Badmovies.org Forum

Netflix recently sent me a copy of Suspiria (1977), and since their website has a picture of the Anchor Bay edition (and the option of having them send you Anchor Bay's DVD extras), I was assuming they would send me the Anchor Bay edition of the film.

Instead, they sent me some awful piece of garbage from "Westlake Entertainment", a company that I had never even heard of.  When I went on the "Westlake" website, I could not even find any mention of a Suspiria DVD release by them.

As I mentioned, this DVD is wretched.  The quality of the DVD was terrible, and was probably taken off some old VHS copy of the movie.  It was incredibly shaky, you could see the video lines, and at one point the words “VIDEO CALIBRATION” were on the screen, over a scene, for 5 seconds.  All of the booming colors that enrich this film were muted and drained of their dynamic dyestuff. What’s more, the soundtrack had been muzzled. It sounded like the audio was recorded in a blustery cornfield.  Also, the DVD only had the English dub, and it was probably edited.

Why, Netflix!?  Why!?!?

I am now questioning whether I want to continue Netflix after my free trial has finished.

Complain to them (but be polite).  I would expect that they would give you a free rental to replace that one, or send you the correct edition without debiting your account.  Tell us how it goes, I've never had to use their customer service before.

haha that sucks.  I love netflix but that is dirtay

I have used their customer service, once for a missing DVD, and once for one that wouldn't play, they apologised and replaced each DVD, took about 2 days to get the replacements in. Last month the automated shipping system broke down, started to take 5-7 days to get DVDs from them, when they got it back up and running they emailed an apology and gave me credit for 1 month. So far Netflix seems to handle problems that arise in quick and professional manner.

I agree with Rev, Netflix has always done me well, I have no doubt that a tactful inquiry will get you taken care of. I got "Alien" from them, and the first two copies were flawed. I talked to a girl and she said (and did) send me the Alien DVDs repeatedly until I got one that worked in addition to my scheduled movies (It took seven of them, poor QC at the manufacturer?), and left me getting an extra disc for the rest of the month. Another time the two movies I received got sent back the same day I got them, before I had a chance to view them. I called and they sent me replacements for those two that day, and sent my next two queued movies the day after, apparently when the two unwatched movies got to them, so on a 2-at a time plan, I had 4 movies due to nothing of their fault.

After reporting the DVD "mislabeled", they told me that they would be sending me a replacement copy.

Well, guess what?

They sent me the exact same piece of garbage.

Unbelievable!

This is what happens when a company like Netflix hires people to fill orders who have little or no knowledge of movies.

Actually, the way Netflix works, the only people that touch the DVD are the ones that take it out of the sleeve, clean it, and put it back. All the routing and such is done by the barcode on the sleeve, this came straight from a netflix employee. It's not surprising that the occasional mistake or mis-labeled movie gets passed on, especially if the disc itself is mis-labeled, and not just in the wrong sleeve. People were complaining that they couldn't ship while their system was down: The system really doesn't have the capacity to work manually, all incoming movies are inventoried by barcode, and on the way out they are enveloped and addressed automatically by barcode as well.

Which indicates the people applying the barcodes in the first place don't have the knowledge to differentiate between different versions of the same movie (e.g., Anchor Bay vs. Westlake).  90% of the customers probably wouldn't notice, but the knowledgable, demanding crowd in this forum would never be fooled by such trickery!

By the way, maybe we've just identified a new type of "bad movie" fan.  Is there a subculture that not only enjoys bad movies, but takes this concept one step further and prefers bad versions of bad movies?  (Such as edited versions, with poor video and audio quality?)  Now THAT would be really hardcore!

I've never really had any major problems with Netflix.  I did have a problem with them the other week but it was a simple one.  A DVD that I rented was supposed to arrive on Oct 3.  Well it didn't arrive and I didn't get it on the 4th and it told me that if I don't get it by the 6th to report so I did report it as missing so then sent me a another one then the next day I got the one that I reported lost so I ended up getting having two of the same one when the replacement came the 8th.  That's the only problem I have ever had with them.   

Here's an interesting article from Howstuffworks.com about how Netflix works:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/netflix.htm


Never used them myself.  I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately but I may try them once the really cold weather hits in a couple of months.

My reviews (http://www.netflix.com/StrangerReviews?prid=477892184&lnkctr=MDP2RL) for the subscribers

That link shows that you are 85% similar to me: should I be concerned?

Only problem I ever had with Netflix was in trying to get the 1975 copy of The Sunshine Boys with Walter Matthau and George Burns. They sent me the 1995 remake (Woody Allen and Peter Falk). I used their online complaint form to describe the problem and sent it back. Shortly afterward, they sent me a replacement, and the paper sleeve was for the 1975 movie.

But the DVD was the remake again!

I gave up after that.

rev-  if you are 85% similar to me yes i would be very concerned.  emphasize the other 15% as much as you can

I would bet it's closer to 99.99% that wouldn't notice. It is absolutely frightening that you propose that a full 10% of the world is like the loonies hanging around here.   :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle:

*Gulp*  Are you implying that we . . . well . . . that we may not be quite normal?

I don't have NetFlix myself but I have plenty of friends who do have it.  I don't recall any of them having this kind of problem in terms of getting a movie on some kind of sub standard sub par label like what was mentioned with the Suspiria DVD.

They've seemed extremely pleased and anytime they've had any issues with receiving a cracked or damaged disc NetFlix has promptly taken care of it.  I also don't recall them ever getting an incorrect movie that was on their queue.

Not YOU though, , you're NORMAL  :lookingup:

What could be more normal than a 44 year-old guy who hides behind a photo of Burgurmeister Meisterburger?   :drink:

one thing I hate about netflix is waiting for them to ship something across the country if it's an obscure title.  I've been waiting for 3 days for  "the Collins kids at town Hall Party"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvzuvXorwk

I got NetFlix about a year ago, they far batter than Blockbuster which I had for about 3 years.

I've only had 2 bad DVD's come in from NF, unlike BB which I got 1 or 2 a month and they'd often spend the exact same broken DVD back to me.

But I have notice that they've slowed a little here lately, still not as bad as BB though.


BTW Lester I'm 87% like you on NF and weighting 3 or 4 extra days to get some obscure title from across the country is annoying. There system should be able to tell you, this movie is not located at your local distribution center extra shipping time will be required. Then you could decide if you still want it or not.

the queue thing is messed up too.  just now I had 500 titles in my queue and you can't add any more after that.  they should have multiple queues.  why am I such a bad person because I want to remember a certain movie but don't want to see it right away

Lol, and I thought I was bad with my 200+!

They do have multiple queues. You can set up profiles under different names, each with their own queue. They announced they were going to do away with the profiles this summer, but then they changed their mind. So I still have a queue under my wife's name, even though it's now empty because I moved all those movies to my main queue when I thought they were going to delete the profile.

However, I have no idea if making multiple profiles will let you get past the 500 limit.

Wow, I only have 7 movies in my queue... and that's only because Satantango is spread out over 4 discs. :smile:

It is great that they carry so many unusual films, but that is a great suggestion.  It would probably be the best upgrade to the system that I can think of.

Well, they do show a status of "Available Now", "Short Wait" or "Long Wait."  For a long time, THE TOXIC AVENGER was listed as "Long Wait", so I evetually got sick of seeing it and moved it to the bottom of my queue.  Now it says "Available Now."

True, but they still don't tell you that say "The Creeps" is shipping not from my local distribution center (Louisville which is still 250 miles away) but Los Angeles 2500 miles away until after they ship it. Whereas I can generally get a movie in 1 or 2 days from Louisville, but a movie from LA takes about a week and you have to send it back to LA taking up another week so  1 movie can take over 2 weeks in turn around. If I knew this before hand I'd find a different movie.

By the way, does Netflix ever listen to those "Request a Movie" things?  I've requested a ton of movies, and they seem to have completely ignored every single one of them.

Hmm.. still waiting to see both The Incredible Hulk and Feast 2.  It's weird, in the early days of my Nexflix account new releases would often take awhile to get, but now they're usually they're pretty good at sending them as soon as they come out.  I guess TIH must be VERY popular among the renters, because my parents (who also have Netflix) didn't have any getting trouble  Iron Man or the latest Indiana Jones films shortly after they were released.

And with Feast 2, dunno.. guessing it's popular among fans of the genre and they have so many copies, upping the wait time for all.  May end up just renting TIH... they have one of those $1 a night vending machine things at a nearby store... hmm...

When I first got Netflix the only problem I had was getting movies from everywhere in the country but my local distubtor. Those were they days when "Throttling" or whatever was a problem but after they got in trouble for it that stopped.

The local distubtor is actually only a couple of miles from were I live so turnover is quick.

One thing I learned though: Never ask for a replacement right away as most of you guys have posted and noticed. Anytime if theres something wrong with the disc (Broken, mislabeled etc.) just send it back and put in your queue again. Everytime you ask for a immediate replacement they will send the exact same one. It happened to me twice and twice I got the same broken disc.

From my understanding of Netflix, at times they actually don't know exactly where things are.  Things get scanned and shipped immediately, and if there is no shipment for them they just get tossed back in a bin to be scanned the next day.  I don't think they actually have a warehouse full of DVDs.  Or am I mistaken?

BTW, from my understanding they do listen to the Requests, but if only one or two people are requesting it, they're not going to bother - it wouldn't make financial sense.  Why is why I wouldn't request anything - the stuff I'd like is too obscure for them to bother.  Then again, they DID have Long Arm of the Law, which has been out of print for several years and was never released in Europe or North America.

I Just got Net Flix, and I've been mostly happy with it.  They have a good selection of Chinese movies.  Not great, but good.  I've had several of them have to ship from the west coast though, which was kind of annoying (I'm in Missouri).  I also wish they'd carry region 3 discs, but I understand why they don't.  There's a ton of those Celestial Shaw Bros. films I'd like to see, but am unwilling to buy.  There is eHit, but ALL the DVDs there are on the West Coast, so every disc would have a 3 day wait each way, meaning too few rentals to be worth the cost.  I'd also like it if NetFlix had more Full Moon flicks, but that's Full Moons fault.  I DID finally get to see Doctor Mordrid though!

But yeah, I do like NetFlix.  From my understanding, they pick the display picture based on the disc they get first, and that is why you may get a poor version of the film.  I haven't experienced it yet, but it is a concern of mine - MANY Hong Kong films have multiple versions, often with one or two bad ones and a rare good version (like Hong Kong Legends VS Mei Ah).  Still, for the price and speed of the service and excellent response you generally get, I think they're great.  Just remember no service is perfect - mistakes will happen at any business, especially when a business is as big as NetFlix.

BTW, I did try the online viewing on NetFlix.  It's not bad, but I wish it was better quality.  Looks about like VHS I'd say.  Very few obscure titles on that service though.

I just got my copy of Phenomena.  Uh-oh, it's by Westlake as well!  Heh.  Haven't looked at its quality yet though.