Releasing This Week page broken.... sigh

I have a fairly relaxed attitude towards renting from Netflix If it is a new release that I am not terribly passionate about I put it at the bottom of my queue and move it up when I am in the mood, but I have it there to know it is available. If I really want to see it I put it in queue and towards the top of my list, or at the top, but populate behind it with movies that are listed as available and I wouldn't mind as an alternative, so I am not disappointed. At least once a week I get a happy surprise in my mail box and I am good.

I have a nice Sunday Morning routine. I sleep in. I put on the TV or a DVD (if what is on TV sucks). I make myself some breakfast and a nice cup of coffee. Then I log-in to Netflix and look at the Releasing this week page. When it went away before I spent weeks talking to customer service and being told a) that with enough complaints it will come back, or b) tough shit, only 10% of all users ever used that page so stop crying and get used to us telling you how to look at new releases. Eventually I was told about the hidden link and have been happy ever since. This morning I clicked on the link and it is still last week's list.

At first I was pissed, but with their recent issues, maybe it is just delayed. At best, maybe there will be a note on the forum pages. I come here, there is nothing. If there is a problem, why won't they tell us. If they are going to discontinue it, why don't they tell us. And which one of you people who unflaggingly support the removal of the Releasing This Week for the certifiably ignorant and unhelpful New Release page are actually Netflix plants come to tote the company's propoganda? Until recently I had never heard that their decision was for our best interest to make sure we had better access to new releases by making them harder to know about, thereby lessening their renting. Is that the new Netflix party like, Sieg Heil?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Frank on April 13, 2008 at 8:54am: Thank you, David. I had just logged on to write a similar note.

I don't really care about what Hollywood blockbuster is coming out. Rarely do I put them at the top of my list. And if I do, and can't get it, I wait. No big deal.

I used "Releasing this Week" to find the obscure titles that aren't necessarily being released that week in general but were acquired by Netflix and put into circulation. Some were older TV shows, British tV series, special interest videos, etc.

Now, the only choice we have is to let Netflix decide what we would like. Or, we can sit with a list of titles and search for them every week to see if they are available.

But, you see, we don't matter. It may be true that only 10% of the custormers used that page. But those 10%,I'll bet, were loyal customers who rented movies other than the blockbusters netflix is so worried about.

No, they are a modern company who believe that computers know what we want better than we do. So far, not one recommendation they have made in the new "New Releases" page is something I want.

If they are really worried about a run on the blockbuster titles...how about a modified "Releasing this Week" page. Call it "Also Releasing This Week" and include those titles not so well known.

But no. Netflix is now the largest renter of DVD's and they have the attitude of "we'll do what we want and we dont' care." Fine. They have that right. I currently rent five videos at a time. I will reduce that to one or two and give Blockbuster a try.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DemonDuck on April 13, 2008 at 9:24am: I agree with this and others who have commented on NetFlix's notion that we don't have a clue as to what movie we should watch. In their eyes, we are a bunch of mindless droids who need to be lead every step of the way toward watching a movie.

Why I expect them soon to send people to my house to supervise how I load the DVD in the player.

I HATE THAT ATTITUDE!!!

If there was a reasonable alternative to NetFlix (which there isn't right now) I'd quit NetFlix and go there.

My response to their dehumanizing attitude is to lower my subscription to the next lowest level of cost. I went from 4 movies at a time to 3 movies.

I encourage all who feel the same way to follow a similar boycott -- squeeze their bottom line -- it's the only thing they really care about.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The Real Uncle Bob on April 13, 2008 at 1:10pm: I wish Netflix would get rid of everything except the queue page and a search box. I have no problem thinking of movies to rent -- my botheration is that other people think of them first.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RJP on April 13, 2008 at 10:56am: I'm going to miss that webpage. I've got a good system setup outside of Netflix to identify English Language new releases for titles dated from the last few years.

What I'm going to miss is identifying those new release titles that are movies dated from say over a decade ago - those old VCR favorites you've been waiting forever to come to DVD. No easy way now to tell when, or if, Netflix stocks them.

I'm also going to miss the Foreign Language new releases. Netflix only adds a minute number of all the foreign language DVDs released each week, and again, without that webpage, there is no easy way to what Netflix has added to inventory.

The marketing strategy behind this deletion of a obviously well-used customer service convenience is beyond me - however I've always contended that Netflix is run by "tech weenies" who have no clue even what a marketing focus group is...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David on April 13, 2008 at 11:28am: And what makes it worse is that they don't communicate these changes, in advance or after the fact. The page goes away and YOU have to search to find out why. When I first started calling customer service about things, half the time they were as confused as the customers. Where is the service? Where is the love?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by boingo2000 on April 13, 2008 at 11:35am: I'm hoping there's just a delay in getting it updated today. Add me to the list of people who find the Releasing This Week page to be the most helpful, and most-used, pages on the site. When it first went away, I was livid. The "new" New Releases page is completely unuseable and useless. As long as the old "hidden" page exists, I can keep my anger under the surface.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anathema23 on April 13, 2008 at 11:35am: I was upset that the old RTW page has not been updated this week as well... I came here to see if anyone else had mentioned it and I found your post. However, I also just noticed that the new releases RSS feed has not been updated yet either as of the time of my writing this (not updated since April 10th today is Sunday the 13th) ... so this might mean that it's just a system wide back-up or that whoever is in charge of this is experiencing a brain fart, rather than it being an all out abandonment of the old style RTW page. I would think that if they were no longer going to update the RTW page at all, that they would just remove it all together. Seeing as it's still there, albeit in it's hidden and un-updated form, I think is a good sign.

Hopefully someone at Netflix will realize this error (yes, I'm calling it an error for now) and fix it. I can only hope.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Headcheese on April 13, 2008 at 12:14pm: I'm with you, I'm hoping there was just a glitch in the updating of our list this week!! *crosses fingers, hopes to die, stickin' needles in my eyes if I lose this page altogether!*; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SnakeEyes on April 13, 2008 at 11:36am: I couldn't have said it better.

If this "backwards" progress continues, I will be switching to Blockbuster...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Aces on April 13, 2008 at 12:02pm: I don't recommend switching to BB if you want to see a lot of movies weekly and sign up on a lower price plan because their shipping is not as fast a Netflix. I've been there and couldn't deal with them not marking movies returned for 2 days (even though I took them in to a store) and once returned not shipping out the same day. Their policy is to ship Next Day after receiving the movie while NF is same day shipping. The only good thing about my account was the in store exchanges but I was on a limited plan so ran out of exchanges fast.

If you can afford the 3 by mail plan unlimited in-store exchange @ $35 that will give you the best access to New Releases. Then keep a low DVD plan with Netflix to get the obscure titles BB won't have.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David on April 13, 2008 at 1:34pm: Copied from another posting. My point is to get anyone who has complaints or concerns about Netflix ongoing degredation of their website and customer service, as well as their unwillingness to adequately address paying customer concerns, to join me in DAILY writing them to complain until something is done. Stop sitting on your hands, or simply posting in a forum that people are saying is not affiliated with, nor of particular concern to the execs at Netflix, and do something about it. Even if only 10% have a problem, if those 10% continually address the problem... daily... maybe we will start to get some actual and adequate feedback from the Powers That Be.

Look, I just got off a LONG phone call with Customer Service. I actually, for a change, got a helpful person who gave me more information and was more informative than normal.

Yes, I consider moving the DVDs Releasing This Week to a sub-site breaking the site. And of course now it is not updating. The person I talked to at customer service knew it happened only because someone else called to complain about it. You can say what you want but Netflix has not demonstrated that they care about their customers' opinions when it comes to the site or how it is run.

The current New Release page is garbage. It is not helpful, it is hard to weed through, and maybe after 20 minutes you might find one movie that you don't already have in your queue or already know about and can add it. And most times the DVDs that are most recently out aren't even found there. There was no need to remove the DVDs Releasing This Week page to someplace else. Make it an option, a sub-page. a link in the main site. Lets say that there really are only 10% of netflix users using the DRTW page. That is still almost a million users. Can they ignore the satisfaction of that many paying customers?

Another issue is the new home page. Yawn. For me it is really not a concern one way or the other. I simply don't pay attention to it. I saw a Blog by some employee names Mehgan about it and then read hundreds of responses over the last couple of weeks, most of them negative. What I have not seen is any feedback from Netflix that they have read those responses nor that they intend to take people's desires and feelings into account on a site that they are paying for. How hard would it be for Mehgan, or whomever, to do a follow-up that says "This is a summary of the responses and concerns expressed about the changes and this is our feedback to you, as a whole (not expecting them to respond individually to literally hundreds of negative feedbacks) so that you know your concerns have been heard and we value your opinions, not just your money."

Let's go with the issue of the crash a few weeks ago. A few days after the crash a lot of people got emails explaining the situation and apologizing for the inconvenience. Some say it was only for those who were actually inconvenienced. OMG, how much work did that take? Especially if they really did sort through the inconvenienced vs not inconvenienced. I mean I do appreciate the email, eventually, but how hard would it have been for them to post something on the site explaining the problem to everyone? Why is it we only get minor blogs from them about major changes, and then no follow-up if there change is not appreciated.

The lovely lady at customer service explained that at the California corporate office they sometimes bring in people to act as focus groups for changes to the site. So, 20-30 people in California get to dictate to everyone else how the site is going to look and respond? Before they can impliment major changes to the site they have to set up dummy mirror sites to test the changes to avoid crashes, bugs, and problems. Wouldn't it make sense to invite the netflix community at large to test the new site and give feedback before the changes take place. I will grant the 60% probably wouldn't do it, or care. Those are the ones that come here knowing what they want, add it, order their queues and go away. What about the rest of us that fully utilize the site? Should .002% of the users who happen to live near the corporate offices be the only ones who can voice their opinions on changes before they happen?

Since the change in the DRTW page, I have been complaining again and again to Netflix, trying to get even some small modicum of acknowledgement that anything I have said matters or that I matter more than just as a dollar amount. I am fed up with their unwillingness to communicate with their customers or respond, even en masse, to customer feedback. I am now willing to email them daily until I get some sort of response because this keeps going downhill. I also encourage anyone else to join me in daily submitting customer feedback on the suggestions link about the problems. Oh, and I obtained the street address to send USPS mail to their corporate headquarters to complain too. Maybe if they get thousands of physical letters, instead of easily deletable and ignorable emails, they'll start to respond.

Netflix
100 Winchester Circle
Los Gatos, CA 95032; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Aces on April 13, 2008 at 11:48am: Well, when Netflix took the link to the RTW page off last December it was upsetting to a lot of people. Those of us lucky enough to have the "secret" link thought it was only a matter of time before Netflix stopped updating it.

As many people will tell you there are numerous sites on the internet to find new releases. I've looked at them and, of course, none of them tell us exactly the DVDs Netflix is putting in their inventory that week. It's easy to find the mainstream movies and difficult to find the small indies. Of all the sites I've looked at for new releases the one that comes closest to having the same inventory is Blockbuster. They don't update their Releasing this week page until Tuesday but it's better than the sliders Netflix has. www.blockbuster.com By the way you don't have to sign up for an account to access their site and search for movies.; ▶ Reply to This