I think the point to take away from my post is that at Movie Gallery, they would have charged you the full price for the defective DVD while at Netflix, they replace it for free. Imagine how upset you’d be if it cost you $19.99 everytime your Married w/ Children’s disc failed to play. It’s a bit of a hassle to have to wait for the replacement disc in the mail, but if you’re renting 6.5 movies per month (approx average rate for Netflix customers), then it’s something that should affect you less then once per quarter. While it’s no doubt frustrating to have to wait for the replacement disc, if the issue really matters to you, I’m sure that you could call Netflix support and they’d send out the next disc in your queue.

Ultimately, Netflix doesn’t make money off of the failed discs because it causes higher churn, it means they have to buy another DVD and they pay for postage again. I feel pretty confident that this is a problem that they put a lot of resources towards minimizing.

If the owner of the site wants to use my email as a contact, I hereby give permission to do so if any attorneys want to hear more about this.

Yeah, I’m starting a campaign, dammit.

I’ve been a netflix customer for 5 years. Lately, I’ve found that (especially older titles) movies are increasing in their ratio of damaged to playable. It used to be that maybe once per month I’d get a damaged dvd, but now it’s up to about 3. Please follow…

I am on the “two at a time” plan. When I report my movie as damaged, I don’t get that movie replaced in addition to the “two at a time”, rather it replaces the next movie in my queue. So, those three movies per month are three LESS movies I get to watch in that given month.

Here’s a situational example. Let’s say the top 4 movies in my netflix queue are Married With Children – Season 5. I receive dvd’s #1 and #2 on Monday. I watch #1 on Monday and return it Tuesday. On Tuesday I find out that dvd #2 is damaged half way through. I report it immediately to Netflix. They send out the replacement on Wednesday as per their policy. The also send out my next movie in my queue, which is Married With Children DVD #3. So (let’s say) Thursday I receive DVD #2 and DVD #3 when I should actually be (if the DVD wasn’t damaged) getting DVD’s #3 and #4.

Sounds petty doesn’t it? Not when it happens anywhere from 3-6 times per month. Multiply that by how many customers Netflix has that reports a damaged DVD and I bet that the figue would be quite large.

So in essence, I am getting less but paying the same per month due to no fault of my own (on top of the fact that how irritated I am to have to wait several days to finish watching a movie in the first place).

I understand that it’s a risk I take by agreeing to rent movies through the mail… but think about how much money Netflix saves by not sending out the damaged dvd, separate from the “limit” of how many movies you can have out at a time. Over the course of a year, that’s a lot of money we’re paying over what we should.

Here’s the simple solution in a perfect world. Regardless of how many movies you can have out at a time… if you receive a damaged dvd, it should be replaced as soon as possible and you will receive the next movies in your queue as if the “damaged” dvd never happened (instead of waiting for the same movie “again”). Or, they could charge you less at the end of the month because for every damaged dvd you received over that month, you received one less movie than you should have.

It’s almost criminal based on how many customers Netflix has and having no real competition that they can get away with this. Add up the postage and the fact that you are still paying the same amount each month and that’s a lot of money for Netflix to keep for themselves.

If it hit them in the pocket book… maybe they’d have more incentive to be sure that damaged dvd’s are a minimal problem. Maybe they’d invent some kind of technology that automatically loads returned dvd’s and scans them for errors before they go back out into circulation.

It’s to the point now, that when I receive a damaged dvd, that I don’t even report it. Manny times they have to send the title from a further location and it can take up to a week or so for delivery and because it takes the place of one of the dvd’s you can have out at a time, it’s not froogle to report it at all.

Why am I the only one (and I’ve searched google pretty good) that seems to see the “problem” with this policy?

As long as you’re paying a “set amount” per month and you receive a defective item due to no fault of your own, it should come off of your bill or the replacement should not count against the limit of how many you can have out at a time.

Geesh.

http://www.dailyguilt.com/2007/03/29/why-girls-shouldnt-rent-video-games/

Understandably, she also doesn’t see much value in buying insurance for rentals.

I am glad someone looks out for their customers!

This is a very common practice by companies (esp video rental) of charging DAMAGE PROTECTION (not “insurance”, as that is regulated by the government, nor is it a “tax”, as that is what is collected by the government), but rather a voluntary purchase to protect you from paying for a DVD that is damaged IN YOUR POSSESSION!!! IE, if it doesn’t work when you get it, you just take it back and tell them about it. However, if you have kids that like to break things or play frisbee with the discs, or a dog that likes to chew things, or are pretty much an airhead that drives off with stuff on top of the car (I have seen this more than a few times), this MIGHT be a good idea for you.

And, yes, it is incredibly profitable, but so are the “Protection plans” sold by Best Buy, Sams Club, etc. And Best Buy, especially, gives you the hard sell. If you don’t want to buy this protection, when the clerk ASKS you (no hard sell… if you are given a hard sell, it is being done wrong, and you should talk to the store manager), simply say “no”. It’s not that difficult, your parents should have said “no” to you a LOT growing up (although their not doing so would explain the “entitlement” attitude you are showing here), and that has been the basis of the drug control policy in the US for a generation. If just saying no is good enough for Nancy Reagan, it should help you get thru the check out process at your local video store.

And you want to complain about a company making a profit on selling your so-called “insurance”, why not start with Best Buy, which gives you a hard-sell, or better yet, attack State Farm, which really does make a profit selling insurance. HOW DARE THEY!!!!

Just furtuer proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.