NetFlix "Throttling"

[domc]

I'm current subscribed to all three services:

Netflix (currently subscribed till the 28th Feb)
Intelliflix (Subscribed till 27th March)
Blockbuster (Currently two week trial)

Netflix: Last two movies took 7 days to get to me. Not new releases.
Intellifix : New subscriber. Took 3 days to get to me but didn't send me the movies at the top of my list of movies.
Blockbuster: New subscriber. Waiting for three movies (new releases) arriving Tues and should be two business days if they arrived when said. (Holiday not included in days).

Overall I am going with Blockbuster. Originally with Netflix. For 17.99 a month (3 movies out at a time) and the free in store coupons, it comes out way cheaper. The 4 free ANY movie in store rentals pays for the 17.99 price a lone ($4.50 a rental here. $3.50 at our mom and pop rental shop).

Yes, blockbuster has changed there terms of service stating that they may throttle. The only thing that has sold me on Blockbuster is the free in store movies which can be rented when waiting for movies in the mail but it wouldn't suprise me if Blockbuster keeps track of your in store movies and includes them in your throtteling. Mmmmm.....<grin>

[phenixdragon]

I tried out BLockbuster a couple of times. First time I rarely got anything in the top of my Q. That was oevr a yaer ago. I tried them a few months ago and it worked a bit better but still was lacking. But I wondering if with Netflix if I am being throttled because it seems like it is taking an extra day for them to receive my movies when it use to be the next day. Not that big of a deal but when I want to plan on having movies in for certain days it is a concern to me and also going from having awesome service to OK service is also a let down. Just like with any company, if you are getting something for so long and then you are dropped down it is always upsetting to anyone.

[domc]

I would have no beef with Netflix if they stated how many movies you are allowed. At the moment I am with blockbuster two week trial. Of course I'm getting all my top of the queue choices in a timely manner. We'll see after the two week trial. No doubt that I'll be throttled. I will stick with blockbuster for now since I get the 4 free coupons a month that pays for the subscription itself.

It makes me wonder, wouldn't these companies want the movies back as quickly as possible so that they can keep other customers happy? I should just keep one of them a month or more out of spite.

[phenixdragon]

I agree. if they stated a number you the max you are allowed it wouldn't be such a problem. they should also keep track how many times you mail all 3 movies back at the same time. I almost always mail 3 back at a time which of course saves them money.

[phenixdragon]

I think I am going to try this company out.

http://www.cafedvd.com/

What I like is what is listed under:
http://www.cafedvd.com/cgi-bin/new/membership.html

For fast turnaround time - unlike our competitors - we start processing your next queued movies as soon as you drop your returns in the mail. In order to use this feature, simply click "mailed back" button on or after you drop off your movies at your local post office. Even if you are located far away from San Francisco where we ship all our movies, you can expect to receive them quickly.

And they do of course say they do not limit how many movies. But I like the idea that they will ship movies out before they even receive them back. You know, GameFly has it setup with some post offices where USPS has a way to scan the mailer and they will send out the next game before they receive the old one back. Interesting enough is when I used them and did that they seemed to always receive the game the very next day, but if I mailed it from a USPS that didn't have the scanning tool it took a freakin week to get the game back which you have to add another 3 or 4 days for shipping to get the enxt one.

[src666]

Originally Posted by phenixdragon

For fast turnaround time - unlike our competitors - we start processing your next queued movies as soon as you drop your returns in the mail. In order to use this feature, simply click "mailed back" button on or after you drop off your movies at your local post office. Even if you are located far away from San Francisco where we ship all our movies, you can expect to receive them quickly.

Netflix used to do this - that's about all that made them viable back then for those of us not on the west coast. In the long run, it's an unsustainable model at the prices these services are charging.

And it's not having the movies in customer's hands that is expensive - it's getting the movies to and from the customer. If Netflix would put multiple movies into single mailers, they could save a bundle on shipping. But it would send processing and handling costs through the roof. Everything is a trade-off.

[insomniac]

you cannot keep the dvd indefinitely with this service. I believe it said 7 days. This implies a late charge?

EDIT: Or is this just during the cancellation period??

I.

Originally Posted by phenixdragon

I think I am going to try this company out.

http://www.cafedvd.com/

What I like is what is listed under:
http://www.cafedvd.com/cgi-bin/new/membership.html

For fast turnaround time - unlike our competitors - we start processing your next queued movies as soon as you drop your returns in the mail. In order to use this feature, simply click "mailed back" button on or after you drop off your movies at your local post office. Even if you are located far away from San Francisco where we ship all our movies, you can expect to receive them quickly.

And they do of course say they do not limit how many movies. But I like the idea that they will ship movies out before they even receive them back. You know, GameFly has it setup with some post offices where USPS has a way to scan the mailer and they will send out the next game before they receive the old one back. Interesting enough is when I used them and did that they seemed to always receive the game the very next day, but if I mailed it from a USPS that didn't have the scanning tool it took a freakin week to get the game back which you have to add another 3 or 4 days for shipping to get the enxt one.

[phenixdragon]

I beleive the 7 days was an example of if you cancelled.

but I did email them about trottling and they emailed me back asking me how many DVDs I plan on receiving with the 2 DVD plan that I signed up for. So it makes me wonder. But the email sounded like the would be less likley to do it if you did mail DVDs back together.

[domc]

Blockbuster issued a press release today:

"BLOCKBUSTER Online does not throttle. When we say our service offers unlimited rentals, we mean it," said Shane Evangelist, senior vice president and general manager for BLOCKBUSTER Online. "We don't prioritize our customers' movie fulfillment based on how often they use our service, and we don't limit the number of movies a subscriber receives each month. We want our customers to get the full entertainment value that comes from a subscription plan, whether that's watching 20-plus movies a month or five."

Read the rest here http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060302/clth512.html?.v=27

[RedR]

That’s quite funny, but not good enough to make me switch from Netflix. Quite a few of us at work use rent by mail, while some of us tried Blockbuster here or there the end result was we all ended up back with Netflix. I've always been quite happy with Netflix even when shipments started to slow down. I do not mind them "throttling" my account; I just wish they had the nerve to tell me vs. having to read about it in the news. So in the end, I'd rather pay a little more, or in this case get a little less than deal with the problems Blockbuster has with their service.

Enjoy,
RedR

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by domc

Blockbuster issued a press release today:

"BLOCKBUSTER Online does not throttle. When we say our service offers unlimited rentals, we mean it," said Shane Evangelist, senior vice president and general manager for BLOCKBUSTER Online. "We don't prioritize our customers' movie fulfillment based on how often they use our service, and we don't limit the number of movies a subscriber receives each month. We want our customers to get the full entertainment value that comes from a subscription plan, whether that's watching 20-plus movies a month or five."

Read the rest here http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060302/clth512.html?.v=27

Blockbuster is the same company that had the "No Late Fees" campaign, right? I guess if it's in their press release it must be true.

[lotusvball]

Originally Posted by spacecadet

Blockbuster is the same company that had the "No Late Fees" campaign, right? I guess if it's in their press release it must be true.

You mean the no late fees except we will charge you account a restocking charge or fee or what ever they wanted to call it.... LATE FEE!!!!!

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by lotusvball

You mean the no late fees except we will charge you account a restocking charge or fee or what ever they wanted to call it.... LATE FEE!!!!!

That's the one. They can press release whatever they want, but their Terms of Service still haven't changed:

Selection and Allocation of Product. BLOCKBUSTER Online will automatically ship titles to you, up to your maximum number of outstanding BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals, from and in the order that you have listed in your rental queue, subject to availability. When product is not available to satisfy all subscribers, BLOCKBUSTER Online determines product allocation among members, taking into consideration several factors. Subscribers who have previously not received the full number of DVDs allowed out by their plan, which could happen because the subscriber either had no available movies or no movies at all in his or her queue, or due to technical problems, are given higher priority. We also consider average queue position of the movies the subscriber previously received, with priority being given to those whose rentals have been in a lower position in their queue (for example, a subscriber who recently received his or her fourth or fifth choice may get a higher priority than someone who recently received their first choice). New subscribers may also receive a higher priority until the subscriber has received a sufficient number of rentals to allow us to apply these other product allocation factors. BLOCKBUSTER Online reserves the right to change these allocation metrics at any time, and to consider additional allocation metrics in the future, including, without limitation, a subscribers historical rental volume, all with or without notice.

[phenixdragon]

I have actually seen some good reviews for Intelliflix but also seen a lot of bad ones. But last week I ran into a review from someone like PC Mag (wasn't them, I forgot by now but someone just as good) that rated them the best. But I have my doubts because of all the bad reviews. I also exspect to see more reviews to be worse with any company as those are the most likley to write a review about someone as with any product or service.

Cafe DVD looks like a loser for me. I think if I lived in Cali or at least by the 408 area code it would be pretty sweet. I should be able to have movies the next day as I ship them out. Such as I could drop my movies in the mail in the morning and have new DVDs the next day. They do have a link in yoru Q to tell them you mailed the DVDs back. When you do that they start sending out the next DVDs. But if you live farther away (I'm by Seattle) it wil take longer for shipping. Monday will be my 4th day of waiting for the DVDs to arrive. I mean it as the 4th mailing day since Sunday does not count. If it takes 4 days fro a DVD to arrive then that is worse then being throttled by Netflix so I will not be going on past the month I paid for.

It looks like though that Cafe DVD was designed around rare DVDs or samller no named ones and international flix. It looks like that they do carry all the big movies out today and the little time I was looking at what they had I could find everything I wanted. But 4+ days is the deal breaker for me.

[domc]

I've had all three services for about 6 weeks now.

Netflix
Intelliflix
Blockbuster

As of today, I've canceled my Netflix account, going to cancel my Intelliflix account and keeping blockbuster.

Netflix - Took 8 days to send me two movies just before I quit. Used them for 7 months. Movies were taking slower and slower to get to me. Processing plant is 30 miles away from me. Some movies came from out of state. In that 7 months I received 5 visibly cracked DVD's unplayable. More and more movies were getting Long and short waits in my queue. Really hard to get new releases as time went on. Throttling for sure!!

Intelliflix - 3 1/2 weeks so far. Movies take 4 mailing days to get to me. Seems like an amature operation. They don't have all movies. Hard unknown movies are hard to find there. Received an email accusing me of not sending back a movie that I marked as sending back in queue. Never received movie. Emailed them. Received email back stating that there website was screwed up and it was a mistake on there part. Never received movie but all of a sudden it was marked as received back at there end. Movies at the top of your queue are not the movies they will send you immediately. Who knows....Moral of the story? I'm canceling on Monday. Less than a month of service (3 1/2wks) and I've only received 5 movies. There history!

Blockbuster - 4 weeks so far. Received 13 movies so far on the 3 out plan plus 4 free in store movies a month including new releases. Movies are marked received in queue the next day after putting them in the mailbox. I suppose there getting notified from the Post office that the movie is received. Pretty fast!! So far I'm staying with Blockbuster. As I have stated before, the 4 in store movies make this service worth it right now. Basically the monthly cost of $17.99 a month pays for the 4 in store rentals in my area ($4.50 a movie). The ones I get in the mail for me are basically FREE. So I don't care if I get 4 or 20 rentals through the mail. I suppose I will start getting throttled soon by blockbuster (even though there press release stated that they don't). We'll see. Time will tell.

CafeDVD - Mmmm... looks interesting. May try them if Blockbuster starts screwing with me.

[RedR]

Originally Posted by domc

Netflix - Took 8 days to send me two movies just before I quit. Used them for 7 months. Movies were taking slower and slower to get to me. Processing plant is 30 miles away from me. Some movies came from out of state. In that 7 months I received 5 visibly cracked DVD's unplayable. More and more movies were getting Long and short waits in my queue. Really hard to get new releases as time went on. Throttling for sure!!

Come now, how can you hold any provider responsible for how the US Post Office handles the mail? Or are you saying that Netflix sent these out broken and posted a date that was far earlier than it actually shipped? Personally, I've been very happy with Netflix and how they handle by broken disk. I mark it as such on their site and they send it out again right away. They dont wait for the broken disk to get in. As far as getting CD's from outta state, you should check out how Netflix works. It's a very cool setup, and yes sometimes the closest 'Processing plant' that has that movie really is outta state.
Anyway, I've been with Netflix for over a year and, and am still happy with em, even if they have adjusted their price for the rate of output. It is pretty cool that we have options now for this type of rental system.

Enjoy,
RedR

[src666]

While I don't really think Netflix will ship disks they know to be broken, I am quite sure that they will hold off on posting a movie as having arrived for a few days. I live in a city with a Netflix facility, and there are times that a batch of movies I sent back takes 3-4 days to show up on their systems. I work with 3 other people who use Netflix, and mail back their discs from a variety of locations, so it's easy to tell when we are being throttled.

Consider this: Netflix works _closely_ with the post office. Incoming discs are routed directly to Netflix - look at the label, and it will say "Nearest Netflix Facility" or similar wording. There's no way that the mail from my office, which is courriered directly to the sorting facility, then is courriered directly to Netflix, takes 4 days. They throttle. Anyone in that business who expects to make money either charges more or throttles. It's a fact of life.

Netflix is just smart about it, and they frequently throttle by not telling you that a disc has arrived - "Hey, don't blame us! It's the post office's fault!".

[domc]

I not complaining to much about the Broken disks. I was just stating my experience. Netflix was good about sending a replacement right away.
Perhaps I should have reported broken disks all the time, then I would have gotten my movies faster because those movies came the next day or two.

I really just wish all these companies would just tell me in the TOS how many movies I'm allowed to have a month. Then I can make a decision as to who comes out to be the best value. They just skirt the issue because they don't want to be the first to say that they do it. Netflix admitted throttling but still didn't say how many disks a month.

Of course at $17.99 a month there not going to let me rent 18 movies a month on a regular basis. They would break even or lose money on me. I figure it cost them about a Dollar to send me each movie. Ok, so tell me where the break even point is (how many per month) before they start losing money?

A lawsuit is the only thing that will get these companies to tell us how many movies a month.

[phenixdragon]

Hmm...I never had a broken disc with anyone. I did have a bunch of discs jacked from my mailbox so I always drop them off at the post office or just mail them from work now or drop them off in my mailbox hours before the mailman comes.

I do have to say that I think I am going to go back to Blockbuster. I never really used them but since now I get a movie a week in the store it totally makes it more worth it then Netflix, and not being throttled.

But any critics about Blockbuster having it in their user agreement that they could throttle isn't anything that is unexpected. The company would need to keep a user agreement to protect themselves if they ever at any point needed to start doing it. I really doubt that they will anytime soon as they have a bigger bankroll then Netflix and are trying to beat out Netflix or anyone else who becomes a major competitor.

[SubaruWRX]

Originally Posted by src666

Consider this: Netflix works _closely_ with the post office. Incoming discs are routed directly to Netflix - look at the label, and it will say "Nearest Netflix Facility" or similar wording. There's no way that the mail from my office, which is courriered directly to the sorting facility, then is courriered directly to Netflix, takes 4 days. They throttle. Anyone in that business who expects to make money either charges more or throttles. It's a fact of life.

yeah I always wondering about this.. The "Facility" must be nothing more then a office Space.