I just signed up for Netflix over the weekend and my CDs should arrive in the mail today. I’m excited.
I have always been concerend that I just wouldn’t have the time to watch enough of the movies to make it worthwhile. But I changed my mind because of how lame Blockbuster’s inventory has gotten in the last few months. I can rarely find a movie, unless it just came out. I think BB is really struggling to compete with Netflix–most likely a result of BB having poor customer service. But what can you expect of an business that until recently relied so heavily on late fees to turn a profit?
Ok, so does anyone have Netflix tips? Do you use the buddy system? Do you have profiles setup for your house? Any good movies to suggest? Moving to Netflix was motivated by being unable to find a copy of Tombstone, which I haven’t seen but ought to be able to correct that after my copy arrives in the mail tonight.
I love Netflix. It’s one of those really great ideas that totally changed the way I get DVDs. And I went to them for much the same reason --my local Blockbusters would never have any copies of movies available, even if I went in the middle of the week. That and they kept trying to foist their online rental program on me. I finally decided it DID sound like a good idea, but I wasn’t about to reward them for driving me out of the old model with poor service and selection.
I have the Netflix account that allows unlimited rentals and two disks out at a time. My wife and I set up a profile for each of us so that we can each have one disk at any given time and it’s worked out pretty well. She’s working her way through the Sex In the City TV series while I watch various movies that she doesn’t care for, but every now and then we get something we both want to watch together.
One unexpected side effect is that I got caught up on new releases pretty quickly and started going back to pick up older, classic movies that I’d never seen but always thought I should. Stuff like Dr. Strangelove, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, et cetera. And I haven’t even touched TV series on DVD, which is a whole unexplored gold mine given that I’ve never had HBO or watched a lot of TV in general.
The only drawback to Netflix is that they only send you one disk at a time, so you don’t get the special content that’s sometimes put on the second disk of a two-disk pack. But that’s not a big deal to me.
My best tip is just keep throwing any movies you’re interested in into your queue. Re-ordering is pretty easy, and I just throw anything I kinda wanna see into my top 15, figuring it’ll get there soon enough.
Netflix will also let you “add” current cinema releases and then will put them in your actual queue when they’re released. So if I find myself telling someone “I’m going to wait for the DVD” I go ahead and add it that day.
Since I’ve been a member from the start I still get 4 movies for whatever it is that other people are paying for 3. My girlfriend has the 4th one as her own list.
Should we start some kind of QT3 buddy group, or whatever it is you do on Netflix?
Gleefully charge down recommended and “viewers who enjoyed this also enjoyed…” links at least three or four steps deep each time. You’ll stumble across things you’ve never even heard of before; I find it a much better way to browse than their genre directories. Definitely throw in anything that looks even remotely interesting. I’m grandfathered in at the original four-at-a-time plan, and generally just make sure I have a couple flicks that I know I want to watch at the top of the queue, and anything else that arrives falls into the “we’ll give this a shot” category. Works really well.
Derek Meister found this widget to randomly shuffle up your queue should you ever get a yen to do that.
Netflix totally rules. You will have no problem watching enough movies to make it worthwhile. I originally signed up for the “four a month” plan because I had the same concern. I eventually realized I was running out of rentals after two weeks, and switched to “two-at-a-time unlimted” and have been very happy with it.
A couple tips / cool things about it:
Set up a big queue. I have like 200 movies in mine, and usually forget what’s at the top, so I’ll get an email from Netflix saying “We’re shipping you ‘On the Waterfront’” and I’ll be all, “Whoa! I always meant to see that.” It’s like Christmas every week.
To set up that queue, I basically went down their list of top movies and checked off everything I hadn’t seen that didn’t look awful. And whenever people mention a movie or TV series as good, or I read something about it in the paper, or whatever, I throw it in there. I think they have a list of classic movies as well – do the same for that list.
As others said, check out the related-movies links. You’ll find cool stuff.
Try pulling up movies from actors or directors you like. I added a bunch of stuff that way and was happy with most of the selections, even when I hadn’t heard of the movie.
Don’t be afraid to throw something in there even if it just looks vaguely interesting. You’re paying by the month, so if you hate it, throw it right back in the mail and you really lose pretty much nothing. I’ve seen tons of great movies that way, stuff I wouldn’t have risked a $5 rental on.
Check out the TV stuff. Lots of cool shows, and they’re great for when you only have 45 minutes and can’t watch a full movie.
And remember, the best thing about Netflix: they don’t have porn, so you don’t have to worry about some salesclerk calling your wife.
What Andrew said about adding current cinema releases. This applies to every recommendation too- if I see a recommendation for a movie while I’m surfing online I’ll just open up a tab with Netflix in it and drop it in my queue.
Netflix has great customer service IMO. I received a disk that was cracked this weekend. I reported it online (very easy to do) and I received a new copy of the disk the next day before I had even sent back the cracked one.
Thanks for the tips guys. There’s some really helpful stuff. I didn’t realize about being able to put movies in there that were not on DVD yet. I didn’t realize the queue could be so big. I like the idea of just setting it up and forgetting about it. There are dozens of classics I have been meaning to watch. And I always hear about stuff, but then can’t remember it when I get to Blockbuster, so this is going to be good.
If anyone does setup a Qt3 buddies list, put me down.
That was actualy the reason I canceled Nerflix. I had to return three defective disks my first month. I think I had either a really bad streak or people treat their netflix disks like coasters because who cares?
As a new user, you should rate popular stuff higher on your queue. That’s because (last I checked) they were giving higher selection priority to new users to boost loyalty during the first few months of service.
Yeah, I’d love that. I don’t want to pay for both Netflix AND GameFly, but I’d switch to any comprably priced service that included both games and DVDs.
This is embarrassing to admit, but I have returned many disks to BB because they were defective, when really I could have fixed them with a little Windex and a soft cloth. I didn’t know. Now I clean all DVDs before I attempt to play them.
One time I sent a VHS tape back to BB because it was displaying a large black box across the entire picture. I was so annoyed that BB manager gave me a free rental and replaced the movie I was attempting to watch with a duplicate. To my great chagrin, the big black was back on the new movie. I attempted to watch the movie with the big black box. When people started to talk, I realized my error. The TV was set to display sub titles!
I just started a friends list of people who have replied to this thread. Feel free to invite more.
Well, actuallly, I did not do this. It turns out you need an email address (preferably the one you opened the netflix account with) and none of us have our email address associated with our logins here at Qt3.
The netflix friends list seems like too much bother, but if someone else sets one up, I’ll be happy to join and see your ratings, suggestions, and reviews.
I thought DVD rentals were a good idea… until I had them stolen
they say it is illegal to steal someone else’s mail… where I live it is like jaywalking… it happens all the time
I return 4 DVDs and each time at least 1 DVD does not return to the company… my personal record of lost/stolen DVDs have been all 4 at once!
so now I vary the mailboxes I return them in… sometimes I mail them in a mailbox miles away… I have learned to avoid certain mailboxes where DVDs have been stolen in the past…
when a DVD is stolen/lost an investigation is activated which freezes the account – major pain in the ass.
it also doesn’t help that the return envelopes are decorated in red and have the company logo on them… very stupid idea… why don’t they just label the envelope “DVD INSIDE! TAKE ME HOME NOW”
Not me. You’re saying that they’re stolen after you put them in the mailbox? Doesn’t that implicate postal workers?[/quote]
Not necessarily, especially if Del has a house. Mail theft is unfortunately somewhat common (although it is a crime – a federal one, at that). People are usually looking for checks they can wash or get account info off of, but I’m sure they keep any Netflix DVDs they happen to find.
But mail theft almost always happens from individual curbside mailboxes (in other words, the kind you typically get with a house, where only your own mail goes in or out of it). It’s pretty rare, at least as nearly as I can tell, for people to steal mail from bulk mailboxes (like the big blue ones you see at a street corner, or the big locking kind you see in an apartment or condo complex). I’ve heard of at least one case where fraudsters actually blocked the drive-up outgoing mail chute at a local post office by shoving like a basket down there, and then came back in a couple hours and pulled it up along with all the recent mail deposits. But I don’t think that sort of thing happens often. If you haven’t already tried it, you might try just dropping the DVDs in locked mailboxes (like the blue public ones) or directly in a USPS postal chute at one of their offices.
Not me. You’re saying that they’re stolen after you put them in the mailbox? Doesn’t that implicate postal workers?[/quote]
Not necessarily, especially if Del has a house. Mail theft is unfortunately somewhat common (although it is a crime – a federal one, at that). People are usually looking for checks they can wash or get account info off of, but I’m sure they keep any Netflix DVDs they happen to find.
But mail theft almost always happens from individual curbside mailboxes (in other words, the kind you typically get with a house, where only your own mail goes in or out of it). It’s pretty rare, at least as nearly as I can tell, for people to steal mail from bulk mailboxes (like the big blue ones you see at a street corner, or the big locking kind you see in an apartment or condo complex). I’ve heard of at least one case where fraudsters actually blocked the drive-up outgoing mail chute at a local post office by shoving like a basket down there, and then came back in a couple hours and pulled it up along with all the recent mail deposits. But I don’t think that sort of thing happens often. If you haven’t already tried it, you might try just dropping the DVDs in locked mailboxes (like the blue public ones) or directly in a USPS postal chute at one of their offices.[/quote]
I only use the locked mailboxes.
The location where I live has cmmunity mailboxs where we all go to pickup our mail and drop mail off. But the boxes are locked and appear to be secure as heck. The only people who have access are postal office workers. I am not saying the postal folks are stealing… but the path seems to only lead to them Watson.
They are people like anyone else… I am sure there are some bad seeds in the postal jurisdiction I live in. That is why I mail my DVDs outside of my jurisdiction… theft/lost discs still seem to occur but not as frequent.
I still think the DVD envelopes should be a lot less flashy…
