long waits on Netflix

[John Picard]

PKerr wrote:

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First off let me say I absolutely love Netflix, for the $8.99 I pay per month I think it’s one of the best values around.

That said there are some things I don’t like about it.

1. I wish they had a streaming only package for like $5.99 - $6.99 a month.
This may sound strange but I find it kind of a hassle to go the mail route as I always feel like I have to get the most for my money and in doing so I feel like I have to get my 2 movies a week so I HAVE TO sit down and watch my Wednesday movie and have it back in the mail by Thursday so I get my Saturday movie.
I don’t really have enough disk wise I really want to see so I feel like I’m just watching SOMETHING so I get my money’s worth, does that make sense?

2. I wish they would offer a better variety of movies on the streaming service.
Sure they have a ton of movies but a lot of them are just crap “B” or indie movies.
I realize what is good to me might suck for you and vice versa but if a movie rates a 1 by your user base, why waste online/HD space with that crappy movie?
Make room for better movies.

3. I think their Webpage is kind of hard to navigate for newer movies.
For instance, you click on the new releases tab and the first thing you see is a movie that was released 2-3 months ago
The first movie on my list is “The informant!” release date February 23rd 2010 next is “District 9” release date 2010. WTF?!?
Where are all the movies released in the last few weeks? Oh wait, you have to look them up by name…. *Sigh*

Have you gone through your profile and set your preferences for the types of movies you like to view? That may have something to do with how Netflix is setting your delivery schedule.

[bigdaddy]

RoJoHen wrote:

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I have a feeling a lot of those internet-less Americans are super old.

Yes because 40% of the country is super old.

It has to do with the fact that 25% of American live in poverty and many live in the middle of nowhere.

[Nerys Myk]

I got my copy of Where the Wild Things Are today. I hope that wasn't in your que Termis.

[bigdaddy]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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I got my copy of Where the Wild Things Are today. I hope that wasn't in your que Termis.

It was in mine!!!

[Temis the Vorta]

VICTORY!

Inglourious Basterds has been shipped.

So now we know how to game the system: start a new profile and put all the "long wait" videos in that queue. Netflix has to ship something, since they think you're a different person than your original profile, you know, that bad person who they don't make any money off of because you send the videos back too fast, the new profile won't be throttled.

I'm sure profile #2 will soon get a bad rap as well...but that's okay because oddly enough, my cats have now expressed interest in renting Netflix videos. I guess they'll soon need their own profiles as well.

Kudos to Starbreaker for the suggestion. So much for Netflix's dumbass "business model."

Is the slowdown that some of you are reporting due to being on a higher number of discs at a time, watching everything you get in a day, or a combination? How long were you on Netflix before they started it?

My little experiment has verified my suspicions that the true reason behind not being able to get high demand DVDs for months is that Netflix places a priority on sending out DVDs to people when there's nothing else available in their queue. The way to force the DVD to be sent it to place nothing but wait-listed DVDs in your queue. And since the new profile (who they assume is a new person) doesn't have the bad rap of being a power user, they don't get throttled.

People who do have available titles in their queue don't get as high priority and will end up waiting forever for anything. The best approach is to have a profile where you list everything you want to see and assign zero DVDs to that profile. Move wait-listed titles to your active profiles that have DVDs assigned to them.

And I haven't been returning DVDs any faster than usual lately. If anything, I've slowed down. I've had my account since 2004. It's been a problem for a long time but lately it's gotten worse.

I got my copy of Where the Wild Things Are today. I hope that wasn't in your que Termis.

No it wasn't, Nermys Muck. But that sounds like a movie my cats would just love, doesn't it?

[David cgc]

Did you ever actually try bumping "Basterds" or "Hurt Locker" down a few places and letting them rise back up to number one naturally, instead of just planting them there from day one?

[Temis the Vorta]

David cgc wrote:

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Did you ever actually try bumping "Basterds" or "Hurt Locker" down a few places and letting them rise back up to number one naturally, instead of just planting them there from day one?

I've tried various things but not that. I don't think it would make a diff, but what the hey, I'm in an experimenting mood.

The Princess and the Frog is at "very long wait" (not that I care; I'm kinda iffy whether I should just axe it off my list completely). It's at #8 now, and I'll leave it to rise naturally. See what happens.

[bigdaddy]

My top several movies are "Long waits" and I doubt I'll see any of them anytime soon.

[RoJoHen]

bigdaddy wrote:

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Yes because 40% of the country is super old.

It has to do with the fact that 25% of American live in poverty and many live in the middle of nowhere.

I'm not debating that, but there are still plenty of super old people who refuse to get computers, let alone the internet. I encounter them all the time. Nowhere did I say that all of the 40% were super old, just that a bunch of them probably are.

[Gary Mitchell]

PKerr wrote:

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3. I think their Webpage is kind of hard to navigate for newer movies.
For instance, you click on the new releases tab and the first thing you see is a movie that was released 2-3 months ago
The first movie on my list is “The informant!” release date February 23rd 2010 next is “District 9” release date 2010. WTF?!?
Where are all the movies released in the last few weeks? Oh wait, you have to look them up by name…. *Sigh*

Try this link. It lists the new releases for the week. They change for the next week sometime Saturday night or Sunday:
http://www.netflix.com/AllNewReleases

[RoJoHen]

If there's one thing I don't like about Netflix, it's that I can't categorize my Instant Queue. So when I want to watch something on my PS3, I have to scroll back and forth on the menu until I find it. "Queue" really doesn't even make sense for the Instant stuff, since you can watch any of it whenever you want.

[Crusher Disciple]

Scout101 wrote:

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Temis, in one of the Blockbuster Sucks threads, weren't you one of the ones championing Netflix in this regard? They had just signed a deal basically agreeing not to carry new releases from one of the companies (forget which one) for a month after release, and everyone said this wasn't a big deal. You now want new releases quickly? Believe i was told in that one that Netflix customers didn't care about new movies, and ones that did could just use RedBox...

Okay, that just answered my question. I came in here to gripe about the fact that The Blind Side wasn't available on Netflix till April (), yet I got it at Best Buy on Tuesday.

Don't judge- somebody has to help Sandy pay her divorce lawyer and I help out my neighbors.

[RoJoHen]

Netflix and Redbox should join forces.

[Nerys Myk]

RoJoHen wrote:

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Netflix and Redbox should join forces.

And dare I say it...RULE THE WORLD!!!!!!

[Hermiod]

Crusher Disciple wrote:

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Okay, that just answered my question. I came in here to gripe about the fact that The Blind Side wasn't available on Netflix till April (), yet I got it at Best Buy on Tuesday.

Don't judge- somebody has to help Sandy pay her divorce lawyer and I help out my neighbors.

If you really cared about her you'd buy a copy of All About Steve too.