# Netflix - Is shipping mandatory? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088 "2005-01-16T21:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/21 "2005-01-17T16:55:21Z")
Sometimes Netflix will receive your movies but wait a day before shipping the next batch, for no apparent reason. This has been happening more and more often since I’ve been a member, and other people report it’s been happening to them as well, mostly with people who return their movies more frequently than normal. Gotta keep that bottom line healthy, I guess. :rolleyes: I’ve also had them skip movies in my queue which weren’t on the wait list, but this is uncommon. Rarely have I received a damaged disc in the mail, and a batch of three discs never showed up at all (which almost certainly got mis-delivered to another box in my apartment, and the jerkoff probably opened them hoping to get something cool like _Pirates of the Caribbean_…wish I could’ve seen his face when he ended up with three quirky independent films instead!) Twice I’ve received fullscreen discs which were listed as widescreen on their website. One thing that really bugs me is how they’ll offer the “bonus” disc from special edition DVDs but only offer the original, bare-bones disc for the movie itself – I think it should be law that any movie that gets a “special edition” upgrade MUST be upgraded by all the rental stores!!! Overall, though, I’m quite pleased with Netflix. Oh, another thing to keep in mind – you’re limited to 400 discs in your queue. I’m already pressing my limit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/22 "2005-01-17T17:17:07Z")
I love my Netflix, and I tend to ship 3 discs back in the same envelope; have never had a problem that way. (Although I will admit to the little nagging fear that the envelope will get lost, and I will have lost 3 movies instead of just 1.) My queue is currently at 211 discs. Which is kind of scary. But, in my defense, probably a quarter of that is taken up by tv series discs - Star Trek: TNG, Highlander, etc. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/23 "2005-01-17T19:59:17Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > I love my Netflix, and I tend to ship 3 discs back in the same envelope; have never had a problem that way. (Although I will admit to the little nagging fear that the envelope will get lost, and I will have lost 3 movies instead of just 1.) > > My queue is currently at 211 discs. Which is kind of scary. But, in my defense, probably a quarter of that is taken up by tv series discs - Star Trek: TNG, Highlander, etc. My goodness, 211 in queue!? How many movies do you generally get through per month? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/24 "2005-01-17T21:31:52Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > > [@Balthisar](#): > > > > 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). > > How do you do that? I’ve never heard of that before. I just wait until they receive it to get the next one. No, that’s how it _used_ to be done when Netflix was still new and there weren’t distribution centers all over the place. What you would do in those days we drop your disk in the mail, and then go online and let Netflix know that the disk was in the mail. They’d ship out your next item in the queue right away, without waiting for receipt of the sent item. I imagine this got expensive for them, and that’s why they stopped doing it. It’s always why I _left_ Netflix the first time – remember, there weren’t a whole lot of distribution centers, so the turn around time without the web return feature became unbearable. When I came back to Netflix in late 2003, their infrastructure had been improved vastly, and the turn around time was only one day each way. This was perfectly acceptable. If I weren’t on a foreign assignment, I’d still be a member. As it is, I think they look at me as a price reduction defecter – “Hey! You can’t lower prices like that on me! I quit!” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/25 "2005-01-18T08:26:44Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > 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. I have about ten movies on my queue that’re listed as “very short waits” and at least one – Napoleon Dynamtie – that is listed as a “very long wait” so it still happens but rarely. I see no rhyme or reason to the titles showing up either. > [@KGS](#): > > Sometimes Netflix will receive your movies but wait a day before shipping the next batch, for no apparent reason. This has been happening more and more often since I’ve been a member, and other people report it’s been happening to them as well, mostly with people who return their movies more frequently than normal. Gotta keep that bottom line healthy, I guess I receive and return my movies the same day, i.e., I get them on Tuesday and the mailman picks them up on Wednesday, and this happens to me every time. I know because my emails on Monday tell me to expect the DVD on Wednesday but I get them on Tuesday so they’re getting back to Netflix the same day they told me I’d be receiving them and I don’t get my second email telling me that my next DVDs are being shipped until Thursday and don’t get them until Friday though. It’s annoying but I deal with it. I’ve recently upgraded to the 5 at a Time plan at **TellMeI’mNotCrazy** ’s inadvertant suggestion though, so it should be more tolerable if I just stagger my shipments a day – three one day and two the next. > [@malkavia](#): > > My goodness, 211 in queue!? How many movies do you generally get through per month? Hehehe. I have 329 in my queue, have already watched an additional ~50 in the two months I’ve had my account, and none of them are television series. They’re all single disc movies. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/26 "2005-01-18T08:27:53Z")
By the way, **malkavia** , I accepted your friending invitation in case you didn’t notice. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088/27 "2005-01-18T12:43:26Z")
> [@malkavia](#): > > My goodness, 211 in queue!? How many movies do you generally get through per month? Right now only about 5 a week. The problem is, I am so behind on movies that it’s not funny - people don’t even ask me if I’ve seen a movie before, because the answer is probably no. But with Netflix, I’ve been able to fix that, and every time someone highly recommends a movie I haven’t seen, I just add it to my queue - more so I won’t forget about it than anything else. Every time I send movies back, I go to the list and move whatever movies I’m in the mood to see to the thop of the queue. My selections always end up being a little… eclectic. THis time around, I got Mr. Holland’s Opus, Heaven and Earth, Ocean’s Eleven, and two discs from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m not sure I can find any choices that are more different from each other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-is-shipping-mandatory/285088.md?page=1)