Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Declining NetFlix Service


(I'm not talking about their intentionally slow service for people whom they deem to be returning movies too quickly. I'm also not speaking of their seemingly chronic problem with ordering too few copies of newly released films to reasonably satisfy customer demand.)

Over the past two months my experience with NetFlix has involved repeated problems with movies being lost (and ultimately found) in the mail. They made an unexplained mistake in shipping one of the movies on my queue which, as a result, shows a "Shipped" date of "3/06/06" and a "Est. Arrival" date of "3/28/06" - twenty-two days! I have had two other movies "lost" in shipment to me, one due to an envelope coming apart in the mail (I received the portion of the envelope with my address on it - the part you tear off and discard before returning the movie) and another that simply didn't arrive (but was later found by NetFlix).

The processing time for returns is often much longer than it used to be, and now often seems to be three or four business days, and I don't believe that the USPS is responsible. It also seems to be more common for them to mail the new movie one or two business days after their receipt of a return.

I will grant that this could just be bad luck - a statistical anomaly which is unfortunately affecting my account. Are other Netflix subscribers having a better experience?

3 comments:

  1. I haven't encountered the problems w/ lost dvds, but have noticed a longer turn around time. I read a while back that if you return dvds quickly, Netflix slows down the turnaround time for your account in order to increase their profits. If I recall correctly, there might even be a lawsuit pending on that issue?

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  2. There is, and a settlement (eventually). I don't think Judge Mellon would take it well if I ask him about it though :)

    It's probably some glitch at their processing center.

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  3. Isn't it amazing how those glitches always seem to operate in a manner that increases the company's profit . . . : )

    CWD

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