NetflixReview.com: The Bad of Netflix
Picking Movies: not being able to walk through the store and see all the new movies on the walls is the biggest drawback for Netflix. Yes Netflix has made great strides in this department and they are constantly working on ways to improve how members browse movies and how they can make meaningful suggestions on what movies are worth watching, but there is something to be said for the experience of walking through a store and 'shopping' for a good movie to watch.
No Spontaneity: Netflix requires that you must plan ahead for your movie watching. With Netflix you can't just decide that you must have a certain movie right away as you have to wait for the movie to come in the mail. Sure you can watch it online, but like most people our computer is not in our living room and a living room couch is a lot more comfy for movie watching than an office chair.
Pay Each Month: Of course you have to pay for it, but even if you don't use it you have to pay for it. So if you travel to Europe for 2 months you keep paying your monthly fee unless you put your membership on hold, which is a cool feature but you have to remember to pause the account. It is easy to dial in your account to match your viewing habits but if your viewing habits change your plan keeps charging you at the pre-set rate; until of course you change it to match your new viewing habits. This ties back into the theme that Netflix requires you to plan ahead. The key is to stay current with your account; a magazine subscription is only worth it if you read the magazine: Netflix is only worth it if you watch the movies. We know that is obvious but it bears stating, why join Netflix if you are not going to watch movies? But you knew that already.
Esoteric Movies Often Take Longer: Movie titles that are rare and hard to find are often not found in all 47 shipping centers at any given time, so often they will be shipped from a different shipping center as opposed to your local one. When that happens it could take an extra day or two to get to you as the mail only travels so far each day. Luckily this does not happen often; of the 400 movies we have rented this happened about 15 times, so just above 3% of the time. Usually it adds one day, but our record was 5 days! That movie was shipped from Portland, Oregon to Ithaca, New York. But the movie was a real 1-in-85,000 kind of movie.