“In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service,”

Over the last few weeks there has been an on going argument in the media and most assuredly with customers of Netflix over the seemingly obvious use of a discriminating allocation of company resources towards it’s users. I and many other people have noticed and commented on this since around October of last year, noticing that the speed of shipping had taken a considerable delay on the Netflix side of the postal system (the delay of emails stating arrival of a DVD and emails stating the shipment of a replacement). This fact has been covered by many others not least of which CNN. The part that kind of gets a glossing over is the once debated and now fact use of throttling of high demand DVD’s. Where once before you would set a list of over 30 DVD’s (a policy that Netflix encourages in writing all over their site) and get them largely in order one at a time now has become a race for the bottom of that list where if you are flagged you can wait indefinitely at the end of the pack.Since October I and many others have had a complete lock on top choice films if they are in High Demand. Not a slowing down or a throttling but a slam on the brakes lock. I have waited almost 2 months without change in status for such films as The Brothers Grimm, Flightplan, The Wedding Crashers & The Island. As you can notice the term High Demand is basically a side term for New Release.
Netflix was actively dodging the question till January when they faced a lawsuit and updated their “Terms of Use” statement to reflect the old/new policy.The point I think that is largely missing from the debate on who owes who and what is legal vs what is optional service is the often talked about Heavy Renters subgroup. I fall into this group in the eyes of Netflix, hence the lockdown of most any high demand/New Release film (basically been watching BBC Documentaries for 2 months now) but I do not actively rotate films. I am not your “get and burn” crowd or the heavy free time individual. I move 2 DVD’s a week in a 3-DVD plan. This is not high usage and that is the key component that many media sites love to gloss over. In fact many like CNN report on the story and treat their story profile individuals with a strong tongue in cheek style. Their article even starts with Manuel Villanueva realizes he has been getting a pretty good deal since he signed up for Netflix Inc.’s online DVD rental service 2-1/2 years ago, but he still feels shortchanged. Its the age old tale of “this isnt right but they were asking for it” where the newspaper gets to comment but be sly and noncommittal.

• Do I believe Netflix has a right to be discriminating to its customer base? Yes.
• Do I believe Netflix will lose customers over this? Yes
• Is Netflix doing this only to quarantine “High Use Customers”? No.

This is in my observed opinion the response to Netflix growing to fast for its bottom line and pruning off the less profitable. You have to remember that for every DVD that Netflix buys it has to liquidate the asset into cash somehow after demand cools down. That is why it implemented a DVD resale wing to the site and why the New Release segment is under such strain and supply is lagging largely after demand. The ideal customer to Netflix seems to be someone that either holds onto a DVD for weeks on end or is satisfied never to see a first run DVD and likes to watch the works of Kenny Rogers & Chuck Norris only. If you do not fall into these two mocking categories you need not apply.To verify to myself just how much of a lockdown they have set upon a large segment of their customers (and statistically the grass roots members from day 1) I wanted to see how long it would take to get a movie I was told was on a Very Long Wait if in Netflix’s eyes I was a new customer without a flagged account. I chose a New Release film that just came out but was not in their Top 100 listing. I chose Waiting with Ryan Reynolds & Anna Faris. It lost money in theaters and isn’t moving much in DVD sales. After having it on my main wait list for a week without a update. I registered a new account and placed it as the first choice, the email arrived in little over a hour stating it had shipped. This is not in response to a few bad apples and any statement resembling that idea is not the full truth.Examples can be seen here of the