about 1300 DVDs. Yes, 1300, I’ve been on the 8 at a time plan when I was in Korea and Iraq during my military service (Your mailing address is a PO box in California or New York while in Korea/Iraq) and watched an average a DVD a day for two years, plus 3/week for four more years. I’m currently on the 3 at a time plan.
What the OP described isn’t a damaged DVD, it’s a damaged DVD player.
I don’t understand the hate on Netflix. They made a mistake with Quickster, and they FIXED IT. People cry about prices going up for a LUXURY SERVICE and expect sympathy. This isn’t the price of milk or bread going up, this is the price of renting movies.
Hmm, I’ve had Netflix for 5 years, and in that time I can recall getting two defective discs. One was a new release and the disc was probably defective from the time it was pressed (no visible scratches), the other was obviously damaged in the mail.
So I’d say overall I’ve been pretty pleased with them. Even despite all of the complaints about their pricing, it is still less expensive than the old movie rental model if you watch more than 3-4 movies a month.
I gave up ordering DVDs from Netflix…way too many scratches and other people’s food stains. I use the online service.
You’re not alone. This is precisely why I dropped Netflix nearly two years ago.
I’ll join the “received hundreds of DVDs/Blu-Rays, and only 1-2 unplayable ones” from Netflix. Blockbuster (by Mail) is a different story. I get an unplayable disc (and I confirm by wiping it off and trying it in other players) at least once a month.
I have never had a problem with Netflix DVDs. I have a 2 DVD subscription. The next DVD on my list was an obscure movie that was not available locally. They emailed me that they would send the DVD from another city and in the meantime send me the next DVD in my queue. I prefer physical DVDs – especially Blu-Ray for their sound and video quality and extras.
I see a lot of “hasn’t happened to me, therefore OP’s fault.”
I think it would be instructive to see what movies these people are renting, vs. what movies the people with problems are renting.
I cancelled Netflix last month because of too many bad discs, but I noticed that the bad discs were almost always obscure, low-demand titles – old films, indie films. More popular titles were always fine.
I’d bet the people saying there is no problem are mostly renting popular new releases, and the people saying there IS a problem are renting back catalog. Replacing low-demand films probably generates lower ROI for them, so they try to get away without doing it. That’s my hypothesis, anyway.
The final straw for me was when I sent back a damaged disc, checked the box for “send a replacement,” and three days later received the VERY SAME damaged disc again. (It was damaged in a very distinctive and recognizable pattern.)
Just cancelled my subscription a week ago for the same reason. I now use Redbox and although not perfect I’ve had better luck. Netflix just hasn’t done enough re quality control which is suppose to pick up defects but it appears they miss as many as they catch. Therefore goodbye Netflix.
I have been a Netflix subscriber for over 11 years now. Looking at my rental history I counted less than 10 times that I have had a problem with discs (and now all 10 times were due to cracks).
Now technically I haven’t rented a DVD for a couple years (I’ve been all blu-ray), but I have had no problems with discs at all (with either new or older titles).
If I had to guess, I would say that something is wrong with your DVD player (as many others have suggested) and not the Netflix discs, especially if you had trouble watching multiple discs of the same movie.
Also, I find there is absolutely no reason why the quality of discs would suddenly decrease dramatically when Netflix separated the plans.
netflix is so last year
Once I got a dvd from Netflix that was actually shattered, but the label was holding it together in a solid state. It wasn’t until I flipped it over and looked that I saw it looked like a spiderweb under there. I think it’s entirely possible to overlook severe damage on a DVD. But, there are some other possibilities too, like a disgruntled employee somewhere in the pipeline. It also sounds like many of the same title are damaged, so perhaps someone has a grudge against it? For this many problem DVDs, Netflix should be doing some kind of audit on the products and process.
I had a netflix dvd that was damaged, so I sent it back and the replacement that came was also damaged. I sent back the replacement and the second replacement came damaged too – I think they actually sent the first dvd a second time. At that point I torrented the movie
They never actually went through with the DVD delivery/streaming split.
I’ve been a subscriber since August of 2002 and can’t really remember how many DVD’s I’ve got in the mail that were not playable.. less than five.