Something is slowing down. Is it Netflix or USPS?

I called the Netflix customer service line and here is what I was told (actual audio, edited):

So the USPS, faced with competition from other services, has decided to reduce the quality of service they provide, which will undoubtedly reduce the number of customers they can attract. And the downward spiral continues.

The Post Office was killed by Congress. As a giveaway to Fed Ex and UPS (not to mention kill yet another Union), back during the Bush Administration the USPS was forced to prefund their pension fund for the next 75 years which is ridiculous and unreasonable. Almost all the money it makes goes to that so they must cut services elsewhere to avoid raising rates. I don’t blame them for their problems; I blame Congress.

I blame technology.

It doesn’t take 3 business days to get the disks returned to Netflix but it does take 2 days to get from Netflix to me. Since I actually live in the city and drop the disks off at the post office the first part makes sense. Actually living in the city makes me think the second part is a delay on Netflix’s part.

This.

People use the the USPS more than you think. If it weren’t for the pension requirement, they would be making more than enough money.

ETA: sorry for the tangent but this is an under reported situation and seems relevant to the topic.

At the beginning of 2015 I couldn’t help noticing a major slowdown in DVD delivery. I spoke with people at Netflix and USPS and learned that both were at fault. Netflix for eliminating Saturday service (even though the USPS did not follow through with its threat to do likewise) and to an even larger extent USPS for closing facilities and creating bottlenecks in the system. For the first few months of the year, I was getting only about half as many DVDs as in the past. And boy was I pissed! I have been a loyal customer for many years and do not watch any TV besides Netflix DVDs. So those red envelopes mean a lot to me. Holidays, of course, make things even worse, because Netflix employees don’t seem to get much done before or after a holiday weekend, let alone during it.

After many complaints to Netflix (and I assume others did the same), things improved markedly and after a few months returned to the old days of prompt delivery: mailed DVD back on day one, arrived at Netflix on day two, replacement DVD arrived here on day three. Sometimes I even got a bonus disc for reasons unknown. Discussions with Netflix led me to believe that the return to efficiency was because Netflix developed a system for “logging in” DVDs as soon as they reached the local post office, rather than waiting for them to reach the Netflix facility. Happy days again.

But in the past several weeks, our DVD delivery service has slowed to a crawl again, and I have no idea why. I can send a DVD back on a Monday and not receive a replacement until Thursday or Friday (when I’d expect one on Wednesday, based on past experience). I am very disappointed that the “fix” Netflix devised seems to have been a short-lived one. At first I thought it was just an aberration, but now I have experienced slow service for 2-3 weeks, so it looks like we are back to poor customer service again :frowning:

I will try calling Netflix to see what I can learn. During the early 2015 slowdown, I spoke with at least 3 Netflix representatives who professed ignorance of any slowdown. Only after I spoke with my local post office rep and then firmly explained to Netflix that f**king over your most loyal customers and reaping huge profits from reduced customer service is NOT a good business plan did I finally reach someone who gave me an honest answer about what was happening and what Netflix was doing about it.

CALL THE COMPANY and tell them what the slowdown means to you. Only if they hear from a lot of people will they take action to address our concerns, if only because they have to spend money on service reps to take these calls. If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem because you are lining Netflix’s pockets by continuing to pay the same amount for reduced service. And yes, DVDs are still a huge profit center for Netflix. Don’t let anyone tell you that streaming is all that matters today. Those of us who are Netflix’s captive (even loyal) audience, by virtue of our rural residence and/or good taste in cinema, provide the cash flow that is funding Netflix’s quest for fickle streaming customers who will drop them in a flash for the Next Big Thing.

Netflix, if you’re listening, do the right thing.

If I return a disk on a Saturday, I get a replacement by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. I’m in Virginia and have seen no slowdown.

I’ve complained to Netflix three times already regarding this same problem and they also blame the U.S.P.S for the problem. I for one do not believe them. I use the dvd shipping tab on my account on Netflix’s site to track. When a year ago it consistently took 4 days round trip for a dvd, now takes consistently 7. I varied the delivery’s to test this. instead of putting a dvd in my mailbox at home (as I usually had), I tried delivering the dvd strait to my large city’s main hub on a Monday (trying to rule out the Saturday/Sunday issues) which should effectively cut a full day off of it’s travel time according to my postal carrier, took seven days. The next dvd I put in my home mailbox on a Saturday afternoon after mail delivery. So they would have picked it up on Monday. To my surprise it stayed in the box Monday (turned out I did not know it was Presidents day). Long story short, the round trip on that dvd was guess what? 7 days! According to my math, doubling my delivery times effectively doubles my subscription cost. That boils down to roughly $2 per dvd and not the bargain I thought it was when they split the dvd/streaming plans. Basically I am now paying $24 for what I got for $8 five years ago. :frowning:

I started this thread about a year ago. Since then, I have cancelled my Netflix accounts (all of them). Slow DVD turnaround was only one reason; the existence of alternative media sources is another.

Recently I was forced to hole up at home while recuperating from a medical operation, and had to use USPS for some functions (like bank deposits) that I would have otherwise handled in person (not everything can be done electronically yet).

What I had expected to be a one-day trip for a bank deposit instead, on more than one occasion, became a 3 day process, or 5-6 days if a holiday was involved. The bank told me that they expect this now – what used to be a 60 mile trip to a regional sorting center, then a return trip the next day, now is a 200 mile trip to another center, a day’s wait, and a slow return with considerable uncertainty. And this is for a total distance of 10 miles.

IMHO, It’s looking like the USPS link in the Netflix chain is more to blame than other factors.

I suspended my Netflix DVD account for several months due to poor selection but reinstated it about 5 weeks ago. Turn around time remains the same in that if I return it on a Saturday, I have a replacement by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

First of all, Netflix has had a lot of layoffs over the last couple of years, largely at their distribution centers, so there’s no way they have the same level of staffing they did six or seven years ago when DVD turn-around was one day. However, they’ve been able to automate some of those processes so that hasn’t drastically affected turn-around time. I think they’ve begun slowing the process intentionally and internally, then blaming it on the post office for some reason, and here’s why:

I live in San Diego and the distribution center is (or was–I’m no longer sure) in Orange County. If I sent back a DVD and it made it out in that day’s mail, they’d have it the next day 90% of the time, send out the replacement DVD the same day, and I’d have it the following day; it was a three day turnaround. Now it takes three or four days for them to “receive” the disc and replace it, but the inexplicable part is when they send the replacement disc, it arrives the following day.

So what I don’t understand is how incoming discs take about four days to arrive at their facility, but outgoing discs arrive at my home the day after they’re sent. Unless the post office has slowed delivery in one direction only, that makes no sense.

Netflix DVD subscribers number around 5 million compared to the 65 million streaming subscribers it has. The peak number of DVD by mail subscribers was about 20 million back in 2010. Distribution centers which at a high were 50, are down to 33.

Redbox on the other hand rented out approx. 500 million DVD’s in 2015, from their network of about 45,000 kiosks.

“Receive” could be a matter of checking the disk in, not just it arriving at the facility. They know in advance what disk you’re supposed to get next. They can’t know in advance what’s going to be showing up on any particular day.