Netflix Hires Former U.S. Postmaster General as COO

Netflix has hired former U.S. Postmaster General William J. Henderson as chief operations officer, effective January 23rd.

Tom Dillon, who joined Netflix in 1999 and built the logistics and distribution systems at Netflix, will be retiring in April.

If he could handle delivering 668 million pieces of mail per day to 130 million addresses with a budget of $68 billion, I think he can handle shipping a few movies (Netflix ships more than one million movies per day).

Comments

wow! thats a jaw dropping move.

One word: lobbying. This guy probaby has connections out the wazoo and for whatever reason Reed Hastings thinks that he's gonna need this guy to help implement whatever plans Netflix has up its sleeve.

Sleeve. Heehee.

[E. Craig Crawford]

If he has the vision he seemed to portray before the Governmental Affairs Committee, U.S. Senate on May 15, 2001 regarding the USPS, I would say that he could be a great asset to Netflix.

[Imposter]

They will probably use his expertise to figure out new ways to throttle heavy users. They are now able to delay my local shipping times by a day. What used to arrive overnight now takes 2 days (or more). Enjoy the throttling.

[I removed the name, e-mail address and URL due to a complaint. - Mike K]

"Enjoy the throttling"

Enjoy the bitching because I don't get throttled! I received 4 discs overnight - like always.

My discs were supposed to arrive over night, but they didn't show up. This keeps happening more often. When I first joined Netflix, 90% of my movies took a day both ways. Now they are increasingly arriving late or being sent across country to eat up time. It's damn near impossible to get 4 movies a week on 3-out. They throttle you down to 3 a week or less if possible. Their delaying tactics are getting more blatant and shameless all the time...

[Rusty Ramrod]

"(Netflix ships more than one million movies per day)."

Of course, the real question is, how many do they sit on each day, delaying delivery?

My guess is for each movie that ships, another sits waiting for a day or two.

You know what's funny though, BB throttles my ass off after 8 months, yet this week they sent me 2 new releases within 1 hour of adding them to my queue (or rather I should say the *claimed* to send them). Now granted they will suck (The Man) and (Lord of War), but still, I expected to see Long Wait when I put them in there.

Of course, even though they are one day away shipping wise, they didn't come today (In my Gomer Pyle voice: surprise, surprise, surprise)

sometimes i just wanna tell all you people who bitch about throttling to simply shut up. we get the point: netflix throttles. let's discuss something else for a change, like the topics at hand. this place would be a whole lot more interesting that way.

[RAYMOND KNIGHT]

Recently, I canceled my NETFLIX account and opened a new one up as I usually do after a certain period of time. I really think now that in addition to throttling there service has just deteriorated in general. Yesterday, out of the two new releases I was supposed to get only one showed up.

Holy Christ people... let it go! Why must every f'ing post, regardless of the original topic, be hijacked by the shrilll cries of "THROTTLING!". We know they throttle. They admitted they throttle. Enough.

Throttle, throttle, throttle!

That's what everyone turns every topic into. Yet, no one quits the service, they keep on paying to be throttled!

"Throttle, throttle, throttle!

That's what everyone turns every topic into. Yet, no one quits the service, they keep on paying to be throttled!"

A lot of people enjoy being victims. Gives them a reason to bitch and complain. Explains most of these posts.

"Gives them a reason to bitch and complain."

Some people just don't seem to be happy unless they're bitching about something.

[Chris]

No kidding, I'm sick and tired of hearing about throttling. That's all this site has become now. Throttle this, throttle that. B*tch, b*tch, b*tch......I'm gonna whine because I didn't get what I wanted in one day. I want a PONY....NOW

I've been a Netflix member for almost four years and I'm sure I get throttled but man at least I can just accept it and realize that even if I am being throttled I'm still not paying half as much as I would be going to the video store.

To the admin of this site.....thanks for creating a site that has a none biased attitude of web services. Please change the name of your site to throttlingnetflix.com

"Some people just don't seem to be happy unless they're bitching about something."

Some people just aren't happy unless they're bitching about how they think someone else is bitching about something. Why don't they just shut the fock up and let us be? If they don't like the topic, don't read it. Dont' reply. It's that simple. Throttling is relevant to many topics. And despite Netflix admissions, they haven't yet told the WHOLE truth.

"If they don't like the topic, don't read it. Dont' reply."

But, you see, the topic of this thread was "Netflix Hires Former U.S. Postmaster General as COO". Not "Lets continue to bitch about throttling regardless of what the thread title is".

"If they don't like the topic, don't read it"

If the topic had anything to do with throttling or mentioned it in the title, I sure as Hell would not have even opened it. This one didn't, but just like so many before and probably most in the future, the main topic is cast aside for the continuing shouts of "I'm being throttled!". Well, no shit, so are thousands of other customers.

"Mr. Henderson's achievments include dramatic improvements in customer service. He led the USPS to record service delivery for first-class mail... increased use of automation..."

It will be interesting to see what/how exactly he plans to evolve and improve their techology and automation operations. He definitely sounds like the perfect choice to help ensure they can handle the increased shipments as they continue to grow.

Hurray!!! A post without using the "T" word!!!

That's it! I'm tired of this! Now I'm going to bitch about all the bitching about all the throttling!!!!!!!

Ppppppfffffffttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!11

Explain something to me. If you bitch about what someone else posts, doesn't that just make you a whiney little bitch yourself? If you accuse someone else of "bitching" when they point out facts and give their opinion, doesn't that just make you a Netflix shill?

Aw Come on people, Can't we all just get along?!

[cmm]

"when they point out facts and give their opinion"

Pointing out fact and sharing opinions is what this site is all about and why I read it. Lively discussions that can eventually take a thread off topic are great, but unfortuneatly, regardless of what topic Mike originally posts, its hijacked by people continuously complaining about throttling (and people complaining about them).

"If they don't like the topic, don't read it"

Okay, well thats nearly impossible because despite what interesting topic the thread may start as, the word throttle will appear within the first couple of posts and then off we go again with flame wars, cries of Shill, etc. It was an interesting move on Netflix's part and it would have been great to post and discuss the possible motives behind the hiring, but that is simply not possible here anymore.

"If you bitch about what someone else posts, doesn't that just make you a whiney little bitch yourself?"

I don't know, does it? You just did the same thing (as now have I).

Seems like a good way to gain a market advantage by fostering a unique relationship with the postal service.

"Explain something to me. If you bitch about what someone else posts, doesn't that just make you a whiney little bitch yourself?"

Look here,
Now I'm gonna be bitching about this guy here bitching about the other bitching about the throttling!