I was fine with the recent murmurs that the U.S. Postal Service, after years of talking about it, was finally getting serious about ending Saturday delivery. It’s a sensible move to trim costs and give an increasingly Web-savvy citizenry more value for their investment. Then a tech-savvy friend pointed out a consideration that wasn’t around when the suggestion was first made years ago: Netflix.
Damn.
I get a lot of Netflix movies — and I get them on Saturdays. This gives me plenty of time to watch them over the weekend and send them back en masse on Mondays. See, I strategically plan my returns and arrivals, and I’m pretty good at it. Ending Saturday mail delivery throws a monkeywrench in those plans.
I know I can watch much of Netflix’s catalog on my computer, and on Internet-connected devices like next-generation TVs and Blu-ray players. Even gaming consoles are now family media centers, with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 already in the game, and Nintendo’s Wii soon to join the fray (for those who can muddle through without high-def).
But it won’t be the same. I consider myself reasonably aware of the environment, so I can see the value of ditching the envelope system Netflix-by-mail employes — but I already double-up, sending two discs back in one package (with the newest and most popular title’s barcode showing through the envelope window for maximum return efficiency, natch).
It’s all a game, you see — a game that will be diminished without weekend delivery and pick-up.
So I understand it, and I’ll put up with it. But I don’t have to like it.
perhaps, you’ll swith to video on demand.
as video tape disapeared , the next one would be dvd on the post.
FYI—The postage-paid return envelops for Netflix are meant to hold a single disc—not two—and even then some of the Postal Service’s high-speed automated equipment won’t pass the mail pieces without tearing them up. Streaming video would seem to be the wave of the future for home video on demand.
Denny: They say you can double-up. Never had a problem doing so.
I work for netflix, and when I first started we only worked mon – fri. july of 09 we started working sat, its great for ppl who need extra hours. However rather sat delivery ends or not is not in our hands, if it does it does, just another notch in how the econoy is going down. and FYI we the openers dislike several in a package, as there are time the post office mangles them going thru their machines, hence the reason one is sent in each postage paid return envelope thank you
guess youll have to move your delivery date to fridays
Actually if you receive your mail at a Post Office box you will still get mail delivery on Saturday. Something to think about!
Just one problem: When federal postal workers take Mondays off for federally-observed holidays, that means Netflix (and all mail for that matter) will NOT be delivered for 3 days (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday).
Julia – you say “just another notch in how the econoy is going down” – I say it’s just another notch in how horrible the government is in running a business. UPS and FedEx aren’t in this financial trouble, and guess what – if they did they would be out of business – last time I checked UPS can’t print it’s own money… just a thought
UPS: Did you not learn anything about the financial system after the last financial collapse? The only businesses allowed to fail when **** hits the fan are the mom and pop and small businesses because they don’t count for a hill of beans next to the big businesses that pad politicians pockets on both sides of the isle. 98% of the big businesses that were responsible for the financial wreck in 2007-2009 were pulled out to safety by the government from politicians on both sides of the isle (after all, you have to protect those that invested in your elections – it is the only way to get reelected in a system where money, not ideas, rules the day).
Thus, you can rest assured that while large-scale private industry and business cannot print money, they intimately know the ones who can print it and hand it over to them on a whim. The only difference is that those companies seem to escape the continual bombardment of financial mismanagement criticism that the US Government run programs receive solely because they are run by the government. If you want to talk about a welfare system that is financially destroying the US, look at the corporate welfare system.