The Bottom of the NetFlix Totem Pole

Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:40PM EDT

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I became a Netflix member in 2002, just a few months after the service began. Over the years I've let it wax and wane, but recently I've been watching again.*

Now, my family has a running joke about me... they say that I'm the only one in America who's never ordered a decent DVD from NetFlix. I'm starting to think that they might be right. I never see much of interest on the Netflix new release page, and I check fairly often.

Other Neftlix users tell me to simply use the search bar to search for the movies I want to see, but my already cluttered brain goes numb when faced with a blank movie search field. So for me, Neflix has been a place to turn for the obscure documentary and unattainable foreign films.

But, a guy named Frank Chavez got me thinking about my predicament again. Last month, he won a class action suit against NetFlix, and now he and others are eligble for a one-time, limited-time service upgrade. (After the two year fight Chavez was awarded $2,000 for his time, while the lawyers settled for their $2.5 million in fees, but that's another story.)

As I started poking around to find out more about the case, I stumbled across quite a few longtime users talking about being throttled  by Netflix. Throttling means that Netflix purposefully slows down its delivery of your DVD, or sends you a movie that is not the one you were expecting next from your queqe. Some suspect they do this to older members while trying to satisfy their newer trial members.

As a little experiment, I signed my husband up as a new member to see if he'd be presented with better choices of movies and/or better availability. Turns out that Wedding Crashers popped up on his choices; not mine but couldn't find any difference in any availability of the DVDs.

A comment and a question:

a) Overall, I'm a happy Netflix user. Yes, sometimes the movies take longer to get to me than one day, but Neflix has been great about letting me slide when disks break or get lost in shipping.

b) Now, about this throttling. I have no idea what to believe. Is Netflix really putting a newbie before me when it comes to getting that movie? Here's what Neflix says in its FAQ about delivery.

"We endeavor to ship to you the movies listed highest in your queue; however when availability is limited, we may ship you movies lower on your queue."

For more reading, see this week's Consumer Reports and ABC look at Neflix and its competitors.

Anyone else out there having their share of rental problems? Let me know.

*(Disclosure: My NetFlix account is a complimentary one.)

 

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  • 2 Posted by sniranj2 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    This article made me realize this is exactly what is happening to my Netflix subscription. I used to get about 4 to 6 movies (Signed up for 3at a time) every week. Nowadays it seems like get only 2 to a max of 3 moives every week. I asked my collegue at work who had subscribed at the same time, he too gave me the same story. I am wondering it may be because thier competitors are so bad they think they can get away with this. Well I will try to switch and see what happens.

  • 3 Posted by dubyac99 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    I rarely have any of the problems you desceribe, but 99% of what I have on my queue is old TV shows. Does this make a difference? The few times I get movies I always get all "now" movies within a day or two. Never longer than 2, and rarely longer than 1 day for that matter.

  • 4 Posted by robertstown2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    I thought it was just me. I freqeuntly use Netflx and have for years. I recently noticed that over 2/3 of the movies I have in my que suddenly are on a waiting perior. The sad part is most of them are old sitcoms like Gomer Pyle. I was relegated to sitcoms since their new releases were always on "short or long wait". Now the sitcoms are appearing as unavailable. I feel this is fraud on behalf of Neflix. This would be a perfect opportunity for a competitor to sweep up disgruntle Netlfix subscribers. I feel like cable customers before the dish came along. It us or nobody. Like it or leave it.

  • 5 Posted by hipposelect on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have been using Netflix for many years, and have never, not even once, experienced what you are talking about. In fact, I have always been amazed by their efficiency.

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