There was just a settlement in a class action against Netflix related to this:
IMHO, the settlement was pathetic. The lawyers got like $2.6 million, the class plaintiff got around $2,000, and everyone else who was a member before a certain date got one month of one disc upgrade (but if they forget to cancel after the month, are billed at the higer rate from then on out.)
Yuppers, my service has gotten slower over the past month or so. I don’t think it’s because I’m a mad-crazy renter, because I don’t return them that quickly. Sometimes I’ll hold onto a movie for 2 weeks. And I hardly ever rent new releases. Mostly docs and foreign flicks.
Let’s say I ship a movie today (Tuesday), sometimes they do recieve it Wednesday, but they’ve started waiting a day to send me the next movie so I won’t get it til Friday (if I’m lucky) or Saturday. I’m fed up with it because I used to have such great service and I loved Netflix! Now I find myself completely without movies sometimes. And what’s the deal with them not shipping out on Saturdays? That’s very frustrating too. I thought this was just me, but now that I know others are getting slower service, I’m going to write to Netflix a la Zsofia and hopefully that will pick things up.
Let us know what happens. I’m not sure what to do. Write them a nasty-gram, or just cancel the account and rejoin?
We’ve gone to the seven discs at a time option, which costs as much as our satellite TV bill, but we actually got more discs when we were on the three discs at a time plan.
I’ve definitely noticed a slowdown. Thing is, in bumfuck, Arkansas, we never got the 1-business day turnaround. My usual pattern was to receive a movie on friday/saturday, and ship back monday/tuesday, and then receive my new ones the following friday/saturday. At the 3 disc plan, I am averaging a dozen movies a month. Service has slowed down recently, sometimes adding another day to turnaround (and this is with a new Little Rock Shipping Center!)…but I still average 10-12 movies per month. My biggest beef is that sometimes I’ll get all 3 movies on monday, and have none on the weekend. That’s a pain.
Thing is, it’s still roughly half as expensive as renting the same volume of movies locally, so what do you do?
In another thread someone mentioned this was the semi-secret customer service number
NetFlix: (888) 638-3549
Jim
In the thread that jrfanchi mentions, I posted at how impressed I was with Netflix’s service after our move from Denver to Port St Joe (a very small town.)
I was not expecting to continue to have quick turnaround, but that is how it has been.
I have had very little difficulty dealing with Netflix.
You guys should check out this site:http://www.manuelsweb.com/netflix.htm
It explains some of the “tactics” Netflix uses.
Here’s another site that might be helpful:
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/
Thank you all for the great information. I’ve really gotten an education!
After reading through all the links, I’m thinking of going with Blockbuster’s online program. The thing I like about that, is BB gives you two free in-store rentals per month, which you can use for the new releases that, if you miss the one day window of opportunity on Netflix, you won’t be able to get for weeks, if not months.
Or, with BB, you can use those two free rentals for video games! Now that I’d like. I assume games also fall under their new “no late fees” policy. Back in the day, I used to pay a fortune in late fees to BB on video games.
Also, it could be fun to just sign up with both. Right now we’re paying $40 bucks for 7 at a time, but we could sign up for 3 at a time from both services, it’d be cheaper and would increase the number of available titles.
Huh. I experience a Netflix slowdown, too, but it was right after we moved, so I attributed it to that (though I wasn’t sure how moving seven miles could cause a delay in mail). I tend to go through my movies pretty slowly, though, anyway, so it’s usually not a big deal. I got an e-mail from them a few weeks ago with a survey asking how long it took me to get my last movie; after I replied, I noticed that the turnaround seemed to pick up.
Huh, I haven’t had a problem yet with Netflix. I’ve had my account for just over a year, three movies out at a time, and I pretty reliably turn all three around by dropping them off in the same mailbox very early Monday morning, Tuesday morning they receive them, Tuesday afternoon they’re sending out the next three which arrive Wednesday. We take the rest of the week to watch the movies, then back in the mail Monday again. Very few exceptions to this pattern, few damaged discs, one lost disc replaced with no questions asked. One Firefly disc arrived cracked in half but was replaced immediately. I’ve averaged the cost and it’s running about $1.27 per, and the selection is lightyears greater than any local rental spot, and I never have to go stand around browsing with Cletus and Wynona and their loudly screaming mouthbreathing kids. Not to mention a very good selection of foreign, indie and obscure titles I can’t find for shit around where I live.
Netflix rules!
Got my first damaged disk today. Cracked in half, it was. It must have been damaged by the post office, no way they stuck two halves in like that, surely! It was also almost a week past the day it was supposed to arrive.
So I’m sending it back in the morning, but how am I getting a “free replacement” when it’s just going to be in the cycle of two I usually get anyway? Will they be sending a third? And will it take another week for my DD to get to see her beloved Christina Ricci in Prozac Nation?
The other still hasn’t arrived, so tomorrow it will be officially eight days late. I’m getting very frustrated at this point.
I honestly don’t think Netflix slows down on purpose for anyone’s account. Think about it. Could you really see someone opening the return envelope, noticing the account and then making sure they slow down the mailing of the next disc.
I think it is just the growing pains of a new company. What a boring job it must to open those return envelopes, scan the DVD, pull DVDs from a warehouse and mail them out. I’m sure they have high turnover and this accounts for most of the slowdown. While I’m sure they “lose” money on frequent renters with high turnaround, it would probably cost them more money to “throttle” those renters. For example, a movie appears in your que as Shipping Wednesday. Then, you notice it now says Shipping Thursday. Isn’t it more likely that perhaps the copy that was originally scheduled was pulled because of it being the wrong or a broken DVD?
Mine has actually gotten better over the past couple of weeks.
Their Terms of Use explicitly state that this is, in fact, exactly what they do on some occasions:
Thank you for the link, bzwilak. It was very informative. I wish I’d known their policies on high-volume users before I signed on (and I should have, since it was right there on their website). Consider me educated.
It’s not humans that do it, it’s the evil Netflix computer over-mind that monitors your viewing habits and decides your priority.
“HAL, I need you to send me my next discs.”
“I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that.”
“HAL, I sent you two discs yesterday, admit you’ve recieved them!”
“I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that.”