Tip for Netflix Fans

March 11th, 2010

I couldn’t be upset with the girl on the other end of Netflix customer service saying, “I hate Inglorious Basterds.”

Her opinion had nothing to do with the movie, but everything to do with all the Netflix customers complaining about their extraordinary wait times for this DVD. “Inglourious Basterds”has been top of my queue for more than two months now, but I never complained before because I just felt silly whining about not watching a movie with the word “basterds” in the title.

netflixI didn’t understand why Netflix couldn’t simply order more DVDs, but the girl on the customer service line explained that they only have one opportunity to order them and they have to estimate demand. In the case of “Inglorious Basterds,”their people severely underestimated the number of customers who want this movie.

This very problem underscores how the Netflix model of mailing out DVDs will be a dinosaur probably in mere years. Watching any new release instantly without a disc will be the norm. Yet, right now some of us are stuck with the whole “very long wait” queue message.

To get around this problem of waiting on new releases, do something simple: Mail your DVD back on a Saturday.

New releases are available on Tuesdays, but Netflix mails them out on Mondays. If your DVD arrives on a Monday, then you’re one of the first in line to get a new release mailed out to you on Monday, arriving fresh and shiny on Tuesday, the release day. Yes, that tip came from the customer service gal, desperate to offer me something. That was a few weeks ago. I’m still waiting on “Inglorious Basterds.”

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