Long waits for some Netflix Blu-ray customers
A screenshot of Josh Lowensohn's Netflix queue featuring plenty of "long waits."
If you're a Netflix customer who's paying an extra $1 a month to rent movies on Blu-ray, you might have noticed that the discs aren't being delivered as quickly as DVDs.
Josh Lowensohn, one of my colleagues here at CNET News, was complaining that he's had Futurama: Bender's Game, in his queue for over a month. The flick Wall-E has been in the queue since November 18. Why is it taking so long for Netflix to ship?
I called Steve Swasey, Netflix's very accessible spokesman, and he said the Web video store simply doesn't have enough Blu-ray discs to go around, especially when it comes to hot new releases.
Hollywood just isn't providing enough Blu-ray copies of newly released films as the company would like to get, according to Swasey. That's the first bottleneck. But the spokesman said the problem isn't all the fault of the studios. Once larger numbers of Blu-ray discs for a film are available, the company won't necessarily buy them.
"There is an expense to that," Swasey said. "These things cost money. We deploy money where we think it's going to be most efficient to keep subscribers and investors happy. It's always check and balances."
Here's the final problem that affects frequent users of Netflix and this won't come as a surprise. If a movie is hot and the company doesn't have enough to go around, the film is going to the user that rents fewer new releases, according to Swasey.
"What we're doing is giving new releases to the person who hasn't rented as much," he said. "We've been doing this for a couple of years and fully disclose this in our terms of agreement. If we have a shortage of titles we do what we think is equitable and give the title to the person who hasn't rented as much or who hasn't gotten as much enjoyment from the service."
Lowensohn is among the unlucky Netflix users who rents a lot of new releases. He says he rents about 20 movies a month. When I tell him what Swasey's response is, he is less than satisfied.
"Sucks," Lowensohn said. "Why are they charging me more? I'm paying but I'm not receiving the movies I want."
Swasey said Netflix is bullish on Blu-ray, but right now only a small percentage of customers are asking for the discs. So far, Netflix's Blu-ray service has about 500,000 subscribers. Netflix's traditional DVD business has 8.7 million subscribers.
Swasey seemed to say that Blu-ray will get more of the company's resources when demand is greater. Sorry, Josh.
CNET'S Josh Lowensohn contributed to this story.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
I realize that from a cost perspective, Netflix is hard to beat. Personally I'd rather pay a bit more per month to be able to watch what I want when I want. And no, I don't work for either company, but am a big fan of choices.
Honestly, while I love the idea of 50 GB disc storage for myself, I'm not buying Blu-Ray at all. I'll wait for the format after it, thanks.
Sounds exaggerated to me. I like nice things, but like many people I am satisfied with DVD and thus can't imagine opting into the blu ray even when they do finally reach full profile in cheaper devices next year.
Sounds exaggerated to me. I like nice things, but like many people I am satisfied with DVD and thus can't imagine opting into the blu ray even when they do finally reach full profile in cheaper devices next year.
Your satisfied because you are watching movies and TV on an old grainy TV. GET an HD TV. Once you spend the money to get an HD TV you will not be satisfied with DVDs anymore.
You know, this is not necessarily the case. I entertain with a 47" Philips 1080p, and use a Pioneer DVD that does a pretty darn good job of upconverting (connected via HDMI, of course.)
So for Christmas the children got a copy of "Horton Hears A Who" and I have to say, that even up close, the color and picture is fantastic. It makes me wonder how much better the BR format must be to justify new equipment and the retirement of DVD media.
Right now, having such things is quite a luxury, and I don't think that now is the best time to focus my finances into a semi-mildly accepted format.
I'm sure that in time, its something I may adopt. However, right now, that $75 Pioneer DVD box is doing a fine job of holding us over until times allow for such delicacies.
Actually Netflix got sued by a guy in the LA area and had to pay big bucks to keep it under wraps.
I cancelled my Netflix membership after I got tired of waiting for DVD's to show up in my mailbox and I could never get the "equitable" viewing experience argument - since I pay the same amount of money irrespective of how long it takes to get the DVD's.
Blockbuster is the answer to this problem - I could never understand why folks would even consider Netflix when you can get a top of the line dual channel experience at Blockbuster ( Online + instore) - I dont work for BB - but still I cannot fault their service or the model.
Why would anyone in their right minds even think of Netflix - they are a bunch of scammers
Also, the fact that a driver's license, college ID, debit card with a photo, AND a cell phone bill STILL wasn't enough to meet their minimum 2 forms of valid ID for new accounts made me rather unhappy with them. It took me three attempts and a complaint to their manager to finally have them reluctantly give me an account (this was a few years ago, before they started their online service, so I don?t know what it's like now.) All in all, at the time I just found Netfilx to be better. Yeah, it is a pain to have to wait at times, but also, I do get new releases right away on a frequent basis, so it?s not too big of a deal given that i always have other movies on my queue. Also, I really enjoy Netflix's streaming service.
Blockbuster is much better at getting movies out and supporting ALL customers.
I just turned off the blu-ray option since there weren't many in my queue. Once I have enough for a month or so I'll turn it back on.
I just make sure I am diligent in returning the movies by Monday morning at the latest to ensure the next batch of blu-rays in my cue ship out that day for Tuesday release.
For me, if I mail out today, Netflix gets it tomorrow, ships it out, and I get it the 2nd day. Almost all new releases are out on Tuesday, so I mail on Friday or Saturday, Netflix receives on Monday, and sends out the new release for its "Tuesday release". I am sure this will work for the BluRay discs as well. Admittedly, I don't get many new releases because I don't care if I am first in line for them, but that is my choice.
Also have never had a problem with billing, shipping, receiving, or had a problem with the wording of their "movie the next day" people were suing about (get a life, nothing is in an instant). Any broken discs have alway been taken care of, whether I wanted a replacement or not. I have even reveived damaged envelopes in USPS damaged mail envelopes, not a problem.
Netflix had provided my family of 5 with thousands of hours of entertainment for only ~$20 a month, which is much better than $50-60+ to go to a movie.
No, I am not a Netflix employee, we just love their service.
Ironically, I added THE DARK KNIGHT Blu-ray to my queue just a few days before it streeted and it showed up in my mailbox on street date! I have other Hollywood titles that have been in my queue for months before their release and they're still not here! So something is seriously backwards there. (Guessing maybe they bought too many DARK KNIGHT copies, underestimating how many fanboys would go out and buy it instead?)
Netflix is still a great value, but I've given serious thought to ditching my account in recent months...
When the article says that they give movies to people who rent less, that totally explains what I was seeing.
When I first became a Netfix customer, the service was great and my movies always shipped and got to me the next day. After a while, it was like they didn't care anymore. They already had me as a customer. They started skipping days to ship movies, even though they were available and at the top of my list. And movies took longer in the mail to get to me also, like they no longer shipped from a local facility.
Paying $1 extra a month for the BDs is dumb. No it isn't a lot of money, but why are they charging more? Especially if they aren't even using that extra money to buy enough BDs to satisfy demand.
Blockbuster isn't the way to go for everyone, but if you have a Blockbuster store near you that carries BDs, it is a much better way to go than Netflix.
I never have to wait more than a couple of days for a new release because I have two different ways to get them. In store or through the mail. You also get to watch many more movies in a months time with in-store trade-ins than you would with just relying on Netflix through the mail.
Netflix on-demand is the only thing that makes me get the urge to come back every now and again, but I can live without that much easier than I can my Blu-rays.
The whole key to getting new releases is to return your movie so it gets to NetFlix on the Monday before a new release comes out. When they process your returned movie on Monday, they will almost always replace it with a new release. That has been the only sure fire way for me to get a new release, otherwise its weeks to months of waiting - for DVD too.
I refuse to rent blu-rays from NetFlix even though I have a blu-ray player. 1) I refuse to pay a premium to rent blu-rays. Its a garbage fee. 2) the one time i did - pre-fee - the movie kept skipping.
NetFlix needs to routinely clean the discs.
And I do object to paying a blu-ray "tax!"
Robert
There will always be complaints about any product or service. Free market competition remedies that wonderfully. But Netflix is the best deal out there right now. For the price, I'm very satisfied.
I too have been lucky in getting new releases the day the come out. But, when I miss something and don't get it added to my queue soon enough it takes months to get it.
They need to buy more copies and this means that they needed to continue to sell the copies they don't need after taking care of their customers. I bought a lot of used discs and I don't know why they would stop that. You can't tell me they are going to keep 30,000 copies of SinCity or 300 or Howard The Duck.
Robert
- by rgor December 16, 2008 3:50 PM PST
- I have been both a netflix and blockbuster subscriber (at one time or another). I take everything with a grain of salt. Netflix has a better collection of international movies, independent, etc. They are slightly cheaper however, BB gives you a level of convenience (drive to the store and just get what you want) for a little added cost. We stream netflix for those "dry" nights when we are between movies. Blueray will take some time to catch up. It will take a couple of years to get the format to the magic 150.00 price point as a common place. The truth is that Netflix is spinning it correctly. Expensive discs, short supply, and a smaller market makes this a tough sell. Besides all the best movies out there look great on dvd or blueray i.e I got to see Godfather recently on a regular tv (no hd gasp!) and it was just as thrilling. Watch it on dvd, if you like it alot then try it on blueray. There are a lot of "garbage" movies out there and putting the blueray label on them doesn't make them any less viewable.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (64 Comments)Wish they would more of an effort in making better movies NOT better looking movies.