MetaChat - Anybody else having trouble with Netflix?

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06 January 2006

Anybody else having trouble with Netflix? →[More:]Netflix has been very good to us. In the 2 years we have been members, we've only had one or two movies not make a three day turn around. Now suddenly all three movies we mailed back on Tuesday have yet to be received. No movies for us this weekend...Waaaah!

post by: Secret Life of Gravy at: 13:25 | 23 comments

Netflix delays turnaround for high volume customers. We have the same problem.

posted by brainwidth 06 January | 13:29

Blockbuster online is similarly sucking lately. That and they send tv show episodes in the wrong order, which is cursedly annoying.

posted by mygothlaundry 06 January | 13:31

Yeah they sure do, you can kinda counter-fuck em by getting on the 4 out a time schedule and watching and returning pretty quick on at least two of them though, always something to watch. It helps if you are close to one of their return centers as well.

That and they send tv show episodes in the wrong order

Netflix has never done that to me, shudder, that's just evil.

posted by Divine_Wino 06 January | 13:32

I have had a few brief lapses in service in the 5 years I've had it, but they were rare and small.

posted by agropyron 06 January | 13:32

I've had a few instances when the movies took a long time to show up in my mailbox, but frankly I put that down to the mail. What evidence is there for them screwing high volume customers? I'd be interested to see it.

posted by omiewise 06 January | 13:35

We've had Netflix be slow to send out new discs (the infamous throttling), but I haven't noticed them delaying receiving of stuff we sent back. I'd blame the postal service in this case.

Greencine (who we have a 1-out plan with as well) usually take 5-8 days to turn stuff around, but they do have a few things that no one else has, though that's not as true as it used to be.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 06 January | 13:36

One of the ways netflixs throttles is to use a distribution center further away from you. This would cause a delay in both sending out the disk, and receiving the disk when it's returned.

posted by brainwidth 06 January | 13:38

when they send you an email asking if you've received your movie yet, always pick the latest choice. A friend picked an earlier choice once and found his movies starting arriving later after that.

posted by Hellbient 06 January | 13:39

If anyone wants to be my Netflix friend, I'm registered under the addy in my profile.

Classic Flix is terribly slow to receive and send movies. It's quite annoying.

posted by goatdog 06 January | 13:40

I'm having the exact same problem this week, sent one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday and nary a peep out of netflix. I know the throttle very high-volume customers, but that's not me. I'm on the 3-out plan and probably get 10-15 a month. I think there might be a specific problem this week.

posted by sohcahtoa 06 January | 13:49

I think thePinkSuperhero switched off of (or was going to) Netflix because of her service experience there.

At my place, we've had some films get tagged long wait that seemed to take forever, like they needed a new tag called: just go rent this one because you'll never get it from us, and a few close calls with the TV discs do to sudden short waits appearing and throwing evenly spaced TV show discs out of sequence. But overall it's been fairly smooth.

We also follow the hellbient strategy.

On Preview: our mail has been sluggish this week overall. I blame the holidays/postal system over the company.

posted by safetyfork 06 January | 13:52

I haven't had any problems with netflix lately. But now I'm nervous. I did notice they started to send them from white plains instead of flushing. Hrrmmm.

posted by gaspode 06 January | 13:55

Hmm. We've only had NetFlix for a few months, but they've always been very prompt. They get movies I send in in a day, and movies come a day after they say they're on the way, and they turn 'em around really quickly.

I've even answered "has this arrived yet" with earliest possible date. But maybe we are not high volume, I dunno. Two at a time, maybe seeing 10-12 a month.

(We had one movie never make it to us: it apparently got mangled in the mail, as it went out, and then went right back to Netflix, without stopping at my house).

What about a MeCha Netflix friends circle? I'm also at the address in my profile.

posted by teece 06 January | 13:56

the holidays make people postal
and all those netflix gift vouchers probably have something to do with it

*plans to return Blockedbastard movie for credit or freebies*
*fluckers*

posted by ethylene 06 January | 14:00

Post office?

posted by arse_hat 06 January | 14:43

a movie I was supposed to have received never arrived. further, it was a RE-send after the first time it arrived was the wrong disc in the envelope.

posted by shmegegge 06 January | 14:52

safetyfork is correct: I did leave Netflix because of this problem. It's not an accident- high-use customers get delayed service after awhile. And then when I e-mailed to complain, they sent me a retarded e-mail like I was 4 years old. So I said, fine, I'm switching to Blockbuster. Blockbuster does the same thing, but at least when I e-mail to complain about things, they ply me with free in-store rental coupons.

The whole internet movie rental thing makes me angry and I hate that they change the service and it makes me want to quit them alltogether, but I like movies. So I put up with it. Maybe when spring comes and the weather is nice I'll quit.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 06 January | 14:56

How high-volume do you have to be to bring down Netflix wrath? My wife and I go through movies like fiends and have never had any trouble, but now I'm worried that we're going to drop the hammer on ourselves.

posted by cobra! 06 January | 15:12

it may possibly be with long time users as well. i have reduced my discs to one and it is not mnearly as fast as it use to be.

also, when they started, they totally screwed my dad.

i get broken and unplayable discs a lot. i report them.

they actually owe me referrals from people who use them because they can't get decent movies in their area.

i fear they can't handle the growth or don't care.
or are working in slight fear of pirating.
it sucks.

posted by ethylene 06 January | 15:20

How high-volume do you have to be to bring down Netflix wrath?

That's the thing- you don't know until they start slowing your movie sending. And I don't think they're gonna tell you if you ask, either. It's something I wish someone (some Internet 'pape, like Slate or Salon) would do some investigative journalism on.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 06 January | 15:28

I'm with zip (Canadian version of Netflix) and I thought that I was getting throttled (there was a month of 14 days before they acknowledged receipt of returned discs) but I guess it was the holiday snailmail tangle (November to mid-December) - I'm back to consistent 3-day turnarounds.

Gravy - which part of the Country are you in? It's possible that it's just a USPS snafu (like branches changing up their routines/routes in the New Year).

posted by porpoise 06 January | 17:20

I'm in Raleigh. The funny thing is my husband works for the Post office out of the Raleigh airport in shipping and things have gone to hell there (they are very short staffed.) But there is no reason why our movies should take 4 or more days to arrive when previously it took only 1.

I'm totally blaming the post office, but I just thought I would check to make sure Netflix hasn't suddenly closed their doors or something.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy 06 January | 18:42

Still nothing. I'm a bit upset that I have to wait until Monday to report them as a shipping problem. 6 days to receive first class mail is ridiculous.

If this happens again, I guess we will have to look at alternatives. The only time we have to watch movies togeather is Sunday night. If it takes 6 days for netflix to receive them, that will cut our volume in half.

posted by Secret Life of Gravy 07 January | 12:03

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