Netflix now has operations in Orlando – just an hour away from me – and, while I would expect that would mean faster turn around from mailing a movie to get a next one, what’s happening seems to be breaking the laws of physics and government run monopolies.
Now, when I put a Netflix movie in my mailbox to mail back, the very next morning I get an e-mail “We’ve received your movie!” I’m then staring at the e-mail exclaiming, “No! First class mail does not work that quickly! You’re spying on my mailbox!”
I don’t care if I’m mailing something to my next door neighbor; U.S. mail does not move that fast. Now I’m left scrambling to update my queue to make sure the next movie being sent is one I actually want and not some movie I added because I felt I should see it.
So, now it takes only 48 hours from the time the mail carrier gets a returned Netflix movie until I receive the next one. Also, we have a trial membership to Amazon prime where 2nd day shipping is automatic with no extra cost. That means anything I order often gets to me in less than 48 hours.
I can’t really imagine faster service of delivering physical goods until we have transporters.
First! Disturbingly fast, but les waiting is good, eh?
On an unrelated subject:
I posted a filthy lie today.
Mail in and out of Orlando can be scary-fast sometimes. If I have issues, it’s usually with out of state addresses (add four or five days for something going to the big metro areas, for example).
A one-day delivery time is pretty standard inside Central Florida, if you’re mailing with a nine digit ZIP code.
Enjoy it while you can. I had the same experience with Netflix when I joined: I’d drop a Netflix video in the mailbox on, say, Monday morning; on Tuesday morning I’d get an e-mail telling me they’d received my return; on Tuesday afternoon I’d get another e-mail telling me the next selection in my Queue was on its way to me. And I’d get it the next day! Like you, I was amazed that Netflix could get the USPS to be that efficient. A few months later, however, and it takes days for Netflix to acknowledge my return; days for them to send my next selection; and days for the new selection to arrive in my mailbox. I’ve checked with other Netflix members and they say it seems to be Netflix’s SOP to razzle-dazzle you with their whiz-bang magical powers during your first months of membership, and then downgrade you into the “Losers We No Longer Have to Impress” category. What’s especially odd is that, simultaneously, the USPS drops back into its usual substandard-performance habits, as if they’ve gotten the word from Netflix: “Okay; you can stop trying so hard with this one.”
Bilwick,
But I’ve been a member for years. Their service for me has always been quick; now it’s scary quick.
I live in Maine, and netflix has always had 48 hour turn around for me. Netflix is awesome, Frank J. should do a cartoon on them.
The reason for my own increasingly-unsatisfying experience with Netflix, and the experiences of other Netflix users I know, is possibly that we live in Atlanta, a city that (as JFK said of Washington DC) “combines Northern charm and Southern efficiency.” The local Netflix regional office is in an Atlanta suburb, and probably draws its work force from the same dismal labor pool that the USPS, UPS and MARTA (the local mass-transit system) get their workers from. “Atlanta, the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ City.”
USPS ships that fast for me and my business in Utah. Anything going to California will be there the next day or the day after. Midwest or back East takes 2-3 days. And that’s First Class (which in theory takes longer than Priority, but takes about the same length of time except at Christmas).
Never send anything by Parcel Post, though. Yeah it’s cheaper than Priority, but it’ll take weeks to arrive and I’ve even had packages lost entirely.
It’s even better for me… my center is 20 minutes away, and it’s even in the same town as the post office that sorts my town’s mail—48 hours from the time I get my NetFlix into the mail, I have a new one in my mailbox.
Amazing.
Of course, the same Post Office lost my church’s weekly donation envelopes en route to our parishioners…
Hey, I’ve got an even faster movie rental service. It’s called “drag your ass to Blockbuster.” I can get whatever I want in about twenty minutes instead of two days.
Unfortunately for me the local Blockbuster hires from the same cruddy Atlanta labor pool I referenced earlier, and the help there has the same cruddy work-ethic. Selections are often out of order, Ang Lee movies are stored in the boxes for Andy Sidaris movies, etc.
Netflix was ridiculously fast for me at first, but now it’s slowed down to more of a 2 or 3 days in between movies, which is fine with me, as I would feel like a total loser if I watched movies every other evening.
I know this is a late comment and probably nobody is going to read it, but some post offices scan in your Netflix movie when it arrives. Then, since Netflix knows you sent the movie back, they can send you a new one while they wait for the other one to go through the post office.