I was browsing the Netflix website today and I think I’m about to sign up.
I did notice that they show a map of shipping locations within the US. From the looks of the map, there is a shipping location here in Phoenix.
Can I pick up/drop off from a Netflix shipping location as opposed to mailing the dvd’s back and forth?
I don’t mind mailing so much, but I live in a huge apartment complex and our mailboxes appear to be inversely proportional to the size of the complex. If they send them in the small CD case envelopes, I should be okay. If they ship them in the larger padded envelopes, I’m out of luck because my apartment office keeps the same work hours that I do.
Netflix uses paper envelopes. I can’t imagine a mailbox in which they will not fit. I don’t know about dropping off at their warehouse. I live in the Dallas area and I know they ship from Coppell. I usually send my DVDs back from my apt. complex or from the mailbox up the street. They receive the DVD the next day and send me my next one that day.
Netflix is the greatest thing to happen to movies since film. You will not regret your decision.
The Netflix envelopes are very well engineered. They’re only as thick as the actual DVD, which is in a paper sleeve in the envelope. Shipping is usually very fast; in a lot of markets they even have special deals with the post office.
If you can’t drop DVDs off directly, you could always try dropping your movies off at a post office in the same zip code as the distribution center.
It occasionally worked for me, since the post office was on the way to work, but it really wasn’t worth the effort - shipping times were consistently between one to two days anyway.
The only map I could find was at http://www.netflix.com/HowItWorks (click “How fast will I get my DVDs?”). I was surprised to see that there appears to be a distribution center very close to here (if not actually here, I can’t tell from the map), and I was considering a subscription as well.
I live in an apartment complex, too. It’s easy for me to fold the Netflix envelope until it’s the same size as the disc- if you can fit a DVD disc in your mail slot, you’ll be able to fit a Netflix envelope, too.
Yup, the envelopes are brilliantly designed. There’re two pockets, basically, and you rip one off at the perforated edge to open the disc when it arrives, creating the second pocket, which has a sticky to seal the envelope up again.
BTW, if you accidentally rip up the envelope, as I have done a few times accidentally, you can mail back two movies in one envelope. It won’t slow down your turn time at all.
Since the OP seems to be answered, I’m going to HiJack this thread for a minute. So… Let’s say I have my list of 10,000 movies all queued up. Do I receive them in the order that I specify? Or do they just send me what’s available off my list?
The order you specify. When I was a Netflix member back in '00, there was a hiccup with this plan, though – they’d wait a day or two to try to keep them in order, which significantly slowed the speed. But, since you were able to return movies virtually, it worked out well (meaning, as soon as you mailed it, you let Netflix know, and they’d send you the next movie right away, rather than waiting to receive it). My most recent experience, though, was that everything was always in stock, so I never had this slowdown. Also, now as opposed to then, there are a lot of region distribution centers with a lot of stock.
I feel really bad that I had to cancel my subscription when I came here. I’m not about to ever step into a Blockbuster here (anywhere for that matter). Besides that, I think Mexico is all region 4, and my laptop has been set to region 1 long, long ago (on the other hand, DVD players are a lot cheaper these days compared to when I got mine, so region 4 isn’t out of reach, I guess).
They more or less send in the order you have specified - that is, the item in the first place in the queue gets shipped, then the next one, then the next, etc.
On occasion an item may not be available - either they don’t have one ready to ship, or it’s a “coming soon” disc and they don’t have it yet. In that case, the next one on your list is sent. However, they’re REALLY good about keeping things in stock. A few years ago it wasn’t uncommon for a popular DVD to run out of stock occasionally. In the last couple years, though, I can’t remember even one time where something I had on my list was out of stock.
If I get two or more at a time, sometimes I’ll just send them back together so as to keep a backup envelope in case I do rip one or lose one. Especially since I’m starting to get this sneaking suspicion that the mailman has been watching my movies before me. Half the time my envelopes come half-opened. Hmm…
(Note: I don’t actually think this, it’s just funnier to think of the postman waiting eagerly for my next disc to arrive to see what he gets to watch that afternoon)
Have any of you netflixers tried the new blockbuster service? I know many of you probably went to netflix to escape them. One of my friends tried it and found he got better shipping times, plus they give you two free in store rentals a month.