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  1. Member
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    Historically,(for the last 8 years) movies that I mailed back on Saturday would be listed by Netflix as returned first thing Monday. This is useful if you want to have a new release avail on your Monday Que.

    Now(last 30 days) movies that I ship back on Saturday are not listed as returned until Tuesday. However, movies shipped back on Friday are still listed as returned by Saturday. I have always had 1 day service with Netflix.

    So I was wondering if this was something particular to my local Post Office. [Delivering mail on Saturday but not shipping it out] Or if this was something new that Netflix is doing.

    Tony
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  2. Why not ask your local PO what's going on? Mine have not changed but perhaps they have new pickup times or something?
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  3. Member
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    My mail is delivered and picked up from a P.O. 8 miles away. I leave Saturdays outgoing mail in my box and the carrier picks it up as he delivers my mail.

    I have another P.O. about a mile away and I have brought my mail to that P.O. on Saturday mornings before it closes for the day. In both cases the results have been the same.

    If it was a Netflix change my assumption was that it would be noticed by others on this site.

    If it's not Netflix, I would assume my local Post Offices are no longer shipping mail out on Saturdays.

    They pick it up but don't ship it out

    Tony
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  4. Banned
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    Basically it all depends on how many DVDs you can keep at a time and how many you return per week on average. If you are not seeing any of those "short wait" messages in your queue then probably everything is on the up and up here. Those "short wait" messages start showing up when Netflix feels that you are taking advantage of their service and returning movies too quickly.
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  5. Member wulf109's Avatar
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    I suspect it has more to do with the Post Office. I called my local office because my mail was being delivered so late,between 5-7PM. They told me there was a hiring freeze and they were severly shorthanded for letter carriers. The Post Office has a huge budget deficit and is in trouble and the congress is of course dragging it's feet. Among other things they want to stop saturday deliveries. They are prevented by law from increasing rates beyond inflation. You don't see UPS rushing to deliver mail for 44 cents.
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  6. Member
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    @wulf109

    Unless others report that this is a Netflix change, my assumption was that it was with the Post Office. If they stopped delivering my Sat mail I'd know. But, if they didn't ship it out...who'd know.

    As an aside to your last sentence about UPS..
    I have orderded stuff form Tiger Direct when they have their $1.98 shipping and surprisingly Tiger ships with UPS to my local Post Office and the Post office carrier delivers it to my box. So far I have not received anything from anyone else that way but it definitely seemed innovative.

    Tony
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  7. Member
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    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Basically it all depends on how many DVDs you can keep at a time and how many you return per week on average. If you are not seeing any of those "short wait" messages in your queue then probably everything is on the up and up here. Those "short wait" messages start showing up when Netflix feels that you are taking advantage of their service and returning movies too quickly.
    jman98 , You have always been a source of good info.

    So, I don't know if you know that or just assume it. I've assumed it for years. It just seems like a reasonable thing to do if you want to restrict supply without increasing complaints.

    Tony
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  8. Banned
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    Originally Posted by cal_tony View Post
    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Basically it all depends on how many DVDs you can keep at a time and how many you return per week on average. If you are not seeing any of those "short wait" messages in your queue then probably everything is on the up and up here. Those "short wait" messages start showing up when Netflix feels that you are taking advantage of their service and returning movies too quickly.
    jman98 , You have always been a source of good info.

    So, I don't know if you know that or just assume it. I've assumed it for years. It just seems like a reasonable thing to do if you want to restrict supply without increasing complaints.

    Tony
    There were published reports some years ago where writers tried various experiments and they were able to determine that the more often you returned your discs, the more likely you were to see the "short wait" message whereas accounts that were very slow to return discs could get the exact same DVD without any wait. Here's an article with some info on waits at Netflix.
    http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/netflix-queue-hows-it-work
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  9. Member edDV's Avatar
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    If I use my local mail carrier to pick up Saturday, it won't actually hit the regional P.O. sorting center until late Monday. Netflix' distribution center is the next city over so they don't get my DVD return until Tuesday.

    If I drive 5 miles to the next zip code P.O. I can mail Saturday up to 3:30 PM and Netflix always shows it received Monday.

    One advantage of the P.O. consolidating the two regional sorting centers is I will gain a day on Netflix turnover.
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  10. Member
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    Thank you Jman98.... Good article.

    A Post Office 8 miles away actually has a special Netflix box so I guess I'll try that next saturday.

    I asked the subject question because in 8 years my proceedure had always worked without fail.

    Tony
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  11. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by cal_tony View Post
    Thank you Jman98.... Good article.

    A Post Office 8 miles away actually has a special Netflix box so I guess I'll try that next saturday.

    I asked the subject question because in 8 years my proceedure had always worked without fail.

    Tony
    My current slowest PO does too. My fastest is faster by a day.

    Do your homework.
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  12. DVD Ninja budz's Avatar
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    Beware that the USPS is in a budget crisis...don't be surprised when they decide to stop delivering mail on Saturdays....
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  13. Member Gabriel's Avatar
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    All post offices take Netflix, Blockbuster (if they still exist) and video game discs out of the mail stream and sort them into trays when the carriers return to the office. The trays then go to the central processing plant where they are forwarded to the nearest post office serving Netflix etc. who then picks them up. Everybody likes to blame the post office when it is almost always somebody else now.

    I live in Denver and regularly get first class mail from the east coast in two days. There are some advantages to the postal services problems, with less mail to handle they do a better job.

    You should call Netflix and ask them. It probably won't do any good; they used to have the most hateful customer service of any company I have dealt with. That's why I no longer use them. There was a lawsuit a few years ago about their claims of unlimited rentals. Netflix settled and agreed not to slow down sending out discs; they told me, however, that if you rent too many (I once managed 30 discs in 30 days) you go to the bottom of the request list and that they would ignore your requested order of shipping any time they felt like it. This company really deserves to go belly up.
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  14. Member
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    Beware dudes, it's not all the postal service's fault. As proven by recent price gouging, Netflix is getting greedy and wants to get rid of physical media altogether. As much as people fawn over the service, I predict that a couple of years from now Netflix will be as poorly thought of as any telecom or cable company. These guys are like any other corporation...F the customer to death and dump the body down by the river. You have been warned.
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  15. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    I'm thinking that the efficiency of your local / regional P.O., and how close you are to the nearest Netflix distribution center must be major variables that are easily overlooked. I happen to get very good postal service -- for the moment . . . but, of course, they are clearly in Deep Guano, nationwide -- and to be located fairly close to a regional NF distribution center. Their disc turnaround times have actually been exemplary, in my own experience. In addition, on several occasions, when a particular title was only available from one of their more distant regions, NF upped my disc allotment +1, temporarily, to compensate. So, that is not one of my complaints about their service.
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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