Does Netflix purposely screw U w/ delays?

Do you guys use Netflix? And if you do, are you experiencing
deliberate delays in receiving your films?

Here is the situation:

When I first started the service, I used to get immediate turn
around (one day return and one day delivery). I watched a lot of films
that way. However, after about 10 days or so of fast turn arounds, now
films are taking 3 to 4 days to be returned and 3 to 4 days for
delivery.

The entire last week, I have received only one shipment.

My sister in law told me that Netflix deliberately slow you down
if you watch too many films. Is this true? And why do they care how
many films I watch? Do they have to pay a royalty each time a film is
rented?

These are my questions. If it is true that they are so
unscrupulous, I am going to quit them and try blockbuster. But that
seems, in some ways, too easy on them. I feel like I want to call them
up and scream at them. Or the other thing is that I heard there is
even a class action law suit going on (I am not sure if this is true).
If that is the case, I definitely want to join in the suit.


Does anyone here know the real scoop behind Netflix's business
practices? And do you think Blockbuster.com would be better?

thanx in advance.

Signed: film watcher.

saylo1234@yahoo.com

In article <. com>,
wrote:

> Do you guys use Netflix? And if you do, are you experiencing
> deliberate delays in receiving your films?

Yes, absolutely I did. That's the main reason I canceled; I was
otherwise happy with the service. But they were outright /lying/ about
when my discs were "arriving," they'd say "shopping today" for two days
straight, and so on.

Search for "netflix throttling" and you'll find a wealth of material on
the subject.

> My sister in law told me that Netflix deliberately slow you down
> if you watch too many films. Is this true?

Yes.

> And why do they care how
> many films I watch? Do they have to pay a royalty each time a film is
> rented?

They have to pay *postage* each time a film is rented, which I
understand costs them a little under a dollar for a round-trip. So if
you rent 25 movies for your $20, they flag you as an unprofitable user,
and slow your movie shipments down.

I understand they need to be profitable, but they advertised
"unlimited." If they aren't going to deliver that, they should
advertise what they *will* deliver. If they claimed "up to 18 movies a
month for $20" and don't screw with the new release priority, I'd gladly
sign up again. But they're still claiming unlimited, which I know is an
outright lie.

Beavis <> wrote in news:nobody-CFBBEE.07514317072006
@za6021818.ip.fs.fed.us:

> In article <. com>,
> wrote:
>
>> Do you guys use Netflix? And if you do, are you experiencing
>> deliberate delays in receiving your films?
>
> Yes, absolutely I did. That's the main reason I canceled; I was
> otherwise happy with the service. But they were outright /lying/ about
> when my discs were "arriving," they'd say "shopping today" for two days
> straight, and so on.
>
> Search for "netflix throttling" and you'll find a wealth of material on
> the subject.
>
>> My sister in law told me that Netflix deliberately slow you down
>> if you watch too many films. Is this true?
>
> Yes.

As long as you keep it under 11-12 movies per month, you probably won't
see any throttling. They'll basically let you get away with 3 movies per
week.


>> And why do they care how
>> many films I watch? Do they have to pay a royalty each time a film is
>> rented?
>
> They have to pay *postage* each time a film is rented, which I
> understand costs them a little under a dollar for a round-trip. So if
> you rent 25 movies for your $20, they flag you as an unprofitable user,
> and slow your movie shipments down.

They ship first class, which at most is $0.78 round trip. But they very
likely have negotiated a bulk rate with the USPS. I've seen some postal
and ex-postal employees estimate that the discount is probably around
about %50, but there's never been any definitive answer with proof.


> I understand they need to be profitable, but they advertised
> "unlimited." If they aren't going to deliver that, they should
> advertise what they *will* deliver.

Agreed. And that sames to be the big consensus: everybody just wants
them to not say "unlimited". You'd think their PR folks would catch on
to that. It would improve their image and shut everybody up.

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:49:33 -0500, Nonymous
<> wrote:

>As long as you keep it under 11-12 movies per month, you probably won't
>see any throttling. They'll basically let you get away with 3 movies per
>week.

Nonsense. Mush of what people claim is "throttling" is slow
distribution. I am able to get 25 discs per 30 day month.


--

Stop Repeat Offenders!
Don't Re-elect Them!

I agree with Bob. I just pulled my return rental report from NetFlix. The
First entry is 4/21/2005 the last 7/13/2006. I am on the 3 out plan. Total
movies received in less than 15 months is 344. That computes to 22.93 discs
per month. At a cost of roughly $.87/disc. When you factor in my time away
from home on fishing/hunting trips and vacations with my wife the rate would
be even higher. Where in the Hell can a video fan find a better deal than
that.

Gunner

P.S. And by the by I do not work for NetFlix. I'm a retired Navy Chief
Warrant Officer.
"Bob" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:49:33 -0500, Nonymous
> <> wrote:
>
>>As long as you keep it under 11-12 movies per month, you probably won't
>>see any throttling. They'll basically let you get away with 3 movies per
>>week.
>
> Nonsense. Mush of what people claim is "throttling" is slow
> distribution. I am able to get 25 discs per 30 day month.
>
>
> --
>
> Stop Repeat Offenders!
> Don't Re-elect Them!

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:49:33 -0500, Nonymous
<> wrote:

>Beavis <> wrote in news:nobody-CFBBEE.07514317072006
>@za6021818.ip.fs.fed.us:
>
>> In article <. com>,
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Do you guys use Netflix? And if you do, are you experiencing
>>> deliberate delays in receiving your films?
>>
>> Yes, absolutely I did. That's the main reason I canceled; I was
>> otherwise happy with the service. But they were outright /lying/ about
>> when my discs were "arriving," they'd say "shopping today" for two days
>> straight, and so on.
>>
>> Search for "netflix throttling" and you'll find a wealth of material on
>> the subject.
>>
>>> My sister in law told me that Netflix deliberately slow you down
>>> if you watch too many films. Is this true?
>>
>> Yes.
>
>As long as you keep it under 11-12 movies per month, you probably won't
>see any throttling. They'll basically let you get away with 3 movies per
>week.

I took a Netflix DVD to the Postal sorting facility on July 7th and
Netflix reported receiving it today (7/18/2005). Either the postal
service is slow or misplaced the DVD, or perhaps Netflix is slow? It's
really difficult to determine, but from all the posts here I'm
beginning to see a pattern. Netflix has received a DVD in three days,
but 11 days is unreasonable. If this keeps up I plan to cancel. My
local video store runs 89-cent rental specials from their library (not
recently released.)

Phisherman <> wrote in
news::

> If this keeps up I plan to cancel. My
> local video store runs 89-cent rental specials from their library (not
> recently released.)

And how many titles do they have and how many of those are you interested
in?

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:31:04 GMT, (Bob) wrote:

>On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:49:33 -0500, Nonymous
><> wrote:
>
>>As long as you keep it under 11-12 movies per month, you probably won't
>>see any throttling. They'll basically let you get away with 3 movies per
>>week.
>
>Nonsense. Mush of what people claim is "throttling" is slow
>distribution. I am able to get 25 discs per 30 day month.

I've been with netflix for several years and I know throttling when
it happens.

I recognized it when they were doing it before and got busted
(lawsuit) for it, and the last two months I've been throttled into
the ground. Will probably drop the service for a month or two and
try again.

Nonymous wrote:

> They ship first class, which at most is $0.78 round trip. But they very
> likely have negotiated a bulk rate with the USPS.

You don't "negotiate" with the USPS; they offer fixed discounts
for doing their work for them. Those discounts are set by the
Postal Rate Commission and any "negotiation" is done by ADVO
which accounts for about 10% of domestic mail.

> I've seen some postal and ex-postal employees estimate that the
> discount is probably around about %50, but there's never been any
> definitive answer with proof.

Fifty percent? What have you been smoking? Read the Domestic Mail
Manual. In exchange for annual fees of $8420, each Netflix wharehouse
can send outgoing FCM at $0.308 for prebarcoded mail sorted to the
3-digit level. [BTW, it is possible that the throttling claimed is
nothing more than NetFlix delaying some postings in an effort to claim
5-digit rates, but I doubt it. I wouldn't be surprized if part of the
imagined throttling delay stems from using a third party mailer in an
effort to minimize postage or accomodate more demanding USPS
preparation].Return postage will be $0.366 [both rate caluclations
assume a piece weighing less than an ounce]. Both rates are
expected to increase in September so anticipate a corresponding
price increase from NetFlix.

As a further aside, you may have noticed a new four-state barcode on
some of your mail [currently only flats, not letters; unlike the
POSTNET barcode with tall and short bars, the newer "Onecode" has
both asscenders and decenders in addition to the center tracking bar].
This will permit mailers to determine WHEN their mail was delivered
among other things. Don't know if NetFlix will pay for this service,
but you can be sure some billing services will.

wrote in news:1153296153.532297.200540
@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

> Nonymous wrote:
>
>> They ship first class, which at most is $0.78 round trip. But they very
>> likely have negotiated a bulk rate with the USPS.
>
> You don't "negotiate" with the USPS; they offer fixed discounts
> for doing their work for them. Those discounts are set by the
> Postal Rate Commission and any "negotiation" is done by ADVO
> which accounts for about 10% of domestic mail.

Whatever; I don't claim to be an postal expert. Thanks for the
clarification, though.

>> I've seen some postal and ex-postal employees estimate that the
>> discount is probably around about %50, but there's never been any
>> definitive answer with proof.
>
> Fifty percent? What have you been smoking?

Umm, I said postal employees have stated this, not me. So ask the postal
employees what THEY'VE been smoking.