Netflix Renters Not Getting Their DVDs

Netflix puts frequent renters at the back of the DVD rental line while lesser renters get DVDs immediately. Is this a fair way to keep profits up?

Should you be an avid watcher of movies, you may want to steer clear of Netflix. The company has started punishing their customers who rent frequently rather than rewarding them. Customer ManuelVillanueva uses Netflix a lot. He has been a customer for over 2 and a half years and uses Netflix’s $17.99 a month plan to rent 3 DVDs at a time. Normally he’d be happy with his service but Netflixis now giving him the shaft because he rents too frequently.

Villanueva normally only gets about 13 DVDs a month on average shipped to his home now when he used to get upwards of 22 a month usually. For a customer with Netflix’s highest plan, you’d expect morethan 13 DVDs a month being sent out. So what’s the problem? Netflix identified Villanueva as a “high rental” customer and actually started delaying his shipments of DVDs to ensure Netflix could stillmake a profit. Netflix has it set up so that if you’re a frequent renter, you’re actually going to get lesser treatment than infrequent renters. Netflix will ship out DVDs first to those renting lesseach month rather than customers with heavy rotations in movies.

The problem here lies in the claim that Netflix is offering “unlimited rentals”, which surely isn’t the case with Manuel Villanueva. Netflix is seriously going out of their way to delay rentals tokeep profits up. Each DVD that is being sent back and forth costs Netflix 78 cents a pop, so the less DVDs rented, the better the profit. Still, after all is said and done, a customer should begetting his DVDs if he’s paying for them. There are currently no plans to change their rental policy.