The downside to a Netflix Membership

You know they have no late fees, right? Well that’s apparently a blessing & a curse. You may know I like nature shows. I in fact had the whole of the BBC Planet Earth collection in my queue. The idea was to watch from disc one to disc four, in order, and enjoy it in the order it was meant to be presented.

Well that didn’t happen because for whatever reason disc one is always on wait longer than the others. I got disc two first, then I actually DID get ahold of a disc one copy, though it didn’t play in my blu-ray player (wrong region code) and was sent back. I’ve viewed all the other discs. Disc one though, sits on my queue at position #1. And never arrives.

I send back my movies the day after they’re watched, so I don’t hold them for a long time or anything. I have a revolving door of incoming & outgoing movies is what I’m saying, folks. Yet no matter what, even though disc one of Planet Earth has been at the top of my queue for 3 weeks or so, it never gets sent to me. Even when it says it’s available.

Well I called netflix today, and sad to say but they’re no help to me. I tried to explain that I was frustrated that although I’ve had this movie at the top of my queue for this entire time, it has yet to make its way to me, despite being available according to their status, when I was in need of a movie to be sent. I was told that yeah it’s frustrating, but that’s life without late fees & return dates; you get what you get.

And I can understand that to an extent. But what the hell? I’m calling to complain about it, you know? Obviously I’d like to watch this film. I asked the guy, “So it’s conceivable that although it’s #1 on my queue and I send back movies in a timely fashion, that I’ll never get to see this film because it's always on a short wait that day?” He didn’t have an adequate response. Shouldn’t there be a way? I mean, other than making it #1 on my queue, and calling customer service, what can you do to actually get a movie from them if they don’t want to send it your way?

I heard about a lawsuit filed against them saying that they tamper with people’s queues & the disbursement of the discs in such a way as to harm people who have been there longer, to get new peeps excited about the service. Sort of playing favorites, you know? Sh!t, I can see it…

Hey, maybe you can’t ‘reserve’ a disc… I get it. OK yeah that’s not how netflix works. But if the idea has a potential flaw that’s affecting a customer? Maybe they never get the #1 queue item because the timing is f*cking them? Maybe you make an allowance and set it up so that the disc ships to them next time. Maybe just sort of a “gimme” so that the whole of the system isn’t unduly burdened by having to codify the chance circumstance.

Sh!t netflix, just send me the damn disc.

F*ck. Peace.