I’ve currently been subscribed to netflix for about 2 months now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that their “unlimited rental” deal is really a scam. I KNOW they are now using tricks to control how many DVD’s are sent out to a customer.
When I originally signed up with them, it would take one day for me to recieve the DVD after they had sent it (which has not changed up to this point). After watching it, I would send it out in the morning and Netflix would recieve it at the latest by the 2nd day if the the next day. That was at the beginning.
Now we fast forward to two months subscription. When I get the movies, I watch them that day. I then send them back in the next day. It started taking longer and longer for my movies to be received by Netflix as time went on and I had more rentals. It is now at the point where I would receive the movie on Monday, I send it back Tuesday morning before mail is collected, and they will not recieve it (by posting online that they recieve it and send me another one) until the following Monday. At one point, I sent one back Tuesday, one Thursday, and one Friday. They all showed as being recieved by Netflix the same day which was Monday.
From trying this a couple times now, I definitely can tell that there is something not right going on with the company. How can I send 3 movies back 5 days apart and they Netflix center get them all the same day. The only explanation I can come up with is that they are not really posting when they recieve the movies and are holding on to them so that they do not have to send more out. I find this a large problem since they advertise unlimited where in fact they really are LIMITING the DVD’s. I have one more month left before I cancel, so I’m going to record all the dates/times when I send the movies and and then get a new one. Until then, I wouldn’t recommend anyone signing up for them as they are definitely being shady.
blockbuster’s service has started to suck as well. during the trial period, i used to get next day or 2-day delivery. but now if i ship on monday, they dont acknowledge receipt until friday most of the time.
i will give it a shot for a while otherwise its back to downloading for me.
Have you read the Netflix terms of service?
Specifically the “Allocation, Delivery and Return of Rented DVDs”?
Not sure when they posted the policy, but they state outright that they will throttle your consumption of DVDs if you rent a lot of them.
From their site:
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Allocation, Delivery and Return of Rented DVDs
We reserve the right to allocate and ship DVDs among our subscribers in any manner that we, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine. In addition, we will, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine the quantity of DVDs we purchase for any particular title and the level of staffing and number of shipments to be processed at each distribution center. As a result, we may not always send you the top choices from your queue, and we may not ship out your next DVD on the same day that we receive one from you. At present, our goal is to ship you the DVDs listed highest in your queue. Also, we currently try to ship you DVDs from the distribution center closest to you so that you get movies quickly. Often, on the same day that we receive a DVD from you, we will ship the next available DVD from your queue. In certain instances, your next available DVD will not ship until at least one business day following our receipt of your returned movie. This can occur, for example, when your top choices are not available to you from your closest distribution center or the number of shipments to be processed by the distribution center on that day has been exceeded. When this happens, your DVD will likely ship on the next business day and may come from an alternate distribution center.
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. Other factors that may affect delivery times, include, but are not limited to, (i) the distance between the distribution center from which your DVD was shipped and your delivery address, (ii) the timing of your placement or adjustment of movies in your queue and (iii) circumstances impacting delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.
This entry was made well before NetFlix modified their policy and added information about throttling. Back when I used to be signed up, there was no information about throttling deliveries. They actually updated their policy after a lawsuit was brought against them. Back then, I feel it was a scam because they did not specify that they would throttle their deliveries, but they did say it was an unlimited rental service. It’s less of a scam in my opinion since they specify the throttling now, but it’s still scammish to say “Unlimited”.
A friend told me about the throttling. In a nutshell, the more you rent, the happier you obviously are with their service, therefor they needn’t get you dvd’s in a quick fashion. It is the guy with the lowest cost subscription that gets his movies quicker, because they want him happy enough to spend more money and don’t want to lose a customer. It makes perfect sense from a marketing perspective, but as a customer, I don’t appreciate them calling something UNLIMITED when clearly they impose limits
Um, I have been a member of Netflix for several years and have never had ANY of these issues. Many of my friends and family have also have had memberships with Netflix for many years and have never complained. We watch nearly identical titles separately and then have drinks at one another houses and discuss them. Almost like a book club. Never a complaint. Never a delay. Perhaps your problem is with the local postal service that handles your mail.
I am using the 2week free trial and its pretty cool.
I’ve had netflix for about a year and occasionally see a little throttling. More often, I get a movie shipped from across the country. I live in Minnesota and in the last two weeks, one of my movies was shipped from New Orleans, another shipped from Los Angeles. Since there are at least 10 closer facilities, it seems strange that these two would be the best bet. One thing to note is that the two movies were pretty popular and should have been in stock. I think this type of mailing can also be considered a scam. If this happens to you, make sure to not mail the dvd back to its original location. Put two dvds into one envelope so they get to your closest facility – otherwise you’ll have to wait the entire delivery time.
I got a 7 movie free trial off the WWE (wrestling, dorky, I know, blame the spouse). I got 4 movies. They then charged my card (debit) and overdrew the account. They claim they don’t have x movie rental promotions, only 2 week, occasionally 1 month promotions. So to rent 4 movies it cost me close to $20 their charges and a $35 overdraft from the bank. Thanks for the sucky customer service also. No refund, not even of the $20 they charged me for the FREE 7 movie trial. Netflix sucks.
My experience is consistent with all the complaints. Horribly scratched discs to begin with.
Service started out great then after about a month or so I experienced the “throttling”. Slow turnaround time.
My first & only complaint to customer service resulted in Netflix saying, “your return shipment must’ve been lost in the mail.” I drop all my mail in a U.S.P.S. mailbox, no shit on the front porch where neighborhood kids can snatch it so I know the disk at least made it into the hands of the USPS who, in my eperience are pretty reliable.
I’m waiting to see how future shipments are handled with respects to turnaround time.
As far as the allegations go regarding the “throttling”, deliberate slow turnaround time for high volume customers, I don’t know that it’s a fact but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Numbers don’t lie & where there’s smoke you can count on your ass getting burned.
I’m still waiting to see how this pans out. Worst case scenario if Netflix screws me as a customer I’ll just drop out & they can kiss my lousy $10 bucks a month goodbye.
We’ll see.