Netflix not making users very happy.

Glowrdr

Here's what Netflix vice-president of corporate communications Steve Swasey said about the complaints when asked:

We have not had that much response from members on our Facebook page or our customer call center. Many of these comments on the blog are anonymous. Netflix was very clear about this. This emphasizes simplicity. You’re watching it streaming, not watching on a DVD, so we've removed an element that was a DVD element. You’re using the streaming device to watch instantly. We simplified the process...Streaming is still nascent, but bigger than the growth of DVDs. This is a growth area for Netflix. Users can still get into their queue. More and more people watching more hours instantly, so that's where we’re putting the emphasis, that’s where the change came from. Nothing changes for DVDs.

Ricardo

bobman1235 wrote: »

Well, unfortunately for you you're basically loving a corpse at this point. If they're around to see 2012 I'll be pretty surprised.

No. I love the Blockbuster that's still very active and has been providing me with an excellent service and value.

If/when it's not there anymore, I'll worry about what to do next.

Face

Netflix not making users with poor reading comprehension very happy.

shack

We had the Blockbuster Online plan that allowed us to have 3 DVDs out at any time and a coupon for another free rental through the store each month. We cancelled it just recently...mainly because we just weren't watching that many movies anymore. We were having a hard time finding movies we wanted to put in the queue, one daughter was traveling the world and the other is too busy with school to take advantage. The current crop of moves that have come out over the last year or so is not very good/interesting/or to my liking. If there is something I really want to see, I just wait a month or so and can usually pick it up for less than $10.

I really liked the plan and never had an issue with Blockbuster. If I was still a heavy user, I would have stayed with them. We could sign up for Netflix and stream through our Wii but I personally like having the disc. That way I don't have a time limit to watch it and I believe the quality is better than streaming. Plus the Wii is not attached to my HT rig.

I hope Blockbuster survives. Netflix doesn't need to have that much of the market share. Even if BB doesn't survive, there will be someone move in that won't have the debt burden to service that will probably be the downfall of BB.

bobman1235

Ricardo wrote: »

No. I love the Blockbuster that's still very active and has been providing me with an excellent service and value.

If/when it's not there anymore, I'll worry about what to do next.

Huge corporations (which BLockbuster is / was) do not survive on a handful of their stores being popular. They've filed for bankrupcy more than once now, and have very little market share.

I'm glad you're happy with them, but they're beyond dead.

Slyder01

for me blu-ray is the way to watch movies. I dont invest thousands to watch and especially "listen" to crappy streaming.. Streaming is great for someone like my daughter in her room watching through her wii.. I believe streaming in time will be good, but as for now with me,, i say hey hey and keep coming with the blu-ray!

shack

Blockbuster's worldwide revenue for the last reported 12 months was $3.55 billion vs $2.01 billion for Netflix. Market share is not the issue. DEBT is the issue. BB has $939 million in outstanding liabilities vs NFs $237 million. BB is shedding stores as fast as they can and the B&M model will obvioulsly continue to decline...but analyst think there is still potential for BB to survive if they can reduce stores (and debt) and maintain mail, streaming and kiosk sales with limited B&M presence.

They are not dead...yet. They may ultimately succumb to the pressure of the debt...but then again...they may survive leaner, with a still significant market share. Their game rental business is still doing pretty well.

bobman1235

Wow.... those numbers are surprising. All I hear about is stores closing left and right, I would have never guessed they had that much revenue still.

My foot's in my mouth so muhc lately it's all I can taste.

shack

I know the B&M store in our community which is a suburb and in close proximity to several smaller towns is slammed on Friday nights and Saturdays. Good luck in finding anything current. I don't think their business is slowing down too much. I would think BB B&Ms may be hurting in larger cities where there is more competition for entertainment and a higher concentration of "hi tech" users that are more used to streaming content. Our area tends to be on the rural side.

heiney9

I will say for the first time in about 3 years I stopped into Family Video here in town (the only franchise still viable) to pick up a spur of the minute movie to take to a friends house and they were busy and out of most of the top 100 rentals. So there is certainly still a market for B&M stores, but it certainly is smaller than ever.

H9

Glowrdr

shack wrote: »

analyst think there is still potential for BB to survive if they can reduce stores (and debt) and maintain mail, streaming and kiosk sales with limited B&M presence.

Sooooo.... They could possibly have a chance if they... structure their business to work like Netflix? Not saying there isn't room for more than 1 in the market, but we really do have to give props to Netflix for their innovation. They have pretty much become the iPod of MP3 players, or the Walkman of cassette players etc.

shack

Glowrdr wrote:

Sooooo.... They could possibly have a chance if they... structure their business to work like Netflix? Not saying there isn't room for more than 1 in the market, but we really do have to give props to Netflix for their innovation. They have pretty much become the iPod of MP3 players, or the Walkman of cassette players etc.

Nooooo... If they go beyond what Netflix does with their B&M and kiosk locations with both movies and games IN ADDITION to mail and streaming. Like H9 said...there is still a market for hands on point of sale transactions and BB is still the leader in that area. They just need to figure out and take advantage of the demographics while adapting to the future.

polkfarmboy

heiney9 wrote: »

Will do tonight when I get home. Is this the only "choppy" scene? If so, your response is misleading as in you make it sound like everything you've tried to stream is choppy.

Occasionally I'll have an issue here or there with streaming, the most annoying is audio sync issues. Had that happen about 4 times in 2 years all on the same TV series. They fixed it everytime.

On a scale of 1-5 I give Netflix a solid 4 and if I find out my few and far between streaming issues aren't Netflix related I give them a 5.

When I was having issues early on, it turned out to be my router, not NETFLIX. It's easy to blame Netflix, but there are a lot of other things going on to get that stream to your TV, and anywhere in the chain there could be an issue.

H9

There is loads of choppy movies on netflix

heiney9

polkfarmboy wrote: »

There is loads of choppy movies on netflix

Never had an issue and I tried that scene you mentioned. Played fine. You have hardware or ISP issues, not Netfilx issues

H9

Slyder01

netflix spends over 3 million on postage,, not a tough one to figure out why they would only want to do streaming

stangjason

BlueFox wrote: »

You cannot stream Bluray nor can you stream lossless audio. In about 10 years streaming might be working to an acceptable level of quality.
.

This is my problem with streaming at this point.

I almost always login using my laptop to add movies to my queue and when I went to add a movie to my queue on my PS3 this past weekend I just thought it had always been that way when I couldn't.

AsSiMiLaTeD

What difference does it make, we're YEARS away from going to only a streaming media format. We'll all be wiped out by 2012 then anyway

ROHfan

cnh wrote: »

For those of us who live in the land of NO FIBER OPTIC cable...and also have our phone line and HDTV off this ONE cable, streaming is not a viable or rather reliable option. Not a bash on Netflix, because this is inevitable.

It's really a bashing of the fact that we refuse to put some much needed investments into U.S. Infrastructural upgrades? Does this mean that I won't have super-high speed internet for another 10-15 years up here. I think I live in the U.S.?

cnh

I do fiber optic splicing and testing for my job and it amazes me how industries and gov't. have not fully embraced FO. The bandwidth of FO is so great that we don't even have the technology to accurately measure the maximum capacity and speed (the highest measurement so far is 69.1 Tbit/sec. transmission). We're so stuck on copper and its limitations are so astounding considering the technology that's readily available. I know cost is a factor but that's the hit we have to take to prepare for the future. The same thing is happening with oil. We have become so dependent on gasoline that to dig us out of this dilemma is going take a very long time.

Great, now I'm all pissy on a Friday.

treitz3

Here's an update from someone who has gotten a response from Netflix since the announcement.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/20/5883616-netflix-removes-ability-to-add-dvds-to-queues-from-streaming-devices

AsSiMiLaTeD

People are really fraking out about this waaaaaaaay too much.

heiney9

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

People are really fraking out about this waaaaaaaay too much.

Yeah, you'd think the end of the world is coming. IIRC, this option didn't even exist until about 6 mos. ago when they did a software upgrade. Big deal, when they added that feature 6mos ago I was annoyed because it meant longer load times for the stuff already in my queue

We’re doing this so we can concentrate on offering you the titles that are available to watch instantly. Further, providing the option to add a DVD to your Queue from a streaming device complicates the instant watching experience and ties up resources that are better used to improve the overall streaming functionality. This change does not impact the Netflix Web site, where most members manage their DVD Queues. - Jamie Odell

^^ I agree 1000%

H9

kevhed72

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

People are really fraking out about this waaaaaaaay too much.

+1...anything in way of streaming is way better than going into a video rental store. Go watch the movie Clerks to see what I mean

Slyder01

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

What difference does it make, we're YEARS away from going to only a streaming media format. We'll all be wiped out by 2012 then anyway

give me a break!

disneyjoe7

If it doesn't work for ya, then why not just move on?

Or....

Just Deal with it.

treitz3

I do not understand the outrageous, unwarranted defensive modes in some of the posts here. I'm not complaining, merely reporting on a subject that has alienated some of the users of Netflix.

JeeeeezZzzz, some of you need to lighten up.