pleasant surprise from Netflix

[cellio]

After returning a DVD, on Friday I was a little surprised to see that Netflix was sending me the second item on my queue even though the first was marked as being available. But shrug; Netflix never promised a strict queue and that's fine. So long as they send the discs in multi-disc sets in order I have nothing to complain about (and this failure is unlikely given how I structure my queue).

Saturday I got email from them saying "you may have noticed that we did that" -- it was because while the disc is available, it wasn't available at my nearest distribution center. So while sending me #2 they were also going to send me #1 from farther away and I should expect it in a few days. This means I will have more DVDs out at a time than is supported by my subscription. It's a very small cost to them to provide this, but many companies wouldn't so it makes a good impression that they did.

In a similar vein, when I downgraded my subscription after getting the Roku streaming device (don't need as many DVDs at a time when there's plenty to watch via streaming), I didn't expect them to replace the DVD that arrived at their distribution point a day before the downgrade was to take effect. They sent it anyway, so I had an extra DVD for some days past when I had paid for that privilege.

Tangent: Roku sent email Thursday saying I could now watch Social Network through them (for a rental fee from, IIRC, Amazon). I observe that the DVD will be available through Netflix on Tuesday. Is there really a market of people who (1) can't wait five more days but (2) didn't see it in the theatre, or (3) have Roku devices but (4) don't use Netflix so they can't get it that way? I'm puzzled by the business model.

Comments

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Roku sent email Thursday saying I could now watch Social Network through them (for a rental fee from, IIRC, Amazon). I observe that the DVD will be available through Netflix on Tuesday. Is there really a market of people who (1) can't wait five more days but (2) didn't see it in the theatre, or (3) have Roku devices but (4) don't use Netflix so they can't get it that way?

I don't think Roku knows what kind of Netflix subscription you have.

We have the "streaming only" Netflix option so we don't get any DVDs. (We used to, but we would keep DVDs for - literally - months before they'd get watched and sent back.)

We have recently watched some streaming movies via Amazon (we got some streaming credit when we bought some movies as holiday gifts), and its actually been cool to want to watch something and be able to see it right now, while, say, E is unexpectedly taking a nap. Kind of like living in the future.

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

(googles Roku) That looks really neat. How long have you had it? Are you happy with it? Do you also have cable? We have our internet, phone, cable all rolled into one bill, and view our Netflix on our Wii, but I might contemplate a Roku for another room in the house.

hmm....

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The founder of Netflix was inspired by not liking to pay late fees for videotapes-- he decided to found a company that didn't have an adversarial relationship with its customers.

Can he be convinced to go into insurance?

[cellio]

Oh right; I forgot that Netflix recently rolled out a streaming-only subscription. (There's still enough stuff that I want to see that's only on DVDs that it's worth it to me to have the "one DVD at a time" plan. It's a $2/month difference over the streaming plan.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Is there really a market of people who (1) can't wait five more days

Yes. People are silly that way. We can only pity them and thank them for paying outrageous amounts of money so we can see things later for a pittance.

[cellio]

I've had the Roku box for a bit over a year and am quite happy with it. At around $60 it pays for itself pretty quickly if you reduce your Netflix plan to one DVD (assuming you had more; I had two). The one thing I had to get used to is inherent to streaming, I think: on a DVD I can rewind or fast-forward and see it go by, but on a stream it's a jump. So, for instance, fast-forwarding through opening credits is imprecise, but there seem to be waypoints every 10 seconds or so, so it's not that much of a setback if I have to see 5 seconds of credits or something.

I have not had cable for a few years. I used to have a cheap basic cable -- $15/month or so to get local channels and a couple others, and (important) no converter box to (1) rent and (2) impede VCR programming. (I've since upgraded to a series-1 TiVo, but it was a VCR at the time. It's only for time-shifting, not for keeps.) That cable service wasn't going to be available in a DTV world; it would have cost me twice as much (or thereabouts) to have any cable, and I was already feeling that $15/month was high for the amount of TV I actually watched. So I bought an amplified antenna and learned that it was actually better than I was expecting, and good enough for my purposes, so I ditched cable entirely. I'm actually getting about the same network channels I was getting before (I never cared about the cable extras like a shopping channel anyway), and what I can't get that way I can get through Netflix with a bit of a delay. These days seasons of TV shows tend to come out on DVD a few months after the end of the season; that's generally good enough for me.

[cellio]

Heh. It would be nice, but I'm betting he's not that crazy. :-)

[cellio]

I just figured that anyone with a need that urgent would have had it a couple months ago when the film was in theatres. Not that I mind if their willingness to spend makes things better for the rest of us; I'm just boggled by it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

There are people who hate the theatre experience (I should know). However, that tends to cause one to be patient as well, so as you say, it is strange.