Hacking NetFlix

People living near the GreenCine distribution center have also reported issues.

I think delays for high-turnover customers is just a fact a life. Companies, even loss leaders, simply cannot afford to give 24 or more disks a month to everyone that wants that many.

BB throttles, but not nearly as bad or as blatantly as NetFlix. Their throttling is more on the allocation side of the equation - who gets the new releases.

I have never had an issue with them failing to acknowledge receipt of my DVDs. They also acknowledge receipt the day after mailing.

Both my NFLX and BB returns go to a PO Box in Santa Ana.

the reason that NFLX's failure to acknowledge receipt of returned DVDs on throttled customers is so deceptive is that NFLX PR people will often tout how most DVDs are shipped from NFLX within a day of "receipt".

Great.. except they decide when the DVD has been received by them.

"I think delays for high-turnover customers is just a fact a life. Companies, even loss leaders, simply cannot afford to give 24 or more disks a month to everyone that wants that many."

They should not claim to offer unlimited service. NFLX arbitrarily limits the number of shipments a day day at each distro center. They don't respond to demand. They DICTATE how much people can have, then call it unlimited because it isn't a "fixed" amount. That's fraud and false advertising.

GreenCine doesn't have to throttle as much, 'cause the post office does it for them. They're no better than Netflix, and hypocritical to say they are. In fact, they would throttle local customers more than NF, because their shipping costs are higher. (63c each way, because of the cardboard inserts.)

Blockbuster is worse than Netflix now. They sit on my queue for days and send everything out of order. They send new releases from 3 days away, as if they didn't have something closer. Yeah, right. They've skipped over available titles, sent me the extras disc before the movie, and done everything to piss me off. At least now I get 4 DVDs a now with their store coupons. But I'm sick of all the games these companies play. They should be honest and up-front about the fact that they're delaying. Enough lies.

I subscribe to both Netflix and BBO, both are throttling me, and I've noticed that BBO at least doesn't do it "behind the scenes": They'll acknowledge receipt of my movies as soon as they get them...but then proceed to not send me anything for a day to a day and a half. After they do send me something, it takes 3-4 days to arrive even though their distribution center is only 45 miles from my house. For a total of 4 to 6 business days.

Thanks to posters here I found out what to expect before I even signed for both services, so the throttling is not a big issue for me.

Oh well, I just went back to my local library after 9 years and to my surprise they have a more than healthy selection of DVDs. Mostly classic and foreign films, which is precisely what I like to watch. You can check out 6 DVDs at a time for 11 days. As soon as my queue dries up (Netflix: 28 DVDs, BBO: 29 DVDs), goodbye both companies!!

As I've always maintained BB and NF both throttle.

Here is the meaty portion of BB's TOS:

"However, BLOCKBUSTER Online reserves the right to determine product allocation among members in its sole discretion. In determining product allocation, we use various factors including, but not limited to, (i) the historical rental volume for each subscriber, (ii) historical number of outstanding rentals relative to a maximum number of outstanding BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals allowed under a subscriber's plan, and (iii) the average rental queue position of BLOCKBUSTER Online Rentals that have shipped to a subscriber in the past."

At least with BB I really don't *care* of I can't get new releases, that is what the coupons are for. ;-)

AAMOF that is what I use *all* my coupons for, the new releases.

If you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and the manager decides that you are a big eater and starts to limit your trips to the buffet line, is that right? Is that even legal. From what I know about advertising, the fine print cannot take away from what is being advertised. If they advertise "Unlimited," then it must be unlimited. They can't say "unlimited means no more than 12." An all-you-can eat buffet cannot limit your trips to the buffet line unless they advertised it as a "multiple trip buffet."

you know, there was a great Simpsons episode on this very subject.

ruk concerning your first two comments:
Maybe the reason BB does not throttle as heavily is because they do not have nearly the customer base as NFLX. They also tend to purchase HUGE amounts of new releases hence their instore movie gaurauntees. Maybe when their customer base increases to 4 million you will complain about heavily throttling their. And as far as throttling not only because of new releases: I am not to sure as I am a heavy renter myself but am never throttled because I maintain a long diverse queue.

As far as your comment on recent failure receipts(you actually seem to complain about this at every post): I myself have always had erratic email receipt and notification. However the programmer in me throws in multiple reasons for this and not the oh-so easy "netflix does it on purpose" excuse. 4 million customers get an average of 3 movies a week, in theory all emailed reciepts and sends outs: thats 24 million emails exclusing cusomter inquiries and business emails A WEEK. Pretty huge, which leads me to wonder if they queue their mail to be sent out in packs which explains wierd email delays that never match up with the real deal. That and bad postman, syncing 20+ distribution centers for 4 million people and there are bound to be mistakes that happen over the course of time.

ruk I am not saying my reasons are 100 fact, I am just throwing ideas that what I said could be a factor as well.

tennrab - I've heard of restaurants throwing out customers who eat too much at the "all you can eat" buffet. And I'm sure everybody remembers unlimited dial-up internet service, which was almost never unlimited.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Netflix Shill!

"Blockbuster is worse than Netflix now. ...and send everything out of order. They send new releases from 3 days away, ... They've skipped over available titles, sent me the extras disc before the movie"

I had all the same done to me for 3-4 months until I canceled 2 weeks ago.

" I've heard of restaurants throwing out customers who eat too much at the "all you can eat" buffet."

Yes, but I've also heard of those same restaurants issuing apologies after the media finds out about it. They don't care until word gets out what they are doing then they are quick to apologize and try to make it right.

This is a bit intresting as I am highly thinking about switching over to Blockbuster.

It's also a bit ironic (or good luck?) because I figured I better check out this site first.

I suppose Blockbuster still has the coupons over Netflix, but this pretty much matches them up overall.

The fact that Blockbuster will eventually use their stores to ship though helps though.

How long before Webster's adds it?

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=throttling

I've used both services off and on Blockbuster has really added alot more benefit with the four monthly coupons , I wish the store was a little closer but getting the 4 NR you want a month without waiting makes it a much better deal. plus the DVD's are always in better shape when they arrive.

I am new to Netflix and did not care much for BB online. BB had too many scratched DVDs, wrong DVDs and besides I don't care to visit their stores so no need for coupons. I just want to watch a few TV shows/movies a week (around 12 - 14 a month)and not have to drive somewhere.

Netflix is much more user friendly and I think a better value for the money. BB online started to throttle me when I saw the 1st season of LOST in about a week and a half. Shortly after viewing LOST the latest Seinfeld DVDs came out. I put Seinfeld in my queue at the top and they showed available. The next day it said long wait for Seinfeld. Then all of sudden ALL of my DVDs had some kind of delay. After emailing customer service, they did not tell me what was going on so at least we would know what is happening. They tried to pass it off as a warehouse location issue.

I don't have a problem with this policy. My wife and I always would try to return the DVDs ASAP so someone else could get it that much faster and we also wanted more value for our money. Now, we understand the system so we are not in such a rush to return what we see.

i think often BB throttling is actuall just crappy customer service as opposed to blatant throttling. i say this as a customer who's relatively happy with them... lol.

the one thing i like about BB vs. NF is that if you have a problem (legitamate) with BB, and you email them, once you wade through the two or three cookie cutter responses they give you, they generally give you an additional free cupon to make right on the deal. NF just gives you the giant middle finger. it wouldn't be hard, i can't imagine, for NF to offer a onetime only single dvd increase to make right on an error they made with respect to your account. jmho though.

"This is a bit intresting as I am highly thinking about switching over to Blockbuster.
It's also a bit ironic (or good luck?) because I figured I better check out this site first."

so you could get a shilled opinion of an :"analyst who is actually a shareholder in Netflix? and who has been wrong in every prediction as well?

here is the note on the author!:
"Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a Netflix shareholder and plans to stay that way. He has been a subscriber and investor since 2002."

Duh!

Mike K, why don't you note with these endless stories from Fool.com that these are people who are shareholders and fool is not a normal investment publivcation which would never allow such "analysts"!

Thanks murphyslaw. You hit the nail on the head. These Motley Fool investors made bold prediction that Blockbuster would be bankrupt in 5 years. Not only are they Netflix stockholders (who would benefit from all the negative press given to their number one competitor) but they continue to write damning articles on Blockbuster since the truth is they are finally coming around and putting a dent in Netflix market share.

If you don't believe me go to Yahoo news and see all the articles about blockbuster. 80% are from Motley Fool analysts who dog the stock with the hope of idiot investors who do anything they are told following suit.

I'm a long time NetFlix customer who has been trying BB since the first of the year. My take so far is that BB takes significantly longer to turn around rentals than NetFlix. Both BB and NetFlix ship 99% of my rentals from Santa Anna CA.

And with BB, you have no idea where in your available titles queue the next rental will be selected, while with NetFlix, the selection is usually always the next one in order.

Also the NetFlix interface is way better than BB. And about 25% of the BB e-mails for verifing a send or a return are missing.

"i think often BB throttling is actuall just crappy customer service as opposed to blatant throttling."

You could be right. But they've been sitting on my queue for 3 days now with several available titles that they refuse to send from any where. When they finally do send them, they will probably be from 3+ days away. Either they're poorly staffed or they're throttling customers shamelessly. Unlike NF, they don't tell you when the next movie will ship. They say within 24 hrs, but they exceeed that regularly.