Netflix Review

I love Netflix! I have the 1 DVD out-at-a-time plan with unlimited Instant Watching. I use it in conjunction with our local video store, which is not a major chain and has very reasonable rates. I mostly get DVD's of BBC programming not easily found in the USA. I also like it for quirky little movies and cult classics that are hard-to-find at a video store. My husband and I watch instantly all the time. It's the best part of Netflix for me. My husband can be on the desktop computer watching, and I can be on the laptop watching something else at the same time. So, there's no limitations.

I haven't really tried out new releases that often. Even though it usually takes only 1-2 days to get the DVD, I want it the same day it drops and my local store almost always has it in stock. You can pre-order stuff that is not out yet too.

When you rate movies on the website, it becomes really good at suggesting new ones. I have watched some really great movies I hadn't even heard of.

You get postage-paid envelopes to return the movies. Lose an envelope? They refund you the postage. Lose a DVD sleeve, no problem. Just stick the DVD in the envelope as-is. You can stick 2 movies in 1 envelope even.

The only problem I had was that on my laptop, it kept telling me I should upgrade to Silverlite, the new media player. It touted new and great features and less lag times. It said once you upgrade, you can't go back to Windows Media Player. I carefully looked at the system requirements. I had more than I needed. I upgraded. It skipped and sometimes the sound didn't match the video. The screen was bigger, but also more blurry.

Then I called Netflix to complain and the girl was a total.... well. She acted like I was an idiot. The first thing she did was tell me that there was a warning that you can't go back. Then she told me that there WERE certain requirements and maybe I should have looked at those. She was talking really loud and slow and was enunciating each word like English was not my first language. It made me really angry, because I did my homework before I upgraded. I told her that if it had said "upgrade and it may or may not be better" I probably wouldn't have done it. But it was supposed to be SO much better! That's been my only contact with telephone customer service at Netflix and it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think you should assume that people are uninformed idiots before you even hear them out. She basically told me there was nothing I could do because Windows isn't even supporting Windows Media Player anymore and in a week everyone was going to be forced to switch to Silverlite. That was 4 months ago and we are still using WMP on my desktop computer. Who was uninformed?