I’ve been using Netflix for the past couple of months, and I’ve got to say that I’ve been impressed. On Monday their website went down, and the video I was expecting yesterday did not show up. This morning they sent out an email apologizing for the outage and offering a 5% rebate for this month’s service. This is the first time a video did not show up on time. In general if I drop my video in the mailbox before noon the next day, I get the next one in my queue two days later. That is: get the movie Tuesday, return it Wednesday, get the next one on Friday. I find this an impressive collaboration with the often maligned US postal service. This is a shout-out to them as well. If I am diligent about returning the videos the next day I can reliably get four videos a week with my two-at-a-time $13.99-a-month plan (working out to roughly 90 cents a rental with the tax). A price increase is planned for June 15th.

There are some negatives. You may have to wait awhile for new releases. I’ve had No Country for Old Men and I Am Legend at the top of my queue since long before their release dates and am being told to expect a long wait for both of them. Also the discs are sometimes a little scratched up, but so far none of them have been unplayable. In general it is a pretty good deal, but you might want to stick with your local shop for the latest videos releases.

By the way, their tip of cleaning glitchy discs with window cleaner is a good one. And their suggestion algorithm is excellent. I’ve found it to be very helpful in finding videos for my queue.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Amusements, Media by gamma