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What is wrong with Netflix

post #1 of 6
9/15/03 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 
I just joined, so I don't know if this is normal or not. Hopefully, someone can tell me.

First two rounds, I mailed my movies on Monday, received and shipped on Wednesday, and I got the new ones on Friday.

Then, on the tuesday after labor day, I mailed a movie. The next Monday, the said they received it. They didn't mail until tuesday, and I got it on Thursday. 10 days total.

I mailed out another movie on Saturday the 6th. Finally on Friday (September 12), I just got sick of it and reported that it was mailed and not received by netflix. The queue immediately changed to next movie shipping. An hour later, it changed to shipping on Monday. Now (monday), it says shipping on tuesday. Assuming that they even ship tomorrow, it will be a 13 day turnaround.

Even more funny, the movie on the top of my queue during this last two weeks has gone from available now to short wait to extremely long wait to available now to short wait to long wait. What the hell is up with that?

If this is there normal method of treating customers, they will not have me as a customer. At this rate, I will be lucky to get 6 movies/month,
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post #2 of 6
9/15/03 at 3:04pm
Mark,
I've been experiencing a slowdown recently myself and I have a distribution center in my area. A normal example would be I mail a disc back on Monday, they acknowledge receiving it on Tuesday and mail a new one out, and I get the new one on Wed. Now, it seems like they take a day or 2 or 3 longer to acknowledge it and mail a new one out. The slowdown seems to have started this summer and continues. I suspect they have added a lot of new customers recently and that's the result of the slowdown, but it's a definite pain (I feel for you on your 13-day turnaround).
I would recommend staying with it for 6 months and seeing if things change; if not, then bail. You should compare it against any local bricks and morter rental place to see if you are coming out ahead or behind. If you decide to go elsewhere, I've heard good things about greencine (greencine.com), though they are in San Francisco, CA and they don't have distribution centers.

Dana
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post #3 of 6
9/17/03 at 12:50pm
I have been with Netflix on and off for a few years now. I just re-joined this month after taking the Spring and Summer off from rentals. So far I am astounded at how slow the turnaround is. What really blows my mind is that they apparently now have a distribution center in Chicago, where I LIVE. Yet somehow it is taking the movies 5-6 days in each direction by mail. I find it hard to believe it is the post office (as my other mail is timely). I suspect returned movies sit in a pile and it just takes them a few days to actually check it in. (Too popular and not enough employees?)I had better turnaround back in the day when the DVDs were coming from the West Coast.
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post #4 of 6
10/5/03 at 8:48am
Hi,

I've been a Netflix customer for 3 years. The turnaround time has gotten significantly better since they opened a regional distribution center in my area (near DC). There are more and more customers signing up, but there are also new distribution centers opening (I think there are about 30 centers nationwide now).

The delays you are experiencing may be due to requesting very popular titles (in which case, they should just send you the next one on your list). 5-6 days to get the next DVD to you from a local distribution center is obviously unacceptable (and very unusual, from my experience). Their goal is one-day in transit (which is why the regional distribution centers exist) so something else may be going on. You may want to contact them and see if they have a response to this.

Grant
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post #5 of 6
10/5/03 at 3:07pm
Quote:
(I think there are about 30 centers nationwide now).


There are 10 currently AFAIK.
Quote:
Their goal is one-day in transit

That is their stated goal, but is far different from the actual goal. The actual goal is to make money, and if they have to intentionally slow down turnaround times to save postage, then so be it. When I started a year ago, I was getting 2 days each way (to the Gaithersburg, MD location). As I upped my limit and started have more rentals, the turnaround time started to slow. First it went to discs being received in the morning, but the next one not sent till the next day, to taking 4-5 days for them to acknowledge a received disc. Since this current DVD buying glut came on, I started renting fewer (not enough time to watch them) and dropped my limit to 3 out. Now I'm getting 2 day shipping both ways, and discs sent same day the others are received.

Is it a coincedence? Possibly, but my guess is that they slow down shipping/receiving for high activity accounts, and this is only good business sense.

Chris
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post #6 of 6
10/8/03 at 6:11am
Is it a coincedence? Possibly, but my guess is that they slow down shipping/receiving for high activity accounts, and this is only good business sense.


Only because they are, for the most part, the only game in town. I have seen a significant slowdown also, in the 1.5 years I've been a member.
I went from the 3 movie out to 5 movie out plan, and back again to 3, because there was virtually no difference due to what I perceived as longer shipping/receiving times.
If there were a competitor, I'd certainly give them a shot, but Greencine is in CA, guaranteeing a long transit time. And Blockbuster just does not have the catalog.
I will close by saying, however, that the selection is great, and the price is decent. Had I started out at this level of service, I'd be satisfied- but it was soooo much better the first 6 months in my case.
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