Netflix availability - total BS?
 

Twice now Netflix has jumped the first four items in my queue even thought three of them say they are available NOW. Is this normal in your experience? I think their availability predictor kinda sucks.

Re: Netflix availability - total BS?
 

It's happened more and more to me lately. Most recently, when Star Trek Voyager Season 1 Disc 1 on the release date. They skipped right over it and send me some other freaking movie. :mad:

I've been getting very annoyed with them. When they opened up a wherehouse here in AZ, the ship time was 1 day. Over the past month, it's been consistently 2-3 days. This leads me to believe everything is coming from California now. :mad:

It may be coming from the one in AZ...I live approx. 4 miles away from one of their warehouses in So. Cal and it takes 2 days for them to arrive after shipping sometimes.

Wonder if it's your distribution center or ordering slim stocked titles? I've been with Netflix for 5 months in Atlanta and I've only had one title skipped over (counting a ton of brand new releases).

I used to hear this complaint a lot from other users, but now its finally happening to me. Several times in the last month a title I've had in the number one position on my cue listed as "available NOW" has been passed over for perhaps the fourth available title. Some suggest its part of a software program that "punishes" you for renting and returning too frequently.

But see, here's the deal. Ever since it opened up in AZ last year, I always got a 1 day turnaround. So either Netflix is lying about when they send them out to me, and they are coming from AZ a day later, or they are coming from Cali.

Another thing. New releases are never available. School of Rock and The Rundown have been in my queue for ever and they always showed long wait. -rolleyes-

I always get new releases as long as I have a movie that is returned Monday morning. If I don't make it, there is a long wait since everyone else is watching it(I am sure some people hold onto the new release until the weekend to watch so this would add to the wait). I don't think there is a big conspiracy.

I'm the one who origanilly posted the that Netflix DOES penalize the heavy user vs. new customers and lite users. They do indeed penlize heavy users and they do make newer titles available to newer and lite users before those of older and heavier users. I had a link in a previous post that went to some guys website that had the results prooving the theory. I can't remember what the link was, but do a search of the forum and it should give you where I posted the link.

Well I ended up going to look for it myself. Here ya go:

http://dvd-rent-test.dreamhost.com

I'd agree with it if I wasn't a heavy user. I get 8 out at a time and have them back in the mail the same day I get them yet I never have a problem getting new releases as long as the movie is in my number one spot and a movie gets checked in monday morning.

Going by that website, I should have a few very long waits but I don't.

Nice way of admitting you are stealing by copying/burning or whatever. Thats just ridicoulous.

Yeah, that looks a little obvious!

Why? It's not like all 8 show up on the same day. They usually start showing up Wednesday and stop Friday, occasionally going into Saturday.

It's rare that I get 4 in one day but I watch 4 movies a day already so it's not a problem to get them done.

My Netflix location recently changed from Houston to Coppell Texas. Being in Tulsa and seeing as how Coppell is closer than Houston I assumed I'd have a quicker turnaround. Nope. It's now averaging 4-6 days turnaround as opposed to 2-3 before.

And I've started noticing the availability problem too. When I first joined it was fine, but now that I've rented several hundred titles they've started skipping movies at the top of my queue.

-Jason

Huh? I do the same thing and I don't burn copies of them. Most people watch a movie or two every night, so it's very easy to get through what Netflix sends you. You don't get all 8 on the same day.

If I'm super busy and don't have a chance to watch something, I might copy it onto my ReplayTV (assuming that it isn't something where I'd want 5.1 sound, etc.) and watch it later. And then erase it. How is that a problem?

I don't see anything 'ridicoulous' about that at all.

I don't get why people should be terribly upset about getting the #4 title on the queue instead of the #1 title. I mean, you want them both, don't you?

It's sort of like showing up for a movie you really wanted to see and finding it sold out. The movie you see instead might be quite nice, but its just not what you had planned. Also, when they pass over a movie you really wanted to get that week, and its listed as "Available Now", I really aggravating not to get that particular title. There's a practical reason also: Certain titles are harder to get than others, and if they pass it over on some software "whim", you may not get another shot at it for a few weeks (or you'll have break down and pay the extra buck to get it from Blockbuster and their ilk.

This is one of the reasons I quit using Netflix. It happened to me where I had the first and second disc of a two discset to ship in order and they shipped me the second disc after skipping over the first. Tell me what good is receiving the second part of a mvie before seeing the first.

In cases of a multi disc set, I just rent the first one and after i get it I put the next disc as number 1, and do it that way with each disc after that.

Then I never have to worry about getting #3 when I haven't seen 1 or 2 yet.

Yeah but then you can't watch the whole movie in one sitting.

then keep what you have till you get the first

I just had a film enter shipping status and it was the last film on my list, out of 50 in the queue! All of them were listed as available Now. If the system is database controlled you'd think it would automatically select the next available disc starting at the top. I can understand skipping a few, but jumping to the bottom? Why have a numbered queue then if the order is going to be so out of whack?

I've been having this problem recently also.

Mostly with the Babylon 5 discs. I had the first disc of season 2 #1 in my queue and it skipped over it for a week before finnaly shipping it and it was listed as available now.

Just today Disc 5 was listed as now and I had it #1 in my queue and it sent me the 2nd and 3rd dvd's listed.

I guess I've been lucky - I occasionally get a #2, but it usually is fine.

I tried Nicheflix for a few months, but canceled because I only had a few titles I really wanted to see. But, they have a pretty cool feature: you can group things together in your queue. For example, group together B5. If you have all 7 discs in your queue and grouped, it will only send you the first disc in that grouping. If it's not available, it skips the grouping altogether and moves on to the next available movie or grouping. It's the perfect way to ensure you only get the next disc in a set without having to see disc 6 before discs 1-5. Too bad Netflix couldn't start this idea.

Guess my luck is running out. After 9 months of almost every single new title being sent out immediately I am starting to run into a ton of "short wait" listings. Hope it really is only ebb & flow.

I've been with Netflix for about four months now, and haven't seen this problem yet. It does take 2-3 days to get the movies though, and that is frustrating. Even if I watch a movie the day I get it, and send it back the next day, I'm still looking at a one-week turnaround, at least.

But it's still cheaper than BB.

Netflix has been great for me lately. If I mail a disk on mon., I have a new release back at my home on wed. Got two yesterday.

Sounds like a good idea. I wish Netflix would do that.

I also wish they would let families have more than one queue. I would get a 5 or 8 disc membership if they would let me have three queues. As it is now, it's too hard to keep track of whose movies are at the top of the list. It would be so much easier if when they got a kid movie returned, they sent the next kid movie. It would be a handy feature for families with different age movie watchers, but even individuals could make more than one queue if they didn't want to have too much of one genre at a time.

I sent Netflix an email about this last summer but no response. Am I crazy? Maybe everyone else has an easy time with this, but I've had things skipped in my queue so that instead of getting my son's movie, I'd get an R rated one-- giving me three movies and him none.

tasha

Mine is completely opposite.

Things that show 'Long Wait' ship out to me anyway. Da Ali G Show disc 1 is the latest example. As were Mean Streets and After Hours...they were sent to me as well.

blockbuster is even worse just recently twice in a row its skipped over my first choices. the first time it skipped four.(the top two were still available). the second time they must have skipped my whole list because i didnt even think i had the title on my q.

not that netflix isnt bad either theyve received one of my titles today(friday) but they wont ship the next one until tuesday.

I was elated when Netflix opened up a distribution center in Columbia, where I live and work. They've been really good, as far as receiving and shipping until recently. I would drop the movie in the box on a Monday, they would receive by 8:30 the next morning, and I would have another movie by Wednesday. I was dropping the movies either into the Main Post Office, where their P.O. Box is ACTUALLY LOCATED, or up the street, at a stand alone box, about 1/4 mile from the post office. This box has a 10:30 pickup, so I thought I would be fine. Well, Wednesday I dropped it into this box, and has of 9:30 this morning, they still have not received it! It looks as though I'm being penalized by being a heavy user. I have also noticed that I'm receiving the movies on the day I'm supposed to (ie: two days) rather than a day earlier prior to them opening up the Columbia branch. That's cool, though, because I'm just thinking that the movie did not come out of Columbia. What is my next option? Hand-delivering it? Putting a confirmation green card on it with a tracking number to let me know when they received it? I let it slide quite often when it had to go to Duluth/Atlanta, it taking six days, but it should not take two days to go 1/4 mile, if it's even that far. I am going to contact them about this. I sent another off yesterday, so I'm interested to find out if this will be a continuing trend. I guess the bottom line is, if I'm unhappy, I can cancel it. Nobody is holding a gun to my head.

Just saw that the movie I sent back yesterday was received this morning. So, the movie I sent back on Wednesday has still not arrived. Glad I reported it lost, I guess.