Netflix ain't no Mom and Pop shop

I'd seen the class action suit from the San Francisco subscriber who wasn't getting one-day delivery as promised, but this is new.

The gist is that the automated system at Netflix takes into account how many movies you rent per month and ranks you on a list from there. This seems sort of self-defeating to say the least. If I rent 20 movies a month and you only need four shipped, you will get yours faster and will get more new movies that have longer wait lists.

So, in short, the customers who turn movies around quickly and get them back to Netflix where they can be shipped out again are passed over in favor of the salesman who travels, never checks his mail and will leave that DVD sitting on their TV for two months before they send it back.

Netflix is presumably doing this to protect profit margins and to keep the bulk of their users happy (those that rent to watch on weekends, etc.) and point to their user happiness polls. Well, no shit Netflix - what would we compare it to? Blockbuster's too little too late foray into the mail-order rental business or just borrowing movies from our cinema snob friends?

I think I'm on this slow list, so this really annoys me. It's a good thing I have no taste, so I only really get screwed if I want to see the new Ben Alleck movie within six month of it hitting the shelves.