Anyone's Netflix disc delivery service starting to suck?
01-03-05, 01:21 PM
#51
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by BigDan
Oh, for the first time, I was skipped over for a new release, as well, this week. Usually, if I have an open slot on Monday, I get the new release at the top of my queue. But not this week. I know Netflix admittedly prioritizes new releases so they go to low-volume renters over high-volume renters, but this is the first time for me that's meant not getting a new release.
01-03-05, 01:23 PM
#52
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,190
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
i just re-signed up for Netflix, and its already off to a bad start. i joined around 3AM monday morning and only ONE of my DVDs are shipping Monday, the other 2 are shipping Tuesday. these are old catalog releases, IN-STOCK, and they cant get to them until Tuesday? pretty lame.
01-03-05, 01:41 PM
#53
DVD Talk Special Edition
Originally Posted by Rizor
Yeah, mine has been slow in the past two weeks. Sometimes it takes them two days to receive a disc or it takes them an extra day to send it out. They sent me a disc on Tuesday and I still haven't gotten it yet. Hopefully it's just the holidays.
01-03-05, 04:38 PM
#54
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: TX
Posts: 392
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My service is as good as ever (Houston is my distribution center, a good 7 hour drive from here, and my cycle is suprisingly not very long, maybe 4-5 days). I think some of it depends on the service at your particular distribution center, and you should report the problems immeadiately to Netflix. If there's a problem at a particular place, and you and others actually take the time to email them about it, I think they'll deal with it.
As others have mentioned, the USPS is the main culprit because they don't always treat the Netflix discs like normal first class mail. If service in your area is slow (and not just because of holiday mail traffic), Netflix needs to know about this because they probably have more clout when they complain to the USPS than you and I do.
As others have mentioned, the USPS is the main culprit because they don't always treat the Netflix discs like normal first class mail. If service in your area is slow (and not just because of holiday mail traffic), Netflix needs to know about this because they probably have more clout when they complain to the USPS than you and I do.
Last edited by angryyoungman; 01-03-05 at 04:43 PM.
01-03-05, 05:14 PM
#55
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 610
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My service has remained consistently excellent throughout the past few months when some people started complaining. I've gotten heel-to-toe turnaround on every movie I've rented, with a single exception the week before Christmas. Even when I use a mailbox with a 5pm pickup, they receive and ship the next day and I have the new disc the day after that. As long as I mail movies Monday through Thursday, I'll receive them Wednesday through Saturday.
This is the Southeastern PA/Philadelphia distribution center.
RichC
This is the Southeastern PA/Philadelphia distribution center.
RichC
01-03-05, 05:36 PM
#56
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Near the Great Salt Lake
Posts: 1,400
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I signed up a few days ago - my DVDs shipped today - but it's telling me they won't arrive until Thursday. Are their estimates usually pretty accurate or do they tend to overestimate? I probably won't stay with them very long if I only end up getting three DVDs a week.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
(I live in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, by the way.)
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
(I live in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, by the way.)
01-03-05, 05:39 PM
#57
Senior Member
I guess it depends on how far you are from the closest processing center. Mine usually arrive the day after they ship. Last month I ended up getting 17 movies from them. You should be able to get 3 to 4 movies a week, if you watch them right away. If you hold on to them for awhile, you will obviously get less.
01-05-05, 02:01 AM
#58
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Plano, TX
Posts: 1,149
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Because I have a lot of time on my hands, I figured out my Netflix delay statistics since October 19, 2004, which is when I first noticed the "no shipping on Tuesdays thing").
The stats for Tuesdays:
Two of the weeks, Netflix received no discs from me, so none were shipped out.
Three of the weeks, Netflix received a total of eight discs from me and shipped out seven.
But in six of the weeks, Netflix received a total of 37 discs from me and shipped out a total of zero until the next day.
So, 82% of the discs that would be expected to ship on Tuesdays were shipped instead on Wednesday.
Other than Tuesdays:
Netflix has received 66 discs from me on days other that Tuesday. Of those, they've delayed only three of them an extra day.
It doesn't really bother me that they don't ship discs on Tuesdays very often, but I do find it fascinating and wonder why the delays are so pronounced on that day alone.
There may well be an explanation for the delay other than the idea that they're delaying the discs on purpose in an effort to slow down my renting (a disc shipped on Tuesday could be turned around again the same week while a disc shipped on Wednesday cannot), but I can't imagine what that explanation could be.
The stats for Tuesdays:
Two of the weeks, Netflix received no discs from me, so none were shipped out.
Three of the weeks, Netflix received a total of eight discs from me and shipped out seven.
But in six of the weeks, Netflix received a total of 37 discs from me and shipped out a total of zero until the next day.
So, 82% of the discs that would be expected to ship on Tuesdays were shipped instead on Wednesday.
Other than Tuesdays:
Netflix has received 66 discs from me on days other that Tuesday. Of those, they've delayed only three of them an extra day.
It doesn't really bother me that they don't ship discs on Tuesdays very often, but I do find it fascinating and wonder why the delays are so pronounced on that day alone.
There may well be an explanation for the delay other than the idea that they're delaying the discs on purpose in an effort to slow down my renting (a disc shipped on Tuesday could be turned around again the same week while a disc shipped on Wednesday cannot), but I can't imagine what that explanation could be.
Last edited by BigDan; 01-05-05 at 02:04 AM.
01-05-05, 10:12 AM
#60
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Long Island
Posts: 142
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Over the last year my Netflix has slowed down to the point where I only received three per week. The local distribution center is not far from me, about a 30 minute drive, so I have to assume that it's because their membership numbers have swelled.
I cancelled my account yesterday, as it's been much easier to get movies at the local Hollywood Video using their MVP program.
I cancelled my account yesterday, as it's been much easier to get movies at the local Hollywood Video using their MVP program.
01-05-05, 01:25 PM
#62
DVD Talk Special Edition
Yes, for the last couple of months it's been very inconsistent, and before that for a month and a half it was consistently bad!
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showth...ghlight=netflix
Just this morning I checked my queue to see if my returns checked in and had the "we expect to ship your next movie today" message in two of my slots. By 10:30 a.m. two new movies appeared in their slots, but both will be shipping tomorrow. That was a rare occurrence during the first six months of my membership; now it is commonplace.
BTW - USPS has remained consistently excellent for me. One day each way 100% of the time. (I can even drop a movie off at 8 p.m. at the main PO & it arrives the next day!) The problem is Netflix delaying their shipping times.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showth...ghlight=netflix
Just this morning I checked my queue to see if my returns checked in and had the "we expect to ship your next movie today" message in two of my slots. By 10:30 a.m. two new movies appeared in their slots, but both will be shipping tomorrow. That was a rare occurrence during the first six months of my membership; now it is commonplace.
BTW - USPS has remained consistently excellent for me. One day each way 100% of the time. (I can even drop a movie off at 8 p.m. at the main PO & it arrives the next day!) The problem is Netflix delaying their shipping times.
01-07-05, 11:07 PM
#64
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Export, PA
Posts: 5,589
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Since the start of the new year I've seen an improvement again in my service. The holidays really had things jammed up for them I think and the post office I think.
Most of my movies take a day to get there. Then it takes them a day or so to process and get the next one to me. I hope it stays this way because I was considering upgrading because it was taking fiver for my 3 DVDs to rotate with them. There aren't many DVDs I want to buy until Angel Season 5 comes out so I can use the next month or so to really catch up on my rentals.
Most of my movies take a day to get there. Then it takes them a day or so to process and get the next one to me. I hope it stays this way because I was considering upgrading because it was taking fiver for my 3 DVDs to rotate with them. There aren't many DVDs I want to buy until Angel Season 5 comes out so I can use the next month or so to really catch up on my rentals.
01-08-05, 02:28 PM
#66
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 1,318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We studied Netflix rather extensively in some of my MBA courses. Bad service is built into their subscription model. If you're a new customer, they'll bend over backwards for you to get you to keep paying the fees. Once you've been with them long enough that you're "locked in", or you become a more expensive customer to maintain, they start treating you worse, give higher priority to new customers queues, and "lose" things that were shipped to you because a newer customer wanted it. If they've got a good relationship with their shippers, they're able to have them print out a new label in the truck and then place it over your name, rerouting it to the new customer. When you realize that it hasn't showed up (it's really at the newer customers house) they make up a story about lost packages or network strain or whatever and promise to correct it.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
01-08-05, 10:13 PM
#67
Cool New Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I waited 16 days for my last batch to get here. This is totally unacceptable. I am pissed and I am pretty damn sure they have lost me as a customer forever. Was great in the beginning but has gone down hill ever since.
01-08-05, 10:45 PM
#68
Senior Member
I canceled my account today. The shipping time was fine. It was one day both ways, but the problem was that they were not always shipping out dvds when they received dvds back. They would often ship them the next day. This happened six times this past month. Plus, I was having problems with them shipping movies that were in the middle of my queue instead of the ones at the top. It became absurd. The end came when they sent me two discs from series 4 of RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY even though I had the first series at the top of my queue, and all discs were "now."
01-10-05, 01:49 PM
#69
DVD Talk Legend
Today is a first for me: all of my discs were checked in this morning and not a single disc is being shipped out today. They're waiting until tomorrow. 
Did someone say it's good to cancel and sign-up again to get a little higher on their "bend over backwards to please" list?
Did someone say it's good to cancel and sign-up again to get a little higher on their "bend over backwards to please" list?
01-10-05, 02:07 PM
#70
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite
Posts: 1,952
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Originally Posted by reservoirdog
We studied Netflix rather extensively in some of my MBA courses. Bad service is built into their subscription model. If you're a new customer, they'll bend over backwards for you to get you to keep paying the fees. Once you've been with them long enough that you're "locked in", or you become a more expensive customer to maintain, they start treating you worse, give higher priority to new customers queues, and "lose" things that were shipped to you because a newer customer wanted it. If they've got a good relationship with their shippers, they're able to have them print out a new label in the truck and then place it over your name, rerouting it to the new customer. When you realize that it hasn't showed up (it's really at the newer customers house) they make up a story about lost packages or network strain or whatever and promise to correct it.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
Originally Posted by reservoirdog
If they've got a good relationship with their shippers, they're able to have them print out a new label in the truck and then place it over your name, rerouting it to the new customer. When you realize that it hasn't showed up (it's really at the newer customers house) they make up a story about lost packages or network strain or whatever and promise to correct it.
01-10-05, 02:10 PM
#71
The shipping problems are on and off for me. No biggie. But the only problems I have with them is that It's pretty darn hard to get a hold of a Hollywood title. You know, like Jersey Girl and Eternal/Mind. Those were on a "very long wait" for almost 2 months so I just gave up on those. But thank god I'm a big fan of foreign and exploitation stuff since those always arrive in no time.
Anyone else recieved cracked discs? I've gotten 2 recently. But the replacements came in a jiffy.
Anyone else recieved cracked discs? I've gotten 2 recently. But the replacements came in a jiffy.
01-10-05, 02:29 PM
#72
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Plano, TX
Posts: 1,149
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I went through a period in September or so when I got three or four cracked discs within a week or two. The replacements shipped quickly. Since then, I've not received a bad disc (well, I did get one recently that was starting to crack at the outer edge, but it wasn't far enough in to prevent me from watching the movie).
01-10-05, 02:40 PM
#73
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by reservoirdog
We studied Netflix rather extensively in some of my MBA courses. Bad service is built into their subscription model. If you're a new customer, they'll bend over backwards for you to get you to keep paying the fees. Once you've been with them long enough that you're "locked in", or you become a more expensive customer to maintain, they start treating you worse, give higher priority to new customers queues, and "lose" things that were shipped to you because a newer customer wanted it. If they've got a good relationship with their shippers, they're able to have them print out a new label in the truck and then place it over your name, rerouting it to the new customer. When you realize that it hasn't showed up (it's really at the newer customers house) they make up a story about lost packages or network strain or whatever and promise to correct it.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
MBA: Grad School for dummies!
01-10-05, 02:44 PM
#74
Member
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Upper West Side of the Center of the Universe
Posts: 207
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My account has certainly been having issues over the past month, and it has not improved yet in January. They received several discs from me this morning, and none are shipping today (all listed as tomorrow). In the past, these would always ship out the same day...
I received a disc broken in half a couple weeks ago (from their Long Island [Flushing, Queens] distribution center). When I asked for a replacement, they sent one out that took like five days to arrive. Not only that, but the envelope I received the replacement in was "backwards" - the opening of the return envelope was on the right rather than the left side...and the coding pattern on the return address label was different. I've never seen anything like this with the hundreds of discs I've gotten from them. I don't know if they were tracking the second disc for some reason or not...
Also, with regard to Netflix having a "special relationship" with certain shippers, such as the USPS, I find this VERY difficult to believe. They ship out THOUSANDS of discs per day. The amount of time it would take them to track down a single disc and re-route it would certainly be cost-prohibitive. I'd be interested to see some proof of the above statement by reservoirdog. If it's actually true, more power to Netflix that it's really worth it to them to delay my receipt of a movie when they claim to have 2 million customers - I should feel honored at being singled out and given that much attention!
I received a disc broken in half a couple weeks ago (from their Long Island [Flushing, Queens] distribution center). When I asked for a replacement, they sent one out that took like five days to arrive. Not only that, but the envelope I received the replacement in was "backwards" - the opening of the return envelope was on the right rather than the left side...and the coding pattern on the return address label was different. I've never seen anything like this with the hundreds of discs I've gotten from them. I don't know if they were tracking the second disc for some reason or not...
Also, with regard to Netflix having a "special relationship" with certain shippers, such as the USPS, I find this VERY difficult to believe. They ship out THOUSANDS of discs per day. The amount of time it would take them to track down a single disc and re-route it would certainly be cost-prohibitive. I'd be interested to see some proof of the above statement by reservoirdog. If it's actually true, more power to Netflix that it's really worth it to them to delay my receipt of a movie when they claim to have 2 million customers - I should feel honored at being singled out and given that much attention!
01-10-05, 03:14 PM
#75
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 2,932
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by reservoirdog
We studied Netflix rather extensively in some of my MBA courses. Bad service is built into their subscription model. If you're a new customer, they'll bend over backwards for you to get you to keep paying the fees. Once you've been with them long enough that you're "locked in", or you become a more expensive customer to maintain, they start treating you worse, give higher priority to new customers queues, and "lose" things that were shipped to you because a newer customer wanted it. If they've got a good relationship with their shippers, they're able to have them print out a new label in the truck and then place it over your name, rerouting it to the new customer. When you realize that it hasn't showed up (it's really at the newer customers house) they make up a story about lost packages or network strain or whatever and promise to correct it.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
They've got models that show that some people are just too lazy to cancel their subscriptions, despite bad service, even if they don't order anything for six month windows. You'll be seeing things like this with more and more companies integrating their ERP systems with those of major shippers like UPS and FedEx.
For instance, I used to quickly get movies that had a "long wait". Now I don't even get the "short wait" ones.