In the last month or so we’ve noticed that our service from Netflix has slowed down considerably. While they used to mail us movies the same day they received them, now they wait one or two days before mailing them. My brother, also a subscriber, was so enraged by this slowdown and the inability to communicate with customer service that he canceled and join Blockbusters instead. I was reserving judgement until I decided to do a small survey on a popular bulletin board – the majority of those who responded had noticed a slow down as well. One poster said she asked customer service about it and they’d said they’d had such an increase in business that it was taking them time to adjust. Maybe, or maybe they did it on purpose. Is it a coincidence that the slowdown followed the reduction of pricing to which they were forced by competitive pressures?
A January posting at the Digital Lifestyles blog provides an answer. According to research firm SG Cowen & Co, which has been carrying out a survey of DVD postal rental services in four US markets, Netflix has reduced its service by buying less new releases and shipping less movies. This saves them money at the price of users like us.
A quick search online shows that this deterioration of service has been noticed by many users, and it’s even been covered by the local news. Apparently, it is Netflix’s policy to slow down shipments to heavy users, hoping they’ll be driven away, no doubt. But the slowdown seems to hit more than heavy users, however.
In any case, we’re considering canceling. Does anyone know of any alternatives?
BTW, their secret customer service numbers seem to be 800-279-5688 or 888-638-3549