Published on June 30, 2007 By pseudosoldier In Movies & TV & Books
Between "Short Wait," "Long Wait," and "Very Long Wait" screwing up my queue, NetFlix sending me the wrong volume disk of What's New Scooby Doo (it's labeled wrong in their inventory, and the delays I experience in turnaround... Well, I may go ahead and try the Blockbuster version of the mail in rental. And I hate Blockbuster.

What is it? 90% of users get their movies with only a one day turnaround? Well, my movies used to have a two day, one-way trip (which meant 4 day total turnaround). Recently, it's been taking them 2-3 days to get to NetFlix and 3 days to get back. Unacceptable.

Thing is, I don't know whether to accuse NetFlix of something (there were those accusations in the past about them delaying processing for users who turned their movies back in too quickly) or just blame the local mail system WHICH SUCKS VARIOUS PARTS OF ANIMAL ANATOMY.

I was really hoping to share Tron and the original Transformers movie with my sons this weekend...

Comments
on Jun 30, 2007
OMG, Blockbuster is Satan's attempt to institute hell on Earth. Run, man, run!

on Jul 01, 2007
I had some major billing issues with Blockbuster. They charged my card three times in one month. They did credit it back but I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Plus the local Blockbuster had aggravated me one too many times.

I switched to Netflix. I have had a few movies that are very long wait but I do have a quick turnaround. I think it depends on how close you live to their nearest center. My nearest center is the Dallas area and it's always recieved the next day when I return it and then I get a new DVD the following day so about a three day turnaround.

Why don't you send a complaint letter to netflix and see if they offer to do anything to fix it? The transformers cartoon has been on this weekend. Maybe you and your boys can catch that. We can't wait to see the movie. Three more days.
on Jul 01, 2007

Personally, I think both systems (Blockbuster and Netflix) suck.  Neither carries enough copies of movies to satisfy demand without queing up backlogs that inevitably mean some customer is going without and is left waiting for waits of some sort.

I was with Netflix for quite a while but because they do absolutely nothing on weekends and many holidays (and many unannounced holidays) they wouldn't process returns and would leave me waiting on movies that I should have, and would have, been getting because they were sitting on returns and/or throttling my account to keep me from getting me too much stuff in too short a period of time.

Blockbuster is proving themselves to be absolutely horrible at delivering HD-DVD material and they won't be getting any better as they seemed to have declared victory for Blu-Ray discs in the next format war.  (They claim that they'll continue to carry HD-DVD in their .com business, but they've been proving that they have virtually zero copies of many titles for quite a while there already....)

I hope to god my predictions come true about both companies.... I'll try to write an article later on that topic and see what others think...

on Jul 01, 2007
I don't really mind that they put some things as a wait... I have over 200 movies in my queue, so I'll get something that I want (especially if I plan around it). I guess my biggest complaint is the recent (past two weeks) lengthening of the turn around times. I had been all but relying on the 4 day return, and now it's more usually 6. I had gotten around the earlier delays by just upping my number of movies, but... it starts to feel like they're bilking me for more money.

Maybe I will write an email.
on Jul 02, 2007
Netflix just settled a class action suit where they were basically setting the regular users lower in the Q than irregular or first time users.  So your complaint is not without merit.
on Jul 02, 2007
And... I didn't get the movies today, either. Heck, it might not be NetFlix at all, but the local crappy mail service.
on Jul 05, 2007
I depends on where you live. I live in a MAJOR city and my movies take one day to arrive.

I NEVER had any "wait" times.
on Jul 05, 2007
I depends on where you live. I live in a MAJOR city and my movies take one day to arrive. I NEVER had any "wait" times.


I understand that those who live closer to the distribution points get faster delivery. And I had gotten used to two days for one-way mail. But then it bumped to three (or longer), and that's less than acceptable.

Also, I find it surprising that you don't see any "wait" times listed for anything in your queue. Quite often, very new movies get that rating. (It's listed under "Availability.") Currently, American Pastime and Jackie Chan Adventures: Dark Hand Returns show as "Very Long Wait"; Ocean's Eleven (the original with Sinatra) shows as "Long Wait"; UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz 2, UFC 67: All or Nothing, Citizen Kane, The Bourne Identity, Rear Window, Garden State, and A Clockwork Orange all show as "Short Wait." That's in my queue of 255 movies (with 18 more "Saved"; 2 of the 255 are to be released by end of month). Perhaps your tastes go towards the middle of the road for popularity, so that NetFlix will always have a copy available.
on Jul 06, 2007
Well, I get to share Tron and the original Transformers movie with my sons this weekend, as they arrived last night... three business days late (along with another movie that was "on time"). Unfortunately, I took the gamble that they had been lost in the mail and reported them undelivered, so I'll be getting second copies of them "Saturday" (or however long the delay is this time). Feh.

I have until the end of the month to decide if I will keep this service. (Payments are due at the beginning of the month for the duration of that month, so cancelling earlier or later than the last weekend of this month doesn't accomplish much.)
on Jul 07, 2007




I depends on where you live. I live in a MAJOR city and my movies take one day to arrive. I NEVER had any "wait" times.


I understand that those who live closer to the distribution points get faster delivery. And I had gotten used to two days for one-way mail. But then it bumped to three (or longer), and that's less than acceptable.

Also, I find it surprising that you don't see any "wait" times listed for anything in your queue. Quite often, very new movies get that rating. (It's listed under "Availability.") Currently, American Pastime and Jackie Chan Adventures: Dark Hand Returns show as "Very Long Wait"; Ocean's Eleven (the original with Sinatra) shows as "Long Wait"; UFC 66: Liddell vs. Ortiz 2, UFC 67: All or Nothing, Citizen Kane, The Bourne Identity, Rear Window, Garden State, and A Clockwork Orange all show as "Short Wait." That's in my queue of 255 movies (with 18 more "Saved"; 2 of the 255 are to be released by end of month). Perhaps your tastes go towards the middle of the road for popularity, so that NetFlix will always have a copy available.


Hate to tell you this but I entered a few of the titles you mentioned; no wait times at all.

I like NYC!