I’ve been a Netflix customer for about two years, and I’ve been pretty happy with their service. Most movies arrive overnight, in both directions. But today they went one step beyond overnight- I got an email this morning informing me that a DVD they said they had sent me yesterday had been received back today! Now that’s fast! Unfortunately, of course, it left out the part where the DVD stops at my house, and I get to watch it. I brought this to their attention (no easy task, since their web site requires you to go through a multiple choice menu to file a service request, and this particular problem wasn’t on any of the menus), but haven’t heard back yet.

The second DVD they had told me was coming did arrive in today’s mail, and brought its own surprise. It felt a bit heavier and thicker than normal, so at first I thought maybe the other DVD was in there, but no, when I went to tear the tab seal, two Christmas cards, addressed to two people I’ve never heard of, dropped out.

Busy day at my local PO I guess…

Urban Spaceman on Flickr says “I have a good feeling that unlike other instances of misrouted or damaged mail, this DVD was stolen by a postal worker”.

Well, maybe, but I wouldn’t be so sure. In the first place, the damage is about what you’d expect from a flimsy piece of mail, open on two sides, with something rigid inside. When these pieces go through facer-canceller, bar code sorter, etc., they pass between a drive belt that pulls them in, and a rubber roller running in the opposite dirrection, whose purpose is to allow only one piece of mail to go through at a time. If there’s any imperfection on the leading edge of the mail piece, there’s a chance that the piece will be damaged in just the way this one is.

Netflix mailers run a very high risk of being damaged like this, because they’re so flimsy. And the discs are obviously at risk, given the lack of any padding. I was amazed the first time I saw a Netflix mailer- I was sure the damage rate would be too high for it to work, but obviously it isn’t.

Having said that, enough do get damaged to be a headache for the USPS. They are much more trouble than a regular letter, but they pay the same postage. Given that Netflix is one of the few businesses actually increasing it’s First Class mail usage, however, the post office doesn’t have much choice but to deal with them. 

Netflix Envelope on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

From the Wall Street Journal via Hacking Netflix.com- online liquidator Overstock.com will begin offering a Netflix-style rental service for videogames.

Overstock.com to Rent Games by Mail

Funny comment from New York Nerd on the New York magazine story about postal workers who route Netflix discs through their own DVD player before delivering them.

I haven’t experienced the missing disc problem on the receiving end, although I’ve had a few discs go missing for a couple of days on the way back. That actually makes sense in a way, since a disc coming back from a subscriber has to go through a facer-canceller, which it doesn’t on the way out. One more high-speed collection of belts and rollers means one more chance for that flimsy envelope to get shredded. So the disc ends up dressed only in it’s sleeve, and takes a while longer to get back to Netflix and logged in.

As far as discs arriving open but on time, the real explanation is probably benign- most of the discs on the outbound trip still have to go through at least one sorting machine. It really doesn’t take much to tear the Netflix mailers, but as long as the to: address part is still attached, the piece gets delivered as is.

That’s my theory anyway. Then again, I did notice that my rural carrier’s Subaru does have one of those little DVD screens in it…

Sharing Netflix With Your Mailman | The New York Nerd

HackingNetflix.com linked to my story about Netflix intervening in the Plant Consolidation case before the PRC, and judging by the comments, there’s more than a little confusion about what’s at stake for Netflix and its subscribers.

In a nutshell, the potential problem is that subscribers who currently enjoy overnight service to and from their Netflix service center might find themselves with 2 day service. If you’re the kind of Netflix subscriber who typically watches the DVD the day you get it, and sends it back the next day, you’re going to have a longer wait between movies. Read the rest of this entry »

Not a big surprise, considering their business- Netflix has filed as an intervenor in N2006-1, the Postal Rate Commission case where the Postal Service is requesting an advisory opinion on the potential service standard changes that could take place as the USPS proceeds with a realignment of its processing network.

Netflix is one of the few companies whose entire business model is based on first class mail. As they say in their letter of intervention:

Intervenor is an online DVD rental service providing more than 4 million members access to DVD movies. Members select movies to rent at the Netflix website (www.netflix.com) and receive delivery of their movies via First Class Mail. These rented DVDs are then returned to Netflix using First Class Mail. Intervenor’s service could be impacted by the changes described in this proceeding. 

That’s putting it mildly!

Speaking of Netflix, the ‘Hacking Netflix’ blog has a link to an interesting article about the inner workings of a Netflix shipping center in North Carolina.