Tag: netflix

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Netflix Customer Support

Yet another blog post?! My god…

When I first learnt that the only way to contact Netflix customer support was through phone support, I felt a bit annoyed. There’s plenty of things I would like to report/suggest via a short email or contact form, rather than wait on the phone and having to explain it in person.

So initially, I had tried to contact them through Twitter via @netflix and @Netflixhelps. Sometimes I’d get a reply within 24-48 hours. Other times my tweet would disappear into the oblivion. It wasn’t the most reliable way of contacting their support, but I wasn’t going to call just to make a suggestion.

Anyway, I made my first call to Netflix yesterday. I’m not sure what their peak hours are like, but when I called around 2-3am, the wait time was pretty much non-existent. As I mentioned yesterday, they had sent me the wrong DVD and I had reported it via their website. I also selected to have a replacement sent immediately. Unfortunately, I forgot Dexter season 3 was going to be released on Tuesday and personally would rather get Dexter first before Death Note part 1. I saw that the replacement wasn’t planned to be shipped out until Tuesday. I called in and got someone on the other end within 15 seconds. I asked him if he could cancel the replacement order as I’d like something else on my queue before it.

He said unfortunately the order’s been locked and is shipping directly from a different service center. I felt a bit disappointed, but that’s when he said, he’d give me a courtesy bonus DVD for my troubles. I said, “Awesome!” +1 for Netflix.

Tonight, after I found out that the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex feature films were just shortened versions of the TV series, I decided to watch Ghost In the Shell: Sold State Society. Unfortunately the audio/video was so out of sync, at least a few seconds. There’s been several reviews mentioning the audio/video sync issue already. Once again, the only way to report this issue was by calling in.

I called in again, once again in the middle of the night around 2am, so no waiting time involved. I mentioned the audio sync issue and the title of the film I was trying to watch and she mentions that it had been reported earlier and the technicians are already working on it. Unfortunately she couldn’t give me an ETA on when it would be fixed, but thanked me for reporting the issue.

All in all, I’m unexpectedly satisfied with Netflix customer service through the phone. The phone operators are well trained and there’s no automated phone system to navigate through. You call, enter your 6 digit code, and you get an operator. I’m a happy camper.

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Book Rental…

So these past few weeks, I’ve been hearing this commercial on the radio touting that they’re the Netflix of books, where you pay a monthly subscription and you can rent out 2, 3, or 4 books at a time. There’s no late fees and the books are mailed to your door. This struck me immediately as very odd since this sounds like a service that wants to replace the library which is a FREE service.

Fuzzywuzzy posted this screenshot:
book rental service

book rental service? – Selekta

was just thinking. my sister does -alot- of reading, and spends like $1000 a year on just books alone. most of them she reads once then never looks at again. is there any kind of like…video rental store but for books? would make things alot cheaper, plus once one person has read the next person can get enjoyment from it etc

And this prompted me to blog about it. I don’t exactly recall the name of the book rental service that was advertised on the radio, but BookSwim sounds awfully close. There was also Booksfree.com, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the one that was advertised on the radio. I understand libraries can sometimes be horrible, but as library gets more and more modernized, I can’t see a book rental service as hardly useful. The libraries here in Seattle allows you to reserve books online and when the book is ready for pickup, it sends you an email.

I talked this over a bit with RayAlome, and there are some downsides to the library:

  • Books have due dates (usually ~2 weeks). They can typically be renewed, unless it’s new or someone else has reserved it.
  • There might be a long queue for new books (i.e. Harry Potter), but just like Netflix, I don’t think a book rental service can guarantee you’ll get new releases immediately either, but they might be faster than the library in getting you the book.
  • You have to actually go to the library to pick up your book, instead of having them mail it to you.

I also found some problems that a book rental service has that a DVD service doesn’t. First, books comes in different shapes and sizes, while DVDs are a 1 size fit all. Therefore packaging material needs to be customized or be highly flexible. Books aren’t exactly light either, though with medial mail, you can still ship 2lbs for under $3. However, that might mean it’ll take up to 8 days for the book to get to you and going back also takes that amount of time. I don’t see them having warehouses in different parts of the country set up like Netflix, since they’re barely starting, but maybe they’ll have some sort of agreement with USPS or UPS to have faster shipping for cheap.

We also talked about the Amazon.com Kindle, but that’s a story for another time.