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GEORGETOWN, KENTUCKY -- My husband and I recently moved to a small town in Kentucky, and upon doing research, discovered that AT&T (Bellsouth) was the only company that could offer us DSL and digital home phone. We telecommute two-three days/week, so it is essential that we have this service. But it has been a nightmare to deal with this company. NOT ONE of our problems has been responded to satisfactorily. Here is the list:
1) Failure to notify us that our long distance was not switched over to Sprint as we ordered, so that when we made long-distance calls from our home phone, we were being charged the highest rate per minute for these calls. When we disputed the charges, AT&T refused to remove them.
2) When we set up online billing, one of our payments didn't go through. AT&T sent us an email confirming that the bill had been paid, and when we went to the online site, our account said we owed $0. Thirty days later, our phone service was turned off due to non-payment, WITHOUT WARNING. When we called to find out what happened, the billing department told us the problem was ours (though it was a glitch in their server that prevented the upload while simultaneously reporting the payment was made). We told them we would not pay a $35 fee for reinstatement, but,
3) This month we've received our bill, and not only have we been charged the $35 reinstatement, but also they have charged us for each individual service we have ordered rather than bundling the services, as we ordered. Therefore, what should be a $62 + taxes bill for DSL, phone, and long distance is now $180 +. We tried to call as soon as we got the bill, but the line was so jammed that we were not even sent through. When we call on Monday, this will be at the FOURTH time we have called AT&T in five months.
In all this time, AT&T has not accepted responsibility for any of its errors. We have paid for EACH ONE, despite our dispute of the charges (including all those long distance charges from the failure to switch us to Sprint long distance).
Since we bought AT&T's router for the DSL/wireless service for our home, changing to another option (like broadband for the laptops) is a considerable loss of money. We STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone who has a choice of DSL/home phone service NOT to use AT&T. They are TERRIBLE - a business that would fail if not for their monopoly in some markets.
Run for your life! AT&T's Customer Service has been taken-over by Zombies! I was an AT&T customer for 30+ years but not anymore. I am convinced that AT&T is SCAMMING their clients for millions of dollars, just by forcing them to use 'Operator Assisted' calls caused by their own faulty phone service lines.
When I recently called AT&T customer service about a like incident, all of the representative that I spoke to, eerily in an almost spooky-way, responded in the same scripted, accented, mono-tone, word-for-word dialogue about some quirky rule that they "can not reimburse for an Operator Assisted call" and that it was basically my own fault for being forced to use an operator.
I tried, in vain to explain to their customer service folks what happened, as it was so obvious from looking at the phone bill, the terms of events leading up to the forced 'Operator Assistance'. Looking back, it would have been easier not to have called and just spoken to a brick wall. Never mind that a number I was able to dial prior, using the same exact phone just minutes before was no longer considered valid according to AT&T's system. I can even, remember at the time thinking how nice it was for AT&T to send an operator to assist with connecting my call. Wow! I was thinking such great customer service, until I got slapped with a huge AT&T bill!
AT&T charged me $50+ for a call that lasted less than 10 minutes because it was an 'Operator Assisted' call. This call would have normally been less than $1 according to my calling plan. I was basically being forced into a situation to pay an exorbitant amount for using an operator, because of AT&T's own faulty service lines. How odd that a valid number all of a sudden became invalid and that I could not make a connection without their own operator to assist! This smacks of extortion.
At one point, when I called AT&T's customer service, and asked to speak to a manager, I got a 'fake-supervisor du jour', who read off the same scripted response as the initial, non-supervisory representative, when I then asked him for his manager, I was told that he has "an OFF-line Manager" and that "I could not escalate this issue any further" and was than giving a PO Box to write my complaint to.
I believe that AT&T is scamming people for millions using forced 'Operator Assisted' calls and in general, a shut-out client service tactic, with little recourse for the consumer. This customer bids her final, Good-BYE and good riddance to AT&T! I am walking with my on-line bill pay check-book to a more customer oriented, less deceptive company.
WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA -- I ordered phone service through AT&T a few weeks ago with an install date for 9/2. I was not initially given a window of time and was basically told it was anytime in the day. I took off work and spent the day home waiting for them. I called in to AT&T a number of times and the automated machine kept hanging up on me. I waited at the low end 1 hour at a time on hold to speak with someone and most of those representative lost my call during transfer which meant another hour on hold trying to get to speak with someone again. Well this went on for around 4 hours today.
I finally spoke with someone who told me my window of install was between 12 and 6pm so I didn't really need to stay here all day but was never initially told that. This person checked the account, checked the numbers and verified that the install was scheduled. Well at 6 pm tonight after no one had shown up, I started the entire process of calling them all over again.
The first representative after an hour on hold told me he could not give me any info on the account and had to transfer me to another number to obtain the information and of course that office was closed. I once again called back and went through the entire hold process again to be told the account was put on hold and no other information was available except from the office which of course was closed.
Now mind you, I don't even have their service and already am being treated with disrespect and like garbage. No one called me, no one told me there was an issue, they just let me sit home like an idiot all day begging them for information. Well I want to know what happened between 3 pm when the install was verified and 6 pm when no one showed up and no one called. This is lousy service.
On 12/08/05 I started getting long distance calls. When I answered the telephone, no one was there. I could see from my caller ID that a relative in Maryland was trying to call me, so I tried calling them back. Every time I called that number or any other long distance number, the telephone number would not ring. I called my local phone company (Verizon) and they asked me to make a local call. I did and it worked fine. Then I called them back and they said that the problem must be with my long distance carrier (AT&T). I tried to call AT&T at their 800 number, but that wouldn't work.
Finally I dialed 0 and got an operator who was able to put me in touch with an AT&T representative. After explaining my problem many times, the operator stayed on the line and put a call through to Texas (I am in PA). The call lasted for 7 minutes before AT&T told me that they had been getting trouble calls from my 717 exchange all morning and that my local carrier was the source of the problem.
The problem was finally resolved several hours later, but I got a bill from AT&T on 1/3/07 that included an operator assisted call on 12/8/06. The charge was $21.30 for a 7 minute call. I should add that no recording or message from the operator informed me that I was being billed over $3.00 per minute for a call that was asking them to fix my service.
So I called AT&T customer service when I got the bill and asked them to remove the charge for that call. After hearing my story the billing person said that it couldn't be done. Not satisfied with that answer, I asked to speak to a supervisor. After holding for almost 15 minutes I was connected to ** the supervisor. He told me the same thing in gruffer tones, so I asked him to please spell his name for me and to please give me the name of his supervisor and to connect me with them. He spelled his first name ** and refused to give me his last name or the name of his supervisor.
When I asked him why he wouldn't give me this information he cited the privacy act as the reason. I could not believe that AT&T instructs its representatives to shield the caller from higher management or even give me their own last name. The company won't deal with me if they don't know my last name. This is an example of very poor customer service.
CARNEYS POINT, NEW JERSEY -- Someone from a prison has been calling my house collect in error. We do not accept these calls, instead we hang up. AT&T has sent bills for reflecting these calls are one minute long. Upon speaking with one represetative, explaining that this is a billing error, I've been placed on hold. The next person to pick up is never the first person I spoke with, so I explain the situation again (and again).
A call from their collections department got me back to several more customer service representatives. In response to my explanation of these unwanted calls, I explained once we would hear the operator and then the person speak, we would hang up. The first representative stated that the caller does not say anything until the call is accepted. I explained that this caller, apparently in frustration, surpassed saying his name and would say "** pick up the phone!", which made her statement incorrect. I felt as if the blame was being placed on me!
Finally, after being placed on hold four times and speaking to yet more people, the final AT&T employee that I spoke with stated that we must be accepting the calls. It was at that time I pointed out that even a "I'm sorry you have the wrong number." would exceed a few seconds and requested the definitive time frame of the calls. An offer to remove "some" of the charges was made. However, since this is not a service that I used, I don't feel it is fair for me to be obligated to pay for erroneous charges.
The last representative suggested I block collect calls. I'm not quite sure why I should have to do that to avoid bogus charges. If I used the service, I would pay for it, but I did not. If there is an emergency and one of my kids has to call collect, I want to have the option available. I was also told by the last representative that if my voicemail had picked up the call, that would have incurred the charges. For clarification, I very specifically asked him "No one would have to accept the call?". He said unfortunately, "no".
So, some guy in prison dials the wrong number, no one accepts it, but since the voicemail answers, the consumer is obligated to pay for it... Is there something wrong here? My father had several hundred dollars worth of charges. Seems a prisoner was charging their calls to his home phone. Keep in mind, no one was home to approve these calls. The response to that was that it is a scam and prisoners can share a telephone number with others to make calls. Again, because AT&T does not have safeguards (such as a real person accepting the call and/or charges), the consumer is held responsible.
I asked the AT&T representative "is there a way to avoid ANY charges from this company". He stated the block would be my only option. So, in other words, they can bill me, whether correct or not, if they so choose and not be obligated to justify those charges. My billable time is $40.00 an hour, I'm considering sending them a bill for my time they have wasted. I asked for the specific amount of time per call, as I am positive they are less than an entire minute. That information was not available to him.
MAINE -- Just an update... STILL have yet to receive the return shipping label. I refused to pay for the first installment (of four) for the cheap incomplete phone. Still getting emails from my AT&T complaints asking me to call 800 numbers who put me on hold for 15 minutes. And NOW, and this is RICH... getting a REAL LIVE PERSON calling ME from AT&T from the COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT threatening to "cancel service with AT&T." I was delighted to inform them that they needn't bother. I saved them the trouble by switching to Verizon. Finally, one note on the irony of AT&T SALES ADS being posted next to my comments. I have posted the latest three replies below. TOO FUNNY!!!
REDMOND, WASHINGTON -- My husband and I just got off the phone with the AT&T wireless office in Washington State. On January 7th, I noticed that my debit card was missing and contacted my bank to cancel it. I sent out a payment to AT&T that same day in the form of a check. On the 9th, I realize that there were fraudulent charges on my account, this was on a Friday after they had closed so I had to wait until Monday the 12th to call my bank and put a stop payment on the check. On the fifteenth, I gave AT&T a courtesy call to let them know there was a stop payment on the check and explained why. I also told them that we would be reissuing another check for the full payment.
I was told by one of their brilliant cs reps that everything would be fine. On the 21st, I got online to check my bank account and was surprised to see a $20 return check fee from my bank. I called to find out why since there was a stop payment on the check. They said that apparently, AT&T transferred my paper check, into an "electronic check", and the bank did not pick up on this. They reversed the charges but said that I needed to speak with AT&T concerning this. When I called them (AT&T) they said that the check had already posted. Posted means they have "received" the check but has not processed it.
When I called them on the fifteenth, they had not attempted to process the check. Any other month they use regular means to process my paper check. The lady told me my account balance and I sent a check in for that amount. Today I noticed that they again processed this check electronically. When I attempted to call my husband I realized that the phone had been turned off. I immediately called AT&T to find out why. The rep said there was a $20 return check fee that wasn't paid. I explained to her as calmly as I could that should not be because they had no business trying to process a check with a stop payment on it.
The rep told me that it didn't matter, they will process anyway KNOWING that you will be charged for a return check. (REALLY?) But if the check is done electronically, what was returned??!! I asked for one of their even more brilliant resolution specialists and got a brick wall, they said the phone would stay off until the twenty dollars was paid. I was livid! When my husband returned, he asked if I had authorized AT&T to do an electronic check and I told him no. We went online to www.electronic-check.org and found out that no company can turn your paper check into an electronic check unless you authorize it. Which I didn't!!
My husband called them back and the cs and resolution specialists were very nasty and we got three conflicting stories. The first rep told me that they process ALL of their customers checks electronically ALL THE TIME, the second rep, said "oh no, your bank made a mistake", they processed it the normal way which is a lie, because if they did then my bank would have enforced the stop payment. The third rep said that this a process they JUST started doing within this last month. The resolution specialist refused to give us the supervisors name and hung up on my husband. This is very serious business.
According to what I have read, AT&T performed an illegal and a definitely unethical act by doing this. I need your help to find out who the top dog of AT&T wireless is and all the channels I need to go through. They refuse to refund us the $20 "return check fee" and will not cooperate at all. Please send any info you may have to **. Thank you.
BANGOR, PENNSYLVANIA -- On several occasions I have tried to contact your company, via the telephone and email, to straighten out the billing on the above referenced telephone number and each attempt was unsuccessful. I find it very disturbing that one of the leaders in telecommunications could not resolve a problem over the phone or email and was told by your representatives that I need to write a letter.
In July of this year I was contacted by one of your representatives to switch to AT&T as my long distance carrier. Your representative told me you had a one-rate plan that would cost $24.95 a month. After insisting with your representative that I would not be eligible for that plan he told me that I would as long as AT&T billed be separately from Common Wealth (the local carrier). The following day, I called Common Wealth, they informed that I would be eligible for that plan as long as AT&T billed me separately. Your representative called me a couple of days later and said in order for me to switch and get the one-rate play, I had to contact Common Wealth.
While on the phone with your representative, he patched us through to a Common Wealth representative. Once again, I asked the same questions to insure that I was eligible for your one-rate plan. Upon the arrival of my monthly Common Wealth bill, AT&T did not bill me separately, nor was I charged the one-rate both of which I was assured of by your representative. It is from this point that this entire fiasco began.
I immediately called your company and explained the situation, I was told they could not resolve the problem. They had no idea what I was talking about. To aggravate the situation, I was told that I was not listed on your system as an AT&T customer. It was suggested that I to write a letter to one of your offices in Florida. Write a letter, now if you set me up as a customer over the phone, how is it that you can not resolve a problem (you created) over the phone? That does not sound to me like one of the leaders in telecommunications, nor does it sound like reputable company.
I called again and again was told that they could not help me, but that she would patch me through to someone who could. After over a half an hour of waiting the phone was disconnected. I called again and at least this time (after a half an hour of waiting) I was connected to someone else. However, that person could not help me either, he told me that I would have to contact a person during the day at this number (800) 225-5282. Once again, your company contacts me in the evening to do business, but I can only resolve an issue with someone during the day? I am in construction and I do not have access to a phone during the day.
Hoping calling this number would resolve this entire issue, I inconvenienced someone else to help me out. Unfortunately when this person called, the number is area specific and they could reach someone. However, they did call you 800 number listed on your website and spoke you one of your representatives. Even your representative could not get in touch with someone from that number because it was area specific.
That representative informed her that I was in fact listed as an AT&T customer (finally some bit of validation) and that I was signed up for a $.07 a minute plan on July 17, 2003 with a monthly charge of $4.95 plus connectivity charges.
Now, "can you explain to me how I agreed, only agreed to a one-rate plan with a cost of $24.95 a month but was signed up for a $.07 a minute plan". I would have never agreed to a $.07 a minute plan with a $4.95 monthly charge when I was only paying $.05 a minute with no monthly charge. No one for that matter would switch long distance companies to pay a higher rate. The minute your representative found out that I would not be eligible for the one-rate plan he should have called back and not just sign me up for another plan, that I never agreed to. Your representative only had the authority to sign me up for the plan I agreed to.
I am very upset with AT&T and this entire situation. I would greatly appreciate if someone from your company would address and resolve this situation. I will not pay AT&T for more than I agreed to pay, which is the $24.95 a month. Currently I have an absolutely ridiculous high long distance bill. I expect that my account, for the months I was with AT&T, will be adjusted according to the plan I agreed to, once I receive the adjusted billing statement I will gladly pay.
Common Wealth has shut off my long distance and I can't even switch to another company. How am I supposed to clear this matter when you won't respond to any of my email or phone/fax efforts? Thank you for you time and attention to this matter.
I don't think I could be more upset with my experience at AT&T Long Distance USA. Just for the record, here's my telephone information: **. Please be advised that I am forwarding a copy of this letter to the Florida Attorney General. I am also having it placed on a public website where millions of potential customers may see it.
I have received numerous telemarketing calls from various At&T representatives. They are calling for the prior resident and will not stop calling me. I have given them my information and requested that they stop but the calls continue. We are a military family living on MacDill AFB, FL, I would think that At&T would treat service members families a little bit better than this. I have explained to them that this is base housing and that once the prior resident is gone there isn't much I can do to contact them to tell them to get taken off the call list. In fact I shouldn't even have to think about that as it is not my job.
This morning (4-15-02) I received yet another call and again attempted to explain to the caller that I was not interested. That they are calling for a person who no longer lives here seems to make little difference. When I would not let her go through her script or give my personal information yet again to a company who is harassing me the woman on the phone told me that she was going to "put me ** down to be called every second of everyday from now on" and hung up on me.
I have contacted the Florida Department of Agriculture who handles consumer issues and filed a complaint. I have requested the forms to put my phone number on a nationwide do not call list. Also I have called AT&T at 212-387-5400 and again requested to be placed on a do not call list. The associate I spoke with assured me that this would take place within 24-48 hours. This remains to be seen.
Given the nature of this problem, I'll make sure that I NEVER use AT&T for any telephone service. I'll pay for a cell-phone before I use your company, even for local service. And I'll definitely tell other people about my negative experience so they can avoid it in the future. It is truly sad that your company alienates potential customers by attempting to browbeat them into signing up for a service that they do not want or need.
Here's what I'd like to see happen: Remove my phone number from the telemarketing systems immediately per my conversation with your representative.I have been informed that this will take effect within 48 hours and I expect no further calls after Wednesday. No more calls. Period. An apology for the rudeness of the person representing AT&T would be nice too and, in fact, is expected. I hope you get back to me soon. I simple e-mail response would take maybe 10 minutes and I expect one within 3 business days or I will write again.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- Irate CSR retaliates to a statement I made and disconnected my phone service which I've had for over 13 years. For three days I am told a variety of differing stories - phone service to be reconnected with no worries by 8 with DSL on the same day. At one point my call is routed to an outsourcing call center where my very feminine voice keeps being met with Mr. and sir this and that. Blind transferred to multiple departments on several occasions.
On the third day without DSL, I am told this is unrealistic to think I will have DSL anytime soon. It is a new account now and I will have to wait at least a week or more to have internet service. Switching internet service providers. You can have AT&T.


text:
- Find a rental
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- How to book
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- Write a review
Imagine ~ Gorgeous, Oceanfront Home*Wi-Fi*Private*
From $357 / night
balance due
Description from the owner
Description from the owner
Bedrooms: 4/
Bathrooms: 3/
Sleeps: 7/
Type: House
Imagine yourself sitting in an Adirondack chair on a beautiful point surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Imagine sailboats gracefully gliding through the harbor and lobster boats steaming by with their fresh catch. Imagine a private setting with a gorgeous post and beam home on an island in Maine. If you can imagine yourself in that happy place, then we have just the home for you. Welcome to Imagine. A four bedroom, oceanfront, home nestled among beautiful granite boulders, overlooking the Deer Isle Thoroughfare and Allen Cove. This house was thoughtfully designed and constructed with Maine pride. Local laborers help to build this work of art, also ...Read more
About the owner
About the owner
Christina H Carter
Christina H Carter
- Response rate: 5%
- Response time: Within a week
- Calendar updated: 4 weeks ago
Overall rating:
Additional Location Information
Stonington is a lovely island community on the rugged Maine coast. Imagine sits in a secluded setting just outside Stonington village and enjoys superior views of the ocean and also sets westerly facing so sunsets are a dream over the beautiful Atlantic ocean. We have a bridge so we are connected to the main land and have many services and businesses right here on our small island.
More About This Location
Rural retreats, Waterfront
Getting There
Nearest ferry port: Isle au Haut , 0.25 miles
Nearest airport: Bangor International , 60 miles
Car is recommended
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Also consider
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subset: commoncrawl


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Book your room at Best Western Casa Grande Inn
Get an overview of this hotelHotel in Arroyo Grande with free breakfast and outdoor pool
Collect 200 points
Simply enter your Nectar card number when prompted. Your points will be credited 30 days after you return from your trip.*Offers may apply
Situated in Arroyo Grande, this hotel is within 3 mi (5 km) of Pismo Beach Prime Outlets, Swinging Bridge, and Price Anniversary House. Heritage House Museum and Gardens and Pismo Lake Ecological Reserve are also within 3 mi (5 km).
Hotel Features
Along with an outdoor pool, this hotel has a spa tub and a sauna. Free continental breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include coffee/tea in the lobby, laundry facilities, and a 24-hour front desk.
Room Amenities
All 114 rooms offer free WiFi, coffee makers, and cable TV. Other amenities available to guests include free local calls, hair dryers, and ironing boards.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
In addition to an outdoor pool, Best Western Casa Grande Inn provides a spa tub and a sauna. A computer station is located on site and high-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. A complimentary breakfast is offered. This Arroyo Grande hotel also offers a garden, coffee/tea in the lobby, and complimentary newspapers in the lobby. Complimentary self parking is available on site.
- Outdoor pool
- Sauna
- Spa tub
- Free breakfast
- Free newspapers in lobby
- 24-hour front desk
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Total number of rooms - 114
- Laundry facilities
- Television in common areas
- Fireplace in lobby
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Elevator/lift
- Number of floors - 3
- Computer station
- Garden
- Free self parking
- Free WiFi
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Outdoor pool
- Free Wi-Fi
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Laundry facilities
- Refrigerator (on request)
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Premium TV channels
- Access via exterior corridors
- Climate control
- Free local calls
- Coffee/tea maker
- Refrigerator (on request)
- Shower/tub combination
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Cable TV service
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Free WiFi
Where to Eat
Guests are offered a complimentary continental breakfast.
Nearby Things to Do
An outdoor pool and a spa tub are on site. Other recreational amenities include a sauna.
Children under 16 years old are not allowed in the swimming pool or spa tub without adult supervision.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Kayaking nearby
- Mountain biking nearby
- Bicycle rentals nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessibility equipment for the deaf
- Accessible bathroom
- Accessible path of travel
- Accessible parking
- In-room accessibility
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No pets or service animals allowed
Hotel Name
We should mention
No pets and no service animals are allowed at this property.


text: Hi! > I noticed that some other lisp versions have a dll export that you can = > use with C/C++. I did not read any such information about sbcl. I was= =20 > wondering if anyone out there had experience of integrating sbcl lisp=20 > into C and if they had any sample code. You should give CFFI a try: http://common-lisp.net/project/cffi/ SWIG (http://www.swig.org/) can be used to generate the wrappers. Greetings Marc


text:
Kelly Clarkson
Sponsored By
Watch Kelly Clarkson's Emotional Music Video for 'Piece by Piece'"I like to think of 'Piece by Piece' as the happy ending to 'Because of You.'"
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Kelly Clarkson Covers Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space'It's one in a long line of great Kelly covers.
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text:
Paul Jensen
Paul Jensen graduated with his BS in pharmacy from the University of Minnesota in 1985 and his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Minnesota in 1986. After graduation, he completed a two-year fellowship with the University of Minnesota at United Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. During his fellowship, Paul studied pharmacokinetics of gentamicin and theophylline in premature neonates using non-linear mixed effect pharmacokinetic modeling.
Paul is the primary preceptor-mentor for the St. Paul resident in the program per year and has been the Residency program director since it was initially accredited in 1991.
Paul's current area of focus is with the Surgery Division of Children's. He also serves as secretary to the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and is a pharmacy representative on the Institutional Review Board.
Paul is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Minneapolis, MN. In addition to his work at Children's, Paul also is the course director for Phar 6220, an elective course in pediatrics for third year pharmacy students at the University of Minnesota.
He is also active and has taken leadership roles in the Minnesota Society of Health Systems Pharmacy and has been the Chair of the MSHP Fall Clinical Meeting Planning Committee for the past two years.


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Sunday, August 19, 2007
Moving the Needle
When I look at features on the Netflix site (and in the Community area in particular) I have two buckets that everything falls into: moving the needle and polishing the apple.
What I want is to move the needle: I want to make a change or add a feature that materially improves our site. Maybe it makes it so much easier to manage your queue or find exceptionally good movies that it totally changes the way you use and enjoy Netflix. That would be good. That would be "moving the needle."
Often times I'm just polishing the apple: it's good to make this thing better, easier, clearer, whatever – but it really isn't going to change how many people use it or enjoy it – at least not in a meaningful way.
The drag and drop queue – that was a needle mover. It makes the queue much easier to work for every one of our subscribers. Good feature. Adding the Friends Activity headlines to the Community Home page? Well, it was a good thing to do, but it was only for Friends users, and quite possibly was only a bit of apple polish. Removing the dates from the Top 10 Lists block? (releasing next week) Definitely apple polish. I wouldn't have done it at all except it only took about 10 seconds and it was driving a few of us crazy. We call this "opportunistic" improvement. You're fixing something anyway and it is easy to do. So make the thing better even if it doesn't move any needles.
There is a general sense that you have to do a little bit of polish or in time the site just isn't that good, it isn't easy to use or it slowly irritates y'all to the point of distraction. Search is an example. It works. But it could be so much better. Most of us are sure this is a needle mover. I think the entire Community effort – comprised of many many little interlocking features – could be a needle mover. I am trying to discover if that is the case.
The problem often comes when me and my teams' natural desire is to polish apples – make the things we have much smoother or better (think the sliding of the Latest Reviews or the adding of movies to Top 10 Lists), but then realize that the small bits of work to improve these things adds up and the big new features that are certainly more likely to move some needles are getting postponed.
Anyway, it's a balance. Like a stock portfolio. Some high risk stuff, some slow growth but low risk stuff, a few wildcards… but all adding up to a strong healthy portfolio that weathers short fluctuations and delivers good results in the long haul.
The features I want, and that you guys often suggest, are almost always good things to do and would results in genuine improvement of the site. The question I ask – and you can ask yourself if you want – is will it make a difference, and if so – how much? For whom? I could change the font on all the tabs and it would certainly make the site nicer looking and perhaps even easier to read – but would it change our business? (Maybe that's too extreme an example). Perhaps better: let's make it easy to sort the movie reviews on all the movie pages – by helpful ratings, by similarity percentage to you, by recency, etc. Seems like a no-brainer. It certainly would be great. It's already on my list of things to do. But let's step back for a moment. Will it help more people find better movies? If you don't read movie reviews (and many people don't, actually), will it get you to try it? Most people ask for these options, but rarely use them. If we provide the ability to sort in a dozen ways, how many people will use the feature? Simplicity would say: discover the most useful of all the ways to sort these things, and make that the default – because that's what most people will see. Then add the sorting later, opportunistically. And what are the thresholds? If I told you only 1% of our users would sort, would you make this a top priority? How about 10%? What would it take – 20%? 50% (Complicate this with the effort: what if it took a day to build, or a month? How would that affect your decision?) The question is rhetorical, but the issue is very real. It's not a bad feature. In fact it is a brilliant and obvious feature. But should it be the first thing I build? Or is there something else that is also brilliant but that will be "game changing" – a needle mover! Because if you were given a choice, you'd probably tell me to do that.
I'm reminded of a bit of business advice I got when I was raising money to start a company back in 1993. It went something like this: "Just because something is a truly great idea does not necessarily mean it will make a good business. And just because something would be a terrific business does not necessarily mean it is a good investment." You guys offer us ideas – often great ideas. Our job is to decide if they are worthy investments. There is often no question they are good ideas.
That's why I really absorb all of your suggestions, and that's also why you don't see all of them getting implemented right away. It is without question the hardest part of this job.
83 comments:
Question: When will we see drag-and-drop queues in the Safari web browser?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 18, 2007 at 11:50 PM
I think you guys are doing a great job! Netflix is a very easy site to navigate. I would just like to be able to search for titles more easily in the Watch Instantly feature. BTW loved the NY times article on the customer service in Hillsboro.ReplyDelete
What's the link to the article?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 5:18 AM
Drag and drop queue is not available in Safari (the default browser on Macs, and now available on PC's too). It really bothers me. Us Mac users don't have Instant Viewing, the least Netflix can do is give is a usable queue. Pretty ridiculous.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 5:25 AM
Not sure where to put this, but I have a suggestion. You know when you watch the preview that you think looks really good, only to return the rented movie and go "what was the name of that movie I wanted to rent?". Could there be a note under movies that says what previews are on that disc??ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 7:20 AM
Very interesting ruminations, as always. It would be very illuminating to know how many mins/hrs/days/wks it would take to implement each of our suggestions. Like, would providing paginated and multi sortable queues (up to 1000 movies!) take a week, but re-sorting reviews any which-way take a month? Or the other way round? Most of us don't have clue. But I did did figure out that since the names of the movie trailers aren't on the DVD cover, it would take somewhere in the region of 100 person weeks to check all their DVD's one by one. Notgonnahappen!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 7:49 AM
NY Times link . Paste-in both lines separately (was hanging out of the box). And you might have to register with NYT).ReplyDelete
Thank you, link works.ReplyDelete
- RobbAceAugust 19, 2007 at 8:31 AM
I'm pretty new here to netflix. I signed up about 2 months ago. I was with Vongo, and had satellite TV. I wasn't very happy with either. When guys rolled out the Watch Now commercials I thought that is Really Cool. We have our living room set up so the computer is hooked up to our TV so we're able to watch videos from the net on our TV. Any way just to let you know I love the friends part of this site. I have my sister, cousin, and a couple friends on it and we all leave each other notes about good/bad movies. After talking to my mom about it she signed up for netflix last week. I wish there were more ways to interact with our "Friends" The notes we leave can only be 200 characters and there isn't a "Home" page for people to check out our profiles. That would be a lot of FUN. Every one likes to talk about movies, and trying to convince others to like what they like. The watch now needs a lot of work (and better movies) but I know that will come in time.ReplyDelete
- Gary L. GrayAugust 19, 2007 at 10:55 AM
This is all wonderful (for some people), but as long as Mac users continue to be marginalized and continue to pay the same monthly fee as people who get all the cool new features, I am not going to be an very satisfied customer. I was completely satisfied with Netflix when it didn't have all the bells and whistles -- at least I felt that I was paying for the same service as everyone else. Now, I feel like a am getting screwed every month when I pay my bill since people who use Windows are getting much more for their money (which certainly isn't true of their OS :-) ).ReplyDelete
With this said, when you post stuff like this, please comment on the Mac side of things (as was done with someone's recent posting about the Watch Instantly feature) or we just walk away feeling bad.
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Just so's you know that all your loving polishing and needle nudging are appreciated, I'm dumping BB, which I'd also signed up with to take advantage of their too good to be true (clearly!) in-store exchange, and will be shifting up a couple of plans with you guys. It certainly didn't help that they tried to move me to a more expensive plan for LESS DVDS without my permission, but their site is a real snooze compared to yours. And I bet there are plenty more defectors right behind me.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 11:20 AM
I'm on a Mac and drag-and-drop queue works for me!?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 11:56 AM
Gary L. Gray,ReplyDelete
As has been mentioned in many of the other topics, I'm fairly certain that it is not that the features are not being made available to you because you are on a a mac. It is because some of the features are being made available on a roll-out release. The only one I'm certain is not available to Mac users is the Watch now feature and that is because of DRM licensing, rather than platform issues.
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 12:03 PM
all angry mac users... drag 'n' drop queue *does* work in Firefox for Mac, so you do have an option. Safari is not the only Mac browser.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 12:22 PM
"all angry mac users... drag 'n' drop queue *does* work in Firefox for Mac, so you do have an option. Safari is not the only Mac browser."ReplyDelete
Actually I'm on a mac and I use Firefox as my browser but I still do not have drag n drop queue. It just hasn't been rolled out to me as a user yet.
- RobbAceAugust 19, 2007 at 12:41 PM
Macs Suck.ReplyDelete
Priorities were mentioned. Here are some top ones, as far as I am concerned:ReplyDelete
1) Instant viewing for Mac.
2) Other ways to search and/or sort films (language, genre, tags).
3) Make the Top Ten List feature wAY better (fix the bugs, make it easier to add titles, allow us to search for top ten lists, allow us to "bookmark" other people's Top Ten Lists).
4) Allow a way to "queue" movies for instant watching.
I think all of these items are definite "needle movers."
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
"The drag and drop queue – that was a needle mover. It makes the queue much easier to work for every one of our subscribers."ReplyDelete
Every one? I still don't have drag and drop. No I don't use a Mac and no I don't use Safari. Feature unavailable for me in IE or Firefox. What gives?
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 2:38 PM
same here. no drag and drop. sounds like a good idea though! :)ReplyDelete
I have to agree with Laura's 1st, 2nd, and 4th 'needle mover' points. I'm not a Mac user, but fair is fair.ReplyDelete
I'm trying to "get" the point of this post. I got the feeling we were being scolded passive aggressively, which ticks me off. (Being told off doesn't thrill me, but I despise passive aggressive bs.) My best guess is that the rating system wasn't received as well as was hoped and too many of us asked why that instead of this.
We all know you guys are doing your best and any of us that have ever built a site know it's not easy on a small scale let alone this one; however I believe the issue is giving us options you want vs. those your users are requesting. And for some (apparently mostly mac users) not understanding why.
We're all aware that we are a small sampling of Netflix's membership, albeit a vocal one. However, if, as you say, you have other ways of finding out what members want, I've yet to see it. In all these years I've never once received an email asking me if I like this feature or that, if I use this feature and how often or why/why not, etc. etc. The only thing I've gotten is the occasional "Has _____ arrived yet?"
So, we get the needle moving vs. apple shining. We get that we're just making suggestions and ultimately it's your decision. Next time I think you should either curb your need to post something like this or address everything (which would be a hair pooling improbabiltiy). The same goes for post about a new bell or whistle that has never been hinted or requested when so many of us are hoping for something else to finally be available.
Drag and Drop queue IS awesome...as long as you're changing movies in your top 100. :) I'm not complaining, my queue is just too big. Moving disc #494 to #1 on the queue still requires changing the numbers the old fashioned way.ReplyDelete
When I click on a movie cover in Netflix (When I am on the individual movie's page), how bout popping up a slightly larger image of the cover? Say about 300t x 150w. Or even better, make the cover images bigger, because some of them, like THIS ONE -> HERE are so pixelated and crappy looking that I can't decipher what is on the cover.
Covers do mean something to us Netflix. That's why we used to look at them on the wall at Blockbuster.
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 4:33 PM
@Philly - My understanding is that every time we click on something we are, in effect, voting. So, if 78% of us are clicking on Community and then going straight to Friends without lingering there, that's a thumbs down for C. and a thumbs up for F. And so on with every feature on the site. Yes/no? But an e-mail survey would seem to be a great idea WHILE everything is being built rather than when it's a fait accompli/done deal.ReplyDelete
- michael, from netflixAugust 19, 2007 at 8:05 PM
btw: i stand corrected - the drag'n'drop Queue was more apple polish than needle mover. It's nice for the stuff at the top of the queue, but of lesser use for longer queues. We all wanted it, but i don't believe its of as much real use as other features. Still, we know many people were asking for it. Anyway, i probably should have checked before using it as an example.ReplyDelete
@Laura - i agree with you. I'm pretty sure most of your priorities... are our priorities.
@drew - strange. it should be rolled out to everyone. i'll check and see if I can learn anything useful for you.
@ the last anon - good instincts. you are pretty much right. asking people what they want is good research, but the best indicator is always what really happens. know this: nothing is ever a done deal: in the world of "web2.0" - websites are sort of in perpetural beta. if we find something isn't working, we cut it. again, it's why our site is generally considered pretty good.
anyway, sorry i misspoke in the posting. but my point was the same.
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 8:23 PM
What netflix needs is a discussion forum.ReplyDelete
That way users can really meet and interact with other users, and form friendships based on movie interests that will make the community features really useful.
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 8:33 PM
Tell Netflix to hire some "fresh" blood and trash the homegrown "search" & "recommendations" engine before it falls over from it's own weight !!ReplyDelete
Try Google in a box, or ATG's wonderful personalization engine.
Stop trying to make everything yourself. You've reached a wall. This is what happens when software engineers run a company. Why else would they offer $1,000,000 for help.
Anyone win yet? Noooooo
Why is the instant viewing feature only available with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft's Media Player? Does Netflix have some kind of exclusive relationship with Microsoft? As a Mac user this really disappoints me... to the point where I've started looking at other services. Netflix has to realize that many of their users and many of us in the film-making community use Macs.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 9:06 PM
"Why is the instant viewing feature only available with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft's Media Player"ReplyDelete
Brandon, this has been discussed ad nauseum in this blog. Instant viewing is not available to Mac yet because of DRM limitations. There is no agreement with Mircrosoft, and there is no conspiracy. Perhaps you do need to look at other services, or perhaps start reading the blog berfore posting
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 9:09 PM
So that no one else requests Instant Viewing for mac, here's the reason:"there's not yet a studio-sanctioned, publicly-available Mac DRM solution (Apple doesn't license theirs). I can promise you that, when an approved solution becomes available for the Mac, we'll be there"ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 at 9:13 PM
Philly, me thinks you took Michael's post completely the wrong way. And perhaps even are taking this whol blog thing the wrong way.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 20, 2007 at 5:38 AM
I would caution all of us who use this blog to have a little discretion with our displeasure. On my "list of companies that get on my nerves" netflix is probably in the bottom third. The fact that I have an opportunity to respond in this kind of a forum is valuable, and I wouldn't want it to lose its value because too many people just use it to demonstrate their displeasure and not be productive with their feedback.ReplyDelete
I get the difference between apple-polish and moving the needle, and I appreciate the need to weigh resources in both situations. That being said, although we who use these forums are the minority of your users, please give our feedback the credit it is due.
The only way the vocal community here will grow is if those of us who are vocal are satisfied with the level of responsiveness given to our feedback. That doesn't mean that you do everything we ask, but it does mean that the "not enough people use that feature" response is only good for a limited time.
I actually don't use a lot of the features. Not only for Netflix but for most of the software I use. I use the search function and user reviews most of all. I rearrange my queue by the numbers and only occasionally drag and drop. The recommendation section is pretty worthless to me; for whatever reason, it rarely recommends something I'm interested in. Friends is something I don't have much interest in and even online viewing isn't that big of a sell (especially since I moved to iMac this year).ReplyDelete
Basically all I want is to be able to find a movie based on cast or title and get it quickly and in good condition and occasionally rearrange my queue. Keep sending the DVDs quickly and I'll be happy.
- AnonymousAugust 20, 2007 at 9:33 AM
Jim, I bet you represent a huge proportion of the customer base. Certainly the 3 other Netflix members with whom I'm in regular contact, But not through Friends, I should add, since they all find it, and I quote 2 of them : 'absolutely ridiculous'. They barely even read customer reviews, so all this gnashing of teeth of ours is definitely not universal. They are VERY happy with the site, with or without all the bells and whistles. Hence the likely skewing of opinion towards all this technical tweaking rather than just the basics - fast and error free delivery - ideally with a 7 day a week operation to facilitate both of those.ReplyDelete
- 2McAbreAugust 20, 2007 at 10:09 AM
I suggested this in another post :) though I may have misspoke when I said it would be nice to have a chat forum. Didn't mean a live chat, but a simple forum where like minded videophiles can post back and forth.ReplyDelete
Something else that would be nice. 1.) Not allowing people to review movies prior to their DVD release,and 2.) Not allowing people to post reviews when they haven't seen the movie yet. A prime example of this can be found at "High School Musical 2". People rating it 5 stars and saying right in their review that they haven't seen it yet, but just KNOW it will be good because they loved HSM.
Reason for #1.) The big screen theater experience is completely different from the home theater experience, also if folks who go to the theater review and rank, they will get a higher influence score then those who watch the DVD.
Reason for #2.) is self evident. You cannot rate nor review a movie that you haven't seen. HSM2 was terrible. ;-) Sorry…
Polish the apple: The notebook is excellent. If it told me what someone rated the movie along with what they said about it I might just die and go to heaven.ReplyDelete
Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that, when we return Disc 2 of Season 2 of The Closer because the wrong disc was in the sleeve, you should send us Disc 2 again rather than move immediately to Disc 3? That seems obvious IF anyone on your end is reading the complaint filed online, or the complaint slipped into the Disc sleeve. Some idiot (or some computer) has just mailed us disc 3; we don't want to watch that until we see Disc 2. We just signed up; we're not happy.ReplyDelete
If the drag-and-drop queue makes it easy for "every one of our subscribers," then why has it STILL not been activated on my account? (Yes, I've called customer service a couple of times.)ReplyDelete
It doesn't matter what browswer I use - Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape, MSN, AOL - I DO NOT have the drag-and-drop option. Why? It seems that since you've had the option available for the last two months, and it seems to be working, it's about damn time you roll it out to all customers. I've been waiting for this feature forever.
After seeing a movie I like, I rate it 4 or 5 stars and wait for it to influence my "Movies You'll Love." In the meantime, I look at the movies under "Enjoyed By Members Who Enjoyed" but there's only 5 on that list, most of which I've usually seen. I'd like a "More..." link at the bottom of that list so I could see more than the top 5.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 20, 2007 at 3:40 PM
@Jim, don't know if you did this, but in the 'at home' section of your queue you'll see "Mislabeled, lost or damaged DVD? Report a problem and order replacements". Or if you click 'Help' at the top of the screen you'll see a page that says "help with movies at home" on the right side. Unless you use either of those the info won't get entered into the system since it's pretty much automated using bar codes.ReplyDelete
One feature we would like to see.ReplyDelete
Store a list of upcoming but un-released films which are yet to show on the Netflix system. Then periodically run that list against available titles and auto add to the queue.
- AnonymousAugust 21, 2007 at 9:07 AM
I know there was talk of moving the 'language and sound' info further up the left column of the movie page, but since the complaint "Why weren't we told that this movie was in Forin?" has now become almost epidemic in the reviews maybe it's time to move that plan way up the priority list??? The language(s) first, below that the subtitles, and then the sound? The very best place, of course, would be in the movie description itself, but that would obviously entail an insane amount of re-writing.ReplyDelete
- 2McAbreAugust 21, 2007 at 9:43 AM
@ all who cannot get the drag and drop quene feature to work. What operating system/ version of various browsers are you using?ReplyDelete
Certain older versions of browsers may not support the version of java script used to perform the drag and drop feat, or if you do not have java support installed java.com most recent version of the JS2E runtime environment is 188.8.131.52
Microsoft does not by default install java support after version 5.0 (I believe or possibly version 4) of internet explorer.
I think you guys are doing really well with the site design. I have to admit though, that I was disappointed with the drag & drop queue, which I've turned off.ReplyDelete
It probably works fine for most people, but if you click on a rating or a text box for the queue order before the page finishes loading, the whole thing breaks and you have to reload the page before you can modify anything. I don't know if I'm the only one that this happens to, but I could be, since I have over 300 movies in my queue.
Speaking of which, a paged queue might be nice!
I actually prefer the old queue management anyway, so I don't mind just turning it off. For the record, I typically use the latest version of Firefox on Linux, although it also happens in the latest version of Firefox on my Windows machine as well.
Anyway, here's a suggestion. I don't know how many people would use this, but personally I have a "movie night" each week where I invite a few friends over and we watch two movies with a common theme. I think it would be really neat to have a section of the site devoted to creating these themes, and maybe having people rate them based on how well the movies work together. As far as I'm concerned, this would definitely be a "moving the needle" type update, though I'm not sure that a lot of people would use it.
Some examples to help you see what I mean:
Steve Martin is a Dentist!: Novocaine and Little Shop of Horrors
Scoobies: Alexander and Willow (for Buffy fans)
Movies Named for Guns: The Mexican and Dear Wendy
You get the idea. I hope you'll consider it!
- AnonymousAugust 21, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Barely even an apple polisher, but what's with those 3 dorky tabs on the left? If you can read the others (with or without glasses) you can read those. And with so much to distract you already on each page it's important to keep everything as simple and as integrated as possible, and those deformed dental anomalies jump right out at you. If it ain't broke don't fix it, guys, much as we luv ya for caring so much.ReplyDelete
why aren't my reviews being published? they completely follow guidlines. i have not had a review published after over a month of trying every other day.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 21, 2007 at 1:30 PM
I followed someone's advice on this blog and changed many of my 3 stars to 4, and my 'suggestions' literally tripled overnight - and mostly pretty good ones, too. So maybe either lower the recommendation trip-wire to 3 stars, or re-word the star descriptions to read '3 stars = indifferent, 4 stars = liked it, 5 stars = loved it' (or words to that effect). Thanks for providing this open forum.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 21, 2007 at 3:38 PM
Hey Darkko, posting on every thread just makes you seem demented. we can't help, and these guys are too busy to deal with our individual problems, so just insist on going up the customer service chain of command until you get this resolved.ReplyDelete
"2McAbre" - I had Java 188.8.131.52 installed but it was broken somewhat, since I was getting a registry error when attempting to load it from the Control Panel. I upgraded to the latest release 18.104.22.168 and Java runs fine. I did this for both IE7 and FF 184.108.40.206 on WinXP. Drag n Drop DID NOT work before or after. My friend who has had Drag n Drop for months now just checked his XP install and he didn't have Java installed so he installed the latest. Drag n Drop DID WORK before and after his Java install. So I don't think that has anything to do with it.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 11:25 AM
For those that don't know, you CAN still e-mail suggestions to Netflix. If you click on 'Contact us' at the bottom of any page you'll find -ReplyDelete
'Tell us how we can improve our website or service'.
It's a bit more 'message in a bottle' than this, but at least that way the issue will be funneled straight to the right dept if it's not directly related to the topic of the thread.
- AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 2:51 PM
I'm not for turning the site into a gab-fest, but leaving brief notes for reviewers could perhaps be very productive. Not only to tell them where to report disc problems and how to check what language a movie is in, but also to let certain people know that their reviews are good but too long to get through, or too snide (one person only seems to review movies he/she hates), and others that we really appreciated their take on a particular movie, and so on. Might help improve the overall quality if people got more feedback than just yes/no.ReplyDelete
- 2McAbreAugust 23, 2007 at 7:33 AM
"Drew42" Hmm well it was just a possibility, its hard to diagnose general browser issues over the internet. So many things could do it.ReplyDelete
Such as, are you connecting at work, Is scripting support turned on, perhaps try adding Netflix to your trusted site list, do you use XP's firewall, an external modem/ router…
Personally the novelty of drag and drop wears off quickly, you cannot select a group of movies (like an entire series) and can only grab a line that is visible on your screen.
So if you have a huge Quene you couldn't drag a movie from page two to the number 1 spot. I even tried opening multiple widows to see if I could grab from window one's visible quene and drag it to window 2's visible quene, didn't work :(
I have something that would sure move my needle even if not yours. Often the same godamn movies sit on my Browse page for ever. If I've seen any of them I obviously rate them, but if I haven't I don't want to say 'not interested' and have them - and all movies similar to them - disappear from my dance card forever. Couldn't there be some kind of 'refresh' button to get some new faces in there without affecting 'suggestions' in any way? Or maybe there is, and I just don't know about it? Anyone?ReplyDelete
Move the needle: I am one of the many who doesn't read reviews, but I *do* pay attention to the "star ratings" from people with high similarity in my movie ratings.ReplyDelete
In fact, I find that, rather than pay attention to the global rating for a movie, and *even more than* the "average of raters like you" [which is NOT predictive of the delta of my tastes from "the average", let alone predictive of my absolute interest level in such a movie], I find myself more and more skimming down the list of Reviews, looking for those with a high "similar to you" rating (e.g. 70%+), and see whether they rated the movie highly (4 or 5) or low (1 or 2).
For me, even though it's more anecdotal evidence, and even though it's skewed/not statistically valid, this seems to be the MOST predictive of my potential interest in a movie. If I find the majority of the 70%+ reviewers found the movie really enjoyable (4 or 5), then I'll add it to my Queue.
SO: what would make this more useful for me? What would MOVE THE NEEDLE? To provide:
(1st choice) A condensed list of reviewers & non-reviewers, with just their "similar to you" %age and the "star rating" they assigned to the movie. [Polishing that apple would include a link to an AJAX fly-out with the review text for each listed person's review, if any.]
(2nd choice) An ability to sort the "Reviewed by" list by similarity to me
(3rd choice) A way to see only the reviews of those subscribers whose "similar to you" %age is above 70%.
Thank you for listening.
- AnonymousAugust 25, 2007 at 8:47 AM
No cut-off threshold for the sim%s we see, please. Because I'm finding, after many side by side comparisons, that even though there's usually a lot of overlap in the movies high sim%s and I have seen, I often find 5 star movies on there that I couldn't stand, and movies MIA that would be high up on my list of "the 'best movies ever made", so now take the whole compatibility assessment -- clever and fun as it is -- with a large grain of salt. Besides, isn't there something rather disturbing about shutting out any ideas that don't precisely conform to our own? Not ringing any very loud historical bells......?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 25, 2007 at 12:35 PM
Re red stars - It seems odd to show Netflix' guess of how many stars we might award a movie rather than the 'customer average', as used to happen. Fine to add the estimate, but not have it be the only star rating we see until the description box opens up. I'd rather trust the facts on the ground rather than a computerized algorithm, which might well not know that we can't abide a certain actor, or whatever. Anyone agree?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 26, 2007 at 9:25 AM
Quite often a movie pops up that sounds interesting but which one doesn't always have time to research there and then. Any chance of some kind of bookmarking or holding-pen system for these? Of course if the queue held 5000 instead of 500 titles we could use that, and then just erase them if they turn out to be likely duds!ReplyDelete
One of my biggest problems with Netflix is the effect of suggestions, which is that my watching is highly patterned.ReplyDelete
You get a spurt of Harrison Ford movies, leading to Blade Runner, followed by a spat of scifi movies. The same is true for TV series. I like Heroes but 7 discs in a row is not what I want.
So manual manipulation of the queue is tedious and annoying. Drag and drop? Great I've got 192 movies in my queue and I don't want to handcraft a playlist. What I'd like is a moderately intelligent randomize. A randomize that understands that disc 2 of House Season 1 should come before disc 4.
I think this is a pretty large "needle" mover. I've talked to lots of other people who have the same problem. We've never seen the movies in the middle of our queues. We bump recently added movies to the top. We occasionally move a few movies around. But bottom line we don't want to be online for hours managing a list. We want to see movies, we just don't want to see patterns.
- AnonymousAugust 27, 2007 at 11:33 AM
Here's a great way to Move the Needle:ReplyDelete
Create a 'Watch it Now!' MS Vista Media Center PlugIn that works with a Media Center Extender.
Case study:
I have a Vista PC (comes with Media Center)
I also have an XBox360 (works as a Media Center Extender)
I can currently watch shows & movies, and listen to music that is stored on my PC. However, I cannot watch NetFlix movies because the software you install only works with my IE Browser.
If this is the wrong palce for this, please forward it to be an Enhancement.
If this ever works, I'll pay a buck an hour and you never have to mail me a disk.
@Michael - Would it be possible for you to revisit the 'Your Suggestions' post (July 17th) at some point to see where we are are or aren't on some of those? I notice that quite a few have already been implemented, with or without fanfare, but it would be interesting to know which of the remainder are 'in the works' and which have been nixed - for now, at least, as you always emphasize, this being a fluid and activity-rate driven process. Thank you.ReplyDelete
i am really starting to despise netlflix. i've been writing reviews for over 2 months without a single one being posted. for no reason either, as i stayed within the netflix guidlines. not to mention, having to wait a week to get a common movie such as 'payback' from across the states in maryland. i'm just about to switch to blockfuster.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 9, 2007 at 6:45 PM
From the original post "Often times I'm just polishing the apple: it's good to make this thing better, easier, clearer, whatever – but it really isn't going to change how many people use it or enjoy it – at least not in a meaningful way."ReplyDelete
Not sure I agree with that… polishing can immensely improve my enjoyment of a feature or tool. That is extremely meaningful to me. I appreciate both types of effort. But I think I get your gist…
"The question I ask – and you can ask yourself if you want – is will it make a difference, and if so – how much? For whom?"
I think we do ask these questions in as much as we can with our limited perspective. At least I know I do.
Michael, I guess I really don't understand what's going on with your post here though, and the others that are much like it. You seem to be saying 'stop asking for stuff,' sometimes in the same breath you also say 'you're making a great contribution, keep it up.' It's really confusing. I get the impression sometimes, that you have the impression, that the bulk of us are clamoring for every single change we've suggested and expecting it yesterday. I don't see that for the most part, I see people who've often been invited specifically to come up with ideas or issues who are simply putting them out there. The only real clamor I see is occasionally from the stress people are trying to relieve when they haven't found the answer they were searching for… which is in the least, understandable… And even if the answer was given last week that doesn't mean it is any easier for anyone to find… (Forums are much better at that kind of thing than blogs) And ofc the trolls with the repetitive off-topic complaints… They just can't be helped. But all that is inevitable to some extent…
We all need to think duck… keep focus on what's really important here and let the other stuff roll off our backs. Easier said than done… I know.
Now off topic: There are a lot of tech support questions cluttering the blog much of which can't be answered by the people running or using this blog. Maybe the customer service tech support department needs to open their own customer support forum to take the pressure off over here.
Jim: Did you use the "Report a problem and order a replacement link?" When I did on a disc lost in the mail it prompted me to get a replacement or send the next film in the queue. I got the replacement and everything worked just fine for me. Sorry you had a problem there, I was very relieved and happy with how Netflix helped me with my problem.
Anon who wants to review reviews: Are you serious? I knew that request was only a ploy to harass people, I'm glad someone admitted it. The only option you really need is the one you have now. Don't like it? Ignore it. I guarantee the million or so reviewers don't want you or anyone else telling them how to write a review. Talk about making a request without thought to how it affects everyone else.
(sometimes being a duck is just too hard I guess)
- AnonymousSeptember 20, 2007 at 5:18 PM
I must say I was very disappointed after upgrading to the more expensive plan that includes the "instant view" feature, only to find out that it only works on windows! What a bore! Lots of people have Macs (like myself) and would really love to use such a great feature! Pllllease consider adding a program that would allow Mac users to use instant viewing. It seems like Netflix is really limiting the market by only making it available to windows users. THANKS!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 10, 2007 at 12:17 PM
I really like Netflix most of the time - but a needel mover would be to let the customer decide if he next movie sent should be the highest available movie in the customer's queue at any Netflix distribution center or the highest available movie in the customer's queue that is available in the distribution center nearest to the customer.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 12, 2007 at 8:31 AM
I am a current Blockbuster.com customer and have seriously considered switching to NetFlix (especially with Blockbuster's recent price "increase," but I have a Media Center (and an XBox 360) and apparently the Watch Now feature doesn't work through Media Center natively. If it did, you would most likely have a new customer.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 18, 2007 at 8:28 AM
I have set up my preference for Blu-Ray in Netflix. I put a fair number of movies in my queue before they've been released as DVDs and every month or so I have to dig through a list of Blu-Ray upcoming releases to find out which ones I should delete from my queue and re-request, so that the Blu-Ray version is put into my queue instead of the regular DVD version.ReplyDelete
It sure would be nice if Netflix did this for me automatically, whenever a Blu-Ray became available or even if it could check this ever y 2wks and update my queue.
Several suggestions:ReplyDelete
EVERYWHERE you see a queue, you should be able to set PRIVACY for movies; this means: (1) the main queue; (2)_rental history; (3+) anywhere else the queue is viewable.
Especially important in the main queue so you can set privacy as soon as you add a movie.
If you fear that users will find it "confusing," make the column header ("Private?" with Y/N in the column) BLUE and have a mouseover and/or popup that says "'Private' means your FRIENDS cannot see this movie in your queue or history. [NOTE: If 'private' is set to 'N', no one except your FRIENDS can see it anyway.]"--or something to that effect. People ARE lazy, but they're not stupid. (Most folks probably don't use the 'privacy' feature partly because they CAN'T FIND IT; it's so well hidden at the moment that doing a search in 'help' for the term "privacy" doesn't even explain it!! Particularly problematic because setting privacy has now (a) moved, and (b) moved to a MORE OBSCURE place.)
(Actually, you should be able to set it BEFORE you add the movie to your queue. Folks should have an account default [that they can change] RE: whether movies they add to their queue are visible or not. Set it to 'public' at first; only those who understand it will change it.)
Whew... enough rants for tonite!
(Thanks for [e-]listening!)
- AnonymousOctober 25, 2007 at 4:04 PM
it would be nice if netflix emailed you a warning when the movie at the top of your queue is unavailable, and gave you a chance...maybe with a time limit...to check to make sure that the next movie in your queue is what you want instead. our queue has movies for both adults and kids (i don't want to set up a separate kid queue), so the next movie in line is not always of the same genre. so if i was counting on a kid movie for the weekend, and it gets bumped without me knowing, all of a sudden i don't have a movie for my kids since the next movie in my queue happened to be an adult movie. anyway, would be a nice feature.ReplyDelete
Re: Polishing the apple...ReplyDelete
Sorry to go off-topic but I can't find a place to lodge a complaint with Netflix and you don't take e-mail from customers!
I have an issue re the condition of NetFlix DVDs. No problem most of the time but about 5-6 times in the last couple of years, I have gotten damaged or dirty DVDs. I am not that concerned about scratches but the dirt is unforgiveable. I have photos of one with some goo and a big old HAIR stuck to it. Immediately obvious.
Can't you clean the DVDs? An in-line cleaner in the assembly line?
And how do you complain to Netflix online? You seem to have a moat around them to protect against those pesky customers.
Don't get me wrong -- I -love- Netflix but think you can do better on dirty and cracked DVDs.
- AnonymousJanuary 3, 2008 at 10:49 PM
What I've love to see is the option of selecting 'not interested' in the previews, because I often find myself re-watching previews I didn't enjoy, and I know I can click next but it gets sort of frustrating when ten times in a row you are clicking next and all you want to see is a new preview plus I rather have it remember that I don't like those types of movies.ReplyDelete
Another BB defector here - already liking the features of Netflix and haven't received my first movie yet! How you compare - BBO does NOT have these features: drag/drop queue, movies you've watched category, or instant movie recommendations when you add to the queue. Also, as my first adds, I took the movies from my BBO Q that were listed as "long wait" and added to my Netflix - all show available now.ReplyDelete
I suspect I'll be cancelling BBO permanently and switching to Netflix.
I am really curious as to why there is still no option to view subtitled anime in instant viewing. Has anyone actually done a study that shows how popular it would be? There is absolutely no one out there offering subbed anime like Netflix can. It could be argued that anyone that wants to watch subbed anime already just downloads or streams it illegally, but that's where we use the age old counterargument that cable companies use. The quality of their viewing experience pales in comparison to what Netflix can offer. Is it a format issue? You could just stream in .mkv or .ogg format and force people to download a plug-in to play it. Plus, you would get tons of brownie points with the online community if you started using an open media format. Seriously, there is no reason not to offer subbed anime, unless it's "We're working on it."ReplyDelete
- COS_DaveJanuary 15, 2008 at 7:35 AM
Can anyone tell me WHY they went with a more net-intensive "new release" format?ReplyDelete
I have a very slow network at work, and it is excruciating to wait for the popups or scrolling to work...is there any way to opt for the previous list format?
And where did the "releasing this week" feature go? It's a lot easier to scan through a list (on a single page!)....and I don't have to download a whole bunch of graphics (DVD covers) that I don't care about.
Can you at least allow the OPTION of viewing the no-graphics list format for new releases and releasing this week?
- AnonymousJanuary 17, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Maybe this is the place to mention that I just can not seem to use the site anymore because I did almost all my ordering from the New Release section, by going to RELEASING THIS WEEK.ReplyDelete
That being changed has just wrecked the whole thing for me after using it for 3+ years now.
I hate the New Release screen change, and how hard would it be to provide a link to the LIST VIEW that was available before that sorted ALL the NEW RELEASES at once sorted by stars.
- AnonymousJanuary 18, 2008 at 8:57 AM
I'm not sure how you've made the instant viewing feature (and drag and drop) work, but perhaps re-writing it so it's not so "buggy" and touchy would help?ReplyDelete
That feature worked for me until about 2 weeks ago. (I have Vista with IE7).
I've checked every possible reason-- uninstalled and re-installed Java, shut down any virus/anti-spyware/firewall program I have, disabled one at a time (until I had NO)Active X running (in Tools)...all to no avail--it simply won't work now.
- AnonymousJanuary 21, 2008 at 3:46 PM
After commenting just a couple days ago about the missing NEW RELEASE feature, I see it appearing on the BLOG page.ReplyDelete
THANK YOU!!! At least I can continue using Netflix like I have for the last 3 years.
Please keep that link available SOMEWHERE.
If this has been posted before please excuse the repetition.ReplyDelete
I think a fantastic improvement to the Netflix experience would be to add one more state to the RED "add" button for every movie. ->
"viewed" as in previously viewed or shipped and returned.
Currently there are only three states for the button,
* "add" in RED with WHITE font
* "in Queue" in WHITE with RED font
* "saved" in GREEN with WHITE font
* "viewed" or "returned" could be BLACK with WHITE font.
This would quickly show all possible states for every movie.
- AnonymousMarch 6, 2008 at 7:24 AM
I DESPISE that we must use IE for instant viewing. I'm so angry about it I may cancel my account on principle!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMay 6, 2008 at 9:59 AM
interesting...for all this self important babble about polishing the apple...you seem to have forgotten the BASIC service: providing movies! I just cancelled my netflix subscription after several years...why? Well over half the movies I have been sent in the last 3 months failed to play well enough to watch!ReplyDelete
Perhaps more frustrating as that it is IMPOSSIBLE to contact netflix....why have a "contact us" page....with no contact route for CUSTOMERS!
The competition won....
- AnonymousSeptember 8, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Review hoax
Ok you want to move the needle right over the scale to the full side try this idea...........
First take the information from us we are already giving you and use it to actually show us movie suggestions we would actually want to watch!
by that i mean the obvious take my personal likes and dislikes from my ratings of movies! ok i know how the curent system works it takes rental activity from me and the surrounding 100 miles of customers and compiles them into a number that number is then cross referenced with the Ratings and then your system figures out the probability of wether or not i would want to see that movie....it is a very complex system.
i know i have three degrees and i could not figure it out!
what i am suggesting is to simplify the system.
ok that being said i can explain my frustration like i said it takes my ratings and puts them into a pile with thousands of others from the demighaphic populus and shaves off the oddball numbers and figures out what i like......
again wrong! this is not acurate because i live in an area close to another town 32 miles away but your system thinks i would like the same things as they do....
not true you see the towns surrounding me are 92% populated by mormans who abhore violence and cursing and the thought of the living dead is as close to the devil as they can imagin.
me on the other hand i love action movies i like to see nudity and things blowing up i do haunted houses and thus love to watch horror flicks.. your system cancels me out because i am among the select few or the minority...
there is a word for that????? oh yeah Predjudice..................
the point i am trying to make is the one i stated earlier you have a competition going on worth a million bucks pluss 50 thousand a year for the top contenders what if it is not another system you need but a new idea on how to compile all the data you already have you ask me to rate every movie i return and i volenteer my own on those movies i have already watched and all it seams to do is work against me because the ones i am interested in are removed before i have a chance to see them and then i have to write them down and go to the search icon to find them i have had to search for more than 46 movies just this year and more than a hundred and twenty in the time i have been a member if you ask me the system is flawed and you are missing ahuge number of targeted clicks and satisfied customers.you see most of the movies i rent are a wide veriety my mother sometimes asks me for movies she wants to see well she likes a totally different type than me and my children do too they are not on a seperate queue than me because that is just a hastle i do not want to deal with but "ALL" the ratings i submit are from me and what i like because i thought as i am sure do most people that it actually got me closer to the type of movies i liked.
i had more than three thousand reviews on my account when i discovered the problem with having to search for movies i liked.
i have removed them all in an effort to diagnose how the system works when i discovered your contest it confirmed my suspitions.
i do understand the need to streamline your site but lets face facts if you use the reviews we as customers submit against us as individuals to try and passify the masses you end up cutting your gains in half your contest says you want to improve the system efficincy by 10% weell there you go impliment the queue as the deciding factors not against them .
netflix user Jacque Bishop
- AnonymousSeptember 19, 2008 at 8:45 AM
I am really, REALLY irritated that Netflix does not seem to have thought of some very basic features on the website to make it easier for users, and oh by the way, if they would make the changes, would probably earn Netflix more money.ReplyDelete
1. Don't make me jump through a million hoops to recommend a title. Have a "Recommend a Title" button on the main site.
2. Bring back customer service email, and just give me general categories to code the nature of my question or comment, no multiple steps. Give me an "Email Us" button on the site. A number is fine if I have a problem nothing else will address, but generally I just have comments like these and don't feel like waiting to talk to someone who may or may not pass my message along accurately, or to the department head that can actually DO something about it.
3. Don't make me search through your "for sale" tabbed site to look for the movies I want to buy, which is a pain in the a** to use, and so, I don't. (Read: MANY LOST POTENTIAL SALES). The rent and buy features should be integrated on the site, and I am stunned that they aren't. The movies I want to buy are somewhat obscure anyway, not blockbusters, and I would love to get them at the reduced price of a used DVD. I would like the option to just keep the ones I have rented and have that deducted from my account, or, if that is impractical for Netflix, I would like a "buy" or "request to buy" button under the "add" button of each movie that I can click. This way, you will get feedback on how much demand there is for different movies, and if there's one you don't have enough stock of, you can tell the requester what the wait time would be.
Thank you, and I hope this is actually read by someone so that I haven't spent my time in vain... -- The Liberal Media
- AnonymousSeptember 19, 2008 at 8:49 AM
Someone here commented about movie previews on Netflix discs, and asked if Netflix could note what they are. I find that I MUST write them down when I have the rental, because I can guarantee you, they'll never show up in recommended titles in Netflix. EVEN WHEN NETFLIX HAS THEM AVAILABLE. I honestly don't know what is up with the recommendations. I rent a fair amount of Gay cinema titles, and at one point I thought I would shoot the computer screen if I saw Brokeback Mountain -- which I had already rented AND purchased from Netflix months before -- as a "recommended title." What the F??? The tons of other obscure titles, which I got from previews on other discs, never showed up.ReplyDelete
i don't know if this is the place to rant, but i will anyway. (since there is nowhere to email a "user rant" to customer service). i purposely did not return a movie for 2 full weeks (i have 3-at-a-time) in order to not generate the netflix turnover thing where they stall your shipments because you're using it too much. i finally returned one, got the first disc of a 5-disc series. i returned another, it was received on Monday, the federal holiday. i got a notice on Monday to expect Disc 2 on Wednesday (which made sense to me with the holiday). i returned another Tuesday, prompting Disc 3 to be sent. i didn't receive Disc 2 yesterday or today, but got Disc 3 today. am so annoyed that now i can't watch because i still don't have disc 2. i know i'm being irrational because i will prob get it tomorrow, but basically i can't watch anything without disc 2. ANNOYED. ~cranky, irrational and probably completely blowing it out of proportion girl.ReplyDelete
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text:
St. Paul police officers and some 911 center workers are slated to get a 6.25 percent raise over their three-year contract -- slightly more than the city's offer and significantly less than what the police union was seeking.
Both sides received the decision Wednesday from a state arbitrator who was called in because the city and St. Paul Police Federation were at an impasse in negotiating the contract.
The arbitrator's decision is binding. The contract needs final approval from the City Council, said Angie Nalezny, St. Paul's human resources director.
Wages had been the sticking point. Mayor Chris Coleman's office offered a raise of 5.5 percent over the life of the new contract, which runs from 2013 to 2015. The Police Federation asked for a 10.7 percent wage increase over the three years.
The Federation and mayor's office have disagreed with each other's calculations for how St. Paul officers' pay compares with other Twin Cities police departments.
The union figured an officer's pay over his or her career puts St. Paul in 21st place and the wage increase will put them at 19, Police Federation President Dave Titus said. Pay starts at about $49,000 and tops out after 20 years at about $77,000, he said.
"This is unacceptable and the Federation will continue working to improve our competitiveness in order to recruit and retain the best police officers," Titus said Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, based on the city's testimony at arbitration, ranking in the bottom third for their cops is condoned by the mayor, Council and chiefs."
But the mayor's office previously said that figuring in total compensation, including benefits, for patrol officers over a 30-year period puts the department third among the 25 largest police forces in the metro area.
Nalezny pointed out that more than 700 people applied to the police department during the last two recruitment efforts.
"We haven't seen pay as a detriment to people applying," she said.
Arbitrator Jay Fogelberg wrote in his arbitration opinion that he discounted the union's and city's compensation models.
He noted the annual salaries of St. Paul and Minneapolis officers "were relatively competitive" as of 2012.
"Factoring in what other comparable cities pay their law enforcement personnel is most certainly an important and relevant element," Fogelberg wrote. "It is not, however, the only one."
For the wage increases Fogelberg awarded to the Police Federation, 3.5 percent will be retroactive and 2.75 percent will take effect next year.
"We believe this decision largely supports the equity and parity we've negotiated with all the other unions, but I'm disappointed in the award for 2015," Nalezny said. "We're in the middle of setting the 2015 budget and ... obviously, we have to take this award into account and we will. This just adds to the pressure of the $9.6 million gap."
The city is facing a nearly $10 million gap between projected revenues and expenses for next year. The mayor and city council will have to negotiate that amount in budget cuts between now and December to balance the 2015 budget or find new revenue sources.
For the last two contracts, the police union settled for the same wage adjustments as the other unions in the city, which was a wage freeze in the 2011-2012 agreement, Fogelberg wrote.
During negotiations for the 2013-2015 contracts, eight unions agreed to the same wage adjustments, but five did not.
Four of the unions made concessions, while the Federation did not make similar ones, Fogelberg noted.
But Titus said the police union "made a tremendous amount of concessions" about a decade ago.
"At this point, there is nothing to give up," he said Wednesday. "We would simply fall behind in other categories if we did so."
The Police Federation, which represents about 635 officers and civilians, had been continuing to work under their contract that expired at the end of 2012.
Their contract has been the only unsettled one in the city.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.


text: Glaciers & Ice Sheets Researchers who camped and worked on Greenland's ice sheet this summer soaked in their initial glimpses of the huge Arctic island. "As western Greenland came into view, first-time visitors like myself glued our faces to the tiny round airplane windows, watching ice, rock, and ocean drift by below," wrote photographer Chris Linder in an online dispatch hosted by Polar Discovery. "Our flight path took us past Taterat Glacier, a river of ice that drains the Sugar Top Ice Cap. This ice cap is a smaller cousin of the Greenland ice sheet to the east (an ice mass the size of Mexico)." (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) From Oceanus Magazine[ ALL ]November 10, 2015Ice, Wind & FuryScientists investigate the avalanche of winds known as piteraqsJune 3, 2015Scientists Find Trigger That Cracks LakesFast-draining lakes atop Greenland ice sheet could accelerate sea level riseWHOI News Releases[ ALL ]October 12, 2015New Study Projects That Melting of Antarctic Ice Shelves Will Intensify March 10, 2013Glaciers Contribute Significant Iron to North Atlantic OceanWHOI In the News[ ALL ] October 15, 2015Fossil Fuel Consumption at Same Rate Will Lead To Ice Shelf Collapse by End of Century Norther Californian October 15, 2015Study finds Antarctic ice shelves will melt at double the rate within 35 years Fusion