Just signed up for Netflix a week ago for the first time in the Atlanta area... about 20 miles from distribution center. I'm trying to figure out a few ways to optimize my shipping times and was looking for some tips.

We watch most of our movies on Sat/Sun night, but can get in one or two during the week as well. When I joined Tuesday I received 2 flicks the very next day. Great. Returned one on Thursday (4pm pick up) and my account was flagged for received on Monday. Being realistic, that's fine since they don't operate on the weekend, but CAN it be possible returning a movie on Thursday will have a new flick in the mailbox on Saturday?

My mail isn't picked up until 4pm each day. Would it make a difference dropping a movie off in the post office in the morning for their 12:30pm delivery? I'm talking about a perfect world situation here with no lost discs or unusual delays.

Thanks!

edit...this is the 3 out plan

I quickly moved from the 3 disc plan to the 5 disc plan when I recently started using Netflix. I find that I always seem to have something available that way & for 10 bucks more, it was well worth it to me. That would be my suggestion since no one can control the U.S. Postal Service's mail time.

Discs I drop off on Thursday are about 50/50 for getting checked in on Friday and delivered Saturday. It does happen, but it's unpredictable

I usually drop off my discs at the post office drop box on my way to work in the morning. However, when I occasionally drop them off in the afternoon, they generally still get delivered the next day. You're just going to have to try out different things and see what works and what doesn't.

Gracias... I think I'll plan on a little experimentation by different drop off methods. Probably the safest thing to do is just make sure I have 'em mailed by Wednesday if I really want 3 DVD's for the weekend.

Something else to keep in mind is that each distribution center may yield different results. So my experiences may differ from people in every other state.

Well, this might seem fairly obvious, but I sent two movies back the same day and one got there sooner. Took one by the post office before noon and one I put in my mailbox that was picked up at 4pm. The movie at the post office got there the next day, but it took two days from my mailbox.