The big thing is that Netflix has been caught in the act of throttling back their high demand customers. As LW noted above, it's the same thing I had seen happen to my own account over time.
Netflix was caught in one study done by a group of people that used multiple accounts in multiple styles all delivering to the same area, from the same distribution points, etc., using their own internal points scoring system that determines who sees "LONG WAIT" or "VERY LONG WAIT" for movies. It was obvious through the testing that anyone that was a high demand customer, someone that always had their maximum amount of movies out at a time, and was constantly turning over or churning through their que, would see their que loaded up with various types of WAIT status for the films on their list.
The group that did the testing used a "new account" and found that the turnaround was fast and impressive. Of course it was, as Netflix in the first 10 day trial period makes a very impressive effort to wow customers and make them think that "unlimited" means unlimited. After that time period is up though, Netflix goes into their own point scoring system and uses it to help control their costs. If you take out more than approximately 3 movies per week in any week, you lose (or gain, whichever is worse) points. Too many, or too few points, you find that your selections magically start getting qued up for longer and longer wait times.
I don't necessarily even fault Netflix for using such a system, but they are very misleading in advertising unlimited rentals. They certainly have limits, and they use them, to try to keep themselves profitable and keep customers like myself from eating up their thin profits, or adding to their burgeoning costs by having too many discs going back and forth through the mail in a month.
Even though I was and remain somewhat livid with Netflix, I'd have to say their prices remain about the best here. Blockbuster has tried to compete with them in the DVDs by mail biz. I haven't tried them yet, but I've been told they are very similar to Netflix in that regard.
In store though, Blockbuster is much more expensive. They've set prices in my area at almost $30 for a month for 2 out a time unlimited rentals. I discussed that a bit with the clerk in the store. The clerk mentioned they had to jack up their prices as customers were going absolutely nuts on the unlimited rentals. They'd rent 2 movies, watch them, then go back and grab even two more movies in the same day. They'd do it multiple times in a weekend especially, and also during the week, and by the end of the month the fee per movie was probably about $.02 per. The store wasn't making any money and they had to at least pay their staff, so they raised the prices and even though they are a bit expensive, most customers have not complained.
I don't like the limit of 2 out a time that would be imposed in that plan, and I really hate driving to the store to get the rentals anyway. On the weekends there are long lines, empty shelves, and too many screaming kids with parents saying no, etc. That is part of what I do like with Netflix. Put it on the list and it would generally show up. Except for the at least 3 times in the past 2 months when I was completely passed over for selections on my list when my que had new releases listed and the movies I had checked out list was completely empty. That is what frustrated me to the point of saying Netflix sucks. If they want to claim unlimited rentals, then deliver unlimited rentals. Otherwise, put a asterisk at the end of the slogan, small print at the bottom of the page and remind customers that they will not always be guaranteed to receive their selections, blah blah blah.
In the end, the solution will likely be to either do without Netflix completely, or raise my level there to something like 4 out at a time unlimited, or something similar which will seem more profitable and will adjust my "credit score" with Netflix back to where it needs to be to get me the selections I want each week.
For now, I've opted to just cancel Netflix completely, though I will also say their cancellation policy sucks. They don't pro-rate, and they don't let you keep using the service until the end of your paid time. That is just mean and money grubbing. I could have left my account to run until the end of the current period and then cancelled, but it would have made no difference as the movies I wanted weren't going to be available until the next billing cycle anyway (or in my case, I expect they wouldn't have been available for several months since they were going to hit VERY LONG WAIT status again anyway).
