Netflix (DVD Delivery Discussion Only)

[Valin Kenobi]

You can at least see what you've rated here: https://www.netflix.com/MoviesYouveSeen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . There used to be a way to display by 5 star, 4 star, etc, but I don't see that any more.

[Perkins Cobb]

Yeah, definitely never put the broken disc in the mail until the replacement has shipped, or you could get the same disc twice.

[D50]

I'm beginning to see a pattern. My first disc of the week is usually late (2 days instead of 1 day delivery). So instead of Tuesday I'm getting it Wednesday. Then I normally get 1 day service for the rest of the week (knock on wood). I turned in two last Saturday, and one showed received and shipped Monday - so I called and ranted. They just listened. Anyway, I think they review customer service calls because out of the blue an extra short wait dvd was added. So I may actually get 4 this week (2 out plan).

I did get a new release this week: Force Majeure, brand new, virgin disc.

[Minkin]

A post office pal of mine explained a few of the changes in better depth:

As the USPS continue to lose money (pre-funded pensions are mostly to blame), and since Congress won't allow the end of Saturday delivery, the USPS are trying to save money wherever they can. In this case, they are closing / consolidating processing plants (Los Angeles lost at least 2). This leads to delays as things get bottled up / reconfigured. Apparently things should "be back to normal" within 6-8 months (or at least be better than they are now). Apparently Congress doesn't like these changes either - and various representatives pounce on the USPS whenever their constituency's plant is closed - and some have been spared thanks to their actions.

[willoneill]

... and since Congress won't allow the end of Saturday delivery ...

Why is this, exactly? I promise you society won't collapse; Canada got rid of Saturday delivery during the 70's, and the do deliver packages on the weekends during busy seasons like Christmas.

[Drucker]

The outsized power of the House of Representatives. The House represents, for example, small rural districts who don't want to give anything up. If you are Congressperson in Palookaville, MT, and you vote to take away people's Saturday mail delivery, people will be pissed.

[domino harvey]

We have Sunday deliveries here in Baltimore, so maybe it's our fault

[Arrow]

We have Sunday deliveries here in Baltimore, so maybe it's our fault

My post office is only open from 1-5 pm Monday - Friday, which makes it impossible for anyone with a job to get packages (the entire town is on the PO Box system.)

[Drucker]

Sounds like my gripe with UPS, which I loathe.

[Perkins Cobb]

Apparently things should "be back to normal" within 6-8 months (or at least be better than they are now).

By which time a bunch of Netflix customers will have bailed for good. They're already down to 5 million DVD customers and shedding upwards of 400,000K of those per quarter. So even in a best case scenario, I'd guess we have another year, two at most, before overhead outpaces profit and they shut it down (or maybe reconfigure it along the lines of Redbox). The postal thing could accelerate that timetable considerably, especially if people assume they're getting throttled and blame Netflix rather than USPS.

[Perkins Cobb]

Anyway, I think they review customer service calls because out of the blue an extra short wait dvd was added.

That should happen anyway, if a short wait disc gets skipped at the top of your queue. (In reality, sometimes you get the extra disc, sometimes not.) I don't think they're going to send you an extra disc to compensate for anything unless you ask. Firmly.

Edit: Oh, I meant to add: This week some discs shipped on Monday actually arrived the following day. But that's only the second time in the past month that any discs have arrived fewer than two days late. So it sounds like you're doing a bit better than people in my area.

[D50]

Goodbye to Language, The Immigrant, and God Help the Girl dvds showing an April 2015 release.

Won the new release lottery: eta: forget about this one - the audio is locked to English, and subtitles is locked to off.

[swo17]

There's zero point to watching Goodbye to Language in anything other than 3D, and I doubt Netflix will offer this option.

[D50]

There's zero point to watching Goodbye to Language in anything other than 3D, and I doubt Netflix will offer this option.

Didn't know that, thanks. I'll keep a look out for a local showing in 3D.

[swo17]

I hope you live close to one of these places.

[connor]

As the USPS continue to lose money (pre-funded pensions are mostly to blame)

Actually, I'd move that timeline back a few decades to Nixon's signing of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which forced the USPS to be self-sufficient (which it was by 1983 I believe) and run on its own profits. The USPS operated at a lost for 131 out of 160 years until then. The act itself was a response to a massive postal workers strike to protest falling wages.

So personally, I'd put the blame on a different crew -- not working class pensioners but 1. Rightwing presidents and 2. neoliberal hostility to the public sector.

[captveg]

Or, ya know, technology giving most people less expensive and more convenient options.

[D50]

I hope you live close to one of these places.

4 h 11 min (269.4 mi) - A possibility.

[Raymond Marble]

I hope you live close to one of these places.

4 h 11 min (269.4 mi) - A possibility.

If you want to use it as justification for your own actions, I drove almost that exact distance (258 miles for me) to see it in 3-D, and am very glad that I did.

[Numero Trois]

4 h 11 min (269.4 mi) - A possibility.

Cheaper than buying a 3D TV, that's for sure.

It played at Miami a whole bunch of times a few months back but I just wasn't able to make it.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

As the USPS continue to lose money (pre-funded pensions are mostly to blame)

Actually, I'd move that timeline back a few decades to Nixon's signing of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which forced the USPS to be self-sufficient (which it was by 1983 I believe) and run on its own profits. The USPS operated at a lost for 131 out of 160 years until then. The act itself was a response to a massive postal workers strike to protest falling wages.

So personally, I'd put the blame on a different crew -- not working class pensioners but 1. Rightwing presidents and 2. neoliberal hostility to the public sector.

Minkin isn't referring to the pensioners per se, but to the 2006 law requiring USPS to pre-fund all pensions for the next 75 years within just a ten-year period. No other government agency is required to do this and it was quite plausibly imposed to manufacture a "crisis" and eventual privatization (much like Congress is now attempting to do with Social Security). If it weren't required to pre-fund pensions for employees it won't even be hiring for decades, the Post Office would actually be over a billion dollars in the black.

[Perkins Cobb]

One pattern, presumably local, that I'm starting to notice is that discs which ship on Monday will arrive on Tuesday. Shipments later in the week always fall into the 2-4 day wormhole.

[swo17]

I've generally been seeing that pattern too. I also started getting these email notifications a couple weeks ago, presumably in response to complaints about mailing delays:

The Postal Service sent word that you've returned a DVD to us; so we were able to ship your next available disc sooner.

We'll send you a detailed returned disc email upon receipt.

Haven't really noticed anything arriving sooner than usual though.

[dustybooks]

I'm genuinely pretty spooked about the potential end of the DVD service. I use every library near me to check out discs and I still have to turn to Netflix pretty often for things that aren't in their collections. No clue what I'll be able to do if that option is gone. Now I really wish I had wiled away even more of my twenties watching movies while the consumer DVD boom was in progress!

[Perkins Cobb]

It's going to end my tenuous financial solvency, that's for sure. I've been shoring up a rainy-day supply of catalog titles, but just the new releases will kill me: my library basically doesn't do Blu-ray, so anything that Redbox doesn't carry on Blu, I'll have to buy. Could add up to over 100 titles a year (plus TV series!). Or else pirate them, but finding and downloading full Blu-ray files in bulk would be a big pain (not to mention that I'd feel like a creep).