Netflix Throttling

How common is Netflix throttling? I joined the one disk at a time plan
in October. At first I was getting two disks a week easily. Then when
Thanksgiving hit it seemed like it took forever for my DVD to get to the
nearest Netflix center (about 80 miles away.) But when they sent one out it
got to me the next day. This went on for most of December. They send one out
and it gets to me the next day. I send it back at it takes four days to get
to them. I figured my DVD's got to them slowly because of all the holiday
mail. But now in late January it still seem like Netflix is slow. I get
the feeling they want to limit me to one dvd a week when I could get two a
week. Heck, during my free trial they were getting to me so fast at one
time I was thinking I could send and receive three DVD's in one week! lol
But not anymore.

I'm going to give them another month but if things don't pick in
February I'm gong to have to seriously consider canceling.

 

I ran into the same issue, over the same time period. I was very close
to canceling, but I noticed the service started getting back to normal
about the second week in January. If it maintains, I'll probably stay.
If it gets bad again, I'll go. It was to the point that I'd have to
report all three of my discs as lost, which isn't even an option until
6 days after I mailed them! It was very frustrating. They would then
all magically show up the very next day. Grrr.

Maybe they were trying new throttling software that was a little too
aggressive.

Frankly, I'd rather them just say "$17.95, 3 out at a time, up to 12
movies a month," and ship those 12 movies expeditiously, instead of
playing games with the receiving and shipping dates.

 

Extremely common! If they were only honest and say there is a limit to the
"unlimited" rental offers they wouldn't cause so much bad blood with
customers. If there was a 10-15 disk a month limit on the 3-at-a-time plan
then customers who hit their limit within the first 2 to 3 weeks might be
more likely to upgrade rather than wait 1-2 weeks until their membership
turns over. Holding disks before officially checking them in or holding them
before mailing them out just to keep customers under 20 rentals a month is
just nasty dishonest. As is artificially speeding up availability for new
customers as opposed to loyal, long time customers.

 

I quit NetFlix a while back after having the same problem.I tried
Blockbuster by mail and they were no better.Now I just have Movie Pass at
Blockbusters.It's a little more expensive but I can get the movies when I
want them.It's about $26.00 with tax for 2 at a time.

BrianD

 

Would someone explain to me how the "Movie pass" works? Is it offered at
every BB store?

 

The Blockbuster Movie Pass works great if you only want the most
popular new releases, but if you want anything even remotely obscure
or most TV series then good luck finding them at your local
Blockbuster!

Given that Netflix has throttled us just like almost everyone else, we
only get 3 movies per week at best or 12 per month. That's basically
$1.50 each + tax. Using that number, to justify the $26 Movie Pass the
local Blockbuster would have to get 17 new movies per month I want to
see. THE PROBLEM: I'm selective in what I watch so I'm lucky if my
local store gets 6 new movies I want to see per month... not enough to
justify the cost unless I wait for 3 months to get 17 movies I want to
rent, do the pass for 1 month, and then wait another 3 months.

If Netflix keeps up their bad service I may have to go that route. I
also tried Blockbuster online and found them a bit worse than Netflix.
About the only positive I can give Netflix is their site is pretty
accurate and all but once they have sent me what I requested (unlike
Blockbuster who has shipped the wrong thing many times). This is
because Blockbuster's site has many errors, and I've pointed out many
errors on various moviest to Blockbuster, they say thanks, and the
errors still have not been fixed. So I don't waste my time telling
them any more as apparently they don't care about fixing the errors.

I agree with Von Fouche that Netflix should limit the number of
rentals per month rather than play all these blatantly obvious and
offensive throttling games. As an alternative, if $1.50 per rental is
their magic number, why don't they just charge $1.50 per disc shipped.
If they ship you 10 movies in 1 month you pay $15 + tax, if they ship
you 20 you pay $30 + tax. That way if they choose to sit on their
thumbs for a week and don't ship anything, I don't lose money.

Those are my opinions.

 

If there is any competition, your suggestions would not work. Someone
would undercut them.

 

Also, they may have a significant number of users who get less than 12
movies per month on the three out at a time plan. If they change to a
per rental fee of $1.50, they'll be making less on those folks.

 

Tried those mail renters as well a while back, and eventually got so
disgusted I told them to go to hell!
Now if I want to see it bad enough I will simply go out and rent it for
what it costs me (which BTW even at full rental price is still cheaper
than seeing it at the old Multiplex), at a couple of stores down the
road from my house,which opened up in the last few months (so renting
ain't the chore it once was).
Otherwise what I now do (as I do with 99.99% of what I view)was to buy
a Pioneer 220 recorder which I then use in combination with Comcast
Digital Cable PPV.
I rent a PPV movie for $2.99 or $3.99 a pop (for a twenty four hour
time period),at which point I then watch it and burn a copy or two (btw
on blank discs that cost me on average $.35 each) for later on if I
want to see it again and again over the following months and years!

 

Nope, looks like it's now officially 4 coupons. One per week.

http://www.dvddossier.com/2006/02/blockbuster_cou.html

Talk about a deal! I don't know why anyone would want to stick with
Netflix after that.

I know Blockbuster has been guilty of throttling subscribers, but it's
my understanding that Netflix is twice as bad at it. The complaints of
Netflix throttling customers is rampant these days. Hell, just look at
the subject header.

 

A handful of people complaining on an internet forum hardly qualifies
as rampant.

 

BB is twice as bad as NF. I just finished up one month of BB (which
cost me $1) and I got far fewer discs than I am now that I
resubscribed to NF.

In defense of both rental companies, there are two factors that you
should take into consideration:

1) The online rental business has literally exploded in recent times.
NF acquired all the customers of WalMart in one bunch, which had to
put out a big glitch in distribution. BB acquired Hollywood Video, and
got a bunch of new customers too.

2) No matter how much we pay the USPS, the service gets worse each
year. No more is that felt than around Christmas time for non-local
shipments.

The point is that your request may likely have to be satisfied by a
warehouse that is distant from your home which means that it is going
to take longer to ship to you.

So far NF wins my business even though I am not getting the same
performance as I got 6 months ago.

 

Trust me, as a customer of both (actually neither right now) BB is 10 times
as bad as Netflix. There's just no comparison.

 

Back in November I subscribed to Netflix 3 at a time. I could get 4-5
a week.

Last Monday, sent back two. Last Tuesday, sent back the third. One
of the Monday's logged in last Friday. The other two today. They sat
on them for a week.

When I first started, if a disc arrived back, another was sent the
same day. Now it's the next day. First class mail Orlando to/from
Melbourne, FL is one day.

Stephen
--

 

I read the related links, and then I called up Blockbuster because I
have a free month pending (long story) next month that I don't want to
lose. The rep said when you switch to a 4 coupons per month plan that
it doesn't take effect until the next plan/billing date, so switching
now would lose my free month and the 4 coupons wouldn't take effect
until the next billing date.

This is a little strange because the FAQ makes it sound like changing
plans gets you a free coupon within 24 hours, but that only works if
you do it right before your next billing date, I guess. I didn't
change because I don't want to risk losing the free month.

Last year Netflix was twice as fast as BB, but with the recent high
throttling at NF, BB and NF are about equally slow in my area... in
other words 3 movies per week if you're lucky. To me the big
difference is that NF's web site is better and more accurate. BB used
to get re-releases which was a big advantage, but now neither place
gets very many re-releases so if you want to rent an upgraded special
edition to see the new extras you're probably out of luck.

 

Wow, you must not work for them.

 

It's very common for Netflix to throttle. I've been in a couple of
these discussions. They admit to throttling. When you see people claim
"they don't throttle!" those are people who get four a month and are
happy with that and ignore the fact Netflix admits to doing it. I am
hoping that another company will come at some point that actually
allows you to get as many movies as you can turn in, which Netflix
claims but does not do. Sadly, Blockbuster is even worse. I tried them
for a month. I had literally one full week of no movies out, yet seven
movies in my queue that were all available. When I asked them why
nothing was being sent, they said "you should have 30 movies in your
queue. That was the end of that.

If you don't mind the fact Netflix is run by liars and will hold movies
a couple days before sending them to you, then keep the service.You can
still get 3 a week (if you have 3 at a time plan), which is still
better than a regular video store, but not what they advertise. At the
moment, it's just the lesser of the evils.

 

I thought NF lost a class action lawsuit on this very issue.

 

They did, in fact, lose a lawsuit (although their payment were
ridiculous, 2 mil lawyers fees and an extra disk for a month for
Netflix users - whoopie). I just bring up the fact that anytime there
is a discussion about Netflix's throttling, there's always some guy who
claims it's not true (because it hasn't happened to him yet) or to just
accept it and shut up.

 

They have to make a profit. The more they send you the more their expenses
are. The postage and envelopes cost money and the licenses cost money.
Also lost and broken DVDs cost them money. They are not going to send
you broken DVD's on purpose. They should just be honest and say there is a
limit. They aren't going to send you DVDs as fast as possible and then go
bankrupt because expenses were too high. I also experienced very good
service the first 2 months and then they slowed down. This is probably a
stupid plan because people get mad when they get reduced to the real deal.