Monday, January 30, 2006
Netflix
A couple of posts below, I mentioned that I had a free trial to Netflix and that the first DVD I got was The Palm Beach Story. What I didn't mention was that about ten minutes before the end of the movie, the scenes became jerky and then advanced in little. bitty. bits. I thought my DVD player had gone haywire, so I tried to reverse the DVD. Would work. Tried the fast-forward, and it jumped to the end of the movie. Okay, so I started at the beginning. The first part of the movie played just fine, which meant that the DVD player was all right. I jumped to the defective scene. Same problem. I figured I had a faulty DVD, so I took it out of the player, planning to send it back to Netflix with a scathing letter. But then I thought it might be a good idea to have a look at the DVD itself. Sure enough, the last person to have the DVD had gotten greasy fingerprints around the outside edge. I cleaned it off, popped it back into the player, and it worked fine. Not a good experience for my first DVD from Netflix, however.
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4 comments:
You have a lot better mail service than I do, Patti. I sent my DVD back last Wednesday, and only this morning got an e-mail saying it had arrived. I guess that means I'll get another DVD about Thursday.
Our local distribution center is in Los Colinas (between Dallas and Fort Worth, where I live) so if I send in a movie on Monday I have another one on Wednesday.
Incidentally, I got a copy of POINT BLANK with a huge crack in it. Turns out there's an online form to report damage. They send you another copy on the same day.
We did NetFlix for a while last year, and really enjoyed it. We, too, had to clean a number of the discs, but otherwise it was a good value--particulary if you want to watch a season or two worth of a TV series (ie ALIAS) and don't feel like buying the box set. And their selection is muy impressive.
The rival Blockbuster mail service, however, is a bust. Mediocre selection outside of the current top releases, and--worst of all--they reshuffle your queue without warning or explanation. So if you're trying out a new series, you might get disc 3 from season 2 before you ever see a single episode of season 1. And Blockbuster is S-L-O-W. For all of NetFlix's failings, they're still the cock of the walk...
I had the same problem about half way through MYSTIC RIVER. I mentioned it to them but never got a replacement or credit. I also got a DVD that was cracked from rim to center. That was replaced, but with a dire warning that if it happens too many times they'll charge me. Like I broke the damn thing. Overall, however, it's been a positive experience.
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