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Netflix Freak

Flowbee

Flowbee

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Dec 27, 2002
2,943
0
Alameda, CA
You may remember several months ago, there was an app called Netflix Fanatic that let you manage your rental cue. It was discontinued and pulled from the web after Apple learned that one of their employees had written it. That was a loss.

Luckily for us, there's a new Netflix interface app for OS X called Netflix Freak. It lets you manage your Netflix cue, adjust your ratings, and search the Netflix database without having to deal with the slow and cumbersome Netflix web interface. It works like a charm! I was already a huge Netflix fan... this just makes using their system much better. Well worth the $15 price (Free 30 day trial).
 
Flowbee said:
You may remember several months ago, there was an app called Netflix Fanatic that let you manage your rental cue. It was discontinued and pulled from the web after Apple learned that one of their employees had written it. That was a loss.

Luckily for us, there's a new Netflix interface app for OS X called Netflix Freak. It lets you manage your Netflix cue, adjust your ratings, and search the Netflix database without having to deal with the slow and cumbersome Netflix web interface. It works like a charm! I was already a huge Netflix fan... this just makes using their system much better. Well worth the $15 price (Free 30 day trial).
Click to expand...

I don't use OS X so I can't relaly check this app out, but I'll say that I find the netflix website to be really easy to use and very fast, and managing my cue there has been great. I don't see the need for an app to help with this, but that's just my experience.

Looking at the descriptions though, this app does have some cool stuff in it. Is it worth 15 bucks. I dunno. I guess I'd have to play with it to find out.
 
i kinda like the netflix interface, i dont think it would be that much of an improvement, and usually it's rather fast when im here at work. Still pretty fast when im at home.. except I can use safari to set the ratings (3000+ now)... which i usually do at work anyways.

Anyone notice a service drop in the last quarter? I've been getting my movies slower and they get back slower.
 
krimson said:
Anyone notice a service drop in the last quarter? I've been getting my movies slower and they get back slower.
Click to expand...

maybe a bit. it was two days, now it's 3-4. but my sample size is pretty low. and just last week although it took M-Th to get the movie in, I had the new one on Friday. So who knows. But I'm sure they're increasing subscribers faster than they're increasing envelope emptiers/stuffers.
 
krimson Anyone notice a service drop in the last quarter? I've been getting my movies slower and they get back slower.[/QUOTE said:
definitely. Its taking an extra day at least a lot of the time, and they've been pulling this crap where they say a movie will be mailed the next day, instead of on the day when they received the one I returned. its really irritating, especially since they just raised their prices (right after which I started noticing the service problems). I've written them to tell them that I'm disappointed in it, and I'd encourage you to do so as well. Hopefully they'll listen if enough people make it known that we expect a certain service level. If it gets worse, I'll be checking out alternative services that are cheaper. I've stuck with netflix because I already have a large cue I don't want to re-enter, and the service has been good overall until now. I tried out a free trial of walmart's service, but I found their interface to be clunkier, the shipping info lacking, and the turn around time longer. Netflix is heading in the wrong direction at a time when they are perhaps their most vulnerable to competitors.
Click to expand...
 
Flowbee said:
It was discontinued and pulled from the web after Apple learned that one of their employees had written it.
Click to expand...

I never understood the purpose of such a program, when you have a completly usable web app.

But anyway, that's pretty lame about Apple. I assume he didn't do it on company time or computers. Not very supportive to there developers...
 
strider42 said:
I'll say that I find the netflix website to be really easy to use and very fast, and managing my cue there has been great.
Click to expand...

Let me rephrase: Compared to Netflix Freak, the Netfix web interface seems slow and cumbersome. And for me, dragging and dropping movies to rearrange my cue is more convenient than having to re-number.

To each his own.
 
strider42 said:
I've written them to tell them that I'm disappointed in it, and I'd encourage you to do so as well. Hopefully they'll listen if enough people make it known that we expect a certain service level. If it gets worse, I'll be checking out alternative services that are cheaper.
Click to expand...

trust me, i have written a few times. What sucks is, it used to take 1 day to get to me, and 1 back, now it's 2 days, and 3 back..
I love how sometimes, ill send back all 3, and they'll register 1 of them 2 days later, and then the 2nd one 2 days after that, and the 3rd ill report missing, and they register it back the next day.. i think they've realized they need to slow down rentals to really start making a good profit, especially after this last ad campaign, they (and I) have signed up a number of people.
 
krimson said:
trust me, i have written a few times. What sucks is, it used to take 1 day to get to me, and 1 back, now it's 2 days, and 3 back..
I love how sometimes, ill send back all 3, and they'll register 1 of them 2 days later, and then the 2nd one 2 days after that, and the 3rd ill report missing, and they register it back the next day.. i think they've realized they need to slow down rentals to really start making a good profit, especially after this last ad campaign, they (and I) have signed up a number of people.
Click to expand...

I've been wondering if they've been slowing the rentals down too. I know that they will make some movies "long wait" for high volume users (slashdot had ana rticle on it once and some guy proved it), so it wouldn't surprise me. The thing is, I don't think that's legal. All their advertising has said as soon as you return one, they send the next one out. Like you, i've sent back multiple movies at the same time, sometimes they even aknowledge receipt of all of them at the same time, but ship them on different days. That really peaves me, especially when the delay causes it to be shipped over the weekend, whcih means I won't get it till monday instead of on sunday.
 
I have 67 movies in my queue, and 17 have "long wait"s and 3 have Very long waits. They're kind of obscure cult movies, so that may be it.. i waited like 2 months for 21 grams. I remember Donnie Darko was very long wait since I put it in my queue, then they tell me that it's no loner available from their suppliers, and then I find that Best Buy has like 10 copies on the shelf.. LOL

Anyways, you couldn't prove that they were slowing down the rental rates for high volume renters, unless you did something illegal. I dont know if i am a high volume renter, i've gotten around 40+/month (3 DVD) a few times, so I'll guess that I am. Normally i'll get around 20-30 on good months... Last month, i had 19 rentals... i figured that i've been tagged.. there really isn't anything I can do, other than email them, and hope for a better alternative.
 
strider42 said:
I've been wondering if they've been slowing the rentals down too. I know that they will make some movies "long wait" for high volume users (slashdot had ana rticle on it once and some guy proved it), so it wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

I'm a pretty high volume user, and I haven't noticed any slow-downs. I guess it may have to do with what city you're in and if there's a distribution center nearby. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area and I almost always get a two day turn-around (ie. Mail to Netflix on Monday, receive new disk Wednesday). The only strange thing that's happened in the last week is that one of my more obscure movies, "Lady Snowblood," is listed as a 4 month wait! If demand is that high, maybe they should buy a few more copies.
 
Flowbee said:
I'm a pretty high volume user, and I haven't noticed any slow-downs. I guess it may have to do with what city you're in and if there's a distribution center nearby. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area and I almost always get a two day turn-around (ie. Mail to Netflix on Monday, receive new disk Wednesday). The only strange thing that's happened in the last week is that one of my more obscure movies, "Lady Snowblood," is listed as a 4 month wait! If demand is that high, maybe they should buy a few more copies.
Click to expand...

I'm in the bay area too. I usually have the same experience as you, its just recently the pattern has changed sometimes. Certainly its not all the time, but sometimes.
 
The LA hub is in Santa Ana, 30 minutes drive from here. I was supposed to get one on friday, it still hasn't arrived.

One thing i noticed was that the changes really started after they started sending me those "service survey" emails, where you tell them if you've gotten the DVD yet. I used to put down 3 days, so they'd try to get it to me faster, but then the last 2 times i put down 1 day.. that's when they started to slow down... maybe it's just a conspiracy theory. :rolleyes:
 
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