Postal changes will slow Netflix delivery
Will you be tempted to dump your Netflix DVD-by-mail service when the post office adds another day to first-class delivery?
I kept my Netflix DVD-by-mail service after that hugely unpopular price increase. For better or worse, most of the movies in my Netflix queue are not available for streaming.
Now that the U.S. Postal Service has announced $3 billion in cutbacks for 2012 that will add another day (or two) to first-class mail delivery, I've got to wonder: Will DVD-by-mail be worth its $7.99 monthly cost?
Some Netflix customers don't think so. Post continues below.
At Hacking Netflix, reader "Hamilton Whitney" offered these thoughts:
Currently we have the one disc plan. If we watch the movies immediately and send them back the next day we end up with two discs a week so around 8 a month, which is a good deal. If there's an extra day added to when Netflix gets our disc back and then another added to when we get the one shipped, that's going to end up at just one movie a week. At that point it's going to be cheaper and more convenient to go Redbox.
Another one-disc-at-a-time user had a similar reaction:
I would hope that Netflix would either lower their rates, or bump the number of discs allowed at a time to compensate for this. I don't mind paying the current rate for 8 or 9 movies a month, but if it drops to 4 or 5, Redbox is a much better option.
Of course, it all depends on how often you watch Netflix movies on DVD and which plan you're on. For instance, if you're watching only one movie a week right now, an extra day either way won't make a difference.
Meanwhile, some customers observed that Netflix will be paying less overall for postage. "Maybe they would pass on the savings to its users," "ScottZ" wrote. (Good luck with that.)
How much of a delay are we talking about once the Postal Service closes 252 mail-processing centers, starting in March? According to The Associated Press:
About 42 percent of first-class mail is now delivered the following day. An additional 27 percent arrives in two days, about 31 percent in three days and less than 1 percent in four days to five days. Following the change next spring, about 51 percent of all first-class mail is expected to arrive in two days, with most of the remainder delivered in three days.
What's Netflix's response to this development? Says Mashable: "When asked whether the company plans to address customer concerns or to amp up licensing for its streaming service, Netflix declined to comment."
Coincidentally, Netflix and the U.S. Postal Service are both on a list of five brands consumers polled by Prophet expect will disappear by 2015, according to Forbes. In other news, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was picked the worst tech CEO of 2011 by readers of The Street.
Of the more than 200 people that voted, 58% named Hastings as the most terrible tech titan of the year after a series of blunders that included mishandling a subscription price hike and confusing consumers with plans to split up the company's DVD-by-mail and subscription businesses.
What's your plan for Netflix if you're still a customer? Will the mailed-DVD option lose sufficient value to cause you to drop it? Will you respond by increasing the number of mailed DVDs? Or did you already leave long ago?
More on MSN Money:
If the post office 'already slow' delivery times reduce the number of netflix disks that I can see in a month, I'll cancel my membership. There is no point paying for a service that I won't recieive. Red box is easier, faster and similarly priced. WIth reduced number of of DVDs from Netflix Red Box, which also increased its fees, will be a substantially better deal. Netflix never has new releases available on a timely basis. Put a new release in your que and what you get is the message - Long Wait or Very Long Wait. Most can't be had for a month or two. Red box has them the same day. In some cases Netflix does not have a new DVD release availabe at all.
Driving to a Red Box is not an issue, as some may claim. They are at the grocery store, gas station, McDonald's, WalMart, and drug store that I shop at anyway. In a major city like Houston it is hard not to trip over a Red Box Kiosk where ever you happen to be.
We cancelled the dual Streaming and Mail Delivery only keeping the Mail portion.
Many of are saying that If NetFlix goes to where you only have one disk a week it will be better to use Redbox. Dont Forget People....those are only one day rentals and you have to drive somwhere to pick up and again drive the next day to drop off. This can add up in Time and Gas as well so consider ahead all of your options. We are extremely ticked off at NetFlix as well but its still better getting them in the mail even if we have to wait an extra day. Plus we dont have to rush to see the movies same day we get them.
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