Netflix Throttling

[Gemini Cricket]

Manuel Villanueva realizes he has been getting a pretty good deal since he signed up for Netflix's online DVD rental service 2 1/2 years ago, but he still feels shortchanged.

That's because the $17.99 monthly fee that he pays to rent up to three DVDs at a time would amount to an even bigger bargain if the company didn't penalize him for returning his movies so quickly.

Netflix typically sends about 13 movies per month to Villanueva's home in Warren, Mich. — down from the 18 to 22 DVDs he once received before the company's automated system identified him as a heavy renter and began delaying his shipments to protect its profits.

Source

I don't rent 18-22 DVDs a month, but I am finding myself to be in the same boat Mr. Villanueva is in. I rent about 11 films a month. My Netflix films are taking longer to get to me and it is harder for me to get new releases. I guess I'm a heavy renter, but should I be penalized for that? I don't think that's quite fair.

I used to be able to return DVDs on Friday and get a new one on Monday. Now if I turn it in on a Friday, I get it back on Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday! I just returned 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit' on Friday and it's Wednesday and no new film yet.

I love the convenience of Netflix's service, but I'm thinking of just cancelling my account. I would go to Blockbuster's service but I hear they're going bankrupt.

Any thoughts?

[Alex]

I go through 15-20 Netflix movies a month and still experience a two-day turn around (and this includes when I drop a disc off at the post office after it closes; say on a Monday I still usually have the next disc on Wednesday). I'm still on the 4-at-a-time plan that was the only one available when I signed up.

To the best of my recollection I've never not had the next disc go out on the same day the previous one arrived. I'm not saying Netflix doesn't throttle just that it doesn't seem to affect me. It's probably because I almost never use Netflix for new-release mass-market movies (but the expenses are the same regardless of what movies I rent).

I'm on the fence about whether it is a bad thing or not but I understand why they do it. And people have been complaining about it since almost the beginning. I remember back shortly after I signed up a guy who had a Web site dedicated to tracking the variations in shipping time depending on how many movies he'd rented in the last month.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I understand netflix's policy, I just wish they would have been more upfront about it. According to them, it costs 78 cents to ship a DVD to and from you. Rent enough movies and they make zero profit. If enough people do it, they are out of business.

I usually rent about 10 dvds a month from them and I get them 2 days after I return the previous ones. This is still a better bargain than blockbuster with no late fees and a much better selection. I think that Netflix is still a great value, even if I can't rent 30 movies a month from them.

[Prudence]

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to just announce a monthly limit if that's their intent?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to just announce a monthly limit if that's their intent?

That takes away their flexibility. They want to be able to be less strict if you're not renting new-releases or other hard-to-get titles. If they set a hard "no more than X per month" limit, they won't be able to adapt to each customer, which is the most efficient way to do it.

I haven't really combed through the agreement in a while. I'm betting that since they lost a settlement already, they've added language in the agreement that says that they will adjust delivery speed as they see fit.

[Alex]

As a note of anecdotal irrelevance. Yesterday, at about 4:30p.m. I dropped of Autumn Sonata at the post office (the 24th disc since the beginning of the year). I got an email from Netflix at 3:48 this morning saying that they had received it and another at 9:18 saying my next one was shipping. I expect to have March of the Penguins in tomorrow's mail (about 45 hours after dropping Autumn Sonata into a mailbox).


Like I said, completely irrelevant anecdotal evidence.

[katiesue]

A lot depends too on the post office you drop it off at. The one near my home is a regional distribution center. When I had netflix if I dropped it off there netflix had it in under 24hrs. From the post office by my office it took longer.

I was watching 6-9 movies a week, I did notice sometimes it took a while to get the newer releases but I never had problems with older or more unpopular titles. After a year I kind of ran out of things on my list of moives I wanted to see so I cancelled my membership.

[innerSpaceman]

At one time I was a heavy renter, and this would have alarmed me enough to look into whether it was true or internet mythic.

As things stand, however, I can only manage to go through 4 or 5 films a month. I have been annoyed with Netflix ever since their Catch-22 policy in settlement of their last class action lawsuit. Even if true, then, this shipping policy would not surprise me. But, as it doesn't affect me, I'm not going to get up in arms about it.

[Alex]

Thinking about it more, I don't think I can justify Netflix actually delaying the shipment of another DVD to limit the number of discs received in a month (and so far Netflix denies that they do this).

However, shipping popular discs is another issue. Netflix doesn't have an unlimited supply of DVDs. If, when a copy of their current #1 DVD (The Aviator) comes back in, there are 83 people that currently have it at the top of their queue, there needs to be some system for determining who is going to get it. Perhaps random selection would be most fair but I can't get to upset if they decided to go with preferring those with the fewest rentals.

Also, if your queue is full of in demand movies you run into a self throttling problem. Let's say the top 10 spots on your queue are the top 10 requested DVDs and the bottom 490 spots are all obscure Italian films that nobody but you will ever want to watch.

You send in a disc. Netflix's computers tries to give you your #1 movie, but no discs are in stock. Same with #2-#10. So you get #11. You watch it and send it back and you next get what was #12 since #1-10 are still not in stock. Six months go by and you've seen movies 11-34 and #2 because once you got lucky and it was in stock.

I wonder if Netflix might not, instead, put in a pause before shipping the next movie if it has to go too far down the list to find one in stock (that is, your #1 won't be available in the 2 hour window between a movie coming in and it trying to send out the next one) but if it waits for a day the chances of giving you #1 will be much higher though you'll have waited longer.

I once applied for a job at Netflix, but didn't get it so I don't know how their systems work. The bastards.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

You send in a disc. Netflix's computers tries to give you your #1 movie, but no discs are in stock. Same with #2-#10. So you get #11. You watch it and send it back and you next get what was #12 since #1-10 are still not in stock. Six months go by and you've seen movies 11-34 and #2 because once you got lucky and it was in stock.

We had Netflix about 6 years ago, and this was not uncommon. But, it was completely transparent. Either you got the first item on your queue, OR, that item had a status of "Out of stock" (or whatever phrasing they used) and you'd get the next in-stock item on your list. 6 years ago, that happened consistently (with popular and unpopular movies alike since they probably only had 1 or 2 copies of unpopular movies).

We canceled our service for several years, and now that we're back, they seem to have significantly improved their supply of DVDs as I have yet to see anything on our list listed as "Out of stock". So we always get the first DVD on our queue. I don't see them skipping that first DVD without the "out of stock" status showing, and that just doesn't seem to happen, at least not within our distribution area.

Really, all they need to do to "get away with it" is make sure there's language in the terms and conditions that say they reserve the right to adjust shipment schedules as they feel necessary.