Screw Netflix!
I’ve been a loyal Netfilx customer for years now. In the past year or so we’ve definitely stepped up our usage and we rent A LOT of movies. We always return them within a few days of receiving them. The turn-around is usually fantastic, but lately I’ve noticed that we’re not getting the good stuff.
Hat tip to Smells Like Fish for clueing me in to their unfair business practice called “throttling” which basically sends heavy renters to the back of the frickin’ line in order that new subscribers and infrequent renters can get first dibs on new releases (msnbc article here.)
WTF? We pay the SAME fees as everyone else, but because we’re good customers and return our movies in a timely fashion we get the worst service?
I call bullshit.
This explains why all the new releases in our queue say “long delay” and we’ve been getting nothing but the filler crap we tack onto the end of the queue. I mean, I love Seinfeld and all but c’mon!
Thanks to a class action suit (which I kind of knew of but promptly forgot about) Netfilix has now changed their TOS to say just exactly what they’re doing…
“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 subscribers who receive the most movies may experience that (i) the shipment of their next available DVD occurs at least one business day following return of their previously viewed movie, (ii) delivery takes longer, as the shipments may not be processed from their local distribution center and (iii) they receive movies lower in their queue more often than our other subscribers.”
-Netflix TOS: Allocation, Delivery and Return of Rented DVDs
Just do a quick Google search for “netflix throttling” and see what comes up…
Once I cool down a bit, I’m firing off a letter to them and I urge you to do the same if you think you’re being tagged a “heavy renter.”
It would seem the run-around would be to cancel my subscription and then the missus opens a new account but what happens when they throttle her?
After all, as the missus just said:
“We can pay ourselves $20 a month to NOT watch the movies we want to see… why should we pay Netflix for the privilege?”
March 7th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
We are heavy Netflix users as well. We were in way back in the begining when people were going “Netflix what?” My gripe is the quality. More then half the time, at least 1 out of the 4 that are in the house (an account for each person) is scratched. Nothing like getting into a movie that won’t play all the way through. Thanks for the tip on this - will tell Deputy about it.
March 7th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I’m not a Netflix subscriber, nor will I ever be after reading about this whole throttling [delinked] controversy. I think it’s very poor customer service myself. They promise one thing and do something else. They really should have thought about this before they even started the service, don’t you think?
~Maria Palma
March 7th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Oh Maria, I’d take you more seriously if you hadn’t shown up here via a technorati search for “customer service” to pimp out your own site. [delinked] I mean really…
March 8th, 2006 at 7:56 am
Thanks for the head’s up, I had seriously been considering a NetFlix account.
Perhaps we’ll just continue renting from our local place, not that we do. We’re so strapped for time I rent a movie and wind up taking it back unwatched to avoid a late fee half the time.
March 8th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Doesn’t BlockBuster do web-based mail-order DVD rentals now as well? Do you think they practice this throttling crap? We’re looking to switch to web-based mail-order DVD rentals, but if this is what we have to look forward to — FORGET IT!
March 8th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Just to clarify, by heavy renter I mean we get anywhere from 6-9 discs a WEEK, which puts us well into the double digits every month. We watch ‘em the day they come in and pop them right back in the mailbox (the missus is a little obsessive about this - I’ll miss movies if I don’t watch them soon enough!) and I just read that Netflix has a name for that too: rapid returner.
I joined Netflix back in ‘01 to avoid the late fees. It just so happened that we’ve kind of gotten into it (okay, really gotten into it)this year and now we’re actually trying to use the level of service we’re paying for: 3 at a time, unlimited.
I think the problem is that after 10 DVDs a month, Netflix starts losing money on you (shipping and processing, inventory etc.) so they cut back your quality of service.
In marketing speak we call that “overselling” i.e. promising bigger-better-more in hopes that very few people will actually take advantage of it. A prime example is web hosting. They offer 25GB incentive packages knowing full well that less than 2% will ever actually approach the 25GB mark, but it sounds like you’re getting one hell of a deal!
Blockbuster does offer a DVD by mail thing but they also throttle, for the same reasons. See Blockbuster TOS: Selection and Allocation. It costs too much money to really ship “unlimited.”
Also I really can’t stand BB. They don’t have anything close to the selection that NF has, they have always had the “family values” thing hanging over them, and also from everything I’ve read, the turn around is slower, even without throttling.
To sum up, I would totally join Netflix if I just wanted to watch a few (no more than 10) movies a month and wanted avoid late fees. I think they do a fantastic job for that type of user.
I’m going to try a few tricks before I cancel or open a new account. I do love, love, love my Netflix and would HATE to give it up. I just want the level of service I pay for please!
March 8th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
we’ve been getting the shaft lately too when it comes to long delays. s’fucked up, I say. Break out the broomsticks! I’m calling Shenanigans!!
March 10th, 2006 at 9:03 am
6-9 discs a week?! Wow, how do you do all the things you do?
I experience the Netflix throttling, too. But I also have a subscription to Greencine (www.greencine.com) which has a big selection, prices fairly close to Netflix, and no throttling. They only have one location - San Francisco, so mail times will be noticeably slower for people who live farther away.
When I originally signed up with Greencine they were MUCH more gay friendly than Netflix, but Netflix has improved since then.
I’m not sure Greencine has as large a collection of TV shows as Netflix, but I’d recommend that people who are pissed off at Netflix give Greencine a browse.
March 10th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Well, lately we’ve not been getting as many discs or any real new realeases because of the throttling thing, but yeah, we watch a ton of DVDs. The missus gets a lot of stuff that I don’t watch but I’d say I’m good for about 4 of them a week. For instance this past week we’ve received:
Manor House 1 and 2 (I skipped both)
Frontier House 1 (interesting for history buffs)
June Bug (great film!)
Ice Harvest (also great!)
Nine Lives (I skipped, but wish I hadn’t)
But some weeks we get more depending on how quick we watch ‘em. I’m not a huge regular TV fan (I never know when stuff is on and I like to watch at my leisure) so we get a lot of DVDs. I suppose if I had TIVO or something our NF rentals would probably go down.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
It really doesn’t make sense. Why penalize the people who return their rentals quickly? It seems like Netflix would benefit from this by being able to ship the DVD to more customers more quickly because they are returned more promptly.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Long time reader coming out of lurker status to post a first time comment. I have experienced exactly what you are talking about. I even checked out the lawsuit you posted a link to and I missed that baby by 15 days! Any hoo… do keep us posted on the tricks you are going to try cause lordy I have tried every thing I can think of to move things along with Netflix.
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:09 pm
for your great infornative man
March 25th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Seems to me that in 2010 a lot of bad tv shows will vanish and others will be made