"Fun" with Netflix

So, as I've already said, I only got Netflix again so I could watch the HBO show, "The Wire". I plugged season 1 (five discs per season) into my Netflix queue, and went ahead and added a bunch of movies after those. But I wanted to hit The Wire first, and then see if I felt like getting movies in the mail again after that was all done.

So as I discussed in a response post on my first Netflix blog, what's the first thing that happened? I got an email telling me that one of my movies was coming...not the Wire. Huh? I checked my queue. When I had signed up, the "status" for The Wire (season 1, disc 1) was "now" (like every disc I'd seen). However, as soon as I signed up, suddenly that disc's status went to "long wait". What? What the hell did that mean?

I looked it up on their site, and it meant there was a high demand for it, and it was out on rental, and generally "long wait", in Netflix terms, means "less than 14 days". They also have a "very long wait" designation that means "up to 30 days or more". So could have been worse, I guess. But I was pissed! I'd only done this to watch The Wire, and wanted to start right away. Now I was having to wait for maybe two weeks?

So the movie came, and I had it for a couple of days, and then I checked the status on The Wire, and disc 1 was showing as "now" again. But would that last? I didn't intend to wait and find out. I went ahead and upgraded to the two-discs-per-month account, which then got that disc sent right to me. Okay. Fine. It came, I watched it, I dug it. I was totally ready for more. So I sent both discs back and eagerly awaited the next two Wire discs.

Did I get them? No. Disc 2 was now on "short wait"...and Netflix sent me the next two movies on my list. Oh, come on! Is this how it was going to be? I started wondering how this is supposed to work. Again...do I just have to get LUCKY and happen to return a disc at the right time when a wire disc is available? Or does just having them on my queue put me on some kind of waiting list? I didn't know. But after I'd watched one of my movies (Eastern Promises...pretty good), I noticed that the rest of Season 1 was back in play. So I quickly sent BOTH my movies back (didn't bother watching the next one) just so I could secure two Wire discs.

Can you guess what happened? I dropped them in the mail Monday night. On Tuesday, when they went out in the mail, I checked the site again. Disc 2? Back on "short wait". Grrrrr...

So since they were just going to be sending me two more movies - and, apparently, I'd NEVER get my hands on the next Wire disc - I wiped out my entire queue EXCEPT for The Wire, Season 1. Didn't even want Season 2 on the list for fear that they'd send me disc 1 of THAT if the rest of season 1 was off the table. So now they have no choice. They've got nothing else to send me until they have season 1's second disc (at least) back in. I'm going to have to repeat this process with each season until I'm done with the Wire, it seems.

You know, I don't mean to complain, but...you're NETFLIX. If you don't have enough of the Wire to meet demand? BUY MORE. What, did you just buy one set and keep passing it around the nation, one disc at a time, to Netflix subscribers? Maybe HBO's DVD prices were too much for you to handle, too...

Irritating. But now that I know how to work the system, hopefully I'll get to get passed the first three episodes of this show.