"Long Waiting"

I am usually a very happy Netflix customer, but sometimes I get a bit frustrated with their allocation strategy. I’ve been on “Long Wait” for Sofia Coppola’s hit Lost in Translation since it was released more than a month ago.

Am I being punished for renting more movies than the average Netflix customer?

This is probably the only advantage that the local video store has over Netflix -- they used to hold movies if you were a good customer. To be fair, of the 176 movies in my queue only 1 is on “Very Long Wait,” 7 are on “Long Wait,” and 4 are on “Short Wait.”

You’d think they’d buy a few extra copies since it won a few awards. :-)

Comments

[barry]

Interesting. My queue says "Now" for availability. I have it as #3.

[Trent]

I'm with you completely, and this will eventually get me to drop Netflix. I am on "Long Wait" for Lost in Translation, School of Rock, Mona Lisa Smile, and Stone Reader, even though I put them in the queue before they even became available and I'm a good customer who returns DVDs a day or two after I get them. I'm just about caught up in the old movies I wanted to see, and if Netflix can't compete with Blockbuster for new releases, I will drop the service.

[Joe]

Here's a site that analyzed Netflix's allocation. It's dated, so maybe Netflix changed their method

http://dvd-rent-test.dreamhost.com/

[Mike]

Lost in Translation has also been in my queue for a long time and after reading the ..dreamhost... link above it seems like it's going to be there a lot longer. I usually watch a movie a day so I'm way at the bottom of the list. Not encouraging, but good to know.

[st1023]

does it seem obvious to anyone else that they deliberately slow down the process of your returns if you're a heavy renter? i had no problems at first, while i was still on the first-month honeymoon, but now no movie i've returned in the last month has been processed as received, which 1) prevents me from getting new movies and 2) forces me, eventually, to report them as "lost," which will eventually give them a handy excuse to a) "hold" my account while still charging me, or b) kick me off because i'm not a profitable customer. very shady, and i'm composing a letter to the better business bureau this afternoon. if they don;t want to give unlimited rentals, they shouldn't advertise that way. this is false advertising and unethical, if not outright illegal, business practice. and should i even mention that their "customer service" never responds to e-mails or picks up the toll free line???

[morpheousx]

I am a netflix customer in Connecitcut, am getting to where some of you are i am not very pleased with the way n/f handles the moves I returned some times when i return movies ,it should get back the next day and not next week ,being that when n/f sends me an email telling me when i should get my selections ,i always get them a day before they say i might get then ,this is a good thing but it should work the other way around ,don't yall think so? ,so i'm forced to report movies missing so i can free up the movie slots tooken up by the movies that has not been accounted for, and n/f got the nerve to have a claws in that feature, when you report a movie missing that has'nt arrived to n/f ,they tell you that you must first wait "six" full days before you report movies missing ,what the hell is that ??,so i'm paying them 42 dollars in change a month for their 8 out a month program ,and that's six days i have to wait every time they screw up ,god knows how much money i would waste if this is done many times over the corse of my month rental period,i am not sure if it's their fault ,being that they use the u.s. postal service in all ,they would use the postal service as a scape goat if it was their fault ,long as they honor my reports of missing movies so my 8 slots can be opened ,i don't give a rats ass what they do,if they give me guff about it ,i'll tell em to shove it and i'll take my biz and money elsewhere.

[shysterlawyer]

my experience has been the same as you folks...and my analysis and behavior is exactly as st1023 describes. i would prefer that netflix deal with me honestly regarding my rental pattern, if it's a problem for them. to say that there is no limit on rentals, and then to manipulate the receiving and shipping process to slow me down, is just dishonest. and if netflix can't be honest about that, well then, what else will they lie about?

[Kevin]

So they send the 4th movie off your queue of 200 discs, instead of the 1st. Big deal. If you're in that much of a rush to get new releases you should belong to Blockbuster. I can see how Netflix's allocation policy could be considered unfair by certain people, but it makes sense from a business point of view.

1) Netflix is going to have a lot more clients with a 3 disc plan than clients with an 8 disc plan. They're giving priority service to the greatest number of clients.

2) People who are new to Netflix will probably have plans with a low number of discs. Obviously Netflix wants them to have good service so they stay with Netflix. If everyone who tried Netflix got crappy service no one would stay with them. Netflix would fold, and then no one would get any discs.

3) Netflix lets you keep discs as long as you like. A person with a 3 disc plan can tie up at most 3 new releases. A person with an 8 disc plan could theoretically tie up 8 new releases. It seems like their allocation scheme tends to prevent that kind of hogging of resources (discs) and spread them among the largest group of users.

4) Who needs to have 8 movies out at once anyway ? You should read a book or go outside or play chess or something once in a while.

As for myself - I rent crap no one else wants to see, so I hardly ever have to wait for a movie. And even when I do have to wait for a DVD, it's still 100 times better than going to the video store. I don't have any loyalty to Netflix. If someone opened a video store in my apartment building, and had an electronic catalog for me to search through a huge selection of movies I want to see, and only charged me $2 per DVD, then heck, I'd drop Netflix in a heartbeat. But for now Netflix is the best solution for me. It's apparently not the right solution for everyone.

[Ryan]

I have been a happy Netflix user for some time. I rent classic movies exclusively, so I rarely have to wait for dics availability. However, recently, my DVD turnaround time has gotten ridiculous. Before, I would recieve a DVD, watch it the same day, mail it the next, and two days later a new one would be in my mailbox. Now, the wait is at least a week. It sure seems like Netflix is penalizing me for being such a "frequent watcher". If this keeps up, I will complain, and if not resolved, will move to Blockbuster online. My happiness with Netflix is on the wane.

[Andrew Laskos]

On this subject of delays in shipping, I can confirm that Netflix does indeed target more frequent users. One of their email reps stated this directly recently.

At issue for me is the fact that they suddenly switched from a policy of receiving/shipping on the same day (which has been the case for a year) to shipping a new DVD the day after they receive the old one.

I can see how this new delay makes sense for an expanded Netflix, having to accomodate three million subscribers, all vying for a limited pool of DVDs. However, since this policy was changed without any announcement, and effectively cuts down my subscription time by twenty percent (one lost day out of five in Netflix's working week), it strikes me as rather sneaky and unethical. Sometimes, you need to control your growth more carefully, not simply reduce service to existing customers...

[Tim Stevens]

I had suspected for a while they were manipulating the turnaround process for us high volume renters, but I also tend to be paranoid. A few weeks ago they proved it to me. I got a movie that was broken in 3 pieces. I reported it damaged on a Monday, and according to my queue it was mailed out on Tuesday. I returned the broken copy on a Tuesday afternoon, and they claimed to receive it Thursday. So if everything was as they said there's no possible way I could have gotten the same broken copy again, but come Friday when my replacement came it was indeed the same broken copy. So the dates they list are apparently fiction.

All told that movie tied up my queue for about 2 weeks, and while I'd been getting annoyed with the increasing turnaround times, I had been willing to let it go until then. But after that incident I wrote a politely worded yet rather harsh email to customer service, reminding them that happy longtime customers are probably their best salesmen, as I once was. I actually never received a reply, but within about 2 weeks my turnaround times have gotten significantly quicker (though not as fast as it once was unfortunately). So I guess the point of my long first post here is: THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE! I hate being a squeaky wheel, bu in this cas it seems to have worked.

[Kim]

Anyone having problems with Netflix claiming they haven't received dvd's back that you have mailed? I don't know if they're being swiped from the mail or if the people logging them in are messing up but it's happened twice to me. I'm a high volume renter (on the 3 at a time plan) so 2 movies represents a small percentage but it still worries me. I belive it says if too many movies are "lost" they put your account on hold.
I'm also seeing a much longer shipping times (both ways) DESPITE the movies often going to an address that's a 10 minute drive from here. I wonder, if I did a test by hand delivering the movie to the P.O. box, what the turnaround time would be. Kinda defeats the purpose of Netflix!

[Kim]

SLOWER SHIPPING FOR HIGH VOLUME USERS EXPLAINED ON THE NETFLIX SITE!!
"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service. As a result, those members who receive the most movies may experience next-day shipping and receive movies lower in their Queue more often than our other members. By prioritizing in this way, we help assure a balanced experience for all our members. Those that rent a lot of movies get a great value and those with lighter viewing habits are able to count on our service to meet their limited needs."
THAT CAN BE FOUND IN THE HELP CENTER SECTION IF YOU TYPE IN "SLOWER SHIPPING" as the answer for "HOW DOES NF PROCESS/SHIP DVDS". That's one shitty policy if you ask me. Is it even legal?? What about people who have kids and keep movies out for 2 months and send them back w/ peanut butter on them? THEY'RE the ones treated w/ preferential treatment?? Zoe51899@msn.com