"Very Long Wait", "Long Wait" - The New Release New Norm

[Waba]

How many others are getting caught in Netflix's cost cutting measures and seeing new releases with "Very Long Wait" and "Long Wait" as their status? Outside of 'Speed Racer' and 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' I haven't received any popular (subject to interpretation). Currently I have:

'Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'
'Wanted'
'WALL-E'
'Kung Fu Panda'
'The Happening'
'Tropic Thunder'
'Hancock'

I have a friend I converted to a Netflix fan who has pushed his discs down to just one "for old movies" since he can't get new releases in a timely manner.

I called customer service about the issue and they said they suspect this is because they have closed their used disc store.

Netflix loses much of its appeal if you can't get the movies you want is a timely fashion. Should they not have enough copies to satisfy their customers within a month? ('Kung Fu Panda' & 'Tropic Thunder') Isn't two months too long? ('The Happening').

I've giving this until after the holidays before I found my friend - if I don't just suspend my account all together.

[ewd76]

You think that "with the way the economy is right now" Blockbuster or RedBox are a better use for $15? You might prefer them for your own reasons, but using the economy as an excuse doesn't make sense. There may be a better use for $15, but movie rentals probably aren't it.

[Jason]

You ARE being realistic, but you're NOT being reasonable.
How am i not being reasonable? I expect the same service I've been paying for. When that service declines, i would expect them to either fix it, lower their fees, or make it up to us in some other way.

But NOW you realize that redbox might be better for your new release hunger.
I don't want to use Red Box, even though i may consider it when i finally cancel my Netflix membership. Do you own stock in Red Box or something?

They are investing their money and new titles are being added to the streaming collection each week. If by BETTER you mean NEWER, then it won't happen until the studios change their distribution models.
Well, i mean better first and foremost, because there is a ton of garbage up there, but yes, i also mean newer. Maybe i have an unrealistic expectation here, but they are putting so much stock in streaming right now, I would think they'd make it better. Maybe they will, but right now i'm not impressed.

So, you are wanting them to get the same shows that are on hulu.com? I'd like them to get titles that aren't on hulu. That way I have access to more shows and movies.
Ok, this is probably not a good example i admit.

Then how does that explain the fact that some of us can watch movies uninterrupted in prime time evenings. I never get interruptions. I have a very fast conenction.
Dunno, maybe you have been lucky to not have this problem yet...good timing maybe? Other people are complaining about this problem recently so it is not just me.

I'm certain their supply has increased. I personally hope that they have decided to not chase the "new release" dragon and to focus on broader endeavors.
If they are, it's certainly not increasing enough to support their customer base. I disagree, and feel that most customers are primarily interested in new releases.

Yet since they are one of the big players in the new technology, they continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
Not arguing with you there...they just aren't able to support their increasing demand for whatever reason.

What do you mean they aren't backing it up with resources to support the increased demand? It works like a charm for most. Those with slower connections experience the most problems.
I mean they don't have enough discs in their warehouses and they don't enough bandwidth and/or servers. I think many people like myself have high speed connections that can handle the highest quality but we still experience problems.

I get blu-rays all the time
good for you, but most of us don't get the movies we want in what we think is a reasonable amount of time.

Who's being neglected?
the customers...come on, stay with me.

if they weren't providing a great service, no one would join.
this is a fairly recent downturn for their service, so i'd venture to say that if this does not improve, then their number of customers will plateau or begin to decline.

[ewd76]

You ARE being realistic, but you're NOT being reasonable.

Actually, I think it was just the opposite. Just like it is reasonable to want everyone in the world to have decent shelter and enough food to eat, but it is not a realistic.

[ColdOne]

I know that, but when demand increases then supply needs to. I think Netflix is falling behind and not keeping up with the amount of customers and their increased demand....

Netflix has been in this business for over 10 years, they have hundreds of employees with many years of experience, they have dozens of people analyzing and thinking about these issues all the time, and they have mountains of data on their own customers and general market data to draw their conclusions from.

In the face of that, what makes you think that your opinion is correct and that all these people are missing what you find so obvious?

[Jason]

I don't care how long they've been in business, or how many employees they have analyzing market data.

The fact of the matter is, they are not at this point in time providing enough supply for the current demand. Why is this concept so hard to grasp? It's very simple.

I'm simply trying to come up with reasonable explanations for this decline in service. I may be wrong about some or all of my points, but the there is no mistaking that there is a problem here.

[ColdOne]

There have always been waits for some releases, so this is nothing new. Perhaps by design or due to unforeseen events they have not met demand as quickly as in the past, or maybe it's just you (or some combination). Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

Are you at least willing to entertain the idea that maybe they know something you don't? Perhaps they have chosen to buy fewer new releases so they can avoid raising prices. Perhaps they've chosen to spend more of their capital on IW.

You always have the option of canceling your service if you're not happy with it. But even further, with your superior knowledge you can start your own competitive company (or invest in any number of others). Or even sell NFLX short if you think they are so poorly run.

But your ruminations on the business are unfounded and your speculations on Netflix business methods and rationale are wild and unreasoned. (Which doesn't mean they're not true.)

[Waba]

Sorry ColdOne, I've got to give this one to Jason. The point of the post is that not that there were no waits and now there are, rather that the number of waits and the length of the waits have recently increased.

If the increase in waits is 'by design' then NF is a Profiteer. If the increase in waits is due to increased costs on maintaining the same level of service (meaning that if they did maintain their same level of waits, their percentage cost would be higher) its merely economics. My post implies that because they closed their Used Disc Store this had a direct impact on the number waits occurring.

This was inevitable. Assuming everything is constant, as some point the Used Disc Store would have more inventory then the Used Disc Store's demand. Coupled with NF's marketing push for the online viewing catalog the waits were going up.

Since my post and reading the responses I understand this. This is a growth change for a company. The trick will be getting the old customers to stay on with the longer waits and gain new customers with the online viewing. The best suggestion I've seen is combining NF with Redbox. Should Redbox prove successful, expect NF to purchase them.

If NF loses too many subscribers, expect a 'Premium' level subscription - much like the Disney's Fast Pass. But this will be a sign the their online movies are not bringing in new customers.

An update on my original post, I finally received 'The Happening' (two weeks ago) and 'Hancock' (last week). But have since removed the other titles due to getting them from other sources.

With the exception of 'Wanted' - which is now going into its 8th week. Make no mistake, the waits are getting longer.

waba

[ColdOne]

Sorry ColdOne, I've got to give this one to Jason. The point of the post is that not that there were no waits and now there are, rather that the number of waits and the length of the waits have recently increased.

The truth is the truth and you really can't have an opinion on it. You can side with Jason, but he is demonstrably wrong.

Jason stated "The fact of the matter is, they are not at this point in time providing enough supply for the current demand. Why is this concept so hard to grasp? It's very simple.". I will repeat that Netflix has never, ever provided enough supply for all demand. For you or Jason to claim that this is a new phenomenon is absurd.

If the increase in waits is 'by design' then NF is a Profiteer.

Netflix is a for-profit business. Why should they not try to maximize their profits? In fact, almost all business ethics require that they, as a public company responsible to its shareholders, make every reasonable effort to do so. The term "profiteer" is egregiously misapplied here.

My post implies that because they closed their Used Disc Store this had a direct impact on the number waits occurring.

This was your assumption, but there is little to no data to support it.

This was inevitable. Assuming everything is constant, as some point the Used Disc Store would have more inventory then the Used Disc Store's demand.

This doesn't make any sense at all. Would you care to rethink or rephrase that?

Coupled with NF's marketing push for the online viewing catalog the waits were going up.

There is no definitive correlation between Netflix's IW efforts and waits for disc deliveries. Absolutely nothing is "constant" in this very complex equation.

This is a growth change for a company. The trick will be getting the old customers to stay on with the longer waits and gain new customers with the online viewing.

It's far more complex than that. Netflix has far more experience and data at their fingertips so any efforts we make to understand their business plans will be speculative, but we should at least try to keep things within the bounds of reason and plausibility.

The best suggestion I've seen is combining NF with Redbox. Should Redbox prove successful, expect NF to purchase them.

It's possible, but wildly speculative.

If NF loses too many subscribers, expect a 'Premium' level subscription - much like the Disney's Fast Pass.

Now that you know more about how Netflix allocates discs in high demand you should realize that they already do have a "Premium" service level. But what you describe is not anything like Disney's Fast Pass. The "Fast Pass" would be more like Netflix handing out one credit per month for expedited delivery of a high demand disc - something that has been suggested before and undoubtedly been considered (and so far rejected) by Netflix decision makers.

[HouPerson]

At this point, it looks like NetFlix is not able to keep up with their growth. We now have 62 movies in our queue, and 29 of those are on wait. So it looks like they all will be on "wait" by the first week of February.

Keep in mind some have been on wait for over 3 months now. Many of this BD "wait" titles are already on sale at Fry's for less that $10. We too are getting damaged, scratched disk more often, and that further delays the turn around - often by several days - sometimes a full week. The "so-called" unlimited 3 at a time plan is at best only "3 per week" IF they are not damaged. Maybe this next week will be better, we hope?

[Knaldskalle]

Add more movie to your queue. I have around 375 in my queue and I hardly ever experience a wait, even for new stuff, because I also watch old stuff in between. On the rare occasion I really want to watch a new release here and now, I seem to get them right away.

I don't have BD, so your waits may be a lot longer than mine, I know others have complained about this - and I think Netflix actually talked about the studios not making enough BD copies available for them to purchase, so that may be part of the explanation - ?

[Scott P]

I seem to be noticing more waits, but it may just be there are more new and recent releases I am interested in than I usually am. (Mirrors actually got bumped into "save" for a while.)

It's sometimes a little disappointing when something gets skipped, but I'm not too fussed about it. With nearly 500 films in my queue at any given time, there is always something to watch.

I'm not sure what closing the used disc store would have to do with waits. If anything, they'd have more copies to distribute, and they are older releases anyway.

They can buy a lot more copies of a disc, but it would probably drive prices up for all of us. I'd prefer to put up with a wait once in a while.

[Suzanne]

It's not just on new releases. My queue is filled with workout videos and in the last 3 weeks I've gone from 2 or 3 waits to over 70 on wait status. I thought, unless the obesity problem in America has suddenly been solved, something is wrong.

When I called they explained to me that Netflix is trying to now localize its distribution instead of sending DVD's from other distribution centers when one doesn't have it.

What this apparently means for me is that since I live in 19th FATTEST state in country, the supply of fitness DVD's here does not meet MY demand and I am just out of luck. No clue as to when I will get things on my queue because even the "short wait" has so far been well over 2 months. I've been a member of Netflix for years and have recommended them countless times. I'm not sure what prompted this new distribution method but so far it is VERY INEFFICIENT.