netflix throttling

Amanda and I had been wondering why Netflix seemed a lot slower lately.

Now we know why:

Los Gatos, California-based Netflix didn’t publicly acknowledge it differentiates among customers until revising its “terms of use” in January 2005 – four months after a San Francisco subscriber filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had deceptively promised one-day delivery of most DVDs.

“In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service,” Netflix’s revised policy now reads. The statement specifically warns that heavy renters are more likely to encounter shipping delays and less likely to immediately be sent their top choices.

I don’t think this is enough for us to leave the service (especially since I am not sure where else we’d go, short of greencine, maybe), but it seems pretty shitty nonetheless.