Netflix, how can you do this?

Cafe Society
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This is somewhat of a rant, but it’s a rant about a Cafe Society subject. I’m going to refrain from swearing, and am looking for other people’s opinions on this matter, so maybe it should be in IMHO. Bah! I’m confused. I’m puttin’ it here. Mods, move if you want.

I love Netflix. Netflix has freed me from ever stepping foot in Blockbuster ever again. I love having 4-5 DVD’s waiting to be watched at all times. I love not having to pay late fees. I love maintaining a list of movies that are automatically sent out to me.

Today, though, I log on to Netflix. I see that they’re advertising Lawrence of Arabia. But wait? What’s this? Lawrence of Arabia Disk 1? To see the whole movie, you must rent 2 DVD’s?!?

I can’t believe Netflix rents out HALF a movie. This isn’t about the money - you pay a monthly fee for Netflix, not a per-movie fee. But why in the world would they send out HALF a movie? Granted, you can put both halves on your list, and they’ll send them out one right after the other, but that just encourages people to hold the discs until they have both of them. I get Part One on Monday, but sit on it until I get Part Two the following Saturday. What’s the point?

Not to mention that LoA is probably my favorite movie of all time. I’m horrified that they’d expect people to watch it in two sittings. Simply horrified.

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Yeah, we actually rented Lawrence of Arabia, too, and were puzzled by the policy.

My guess is that it would be hard for them to keep the two disks together, since all their sleeves and handling protocols only accomodate single disks–so it was just easier to give each disk a serial number and a laser code and treat them as separate disks. They also take up two “slots”, which seems kind of unfair, but, then, as you say, you don’t lose money on it, only time.

I just feel sorry for anyone who manages to put only one of the disks in their queue.

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I’ve noticed they do this with all their multi-disks. Getting the supplemental material on Disc 2 is a separate request.

I’m sure it all boils down to slowing people down. The best way to improve their bottom line is to keep people from seeing so many discs for their $20/month. Another thing I’ve noticed is that a new disc rarely ships out the same day they recieve one back. Early on that was the norm.

I actually had instances of a disc being shipped on Day 1, I received and watched it on Day 2, Returned Day 3, they received and shipped again on Day 4 and I had the next movie on Day 5. That never happens anymore (and I imagine the anthrax scare is just slowing things down even more).