Netflix is pissing me off. (By the way, "Hi." I'm taking a vacation day today so I'm at home and I just woke up 30 minutes ago).
A couple of months ago I stepped us down for the 2-out-at-a-time "unlimited" plan because we [read: Scott] weren't finding enough time during the week to watch them all. I figured that Netflix was throttling (slowing down our movie flow because we're high-frequency users) us an I didn't want to be gouged for them to do it.
We returned two movies to our Greensboro distribution center via mail on Monday. They notified us that one was received on Tuesday. The other one, going to the exact same place and mailed from the exact same box, was marked as returned on yesterday. So. We've gotten one movie in the mail this week, although our plan and the way the post operates technically allows us to have up to four.
In their terms of service they DO say that they ship out movies to people who use the service less frequently with greatest priorty.
So, basically, they're giving better service to people who make them more money and they're admitting to it. Even if you're on the eight-out plan, if you actually try to use it as an unlimited service, you're not going to get what you bargained for.
*sigh* I just want them to be clear on what they refer to as "unlimited." I wrote them the following email:
"I've been a Netflix subscriber for one year. I've been a steady subcriber - I've never dropped the service to see if there was "something better" in the market. I never complained, even when my 3-out plan discs slowed to a trickle. I never formally complained even when I was getting 3 or 4 broken or unplayable discs each month.Now I'm complaining.
In your terms of service you basically state that you can slow the flow of movies to your high-frequency users in favor of those people who make you more money by renting less discs.
I want to know how you decide when to stop sending movies in a timely manner.
Is there a specific conversion ratio that you follow or do you just STOP sending movies in a timely manner when a subscriber gets close to the end of their billing period and you see that they've gotten VERY close to that "imaginary" number you've set for their plan? Of course, no such number exists because you claim these things to be "unlimited."
In case you're wondering if I'm speaking in generalities here, NO. Here's a specific example. On Monday, 8/8 we mailed two movies from the same mailbox to our local distribution center. You reported that you recieved one the next day and the other two days following that. I find it hard to believe that it took three days for the post office to deliver a flat envelope to a town forty minutes over. We've recieved ONE disc this week and a total of 10 in the past 30 days.
My math says that we should be able to have at LEAST 16. But of course, that isn't profitable for you.
I should not have to dig out my dusty Blockbuster card to present in person to rent movies in a store when your service slow down.
I'm not threatening to cancel my service at this time. I just want a number. Tell me how many movies you set as an unoffical cap on the "2-out/unlimited" plan so that I don't exepct to recieve more than than.
If we shouldn't bother to rush these movies back to get new ones, we won't do it. We'll put ourselves into a EVEN LOWER plan bracket where we feel like we're getting what we thought.
Please advise."
What'll probably happen is I'll get some copy and paste automatic response and I'll have to keep replying to get a here-or-there answer.
I would say that is is the last straw, but it isn't. Until my local video store is convenient enough to use to difray the fact that I'm there so much they know me by name I won't turn the business over to them. Stay tuned.
Posted by Tiffany at August 12, 2005 12:43 PM | TrackBack