Netflix “Watch Instantly” Takes An Eternity.
What swell folks at Netflix!
Out of the goodness of their little hearts — and perhaps to stave off competitor services like those from iTunes — some months ago they started offering subscribers “free” movie video streaming that they call “Watch Instantly.”
For the first few months, it was a neat little service. Didn’t have time to wait for another movie to arrive in the mail? You were too tired to do anything else and decided at the last minute to watch a movie?
Sure, the selections weren’t always the most current, but the library was deep enough to keep even a movie buff like me at my computer screen.
Overwhelmed by their own success, Netflix’s servers are now overwhelmed. “Watch Instantly” used to mean “instantly,” i.e. the server checked your video connection and the movie started. Simple!
Not anymore. I’ve been keeping count. During the past three weeks I have tried to start a movie 178 times — often the same movie to see if I could get it to start streaming. ONLY ONCE in 178 tries did the movie start streaming the first time a tapped on that little blue “play” button. Wait times have ranged from four hours up to 6 days. In the screen capture above, it says I will have to wait 48 minutes before my selected movie starts to play. By then, I will have slashed my wrists, made obscene phone calls to former girlfriends, and probably write this blog.
And it’s gotten worse. Customers used to be able to reset that play button until they caught the Netflix server at the right moment and the movie started. It was a little like playing the lottery. Sometimes you won, usually you lost. But now Netflix has caught on to this little game and changed the rules. Try to reload the movie and you will get an error message that says you have two movies running, which is against Netflix policies. The only way out of this dead end is to close all your browsers and start over.
Keep in mind that a few weeks ago I went through an entire series of diagnostic routines with my PC and with my cable provider that proved beyond a doubt that my Internet connection was indeed fast enough — I run a top-of-the-line system here! The problem is clearly at the Netflix end.
Netflix used to be fun. When I slashed by cable TV connection, Netflix gave me access to great movies at a reasonable price. Now they are one of the scourges of my little world. Like one of Skinner’s rats, each time a movie fails to start, that’s one more shock to my furry head saying, “Don’t bother!” And I am beginning to think I won’t.
Netflix 1, Customers 0.
Is Netflix Rationing Online Movie Viewing?
Some of us remember that just a few years ago many Netflix customers were totally pissed off when they learned that Netflix’s policy of “unlimited DVDs” per month was a scam. In theory, if you were signed up for two movies at a time, as soon as you returned one movies, they were supposed to ship the next one on your list right away.
They didn’t.
In fact, consumers learned that Netflix shipped DVDs faster to customers who rented fewer movies than to their “best” customers who signed up for the most.
Hell hath no fury like a movie junkie scorned.
That’s what Netflix discovered when their most devoted “heavy users” found that the movie rental service had an undisclosed policy of shipping films faster to those customers who rent the least.
In a class-action lawsuit filed against the nation’s largest online DVD rental company in September 2004, the company was accused of false advertising for its claims of “unlimited rentals” and “one-day deliveries.”
When it agreed to a settlement due to be finalized this month, Netflix denied any wrongdoing, but conceded it has a policy that allocates movies more quickly during shortages to those who rent less frequently.
That was a report from Cantonrep.com from back in 2004.
Four years later Netflix appears to be scamming consumers again, this time with their “Watch Instantly” product, which is supposed to allow customers unlimited video streaming. The service was launched earlier this year, in part as a preemptive strike against iTunes, which offers online video rentals.
According to the New York Times, these are supposed to be two different markets — the online rental market of current releases (iTunes), and the free online streaming of less current movies (Netflix). With all due respect to the Gray Lady, there is some market overlap among consumers in that often the decision to watch a movie online is based on convenience — “I want entertaintainment for a few hours, and I want it now!” — and it doesn’t matter if the meal is four star or something close, as long as it is filling. (Anyone who has barged in the Golden Arches at 11 pm for a Big Mac understands the analogy.)
The benefit sought for both products is immediate gratification, not a gourmet dinner. But that is precisely where Netflix is no longer living up to its end of the deal.
A neighbor of mine has complained about incredibly long wait times for Netflix video streaming to begin. Basically, Netflix is telling my neighbor, who has one of the fastest PCs on the planet as well as the fastest cable service available, that his connections are “too slow to show the movie.” Sometimes the messages are so ridiculous — “your movie will start in 10 hours” — that is it clear this is not a local problem but another Netflix attempt to control customer behavior.
My neighbor and I contacted the local cable provider just in case. Everything was fine on their end. We reset the modem. We bypassed the router. We did some trace routes and found nothing on this end to delay the movies.
One of two things was obviously happening –
1) As it did four years ago by delaying delivery of physical DVDs to its high usage customers, Netflix is again rationing its services to customers who use the “Watch Instantly” service too frequently.
2) Netflix is unprepared to deliver the services it promises, either with overloaded servers or other internal resources that can’t keep up with demand.
In either case, consumers are paying for services they aren’t getting. One approach we tried and found successful at times was the old “don’t take no for an answer” strategy. As soon as Netflix told us we had to wait three hours or four hours or whatever, we tried reconnecting to the movie. Sometimes it took us up to 10 attempts before we were connected and the movie started streaming. But at least something was working.
If you plan to sign up with Netflix primarily for the instant streaming, beware. You might not get all that Netflix promises you. Even if your main interest is getting movies through the mail and you plan to infrequently use the online streaming, it may be even less frequent than you think.
