Hello, chums. Normally when I send a Netflix DVD in the mail, they get it the very next day. So if I put it in Monday night/Tuesday morning, they receive it Wednesday and the next DVD arrives on Thursday. All good, right? Lately, though, it’s taking them longer to receive my DVDs. Last week, I sent one out Wednesday night that didn’t get received till the following Monday.
So, is this everyone or just me? And if it’s just me, are they trying to limit me to fewer DVDs a week so I have to upgrade to four DVDs at a time, instead of three? Ah, capitalism.
I’m not a subscriber any more, but when I was I experienced longer shipping delays when I was a heavy user. I believe it’s a corporate policy, but I haven’t seen any proof of that.
In fact, I had a freakishly fast turnaround time: I mailed a disk in Ocracoke NC on a Thursday. There’s only one mail pickup per day, and I’m pretty sure I missed it. Friday morning, I received a message that it had been received!. There’s no way that disk made it back to Columbia SC inside of 24 hours.
I’ve heard that Netflix has some kind of deal with the USPS that when they scan the disk, Netflix is notified of “receipt” even though the disk has not physically arrived yet. Don’t know if that’s true, but the quick turnaround in that case would make it plausible. But it seems as though the only way that would work is if the barcode (not the postal bar code) on the back of the return envelope is an encoded unique “order id.”
No, usually fast for me, as they have a place in Phoenix.
What I am getting a lot lately, however, is a notification that the DVD will be coming from another city. This was very rare until the last month or two, now becoming frequent.
Most come from CA or WA, and even then, get them within a couple of days. No problem at all with the ones I send back.
There’s nothing instructing you to do this, but I always insert the disc sleeve into the envelope so the barcode on the sleeve shows through the opening on the back of the envelope. That’s what I figured the unique identifier was.
Yeah, Netflix seem to have a throttling process in place that places lighter users above heavy users. There was a lawsuit about it that forced Netflix to give out a free month and revise their user agreement.
More info here: Netflix Throttling
Having said that. I was a member for a long time, and I would consistently return my movies the day after I got them and I very rarely had to wait for more than a day for a disc to arrive. So, I guess, my address was just a prime netflix spot.
I always do this, and my turn around time is as fast as the OP describes. There’s a Netflix distribution site here in Houston, so I wasn’t surprised. However, after a period of heavy use where we were returning one or two discs every day, service slowed down just slightly, maybe taking an extra day. Then we slowed down a bit and service sped up again.
KlondikeGeoff: As for getting the discs from a different location, that’s only happened to us a few times. Usually it was on titles that didn’t strike me as likely to be so popular that every place stocked them (for instance, the documentary Marjoe came to us from Tennessee), and at least once we returned a defective local disc of an out-of-print title and the replacement had to come from a different region. Are you renting obscure or out-of-print titles?
For me, they’ve only shipped from out of town (upstate NY or PA) when I’ve rented British shows…once Blackadder III and another time either Jeeves and Wooster or Father Ted.
I’m a heavy user (oooh, sounds naughty!) and I’ve noticed this more and more lately. It sucks because I get the notification that my next movie will be coming from some city across the country and then it’s another day before that’s sent out. Luckily they move fast in the mail and I get them in a reasonable time.
I’ve also learned to hold onto my damaged disks until I get confirmation that the replacement disk is on it’s way. That way I don’t keep getting the same one over and over.
I send 'em back, next day get the notice that they received it and that they’re shipping out the next batch. I usually get the next batch the following day. I’m on the three at a time plan, (used to be on two at a time) and very often I’ll ship multiple discs back in the same pre-paid envelope that Netflix provides; I don’t try to line up bar codes or anything and with multiple movies sent in the same envelope the only way they could send me those notices the next day is if they have actually opened the envelopes and recorded receipt of the movies. So the “unique identifier” bit must not be true.
This is why I quit Netflix a couple years ago. When I increased my subscription to 8 discs at a time rather than 4, my turnaround time doubled. Effectively cancelling out my increase.
Yeah, I have. I thought it was just me. Normally if I send it before the last pickup it gets to them the next mail day and next in my queue comes the day after that, so 2 day turn around. Recently I’ve had as much as 5 day turnaround and that’s not including Sundays.
ETA: I recently upped from 3 to 4 per month (and that’s when it started… hmmm).