Vicissitudes of Netflix

Vicissitude One of the sudden or unexpected changes or shifts often encountered in one's life, activities, or surroundings.

I have worked in a retail distribution facility before. I understand there are many factors, controllable or not, that can affect the performance of a facility. Netflix has about three dozen distribution centers and who knows how many postal drop points. Some of the distribution centers belong to Netflix, and some are contractors. They are serving over 3 million customers and shipping millions of discs.

There are seasonal fluctuations in demand. I remember we had to work a second shift for months before Christmas. People who are not in the retail business don't realize that Christmas begins in September for those who stock the shelves. The movie business is seasonal, too. The rental business drops off a little in summer because (normal) people enjoy spending the warmer, longer days outside. If you're a DC manager, maybe you let a few people go in the summer, but something changes which you don't anticipate and you need to hire those people back in a hurry. You use a temp agency. Those temps have to be trained. Meanwhile, your DC's productivity suddenly drops, causing shipping delays of a day or two. Even if this isn't happening in your area, changes in a the next region could have a trickle-down effect. For example, hurricane Katrina caused the loss of thousands or millions of copies of movies which have to be replaced, temporarily straining the resources of every distribution center in the country.

I'm sure that Netflix is continually evaluating delivery data to determine where are the most efficient locations. They occasionally close the distribution centers or drop points which aren't performing well and re-open new ones in another nearby location. This can cause fluctuations in delivery times.

Sometimes it's because there's been a sudden uptake in the number of subscribers in your area. Whenever a new DC opens, you might notice you are experiencing faster delivery times. Then Netflix increases the amount of advertising in the area, or there's a Netflix story in the paper, or on the evening news, that causes an immediate surge in subscribers. You say to yourself, "If I have a new DC, where is my faster shipping?" All those new people are getting great turnaround times, while the new DC adjusts to this rapid increase in workload.

Not every DC does things the same way. As improvements are made, machines or systems are designed and purchased to increase efficiency, it takes a while for these changes to roll down to each DC in the country.

As individual customers, we experience an extraordinary level of excellent customer service when you realize the volume of business that Netflix is doing. They have managed to rapidly adjust to their phenomenal growth while maintaining next day delivery for 80-90% of their customers. Whenever I look at the big picture, I am amazed at the great job they are doing. If you are used to getting next-day delivery, and it suddenly drops off to second-day delivery, or if many of your queue items are on Long Wait, think about where you live and what's going on in the world that might be affecting Netflix. I would like to encourage you to hang in there and give it time to iron itself out.