I wish I'd read this before I gave a couple of Netflix annual subscriptions away last year. It turns out that Netflix duns the people I gave the gifts to for their credit card info, telling them that it's because of problems with my credit card. So, to the recipients of my largesse, it looks like 1) I didn't pay for the service but only signed them up, obligating them to pay. And, 2) I have such bad credit that I couldn't pay for the gifts if I wanted to. Finally, 3) I suspect that Netflix, like other online "memberships", (MSN, the Book-of-the-month clubs, the record-of-the-month clubs, etc.) will continue to charge the recipient's card for "membership" long after they've begged them to un-join. This is the worst sort of gift because it costs the giver money like a good gift but it engenders bad feelings from the recipient who's being dunned and thinks you gave them nothing but a financial liability.

In regards to there being no opt-out option, I'm asking if anyone actually looked into it???

Cause if you used you're heads you'd see, in the upper right corner, a link called "Your Account & Help".

And if you were curious to click on it, you would be brought to a page listing your account information and recent activity on the site.

I know nobody complaining on here (or even the author) did this cause they would have seen that, at the top & right in the very center, is your billing history. This 'history' list a link to your complete billing history RIGHT UNDERNEATH the listing of your next billing date!!! IT LITERALLY SAYS 'Next billing date'!!!

And then, you simply shift your gaze about 2 inches to the right and you see a link called (prepare yourself for this) CANCEL MEMBERSHIP!!!

A person with even limited intelligence should be able to to do this simple math equation: Cancel membership BEFORE the next billing date = no billing when not desired!!!

I just bought 2 netflix gift cards for myself because I didn't want them having my credit card number. I have been a victim of Identity theft before so giving them my credit card # is not going to happen. EVER! Once I found out that I still need to provide a credit card number to use my gift card I called Netflix and found out that there's nothing they can do about it. I mentioned that Netflix offers a 1 month free trial online so what's the difference between the free trial and a 1 month gift card if both require a person to provide a credit card? The operator was stumped. Apparently they gets this a lot. Think about it. If you can get a free trial online then why buy and give someone a $8.99 gift card? I might as well write www.netflix.com on a piece of paper and give that away as a gift. Just tell the recipient that they need to sign up with their credit card #. I wasn't rude and I politly said goodbye. Not only did they lose a potential customer but I will make sure to spread the word to all my friends that netflix will screw you over. I'll put it on my facebook, myspace and buzz account. In the meantime I'll stick with the Playstation network for all my video rentals. I rather pay more to an honest company than pay less to a bunch of crooks.

I bought a 2 month gift subscription for my grandparents only to learn they will not enter their credit card number online due to recent identity theft (Netflix requires them to input their credit card number online to activate the gift subscription). I explained this all to Netflix and had to work my way up their corporate ladder only to be told "sorry, refunds on gift subscriptions are not given at Netflix". When I asked "why", they said it is just their policy and they know it upsets many people. Obviously Netflix cares more about their bottom line than they do about customer service, retaining customers, and/or gaining new customers. Pretty short-sighted thinking, especially in this day and age. I turned it over to my credit card company to dispute. I also plan to share my very poor experience with as many friends as I can. Netflix will eventually learn that negative customer feedback travels far and fast.

Netflix charged two extra months of service on my friends card, after he had given me a gift subscription. They require you to opt-out, or cancel the account to stop what is advertised as a LIMITED gift subscription. DONT BUY A NETFLIX GIFT SUBSCRIPTION! You will be screwed over.

I've been with netflix for four years, never had a problem when my account was put on hold, never had a problem getting my gift card back from the one person that didn't want the card, just used it myself, by the way "I LOVE NETFLIX".

Bad: I bought a subscription for my brother, who used it for a while then didn't tell me he no longer wanted it. He doesn't have a credit card, so the subscription was on mine. Sure enough, Netflix automatically renewed, and renewed...even though no DVD had been ordered for 18 months. When I finally learned that the subscription wasn't being used, I called to cancel. Netflix agreed to cancel, then didn't. It took 4 requests for cancellation before Netflix finally stopped charging me--months later. Good: to their credit, when I pointed out that the account hadn't been used for nearly 2 years at that point, they eventually refunded all charges for the previous year. Annoying process, admirable ending.

I wanted to get my brother a year of Netflix, mainly for the instant viewing access. But after reading this article on how their gift cards work, I decided on a different way to go about it. I purchased a 12 month gift plan on Netflix, then set it up for him myself and when it asked for a credit card I just entered a gift Visa card I had bought from my local bank (I only put $20 on it). So when the Netflix year sub is up, it'll just charge the gift Visa until it runs out. And then they'll offer him the option to cancel or enter a new card, with no risk or damage done to anyone's real credit. Of course you could also simply bypass the gift sub and just use the gift credit card to open a regular Netflix account and either refill it as needed or let it slide when its depleted. Anyway, all I had to do was send him an email with the login and password and he was watching movies with no hassles in minutes.

Here's the revealing and disturbing part of the Netflix new terms, which basically admit to what they were sued for:
"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we may utilize many different factors, including the number and type of DVDs you rent through our service, the membership plan you select, as well as other uses of our service by you. For example, if all other factors are the same, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service. The type, number, mix and weighting of the various factors impacting shipping and inventory allocation will change from time to time and will be made in our sole and absolute discretion." In other words, if they find you renting and returning quickly, and it ups the amount of monthly dvds you rent, they can intentionally slow down your shipments so you don't rent too many. They also mention in this section that "most people check out 1-11 dvds in a month". I guess this is their target # for what they want to allow.

NetFlix claims to have no way to cancel in advance. I was appauld to find out my daughter could not use my gift to her without a credit card (she had none, I had to use mine). I was concerned about my card being on file and called in advance to make sure my card was not charged at the expiration of the prepaid gift. They told me "their system will not allow accounts to be canceled in advance". I have the burden to call again or my card will be charged and my gift card will turn into a monthly contract.

You left out the fact that you can't use the vacation hold with a gift subscription. If you put the account on hold you lose whatever is left on the subscription. Non gift subscription users can put their account on hold while they are out of town. G/S users just have to keep the account active and lose however long they are out of town from the subscription.

Check out the zero group. . . spoofing just got that much more dangerous
http://www.thezerogroup.com