Why? Do you just have one copy of The Fabulous Baker Boys? This is a 20-year-old movie. It’s not like it’s the hot movie du jour or one of this year’s Oscar contenders.
It’s been at the top of my queue since December.
Grrrr.
Contrary to what Netflix states, I’ve found that only having three movies in my queue at any given time guarantees delivery of those movies within the next few days. I’m guessing since Netflix doesn’t have the option of sending a lower-valued one, it has to send out one of the three on your queue.
YMMV, but it may be worth a shot.
One thing that may affect how quick an older movie becomes available to you is the current demand. “The Fabulous Baker Boys” is old and , though very good, not a high demand movie, so there are probably fewer copies of it on the shelves at the various Netflix distribution centers. However, if a major magazine or television show calls attention to the film, demand for it may go up dramatically. Case in point; an old film named “Sparkle”(1976). In light of the release of “Dreamgirls”, *Entertainment Weekly * did a full page story on this similarly themed film. I placed it in my queue and it was listed as a ‘Very long wait’. My conclusion was that the magazine story had suddenly created the demand for this obscure oldie.
Keep an eye on it. Netflix also responds to demand – there was a similar run on Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle after EW mentioned it – and it went from “very long wait” to “available” in a couple of weeks – I assume because Netflix bought additional copies.
I generally put the “short wait”, “long wait” and “very long wait” items at the top of my queue, as I have discovered that sometimes the “very long wait” ones are shipped immediately without passing thru other stages.
Well, keep in mind that when the disc is returned, it has to go to someone, and that someone will have had “very long wait” on their status screen, like everyone else.
Why? Doesn’t that depend on the algorythm in use to translate {some data} into one or more descriptive strings? As the available inventory changed, I would expect the “wait” description to change, too.
I was thinking about how this might work as a computer program. If someone knows exactly from working at Netflix or programming for them, that would be great, but until then, I can only guess.
Here are some of the data points I imagine are available to the program for any one title:[ol][li]number of disks in inventory[]number checked out[]number of requests pending[/ol]If 2<1, it would be available now (although maybe not the closest location). Otherwise…[/li]
How would you program this?
I had Nashville just happen to reach the top of my queue the week after Robert Altman died. It suddenly went from “Available Now” to one of the “wait” categories. Didn’t really take all that long to get, though.
I have “The Departed”, which is scheduled to come out tomorrow on DVD at the top of my queue. I am returning two DVDs today, so I will see if I get it.
The two things I’ve ever seen “very long wait” on eventually disappeared entirely. They went out of print and I assume their only copies got stolen or something. From “Very Long Wait” to “Saved”. 
I had one, “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” that went from very long wait to not available and they dropped it off the queue. Later, I added it again; it went to the saved section, then they sent it to me a few weeks later.
You’d want to look at the times that the requests came in, where in the queue the requests were, whose requests they are, and how the request curve was growing, too.
Let’s say we have n copies.
I think it would work like graduated tax brackets. The first n always show as “Available”, the next 2n show as “Short Wait”, the next, say, 10n show as “Long Wait.” etc. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that Netflix doesn’t just queue people’s requests up; they give some users priority. So if the demand has been growing recently, and you’re a less-advantaged user by whatever algorithm Netflix uses, then you might see “Long Wait” even though the current number of reservations is enough for you to have “Short Wait”. The difference is that Netflix has a reason to believe that more people will get ahead of you in line, and that people probably don’t want to see a movie near the top of their queue go from “Short” to “Long”.
I’d guess that it’s a very involved calculation, since Netflix is trying to maximize profit by managing user expectation and happiness.
They do? Who gets priority and why? Is this an official, stated policy or are you just assuming?
From what I’ve understood, the heavy users are usually pushed to the back in priority as they are the least profitable customers. I’ve heard several people complain about having the delivery time slow down to 3 to 5 days after a period of heavy use. It makes sense to make sure that the more profitable customers are also the most satisfied and catered to.
I didn’t want to see that, either!
Now that is interesting. I may try it.
There’s too much on my queue anyway.
It is not an official stated policy, but I’m not just assuming it either. Here’s an article about Netflix throttling and priority.
Basically, new users and infrequent users are given higher priority for high-demand movies. It’s also claimed that Netflix deliberately stalls when sending out movies if they determine that you are going through a high volume of discs. Since postage fees are a substantial part of their costs and people who watch in excess of a dozen movies a month are already getting a really good deal, it makes lots of business sense for Netflix to favor customers who go through fewer movies.
Right, but if you’re given a lower priority, that’s basically Netflix’s algorithms deciding that you’re less of a cancellation risk if you don’t get exactly what you want.
Premiere magazine also has a “Ten Titles to Put on Your Netflix Queue” feature every month, and Sparkle was mentioned here as well.
Just FYI.
What I want to know is why some movies stay in the “Saved” list indefinitely. I want to keep them there, so Netflix knows there is a demand for them, but why do they have them in their database if they’re not any closer to having them in their inventory?
Did anyone here get The Departed sent today? It’s at the top of my queue but it says “Short Wait.” I just sent a disk back yesterday, so my new one should go out tomorrow.
It showed as “short wait” in the top of my queue this morning, and now shows as “shipping today.”
The Saved section is for titles that have no release date, or one in the future. If a release date becomes today, it is automatically moved to the bottom of the regular section; otherwise it stays in the Saved section. The demand has nothing to do with it.
I’ve had some removed from the saved section if Netflix found out that the title was not going to be released ever as far as they could determine.