NetFlix TurnAround Time: Does This Look Familiar?

I (re-)opened my account in mid-October of this year. For about the
first month of my membership, the turnaround time for all 3 movies was
incredibly fast. Now, it's getting slower & slower... Last year
(2002), I opened my (first) account, and the same thing happened: For
the first month, zoom! (very fast turn-around time). After the 5th.
week or so, it would take NetFlix a lot longer to acknowledge receipt,
and the turn-around time got slower & slower... I closed the account
then.

(1) Does this look familiar to anyone here? If so, does anyone know why
this happens?

(2) Other than Walmart.com, any other alternatives to NetFlix? What
about their turn-around time?

(3) What's Walmart.com's turn-around time? Better than Netflix's?

Thanks in advance.

V.S.

In article <13202-3FCD3B3F->,
(V.S.) wrote:

> (1) Does this look familiar to anyone here?

Nope. My turnaround is always the same and has been for over a year and
a half.

> (3) What's Walmart.com's turn-around time? Better than Netflix's?

In my case Walmart's turnaround could only be considered better if they
sent me the new disc on the same day as I sent a disc back to them.
Seriously. There is no better without resorting to the above scenario.

Anyone else here remember when NetFlix actually let us do that? That was
fantastic! I could average something like 20+ movies a month with that
setup if I was prone to doing nothing but watching movies.

Reginald Dwight

I found my best turn-around depends on where I mail them. Normally, there
are a pair of mail boxes near my house I use. Once I mailed back two movies
at a post office main branch. Netflix received one movie in a couple of
days, the second movie showed up over a week later. I mailed one movie at
the post office near my work in August, and Netflix still hasn't received
it.

But, I can mail my movies Saturday near my house, and Monday afternoon
Netflix has received the movies and is sending the next set. Granted, they
are in San Jose and I live near Los Angeles, so it is faster than from, say,
Boston, but as long as I use the mail boxes near my house, my turn around is
always less than a week from mailing the movies and getting the next set.

Dogbert

>Granted, they
>are in San Jose and I live near Los Angeles, so it is faster than from, say,
>Boston,

There are different centers around the country. I live on the East Coast and
the servicing center is an hour away. They normally get the disc and mail out
the next on the day after I mail them.

Moviezzz

In article <13202-3FCD3B3F->,
V.S. <> wrote:
>I (re-)opened my account in mid-October of this year. For about the
>first month of my membership, the turnaround time for all 3 movies was
>incredibly fast. Now, it's getting slower & slower... Last year
>(2002), I opened my (first) account, and the same thing happened: For
>the first month, zoom! (very fast turn-around time). After the 5th.
.....
>(1) Does this look familiar to anyone here? If so, does anyone know why
>this happens?

Search on google news.

There was someone who started several different netflix subscriptions and
posted the numbers of discs he got per month on each of them. IIRC,
the rates would go down in a month when the _previous_ month he had rented a
lot.

The guy had enough data (if it can be trusted) that it wasn't completely
tinfoil-hat territory.

Matt Ackeret

(V.S.) wrote in message news:<13202-3FCD3B3F->...
> I (re-)opened my account in mid-October of this year. For about the
> first month of my membership, the turnaround time for all 3 movies was
> incredibly fast. Now, it's getting slower & slower... Last year
> (2002), I opened my (first) account, and the same thing happened: For
> the first month, zoom! (very fast turn-around time). After the 5th.
> week or so, it would take NetFlix a lot longer to acknowledge receipt,
> and the turn-around time got slower & slower... I closed the account
> then.
>
> (1) Does this look familiar to anyone here? If so, does anyone know why
> this happens?

I'm in a similar position, tho it's not bad enough to cause me to
cancel yet. I've been tracking my netflix shipments very closely
since opening a new accoutn a few months ago. So far, the norm is 2
days travel each way. 20-25% of the time, I'll get a shipment in one
day. I've never seen one checked in by netflix the day after I sent
it, tho.

For the most part, this has been pretty regular. However, I've had
two occasions where a returned disc was not checked in for an extended
period. Both times, they were checked in on the same day as another
return shipment. It went something like this both times.

- 3 DVDs returned.
- 2 DVDs checked in.
- 2 DVDs shipped to me.
- 2 DVDs received.
- 2 DVDs returned.
- 3 DVDs checked in.
- 3 DVDs shipped to me.

It doesn't seem like much but do that once a month to each customer
and it adds up to a lot fewer movies shipped. I also had one take
nearly a week to reach me. It showed up the day I planned to report
it as missing. I'm hesitant to report anything missing too early
because of what they did to their customers (including me) back in
January of 2001.

Right now, I'm seeing a mass-delay of a set of 3 DVDs. I sent them
back on Thursday and they should have been received and checked in by
Saturday. According to the website, they haven't been received yet.
I'm not sure if it's just a fluke releated to reduced holiday staffing
(everyone wants to stretch the Xmas holiday to a full week) or if
they're upping the ante by delaying an entire batch.

I've also noticed that my queue (231 titles right now) has gone from
one "long wait" to ten waits of various lengths. None new releases,
and all have been in my queue for quite a while. That wouldn't be too
suspicious if I hadn't already seen the A:B comparisons made by people
who created new accounts and built up queues identical to their
regular account only to find nearly every title listed as "available
now" on the new account while a large percentage of the same titles
were *wait on the regular account. I also had a title go from
"available now" to "we no longer have this title and will never stock
it again" the day it hit the top of my queue. So far, this hasn't
delayed any shipments (well, except for the movie I'll never get to
see) but I have a "short wait" coming up to the top of the queue. I
hope it doesn't cause a delay.

> (2) Other than Walmart.com, any other alternatives to NetFlix? What
> about their turn-around time?

www.greencine.com if you want more artsy, tho they do have mainstream
stuff. They're in san francisco so calculate your delivery time from
there.

> (3) What's Walmart.com's turn-around time? Better than Netflix's?

Never used them.

As far as Netflix goes, they really ****ed me off in 2001 but I've
decided to go ahead and give them another shot. Right now, I'm on the
fence. The whole point of using their service is the convenience.
It's not very convenient if I feel it's necessary to watch them this
closely all the time. They've had _just_ enough delays to keep me
suspicious but not enough to throw in the towel again. Yet.

Jamie

Jamie Town

"Jamie Town" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> (V.S.) wrote in message
news:<13202-3FCD3B3F->...
> > I (re-)opened my account in mid-October of this year. For about the
> > first month of my membership, the turnaround time for all 3 movies was
> > incredibly fast. Now, it's getting slower & slower... Last year
> > (2002), I opened my (first) account, and the same thing happened: For
> > the first month, zoom! (very fast turn-around time). After the 5th.
> > week or so, it would take NetFlix a lot longer to acknowledge receipt,
> > and the turn-around time got slower & slower... I closed the account
> > then.
> >
> > (1) Does this look familiar to anyone here? If so, does anyone know why
> > this happens?
>
> I'm in a similar position, tho it's not bad enough to cause me to
> cancel yet. I've been tracking my netflix shipments very closely
> since opening a new accoutn a few months ago. So far, the norm is 2
> days travel each way. 20-25% of the time, I'll get a shipment in one
> day. I've never seen one checked in by netflix the day after I sent
> it, tho.
>
> For the most part, this has been pretty regular. However, I've had
> two occasions where a returned disc was not checked in for an extended
> period. Both times, they were checked in on the same day as another
> return shipment. It went something like this both times.


This has been happening to me too. I am a returning member as well. When
they ship disks, I'll get them in one day. I'll usually watch one disc that
night and return it right away. They seem to sometimes wait until I return
the other two discs before checking all three in the same day. This is
sometimes almost a week later. How can a disc that got mailed back on Monday
get checked in the same day as a disc that got mailed the following Friday?

*snip*

> As far as Netflix goes, they really ****ed me off in 2001 but I've
> decided to go ahead and give them another shot. Right now, I'm on the
> fence. The whole point of using their service is the convenience.
> It's not very convenient if I feel it's necessary to watch them this
> closely all the time. They've had _just_ enough delays to keep me
> suspicious but not enough to throw in the towel again. Yet.

I feel the exact same way. I want to like them - I really do. I feel they
are obviously trying to slow down the rental rate of people who watch a lot
of movies (like people in this group). I remember reading somewhere that the
average "3 out" netflix customer rents about 6 movies a month. I do at least
double that, sometimes more, so I realize I'm not helping the bottom line.
However, I'd much rather have them say "no more than x shipments a week" or
whatnot than pull this crap.

JWB

JWB

In article <%zsFb.11641$>,
"JWB" <> wrote:

> I feel the exact same way. I want to like them - I really do. I feel they
> are obviously trying to slow down the rental rate of people who watch a lot
> of movies (like people in this group).

Not so. I have been able to get something 18-20 discs in a month's time
and have NEVER had a slowdown. I mail a disc back and it's checked in on
the next working day and a new disc is generally sent out on the same
day. YMMV but this "conspiracy theory" type speculation sure seems
somewhat ridiculous.

Reginald Dwight

"Reginald Dwight" <> wrote in message
news:regdwight-...
> In article <%zsFb.11641$>,
> "JWB" <> wrote:
>
> > I feel the exact same way. I want to like them - I really do. I feel
they
> > are obviously trying to slow down the rental rate of people who watch a
lot
> > of movies (like people in this group).
>
> Not so. I have been able to get something 18-20 discs in a month's time
> and have NEVER had a slowdown. I mail a disc back and it's checked in on
> the next working day and a new disc is generally sent out on the same
> day. YMMV but this "conspiracy theory" type speculation sure seems
> somewhat ridiculous.

That's the funny thing - there are certainly enough negative posts to
justify the "conspiracy theory" thing. Too many, with almost the exact same
story, to just blow off, despite your experience. There's always one or two
posters like yourself, who rent a lot and have no problems. Might I suggest
it is random? Or perhaps by region? Distribution center? A certain
percentage?

If you google the complaints, you'll see they are overwhelmingly, I mean by
a HUGE percentage, "customer to netflix" transactions. It seems discs go out
and get to the customers just fine. It's on the return trip where the odd
things happen (that's why I never put any stock in postal employees stealing
them).

JWB

I'm on the 5 at a time plan and whenever I mail it back, it is usually credited
and a new one sent out the same day.

I watch my queue from work and sometimes I've noticed that if they get all five
back on the same day, they will send 3 out that day and send the other 2 the
next day. Early in the day it will say "Shipping Today" on some and then
"Shipping Tomorrow" on others. I don't know if they have a max of only mailing
3 on the same day or what.

But last week, they received all 5 of mine back on a Monday and they sent 5 new
ones that day and I got them all on Tuesday.

Moviezzz