My friend started going on about this, but then I realized that I had noticed it with my service, too, after hitting the three month mark or so.
It seems that after about three months, the turnaround time on Netflix DVD’s drastically lengthens - where previously, there would be about 3 days between sending off one disc and getting the new one, that timeframe has now stretched to a week or longer.
So…fact or myth? Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what’s the cause? Some argue that Netflix is prioritizing new customers and then somehow relegating them to “less important” after that introductory window is up. But I’m inclined to believe that they’re just taking on new customers at an exponential rate, and are having trouble catching up to the new volume of customers.
I’ve heard the theory about movie availability and wait times being related to your membership age (which I semi-believe). Regarding turnaround times, I’ve been a member for well over a year and mine have remained very constant (perhaps simply because I live 20 minutes away from ground zero).
I would suggest making sure you always have plenty of movies in your queue, and that at least a few are not in high demand (if the movie to be sent is not available, they’ll ship it from a different warehouse - so it takes longer to arrive)
If all else fails, you could always cancel your membership and then re-join.
FWIW, I have not noticed that at all, in fact the turnaround time has decreased. I have a hard time believing this is real. On the other hand, if you’ve been around a long time, you may be feeling the effects of the companie’s growth, their number of subscribers (and the work they have to do, and competion for those discs you want) is constantly going up.
I have noticed a slowdown, and I’ve been a member since January '02. When i first joined, I think they only had the one center in San Francisco. A few months later, the new centers opened, including on about 30 minutes from me in Duluth, GA. At that point, things REALLY sped up, going from a week or more turnaround, to 2-3 days. It was great. I was consistently getting my movies 1 day earlier than they predicted. However, in the last few months, it seems like the turnaround has slowed a bit, and I am now getting the movies on the day that they predicted (the amount of time they give for a movie to arrived has not changed, though). So, I cannot really complain, and won’t. I am also more inclined to blame the postal service than Netflix, based on my tracking (I think that the population of the area I live in is growing, and the USPS is experiencing growing pains).
I have absolutely noticed this slowdown. I’ve been a member for about 8 months or so. I was amazed at the speed of Netflix for my first few months. I live in Southern California and the address on the envelope that you return your movies in is quite literally 30 minutes away. The standard timing had been:
Day 1: movie at top of queue ships
Day 2: receive movie. Watch same night.
Day 3: drop movie in mail. Mail goes out same day
Day 4: movie is received at Netflix. Next movie in queue is shipped.
Day 5: receive movie.
This was great! After a couple months of this (sometime around November), the process is slowed:
Day 1: movie at top of queue ships
Day 2: receive movie. Watch same night.
Day 3: drop movie in mail. Mail goes out same day
Day 4: waiting
Day 5: waiting
Day 6: movie is received at Netflix. Next movie in queue is shipped.
Day 7: receive movie.
This is not a postal issue. This is a Netflix issue. They are now claiming that it takes 3 days to receive something mailed 30 minutes away (which had previously always taken a day). Of course when they send the other direction it only takes one day to get to me.
FURTHER PROOF: As is allowed, I sometimes put 2 movies into one Netflix return envelope. Strangely enough, the netflix system shows two days between when one and the other are received – IN THE SAME ENVELOPE.
I still love their service and I won’t be quitting, but I am a little concerned at such a practice. It’s not entirely clear if they are just taking too much time to process the incoming movies or if it is, as the OP suggests, specifically lengthened once you’ve been a member for so long.
I’ve had Netflix for 11 months and the past two weeks I’ve notice a slowdown. This combined with the increase in price makes it about the same as renting movies at the store. Of course without the convenience.
Old schedule:
Day 1: movie ships
Day 3: I receive and watch over the weekend
Day 5: I send movies back
Day 7: movies received by Netflix
so I had a turnover of about a week and always had 3 movies to watch over the weekend. The last two weeks they are a day behind, which runs into the weekend so I didn’t get the movies until monday. I’m seriously thinking about trying Wal-Mart because for 9 movies a month it’s not worth 21.99. I waiting this week to see if it is a temporary problem.
My experience with NetFlix was bad. It was slow from the beginning. I would get movies ever two weeks or so. And when I finally canceled, they conveniently “lost” my last two movies and billed me for them. I will not recommend them to anyone.
I haven’t noticed a slowdown in my service at all, and I’ve been a member since November 2003. Still fairly new, but I think not new enough to be a “priority” to Netflix. It usually takes a day less than the “estimated arrival date” for me to receive my movies, and I can’t recall it ever taking longer than that. I’ve only ever gotten one movie from them that didn’t work, and they sent me a new one as soon as they got the broken one back.
Also, I have no problem with the price increase. Considering most of the places around my area have rental fees of about $4-$5, $21 a month isn’t much even when I rent only three movies a week. It’s even better when I rent more, which I do sometimes.
Say there’s a movie. They have 3 copies and 8 people want it. Perhaps their algorithm is to send it to newbies first, as they are the most likely to cancel if they are put on hold for a bit.
2nd idea: The first stuff you get are movies they have a lot of copies of. As you drain that reserve, a higher percentage of your wish list is stuff that is harder to come by.
I remember reading, in what seemed like a credible source at the time (Fast Company, Business 2.0, or possibly here on the Dope) that Netflix did have an algorithm to “pace” customers, but that it was based on renting high volumes of high-demand movies. So if you were turning around new releases every couple of days, that wasn’t going to last.
I rent all kinds of obscure stuff–love their selection! I haven’t noticed any slowdown.
I’ve been a member for almost 3 years, and I have never notices a slowdown. I usually have my new movie 5 days after mailing the old one, just like I always did. A move to a different city hasn’t really changed my turnover time…
Of course, I tend to rent more obscure art movies and fewer new releases, so if the algorithm is based on demand, not length of membership, then I’m more evidence.
I only use Netflix to rent super-Obscure stuff; many times, I’m the first person to rent a particular title from the company, so I really don’t think that’s the cause. It’s not like I’m using it to rent the mainstream, in-demand hollywood stuff.
My guess, after much pondering and reading you guys’ responses, is that certain Netflix distribution centers’ customer bases are growing much faster than others. I’m very, very close to a Netflix center, but i’m also in the Washington, DC metro area, one of Netflix’s fastest-growing customer bases. Likewise, my friend in Chicago (one of their other fastest-growing bases) has experienced the slowdown as well. Maybe we’re just using more high-traffic distro centers than some of the more out-of-the-way customers, and our demographic areas are growing too fast for Netflix to keep up?
yoyodyne - interesitng link, but that’s a whole different issue (availability of discs varying between different customers). I noticed that recently - a particular movie was “very long wait” after the month that we rented a ton of stuff from them, but was magically “available now” immediately following a month where we barely got our money’s worth.
But the real issue here is actual turnaround time - the time it takes between when you send them back a film, they process it, and send you your next one. I’ve gone from 3 days to almost 7, and others seem to have had disturbing, inconvenient increases as well.
I haven’t noticed any unusual change in turn around time. Apparently they are aware that there have been some problems because I got an e-mail questionaire wanting to know if my last movie was received in 1 or 2 days. As it happened I didn’t get it until the 3rd day but this is unusual. Normally I get it the day before my e-mail notification says I should get it.
I’ve been quite pleased with the service overall. The distribution center is only about 50 miles from where I live.