Comments on: Peerflix, What Have you Done?

By: beth

beth — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:47:00 +0000

peerflix ripped me off

i loved peerflix, i sent and got hundreds of decent dvds. then, the big cash out promise… with $450 credit, i was elated to think, “ca-ching!”

boy was i stupid. after 3 months, i got a check for $6 (six) dollars. after a few back and forth emails with the peerflix-peeps, they explained how i used up all my credit on the 65 dvds that had been rapid fire sent to me (average $7). the maddening thing, there was no easy way to deletew from the “want list” so the disks kept flying into my mailbox.

anyway, the new system is not so great and i’ll keep checking back with them, but, that’s enough for me. customer support has a real cold attitude, probably from all the complaints they’ve been fielding.

oh well,
beth

By: R. J. Fujan

R. J. Fujan — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:44:51 +0000

I agree that the barter system was much better. But my biggest complaint with the new system is that you now have to have a credit card on file instead of using PayPal. When they had my credit card before, I’d receive so many DVDs at once that I could not possibly enjoy them and my bill could be as much as $50 a month! By using PayPal, I could control the maximum number of DVDs I received each month, thereby controlling my spending instead of having Peerflix control it. Also, the price conversion they used is suspect. From the forum, it appears that most users ended up with odd amounts of “cash” in exchange for their Peerbux, because the price they used to convert is not only below the lowest priced DVD in the system, it’s also in odd cents, unlike the prices for the DVDs, so you’ll always have change in your account. As for “cashing out”, be prepared to wait FOUR months to get your money!

By: khudari

khudari — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:48:49 +0000

I got this question via email from Matthew P.:

Why is the cash economy so confusing? You still only pay $1.50 for a DVD. The cash economy juts allows people to cash out if they want to leave. They couldn’t do that with Peerbux.

Here is my response:

The cash economy is not confusing at all. It is buying and selling—very clear. However, the psychology of buying and selling with $1.50 shipping cost is totally different from the psychology of trading a few of my discs for a few of someone else’s discs with a $1.50 transaction fee. This may be irrational, but it is how my psychology works.

I never bought DVDs until I joined Peerflix. They seem too expensive, when you can rent them for $4. I know–irrational. But that thinking prevents me from pulling the trigger.

I am reluctant to try selling stuff online because I am worried about unhappy customers complaining about lost or damaged items, etc. It feels like too much hassle–especially for small stuff like DVDs.

By the way, with the old barter system, I would never complain about receiving a very scratched but playable DVD. But if I paid real money, I might feel ripped off. I would also be uncomfortable passing a very scratched DVD on to the next unwitting customer.