Netflix Subscription Review

Netflix is a company most people have heard of by now. DVD movie and game rentals delivered right to your mailbox. Never any late fees, and a virtually unlimited list of available movies. But does Netflix add up to their promise? Should you consider buying friends and family Netflix gift subscriptions this Christmas?

My household has been subscribing to Netflix now for about a year. We love the convenience of it. We go online to the Netflix website and click on the movies we want to watch. The titles are added to our queue and are sent in order as viewed movies are returned. We can keep our movie rentals from Netflix for as long as we want to watch the movie. This means if we get busy and can't get around to watching the movie for a few days, we can keep it. When the kids get hooked on one of their choices, we can keep it for days or weeks until they want a new title. You simply won't be sent a new movie until the movie is returned.

The Queue
Your personal queue on the Netflix website can hold about as many movies as you care to add to it. I'm not sure what the maximum on the list is, but we've had over thirty titles on our queue at once. This is an important feature, because it means we do not have to return to the Netflix site very often; we only update our queue once every two or four weeks, as we feel like it. If you find another movie or new release on the site and would prefer that movie to be sent by Netflix before the other titles, you can simply update the queue by entering a new order and clicking on 'update'. Unfortunately, that also means your movie might be bumped further down the list (or removed altogether) when your husband doesn't want to watch your girly movies. Of course, he can only do that if he knows the current password…

Selection
We've found the movie selection at Netflix to be very good. Not only are there new releases, but loads of educational material from the Discovery Channel, BBC, History Channel and on and on. These are a great resource for families with seven year old boys hooked on Dragon and Dinosaur movies and men with an affinity for space exploration and Physics. There have only been a few titles my husband wanted that could not be found, and I can't say that Netflix disappointed me there (really, from String Theory to Conan?).

Service
This has been my only sticking point with Netflix. The service hasn't been horrible, but it's been less than stellar, and after all, that is really all they are - a service company.

The majority of the time, say eighty to eighty-five percent of the time, Netflix has a very fast turn around, and I can generally count on being able to mail a movie in, have it received and the next movie in my mailbox in three or four days. Maybe this spoils us a little, but realistically, this translates into being able to turn a movie around once a week, maybe twice if you watch the movie as soon as you get and have it back in the mail the next morning on a strict Monday/Thursday schedule.

There have been times, several times in fact, when for some reason movies were not flipped and we waited a week or more for a movie. At times this was blamed on the postal service, and I give the company that variable, but other times it had to be all Netflix, because we had received the email stating the returned movie arrived, but the email indicating a new movie was mailed out was not sent out for days. I have filed complaints with Netflix over this more than once, and the company never responds. No apology, no offer of better service. No response at all. I don't like that in a company.

Netflix does periodically send out emails inquiring when a movie was received and mailed back as a means of tracking their turnaround time, but I'm not sure what they do with the information, because service has basically stayed the same the entire time we've been with Netflix.

Netflix does have safeguards in place for movies that are lost during transit. If a movie does not arrive in your home or at Netflix within seven days, you can report it as missing on the Netflix website and Netflix will send out a new movie. As long as you do not do this frequently, no negative action is taken against your account. Of course, not being able to report for five to seven days prolongs your time without a movie, but some things cannot be helped.

Options and Pricing
Netflix offers customers three subscription options. Customers can subscribe to have one, two, or three movies in home at a time, starting at a cost of $9.95 per month (two movies at a time costs $14.95, $17.95 for three) . The movies are mailed back in the envelope they came in, and the postage is prepaid by Netflix. Each title is mailed separately in its own mailer, so the movies do not have to be returned all at the same time; If you want to keep one movie a little longer, you can, and Netflix will replace only those you have returned.

Netflix offers gift subscriptions as well. You can purchase a Netflix subscription for a friend or family member for a one month, two, three, four, five, six, or twelve month period, for any subscription level.

Is Netflix Worth the Money?
The quick answer is yes. All in all, the price cannot be beat by renting from a movie store, and the lack of late fees works wonders on my wallet (I'm miserable at returning movies on time). However, service disruptions and the lack of a compassionate response lessens the value of my Netflix subscription. Netflix is easy and more economical than pay per view and movie channels, and somewhat addicting.

While I haven't canceled my subscription, I hesitate to recommend Netflix because of those times when service has been plain non-existent. Would I give Netflix as a gift subscription? Probably not. Leastwise, not without researching another online rental company like Blockbuster instead. I also have something of a problem pushing my friend (typo-I meant friends-I have more than one) and family into a subscription they might feel compelled to renew after the gift period is up, but might not have purchased otherwise. Obviously, this is what Netflix is counting on, but I personally have a difficult time with it.

All in all, Netflix is a good service and fair to good value for the money. If customer service was improved and Netflix was a little more responsive to complaints, I would give them a good or very good rating, probably excellent. My final advice - consider Netflix, but look at your other options and what those company's customers are saying first.